My Birthday Part 2: L.A.’s The Broad Museum and The Last Bookstore

Posted on by da-AL
da-AL and Khashayar inside YayoI Kusama's Infinity Room of mirrors and twinkle lights.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bKmdGi98yHTSe70pLcbyf?si=0cf963dc6d5546a7
Subscribe, listen to, and share Happiness Between Tails Podcast on most any platform; from Spotify and Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and Breaker, to Pocket Casts and RadioPublic and Castbox, plus many more and an RSS feed. The full list of 50+ places is H-E-R-E.

Birthdays are the best! For the entire month, I soak up any and all good wishes that come my way. Last week I showed you part of the jam-packed walking tour of history-dense downtown Los Angeles that my wonderful Khashayar took me on. It was a day of hooky for us, me from querying stellar agents to rep my novels.

Here’s the second half of our outing, the arty and bookish parts. The Broad Museum, which opened in 2015, is chock-full of ground-breaking modern art.

Their most popular work is the one at the top of this post. Stepping into Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room usually requires making reservations a month in advance. Fortunately, the staff let us take advantage of last minute cancellations. Kusama’s work references prior masters, such as the pointillism of Georges Seurat.

There were also several works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, like his Obnoxious Liberals...Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting called, Obnoxious Liberals.

Recognize anyone amid these sculptures that celebrate modern life by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres?…da-AL standing amid a sculpture of a woman at a window, a boy running, and a man with a dog, by John Ahearn Rigoberto Torres.

Kerry James Marshall’s Orange Pants is only one of his African American inspired works hung at The Broad…Painting of a smiling bare-chested African American man wearing orange pants by Kerry James Marshall.

Think bookstores are dead? The Last Bookstore, a short walk from The Broad, reinterprets bookselling into an experience that’s as arty as it is Instagram-able. Owner Josh Spencer’s business acumen draws non-bookish buyers into his The Last Bookstore, despite his needing to hire extra people to do what he can’t from his wheelchair…da-AL inside of a tunnel made out of books at The Last Bookstore.

Is there something unexpected that you’ve discovered on foot about your city?

Published by da-AL

Happiness Between Tails blog/podcast speaks to and from the heart. It connects lovers — of pets, authors, reading — and of my still-unreleased novels. “Flamenco + the Sitting Cat” and “Tango + the Sitting Cat,” are my love letters to all who fear they're too odd, too damaged, too old, too whatever to find love and happiness with or without a partner. HappinessBetweenTails.com • ContactdaAL@gmail.com • BuyMeACoffee.com/SupportHBT

29 thoughts on “My Birthday Part 2: L.A.’s The Broad Museum and The Last Bookstore”

  4. Love your style of celebrating your birthday for a month…and why not?

    I’ve noticed loads of bookstores in Canada (in Ottawa right now), but not so many in the US during the month I was there walking the streets.

    The last photo of you is lovely.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Happy Birthday month, da-Al. I love the photo of you imitating the pose of the little boy 🙂 I wish you all the best of luck in finding a stellar agent. I am trying to do the same with my latest book Dear Jack. Love this post of a different L.A.

    Liked by 1 person

Share the joy: click buttons and engage with us. *** Note: WordPress insists ‘likers’ sign in. ‘Commenters,’ fortunately, need not. My email: ContactdaAL@gmail.com

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.