Downtown LA, I still love you « Crystal Williams

Ok, so I’m moving up to North Hollywood tomorrow (which means I really should be, uh, packing now), but Downtown Los Angeles still owns my LA-loving heart. If nothing else, the sheer capacity for strange is just stronger there, and I dig it.

So we were down there last night to participate in the monthly Downtown LA Art Walk (second Thursday of every month, folks). We started out at one of my favorite Vietnamese joints in LA, Blossom before proceeding to check out Dave Bullock’s show at Niche Gallery and then on to others.

As if Weenez, a hot dog (and..cupcakes?) place attached to Red Dot Gallery wasn’t strange enough on it’s own, while we were there, a makeshift parade of clarinets, saxophones, drums, and accordians marched past us, accompanied by a guy wearing nothing but a diaper and shooting toy arrows at people (Cupid, Valentines day… I get it, still odd). The group turned out to be LA Experimental Jazz Troup KillSonic (Warning, sound.. and it’s experimental jazz at that).

It was too fun to pass up, so we joined their parade around downtown LA, basically circling the gallery district, invading the Hive Gallery, missing the shuttle, walking some more, and then finally boarding the bus with the entire band, all of us followers, and a very amused (no, really) bus driver. The band jammed on, we picked up more people at every stop, and it was a damn fine time of “wait, is this really happening?”And yes, that’s when I love this town the most.

Some pics from the evening: