la la land - part 2 - driving

Most of my time in SoCal was spent in the greater L.A. area. We lived in San Pedro (not far from Long Beach, where the great Queen Mary is anchored) and commuted almost daily to various parts of the city. The commute was in a very comfortable, brand new Dodge Caravan van. I am not a great van fan here at home but there is no doubt that it's a great touring vehicle to have.

To get from San Pedro to - for example - Silverlake, where my good buddy Maurice lives, we would take the 110 freeway north and then the 101 Hollywood freeway north-west (for some pretty scary freeway pictures, look here) The trip would usually take between 30 - 45 minutes, depending on the time of day. And here's the kicker: although L.A. is 2.5 times the size of Toronto and although many of the freeways frequently move very slowly, I did not find the commute any worse than, say, driving from mid-town Toronto to Mississauga.

There are visibly more cars on the road in L.A. (obviously, since there are many more people!) But the overall delays are more of the slow moving variety, rather than the complete stop-go-stop-go kind we seem to have here. There are car pool lanes on many (not all) freeways, which means that if there's more than one person in the car, you can slide into the car pool lane and cruise along comfortably. Also, unbelievable as it may seem - I found L.A. drivers on the whole much more patient and courteous than Toronto drivers. People would slow down or stop and let you go in front of them, there wasn't as much tailgating and not nearly as much honking. I do keep in mind that as a tourist, I was in no rush to get anywhere and therefore saw the congestion as a minor inconvenience, rather than as a heart attack inducing catastrophe.

Then there's the parking. In all my ten days in the greater L.A. area, I never once, not once, had any problem with finding either free or very cheap ($5) parking. Even on the very busy and tourist-infected Hollywood Boulevard, we were able to sneak into a side street and find a comfortable, two story (therefore shaded) parking lot for five bucks - unlimited time. Since I came back to Toronto, I've already gotten one $30 parking ticket for parking on a completely abandoned residential street ("no parking between 8AM - midnight", "parking on the left side of the street midnight - 3AM", "parking on the right side of the street 3AM - 8AM", "no parking for persons of Central European descent", "parking for permit holders only in February and November from 8AM - 8:10AM" and "pet parking only") I was also forced to turn back and drive back home on a sunny Sunday afternoon when unable to find any parking whatsoever at Harbourfront - unless willing to re-mortgage my house for 1 hour worth of parking, 0.5 km away from where I wanted to go.

In San Pedro, a neighbour greeted us one morning in that typical, American way: "Where you guys from?" When told we were from Toronto he said: "Ah, the Great White North...do you guys still have that major parking problem up there?" God's honest truth, that's what he said!

la la land - part 1 - jazz legend

Just back from Southern California, the land of the ocean breeze, ice cold frappes, jammed freeways, ubiquitous cell phones-iPods-PalmPilots-Blackberries and other gizmos that prove the maxim: "He, who dies with the most toys, wins!" My wife and I spent 10 days there, mostly in L.A. but with absolutely fantastic side trips to Santa Barbara and San Diego. Our lodgings were south of L.A., in the suburb of San Pedro - too beautiful to even be called a suburb under which moniker the monstrous high rises of Scarborough spring to mind! It's a lovely piece or real estate down there and in future bloggature I want to touch upon a few highlights of this trip. This particular entry is mostly about THE highlight for me, which was seeing Jack Sheldon in concert.

I saw Jack at the Sweet & Hot Jazz Festival. This shindig is held annually at the Marriott Hotel at LAX and, as the name suggests, it mostly features trad bands, Dixieland bands and some R&B. All the artists were top notch and it was really difficult to pick and choose. I was lucky enough to get a guest pass from my good friend, Maurice Gainen, a well known sax player and producer on the L.A. scene, who played at the fest with The Hues Corporation (mostly known as a disco band from the 70's but they played some gritty R&B at the festival) The guest pass allowed me to weave in and out of all and any of the rooms at my leisure.

The hotel was chock full of elderly jazz lovers and assorted hangers on. Apart from great music emanating from every crevice, nook, cranny and hall on the ground floor and the basement, the festival also featured some stores that sold overpriced jazz merchandise, such as caps (got me one that says "jazz" in bold gold letters on an orange background, doesn't get much gaudier than that, eh?), jazzy ties with saxophones or guitars on them, cool porkpie hats (couldn't find my size) and other assorted bric-a-brac. Tucked away in the very far corner of the basement was a room presided over by a gentleman in his 80's or perhaps even 90's, who had on display the most amazing collection of jazz books I'd ever seen. I spent about an hour there browsing, driving my wife to the edge of insanity (a glass of chilled Chardonnay brought her back!) and I ended up buying a book about Django Reinhardt that I hadn't seen before. It's a British publication, has all sorts of never before seen photos in it, as well as a CD and fairly lame looking transcriptions of some of Django's hits. Or perhaps it's my reading that's lame....Yeah, that's it...!

Jack Sheldon's show was supposed to start at 8:30 in one of the medium sized rooms and around 7:45, there was already a solid line-up (just as an aside, just after Jack, Howard Alden played the same room, WOW! - trust me on this, jazz guitarists do NOT get any better than Howard) We were able to squeeze into the back of the room - standing room only - just as Jack was starting his first tune. His show lasted for 45 minutes and I was transfixed the whole time. He covered a lot of familiar ground ("Caravan", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore") but he played AND sang with so much flash, such ease, such incredibly developed sense of style and timing - it's simply amazing. It was truly awe-inspiring to be in the presence, only a few feet away from this trumpet legend. His solos were fleet-footed flights of fancy, 16th notes in the very highest registers knocked off with ridiculous ease, his melodies were sure footed, yet never, ever boring. His singing is amazing: even if he didn't play a single note on the trumpet, he would be a top jazz artists based on his singing abilities alone. A contemporary of Chet Baker but with a much more flashy style, Jack Sheldon is a true living legend, what more can I say.....His back up band was superb, of course (pno, drums, bass) but unfortunately, I don't rememeber the names of the musicians (perhaps they are on the Sweet and Hot website)

After the show, I spied Jack talking to some older lady and I approached him and asked him if he'd mind posing for a picture with me. When I told him I was from Toronto, he lit up and regaled me with a couple of stories of his gigs in our city.



Oh, and one more thing must be mentioned: Jack's stage patter is hilarious - but completely unprintable. The guy's monologues are a steady stream of blue repartie, too blue for anyone under 70 to use without seeming like a lech. Jack pulls it off and is funny as hell! And judging from my short conversation with him - a very gracious, nice guy too. Here's to many more years of your artistry, Jack!