Tag Archives: Star Wars

Dream Machines

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Petersen Automotive Museum
March 7, 2020
Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles

We went to the Petersen auto museum to see the special exhibition Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Dozens of vehicles from science fiction themed movies and television shows are on display.  The exhibition was curated in collaboration with the San Diego-based Comic-Con Museum.  It runs through May 2020.

There are science fiction vehicles displayed around the lobby and even a couple in the parking garage.  The first car to meet us as we entered the main gallery on the ground floor was the familiar DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies.  We particularly enjoyed the numerous Batman related vehicles, not only the Batmobiles, but also Batman motorcycles, Joker cars, and models and images of the Batmobile over the years.

Meredith and her sister were taken by the Star Wars speeder on display. We rolled our eyes at the exhibit tag, though.  For all three of us the 1977 movie will always be Star Wars, and not The New Hope.

We also enjoyed seeing other non-Hollywood classic cars.  The Petersen has an extensive collection, which it rotates from time to time. Although we have been there before, there were many vehicles on display that we had not seen before, including the 1886 Benz Motorwagen pictured above.  The Motorwagen had 0.75 horsepower and could achieve a top speed of 10 miles per hour.  Although not the very first automobile, it may be the first practical one.

On our three prior visits, we went with Meredith‘s mother Margaret. Our most recent prior visit was to see the grand reopening in 2015.  Shortly before that the museum had remodeled its exterior; our blog post about that visit, including the architecture, can be seen here.  The year before that we went to the Petersen to see the Mustang exhibit, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ford’s release of the first Mustangs.

The museum’s collection is extensive, and not all cars it owns can be displayed at any one time.  The Petersen, for an extra charge, offers tours of its vault.  We have never seen the vault but think it might be worth doing someday.

We noticed the same deficits in accessibility that struck us when we last visited, with Margaret in her wheelchair.  Although there are no steps to climb inside the museum, the internal doors are heavy and do not have push button openers, and the parking garage lacks an elevator.

Parking is expensive, a flat $17 for the day, but that reflects the Wilshire location.  Other parking options in the area are in the same cost range.

We are thinking that our next Los Angeles museum venture will probably be to the Skirball in May, to see the Star Trek exhibition, which will open on April 30.

Where the West Is Fun

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San Diego County Fair
Del Mar Fairgrounds
June 4, 2017

We headed to the San Diego County Fair on its opening weekend. We always enjoyed going to fairs when we were children. Meredith remembers going with her father to the Barnstable County Fair in Massachusetts and with her grandparents to county fairs in Maine. Bob visited fairs in western Massachusetts, including the Three County Fair in Northampton, the Cummington Fair, and the Eastern States Exposition. When our children were small we took them to the sprawling Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, a splendid and overwhelming experience. Meredith’s mother Margaret entered items in the LA fair a couple of times, winning a blue ribbon for her Seminole jacket back in the 1980’s.

This time we started with the Old West theme exhibit near the entrance, then headed to the infield. We watched the Turkey Stampede, a fun and silly set of turkey races. We strolled through the model farm vegetable beds, then toured the “pollinator” area with a sample bee hive (safely under glass) and a butterfly enclosure. We really enjoyed going in and looking at the butterflies close up!

We opted for our usual (high calorie) fair favorites for lunch: Roxy’s garlic batter fried artichokes and Navajo fry bead, washed down with craft beer in the Paddock area. While we ate, we enjoyed listening to several bluegrass groups performing on the Paddock Stage, particularly a quartet called the Virtual Strangers.

The home arts building was our next stop, and we concentrated on the second floor. Meredith loves the handmade quilts, and it is fun to see what people chose to collect and share. In the fondant cake section we were amused to see a cake with a Star Wars theme, and Meredith sent a photo to her sister, who also loves Star Wars. The polymer bead club had a display table set up and was encouraging passers-by to make beads, which Meredith did.

We went on to the Swifty Swine pig races, which are a must-see for both of us. But who doesn’t love watching piglets run around a track to win an Oreo cookie? Absolutely ridiculous! On the way we wandered through the livestock barns and watched a couple of 4H competitions. After that we walked back to the garden exhibits near the main gate, including both the exterior garden landscapes and the cut flowers displayed inside.

