California Day 2!

 The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is someplace in Los Angeles. I have no idea where because once there I can't tell what's west east north or south so it could have been in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for all I know.

The museum is a movie nerd's wet dream. And to boot, the Jaws 50th anniversary exhibition is currently showing. Along the way is the famous Brady Bunch house which to me is iconic. But, in all reality, it's just a house. And unlike the crazy person who owns Walter White's house in the ABQ, who put up a fence, a monitoring system AND stands outside videoing you  looking at it, this is really just a house. I was actually more fascinated by the television set of some HBO show filming in the neighborhood called I Love LA. I have no idea what that is, but it said it on the equipment. 

The museum is multiple floors and even with the Jaws exhibition, it had a tribute to women in the movies. Called from Anna Karenina to Barbie, it featured a Barbie car which you could pose in, driving it like Fred Flintstone. Though it was fascinating, what I remember is that I need to see Anna Karenina.

The Jaws exhibition is the greatest. If you idolize that movie like I do, to see the Orca (or what's left of it), the pictures of the stars, the backstage stories, the actual set where the USS Indianapolis story was told (yes Robert Shaw was shitfaced) , the barrels, the ability to do your own zoom in shot like when Roy Scheider saw the blood in the water, the actual buoy that Chrissie grabbed onto before being devoured, and the only remaining Bruce the shark hanging from the ceiling. Just epic!

Theres also the actual office desk from the Godfather, which you can sit behind trying to look like Marlon Brando (no cat provided). The Godfather AND Jaws in one place? I could barely stop from screeching in delight.

You have lots of other stuff in there also. Captain America's shield, the Donnie Darko rabbit, a C3PO, and a history of why Jewish folks started movie studios. How did they transform Dr Jekyll into Mr. Hyde in 1931? They will show you. And the actual piano used in Casablanca.

OK, Jaws, The Godfather AND Casablanca.....Now I'm screeching!

Finally, a nighttime trip through LA. The El Coyote featured in Once About a Time in Hollywood and then the Grove mall. The classic Dupars restaurant where a stack of pancakes will keep you full for a week. 

I was exhausted yet again.