Sunday at the Festival of Books

Our family went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday. I had anticipated that it would be crowded, but especially the Target Children's Stage area was full of families and young children. Especially since I chose to take the double stroller so that either my wife or I could push both kids around (expecting them to be tired easily because of the heat and crowds). But unfortunately, UCLA's physical space and the set up for the Festival were not designed for a double-wide stroller.

We went to see some of the authors speak and sign books, particularly Katharine Hollabird, the author of the Angelina Ballerina series. I also had a lot of fun listening to Mo Willems, the author of Knuffle Bunny and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, read and act out his books.

I made it out to the main, non-children's section of the festival, where I got the chance to browse some of the arts organizations, public libraries, and independent book sellers. If you've never been and you have any interest in books, reading, or cultural organizations like local theater, it's worthwhile to go at least once.

Much of the sprawling UCLA campus is filled with tents for the hundreds of vendors/organizations with four or five major stages (including a cooking stage) and major authors and celebrity authors reading from their books or in discussion with a moderator (most are ticketed events, but Julie Andrews read from her new children's book to the open Target stage audience).

For children there were two separate children's areas and stages, performers and children's authors reading from their books, a small participation circus, and several arts and crafts stations.

Being a person who doesn't enjoy going to places that have lots and lots of crowds, it was a bit tiring to be there. And the record temperatures on Saturday and Sunday didn't help. But it was a lot of fun for our kids, and a moderately enjoyable time for my wife and me.

Americana at Brand makes the national newspapers

Earlier postings on the Americana at Brand here, here, and here.

With the opening of the Americana at Brand just over a week away, the national press is starting to take notice.

Editor's note (2008/04/27): More stories from the Los Angeles Times in Friday's business section (looking at the financial prospects for the new complex and for the city of Glendale) and in today's Image section (focusing on the shopping experience).

In today's New York Times, Mike Albo writes in the Fashion and Style section about his impressions about visiting the Grove at Farmer's Market.

An excerpt:

The Grove opened next to the gracefully old Farmers Market in 2002, the brainchild of Caruso Affiliated and its chief executive, Rick J. Caruso, a government commissioner turned real estate developer. The 575,000-square-foot retail park quickly became a much needed public space in this coiffed yet lonely city. According to Caruso Affiliated, 18 million people visit annually and spend an average of $169 per visit. This seemed like an outlandish number until I realized I had spent $83 on Kiehl’s moisturizer in under an hour, and trust me, I am always on the pathetic end of any income statistic.

With its old-time trolley, jazzy music, familiar storefronts and manufactured midcentury nostalgia, the Grove, as is often pointed out, borrows much of its aesthetic from Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A.

But if Walt were to return from the dead and take a tour, he would freak out. There are no signs for milkshakes or hot dogs or Mickey Mouse ears here. In this happy consumer village, desires are organized by brand and brand alone, and unless you are familiar with the Nike swoosh, the Gap’s blue square or Crate & Barrel’s clean logo, you will walk around shoeless, naked, with no respectable flatware.

Sure, the Grove is creepy and fake, but at least it’s honest about it. Nearly every week we are shown a new computer-rendered architectural plan of a super futuristic building designed by Santiago Calatrava or Zaha Hadid and are told we are looking at the future. But as long as we continue barreling along our path of unmitigated consumerism, the future will not look smooth, white and sleek. It will look like the Grove: a Frankensteinian hodgepodge of branded facades that we walk into and out of, forgetfully.

The article concludes with a mention of the new shopping complex in Glendale:

[The] Americana at Brand will have luxury homes above the stores. Residents will be able to use their key cards to buy goods, order food from restaurants, have their dry cleaning delivered. It sounds like another preposterous place I know, named Manhattan.

Meanwhile, in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, columnist Steve Lopez weighs in on the new shopping complex:

Americana is clearly a first cousin of the Grove, except that it's not just a destination, but an address, with 238 apartments and 100 condos (priced from $700,000 to $2.4 million) built into an upscale village Caruso says he modeled on Madison Avenue in New York and Newbury Street in Boston.

The stores include Barneys New York, Juicy Couture, Anthropologie -- the kind of places that will "redefine" the retail experience in Glendale, my guide [Caruso] explained. A two-car trolley will transport shoppers through an undisturbed dream of consumptive indulgence, a movie-set reality dressed up with an 18-screen theater, dancing fountain and massive outdoor crystal chandelier.

"We're trying to re-create urban living, where it's nice and luxurious," Caruso said as we came upon a European-style entryway to the Marc, an apartment building he said is inspired in part by the Four Seasons Resort in Maui. It has a "Caruso Affiliated" symbol blazed into the ground like a medallion. For the busy professional just home from work, he told me, there will be a concierge to answer every need.

