On Vacation

Ok, so it was a brief vacation, but it was badly needed and very refreshing! Thanks to my unofficial sponsor (and so much more!) I got to spend a night in the Biltmore Hotel on Grand Av. I have a vintage postcard of the Biltmore from the Santa Cruz Antique Fair that's traveled with me through at least 2 or more college residences. I will have to upload it as soon as I make it back to the SFV. It's been a long day, and it will be an even longer weekend, but I remain in good spirits due to the sheer amount of creativity and good vibes I have been picking up on lately. As usual, my luck has been at worst absolutely dumb and at best completely awesome. So I'm letting all the stress of too-many-things-too-little-time roll of my shoulders. 

Here are some photos from the past 24 hours. Once again, thank you to my lovely sister Florentina for making all of this possible. 

Left my house in the morning wearing this. Some people did not approve.

Room at the Biltmore. Big bed = heaven

View from our room.

Said lovely sponsor/sister.

Breakfast time. Watch photo sequence of me doing the "hotel-room-to-myself" dance.

Comfiest bed to jump in I swear. 

After making full use of the Biltmore spa and pool, I embarked on a full exploratory tour of the hotel and some of the surroundings.  

Lobby. Architectural details must be witnessed first person. Sorry! 

Piggy carpet? 

Probs costs more than my life.

Probs costs more than all of my previous lives combined.

Let's steal this.

Urban explorer tip: act like you own the place so no one gives you a hard time. Check!

Funny blogger tip: take pix of self in mirror to prove one was actually there. Check!

Across the street from the Biltmore is Pershing Square. I am not sure I should call this a historical landmark of Los Angeles because the only people frequenting this place appeared to be some angry communters, a lot of bums, and some youngsters such as myself armed with cameras. "Historical Landmark" carries the connonotation of actual residents of the city giving a shit about it, but it seems like that is a connonotation the label carries only for me and some select few. Bummer, this could be a really cool place. The super modern/post modern/ post-po-mo architecture is uninviting though. It also reminds me of the modern architectural style of Kresge College (part of UCSC). The '70s style cut outs and the accent colorous, mixed with the giant and somewhat randomly placed red balls look bizzare, not to mention out of place. This square contrasts so harshly with the international style of the buildings around it and the neo-classical style of the Biltmore. So I guess my question is what the fuck were the people who were designing it trying to get at?

Not a full aerial view, but this is about as best as I could do from the hotel room pre-editing. 

Balls. Two Balls. Two big red balls. And a giant blue tower. 

Yellow. A strange choice as an accent color for this weird architectural mish mash. I would like to point out that in contrast with the luxury and wealth of the Biltmore and other surrounding buildings, Pershing Square was filled with what seemed like poverty and destitute persons. The stark contrast between the well dressed business ppl walking around and the permanent residents of Pershing Square (the homeless) was almost surreal. Walking out of the Biltmore and crossing the street into the square shows two different faces of L.A. in a way that no other architectural mish-mash in any other city I've seen has been able to do. The Biltmore and Pershing Square are as fucking different as they look, not just visually but also culturally. I guess this really struck a chord with me because I expected something different when walking out of the neo-classical into the modern. Shame on you Los Angeles for not taking care of some of your citizens as well as you take care of your guests. Bringing EVERYone into the modern era is not as much of a concern as bringing architectural styles up to date. Whatever, Pershing Square is ugly, intriguing and thought-provoking for me. In some ways not much could be better.

Here's what lead me to think about all of this:

Who tried to break into the biltmore by cutting the bars in that window? Or what happened there anyway? I imagined some homeless person got tired of the socially/humanely-unjust bull shit they had to put up with and tried to get a free room for the night. Anyway, that was a small but significant side note to my day. Here are more photos from my trip.

Blue & yellow.

Jenny, a Brooklynite, wearing a lovely fur coat. Style like this is hard to find in L.A., so thank you Jenny for making my day. I wish I would have gotten a better detail photo of the necklace.

Some of my new L.A. style. Don't laugh guys, I make those hammer pants look sexy.

Anyway, my adventure ended in Westwood. In one week I went from being nearly homeless, to staying at the Biltmore in the lap of luxury, to hanging out in Westwood in the lap of latter day saints (Westwood = home of L.A. Mormon Temple)

So here I am, ready for my next adventure, fake gold chains, romanian religious bracelets, phone glued to my face and all. I apologize this post is hectic and disorganized, and maybe not even that well thought out. I have not had enough time to even unpack yet, but I'm about to jump into some clean clothes and stir the Valley shit once again. So hit me up if you and your crew wanna hang! 

Over and out!!!

Yours truly,

Claudia Motherfucking Awesome Craciun. 

P.S. Before I forget...

Doesn't anyone else think that this Biltmore griffin needs a bra? 

hardy har har!