Two Mensches' Day in L.A.

Sean and I decided to take this past Friday off so we could head up to LA and basically enjoy a day away from the office.

The day started off with a visit to the Skirball Cultural Center to visit the Zap! Pow! Bang! Superhero exhibit. The exhibit focuses on the golden age of comics (1938-1950), while the Skirball’s mission is to explore the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of the American democratic ideals.

In case you didn’t know, the early beginning of comic books (and super heroes) has its roots deep in the Jewish art of storytelling; most of early artists and writers were sons of Jewish immigrants. Since the Skirball focuses on Jewish culture and its various permeations into our lives, it’s a great fit for the museum. The docents there are wonderful – think of an entire docent staff made up of the sweetest bubbes you’ve ever met. We took the 10 minute docent tour of the exhibit, just for kicks, and it was surprisingly funny (imagine having your grandma teach you about the history of comics and then throwing in some really cheesy jokes).
The exhibit itself was informative, but a little on the small side. Lots of original artwork, informative bios on the main players, some interactive displays (which were geared more towards little kids, like a ‘draw your own superhero’ area and a telephone booth where kids could change from their clothes into Superman or Batman costumes.
The highlight of the trip was seeing Jerry Robinson, curator of the exhibit, being interviewed by the LA times. Jerry Robinson helped name Robin (of Batman and Robin) and co-created the Joker, among other superheroes and villains. As we all slowly realized who this elderly gentleman was that was being interviewed, we slowly made our way over to him and this hush came over the entire exhibit. (Well, except for the two tiny terrors who couldn’t care less about him and just wanted to try on costumes and run around the entire exhibit banging on tables.) As an aside, Jerry had quite the entourage of lovely ladies with him.

The next stop on our tour was Greenblatt’s Deli. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten at Greenblatt’s. It’s a great deli that has an excellent wine store attached to it. The wine store’s something else: on one shelf you’ll see a 92 point $600 bottle of wine and right next to it you’ll find an equally good wine for only $10. Crazy. And no trip to LA is complete without a star-sighting. (You think I kid, but 90% of the time we head up to LA we run into an actor/actress.) This time, Ethan Embry came into Greenblatt’s right after us. I never get tired of seeing people I see in movies/on tv in real life; never. And at this point, we’ve turned it into a game to see who can spot the first actor of the night; and then who can spot the most.

The third stop on our tour was Amoeba. Also known as the abyss in which Sean will lose himself for hours at a time. We’ve never been able to get out of Amoeba in less than two hours (I’m only slightly exaggerating). Luckily, with my well-honed shadowing abilities, I was able to keep us both on target and get us out of Amoeba in a fairly decent amount of time, while still giving Sean time to wander around absent mindedly.

The fourth stop on our tour was Secret Headquarters, a comic book store on Sunset, where we picked up a few items.

The fifth, and final, stop on our tour was seeing Candice and Jeremy. They showed us their sweet new scooter and then we were off for some crazy-good Japanese food at Haru Ulala.