Los Angeles

Without a car I had to resort to public transportation for getting around Los Angeles. I had a pretty mellow couple of days in town; I slept a lot and watched some TV, took a few showers and wandered around the hotel and the airport. Fascinating stuff, I know. Delta, in addition to putting me up at the Hilton LAX for two nights, also gave me some meal vouchers. I said before they were mostly useless. Turns out that’s only true at the hotel, where they have a special menu (and prices) for things you can buy with vouchers. At the airport, on the other hand, I’ve yet to find a vendor that wouldn’t accept them for food and drink. So I’ve been taking the airport shuttle to and from the airport to eat. Thanks Delta!

Wednesday night I was feeling ambitious though, and decided to head downtown and check out the scene. I took the 439 bus into town, which set me back an entirely reasonable $1.50. Traffic in Los Angeles is just as bad as its ever been, and our short jaunt on the I-10 took almost a half an hour. The whole bus ride ‘only’ took about an hour though, so it wasn’t too bad.

As it turned out, ESPN was holding its annual ESPY awards show at the Nokia Theater (which is right next to the Staples Center, both are which are a part of the “L.A. Live” complex). Naturally, all sorts of athletes and famous people were in attendance and security was pretty tight. They blocked the road and cordoned off the entire complex.

Being the mischievous troublemaking type I am, I decided to try and get in anyways (ticketless of course). Jump past to break to find out what happened and see a lot more great pictures!

I got there just about the same time the ESPYs got over and the after parties started. After canvasing the area looking for weaknesses in the security perimeter, I determined my best bet in was to try and slip by the ticket checkers at one of the various entrances, or to try and go unnoticed against the crowds of people exiting the theater (which is harder than it sounds; people going the wrong way typically stick out like a sore thumb). The other entrance was a stage door into the theater, but given that it was guarded by three security guards, two cops, and a metal detector I figured I didn’t have too much of a shot there.

My first attempt to blend in with the (ticket holding) crowds entering didn’t work too well; when asked if I had a ticket I played dumb and said “Do I need one?” to which the guard laughed and said yes, let me continue taking pictures, but still made me leave. Ah well. Besides being ticketless, being underdressed certainly didn’t help. Shorts and a t-shirt definitely stick out in a crowd of people wearing suits and gowns.

My next attempt to enter against the crowds exiting was equally fruitless, though I got a bit more inventive. I told the guard that stopped me that I worked for a fictitious production company and was hired by the venue to help strike the show. He believed me, but still requested credentials I naturally didn’t have. Ah well…. next time I need to bring my various assorted credentials along

Nokia Plaza, outside the ESPYs

Trying to get into places I have no business being has become a bit of a sport for me. I have just as much fun (no… more) trying to sneak in to places I shouldn’t be than actually being there. I’ve had various successes and failures over the years but I have a feeling this isn’t a habit I’m going to end any time soon; it’s addicting!

I met a lot of fun people and hung out with a group of young ladies from Sweden. After a few drinks downtown and a great time I decided to head on back to the hotel. A quick check of the timetable for the bus I came in on (the 439) showed I missed the last one for the night. I used google maps on my Nokia flip phone to find an alternate way home, and managed to find two connecting busses that got me home (the 81 to the 117). The 81 was pretty packed, and stopped at almost every stop down to century where I got on the 117.

Today I decided I’d get to the airport early, grab some food, get through security and relax. If you’ve never flown through LAX, I suggest avoiding it if you can. It’s one of the busiest airports I’ve ever been to, and everything takes longer here. There are lines everywhere.

Terminal 5, where Delta is here, has an interesting setup for security. The line starts outside, wraps along the wall, crosses the main pedestrian hallway, forms another queue there, goes up an escalator, forms another queue there, and finally makes it to the screening checkpoint. A bit batty, but the full queue didn’t take too long. They were trying to benchmark themselves in an effort to improve performance, and gave me a piece of paper with the time I got in line on it. When I got to the ID checking station they put another time on it, and finally collected the card, writing a third time on it when I got through the metal detectors. All in all the long looking queue only took about half an hour to get through. Not too bad. I’ve got some downtime before my flight this evening, but here’s to hoping everything goes smoothly (/me knocks on faux wood at the airport). Here are some more pictures from my short time in LA: