Quite a few people had recommended going and checking out the Grammy museum and I couldn't believe my luck that there was not only a Ramones exhibition but also a John Denver one!! There was exactly three days in total where both exhibitions were running at the same time and today was the last of those three days.
I have loved the music of John Denver for as long as I can remember. As a little girl his lyrics and his story telling ability really resonated with me and his songs have woven there way through the fabric that is my life. I use to make up dance routines to "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" with the hopes of one day performing on Bert Newtown's show, Young Talent Time, a dream that never came to fruition (thankfully). I know the lyrics to pretty much everyone one of his songs and still sing them at the top of my lungs on road trips. I'm not one to get upset when celebrities pass but when John Denver died when I was in my early teens I was shattered. My father called me on the telephone to tell me and I remember sitting on the floor and just crying for a really long time. I unfortunately never got to see him play live, my granny and I had talked about going when he came out when I was a bit younger but it never ended up happening. Music has always played a really important role in my life and in shaping me into the person I am today, that all started with the music of John Denver.
Walking into the exhibition I felt really quite overwhelmed and seeing his hand written lyrics took my breathe away, I spent so much time just staring in amazement. It felt so weird to have the career of a man I admire so much be put into one room, it felt like there should be more to it.
They were playing a short video about the life of John Denver which I could have sat and watched all day long. My partner took a sneaky photo of me caught in a moment.
My most favourite thing in the whole exhibition was getting to see John Denver's granny glasses. I actually burst into tears when I saw them, not something I expected to happen but the moment just overwhelmed me.
On the way down to the Ramones exhibition there was some musical equipment you could play with. I was clearly a natural
The Ramones exhibition was amazing, it took up a whole floor. There was so much memorabilia to look at it it nearly made me feel better about the CBGB's experience haha. They also had a booth where you could sing Ramones karaoke, a video may exist of me screaming Ramones lyrics. It shall never see the light of day :)
GRAMMY MUSEUM
800 W OLYMPIC BLVDE A245, LOS ANGELES
This was our first time in downtown L.A so we decided to go explore a bit more,by explore I mean find the nearest Donut shop. Luckily we didn't have far to go when we discovered Birdies. It was a real cute little place that served coffee, donuts and fried chicken.
BIRDIES
314 W OLYMPIC BLVDE, LOS ANGELES
I really had high expectations for this place because the donuts looked absolutely delicious.The customer service was great and I got a cookies and cream flavored donut, it was a little bit dry. We kept walking and found a cute little vintage clothing store, was drawn in by the cute styling.
VIRGO BY B&B
216 E 9TH STREET , LOS ANGELES
owwww why didn't these pants fit me!!
We wandered aimlessly and came across a sign that said "Garment district" I thought it was going to be an area with lots of clothing stores but it was something far more wonderful. It was fabric shop after fabric shop after fabric shop, I have never ever seen so many fabric stores in my life. Back in the day when I was studying fashion we went on excursion to Cabramatta to check out the fabric stores there, well times that by 20 and you weren't even close. It was wonderful but at the same time heartbreaking, there was no way I was going to fit fabric in my suitcase so I strolled down the street without even stepping foot in a single fabric store, it was the only way I could maintain self control.
Then something magical caught my eye, it was rainbow paddle pop faux, the thing of unicorn dreams. My self control can only be stretch so far, I bought three yards. Downtown L.A was probably the only time I didn't feel entirely safe, I didn't feel like it was somewhere I would stay till after dark.
It was a good thing we picked up a copy of L.A Weekly because that night when we got home we jumped onto the L.A Weekly website, It alerted us to the fact that Strung Out was playing at a place called Alex's Bar down in Long Beach for an Alex's Bar 17th Anniversay Show. Was a great show and I feel madly in love with the artwork on the bathroom walls, especially the little vampire mermaid. xx
ALEX'S BAR
2913 E ANAHEIM ST, LONG BEACH
