da-AL and Khashayar inside YayoI Kusama's Infinity Room of mirrors and twinkle lights.

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
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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?

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Published by da-AL

Happiness Between Tails speaks to and from the heart. It connects lovers — of pets, authors, books — and of my still-unreleased novels, “Flamenco + the Sitting Cat” and “Tango + the Sitting Cat.” The stories are my love letters to all who fear they're too odd, too damaged, too old, too whatever to find happiness. ContactdaAL@gmail.com • BuyMeACoffee.com/SupportHBT

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

  3. I haven’t congratulated yet: many happy returns of the day, Daal! What a wonderful trip Khashayar took you on!

    In our village there isn’t much to discover, but in the next larger city we discovered an old city centre that we didn’t know existed, and we found a charming part of town consisting of allotment gardens.

    Liked by 1 person

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