We finished our fair visit listening to Tom Griesgraber playing the Chapman stick on the O’Brien Stage. We first discovered Tom at the fair several years ago, and always try to catch his act if we can.

The fair runs through July 4 this year. We used free offsite parking at the Horse Park, just east of the fairgrounds, and took the shuttle bus to the fair gate. Buses run frequently and get to use a back gate, so that is probably not only the thriftiest but possibly the quickest way to get to the fair. Full price admission is $18 for adults, $11 for seniors and children 6 and over; children 5 and under are free. Several discount deals are available, and the fair website has further information. Handicap access is good; most of the fairgrounds are at ground level, and there are elevators within the buildings.

Inside Out

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Pacific Winnetka Theater
Chatsworth
July 18, 2015

Meredith went up to Los Angeles without Bob, who was back in Massachusetts. She met up with our youngest daughter and her sister Kathleen, and they all took Margaret out to see the movie Inside Out. It proved to be, as we hoped, one of those animated movies with plenty of clever jokes for adults to enjoy, as well as a story line that younger viewers could follow. The group lingered in the coffee shop by the theater afterwards, and Meredith showed photos from our recent trip to Spain. She had also brought Comic-Con goodies, including an artist-signed print of the Inside Out emotion characters and the latest cartoon book by Lonnie Millsap for Margaret, and some Star Wars items for Kathleen.

Star Wars in Seattle

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EMP Museum
Seattle, Washington

The Star Wars movies are one of our favorite things, so when we saw that an extensive Star Wars costume exhibit would be on display in Seattle we were eager to fit it into our visit.

The girls were happy to come with us, and we also met up with Meredith’s niece and former brother-in-law. The exhibit is in the EMP Museum, in the Seattle Center, near the Space Needle. The museum building is a funky and colorful asymmetrical building designed by architect Frank Gehry. The EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000.

EMP1

We bought tickets both to the museum and separate, timed tickets to the Star Wars exhibit, for a total cost of $32 each. (Online discounts may apply.) EMP is the first stop for this Star Wars exhibit, which is part of a 12-city national tour; it runs at EMP through October 4, 2015.

The exhibit was lots of fun. There were costumes from all six movies, and extensive background information – text, video, and audio — about the design and fabrication of the costumes. There were also interesting displays grouping costumes, such as half a dozen senators’ robes. Several displays showed how costumes evolved as a character developed, for example four separate costumes worn by Senator and later emperor Palpatine, showing his evolution toward the Dark Side.

There are some great videos, with George Lucas, costume designer Trisha Biggar, and Natalie Portman, among others. Meredith particularly enjoyed an audio clip of actor Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO, describing his doubts when his agent sent him to see someone named George Lucas who was doing a “low budget science fiction movie” and was looking for someone to play a robot, because it might lead to bigger things. Daniels was captivated by a sketch of C-3PO in Lucas’ office and agreed to play the part.

The exhibit ends with – who else? – Darth Vader, and of course we all had to take our photos with him.

EMP2

After we had cruised the Star Wars exhibit and related gift shop we saw several more exhibits at the EMP: Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic; Can’t Look Away: the Lure of Horror Film; and Indie Game Revolution. Both the fantasy and the horror exhibits had some great artifacts on display, including some original Wizard of Oz costume pieces and weapons from the Lord of the Rings movies in the fantasy exhibit. We enjoyed the “guest curator” videos that were playing in the horror exhibit, particularly Roger Corman’s perspective on the evolution of horror pictures. We skipped the music exhibits at EMP and also the temporary Seahawks exhibit.

The museum has multiple levels and is a bit confusing to navigate. Wheelchair patrons can use elevators, but stairs (lots of them!) are a more direct way to get around the museum. It would be possible to use a wheelchair or walker in the Star Wars costume exhibit, but the crowds made it somewhat claustrophobic even for those of us on two feet. If we were going to bring a wheelchair to this museum, we would aim for a less crowded time than midafternoon on a rainy weekend.

There is a café on the lowest level of EMP, but we ate an excellent lunch at Chutneys, an Indian restaurant in the Queen Anne neighborhood nearby, before coming to the museum. We parked in a parking garage near Seattle Center. The trek to the restaurant took us through the center then back again, all in steady rain that turned out to set a record for March 15. We were pleased to have brought our ancient London Fog trench coats, both of which date from our undergraduate days at Yale.