[snip]

What I like about Caruso is that he is unabashed and unapologetic.

And judging by his success, more of the world shares his taste than mine.

But here's my question: Where do all these shoppers come from? There isn't an unlimited pool of people who can afford places like Americana on Brand or the Grove. So you have to think they're just luring people away from some other shopping spot, including more authentic cityscapes like Larchmont Village or Montrose's Honolulu Avenue.

Caruso has told me he admires those more organic commercial zones, but he is in a very different business. Caruso builds monuments to Western civilization, and while some might find the Americana at Brand a soul-sapping contrivance of nostalgia and patriotism, the masses will undoubtedly flock there.

The truth is that I occasionally go to the Grove, which my daughter loves (though not as much as we both love the adjacent Farmers Market). I could imagine her running across the Green at the Americana too, as I reluctantly surrender my stuffy inhibition, knowing that with several more mega-projects in the works after this one, soon the matter will be indisputable.

It's Caruso's world, and we just live in it.

Two critical views of Caruso and his visions of the shopping experience. Of course, there are probably more to come. But as Lopez points out, it will be the people who decide the fate of the new shopping complex with their pocketbooks, and all the bad reviews and criticism in the press won't make any difference.

Top photograph by Natasha Calzatti for The New York Times

Cherry Blossom Festival

Our family went today to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Little Tokyo.

I had expected that this would be a smaller version of the annual Nisei Week festival in August (without a parade). We parked on the street near the Los Angeles Times building and walked about four blocks to San Pedro Street, which was blocked off between 1st and 3rd Streets, as well as 2nd Street between Los Angeles Street and Alameda.

There were three stages (Japanese culture, Hawaiian culture, and martial arts), as well as five or six dozen vendors and information booths in rows along San Pedro and 2nd Streets. The Hawaiian dancers and musicians were excellent, as was a traditional Japanese dance that we saw.

We signed up for a couple of contests, checked out the vendors, ran into some friends and acquaintances. We tried Pinkberry frozen yogurt for the first time (there is a new location on 2nd Street). Our kids did arts and crafts and made Chinese lanterns (at the Chinese American Museum booth) and Japanese kites and other assorted things at the festival kids' activity booth.

Although a lot of the vendors were selling things not related at all to Japanese culture (including a cooking infomercial-style show), the festival was a fun way to spend some time in Little Tokyo being entertained by cultural demonstrations and doing some children's activities.

Americana at Brand

Some photos taken Friday afternoon from the Americana at Brand construction site in Glendale, Rick Caruso's latest Los Angeles venture, following the Grove next to Farmer's Market.

The new shopping complex is scheduled to have its grand opening on May 1st, though I had read there may be "soft openings" to the public as early as April 15.

Editor's note: News articles and the Americana blog now say the grand opening will be May 2nd. Nothing further on any soft openings.

Some earlier photos here and here.

Disneyland with kids

Our family took a trip to Disneyland this week. It was the Monday after spring break for most local schools, and crowds were light (although I was hoping the park would be even less crowded). A work colleague had given my wife tickets, so we only had to pay $11 for parking (regular adult admission: $66, child admission (ages 3-9): $56).

With the Finding Nemo submarine ride having just opened last summer, we made a beeline for the lagoon in Tomorrowland, only to find a long queue of 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We headed instead to the Dumbo ride in Fantasyland, where our children got the rare privilege of riding with Donald Duck and Goofy (one each) in the Dumbo elephants. Then we rode again with our kids, and then headed to the Peter Pan and Mr. Toad dark rides and the Mad Tea Cups before making our way to Toontown (Mickey Mouse's house and Toontown Spin) and then the Disney Princess Fair.

Later we headed back to Tomorrowland and waited about an hour to ride the Finding Nemo submarines, enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear rides several times and the Astro Orbiter. Then we rode the train through the Grand Canyon and dinosaur animatronics to Frontierland, where we headed for the Winnie the Pooh ride to find it shut down for maintenance issues, found the Pooh meet-and-greet already closed, and then worked our way back to Main Street stopping at the Tarzan Treehouse and Enchanted Tiki Room. After watching the Parade of Dreams (still impressive after four viewings), we exited the park and headed home.

Here are some thoughts and general advice for visiting Disneyland with kids:

* Even with the park crowds light, you can spend the whole day (9 AM - 7 PM) doing stuff that young kids would enjoy, and not even make your way to the adult crowd-pleasers like Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, or Pirates of the Caribbean.

* Just because an adult might think a preschooler might enjoy a ride (like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride or Roger Rabbit's Toontown Spin), that might not necessarily be the case. Use your child's intuition ("that looks really scary"), or work your way up from less scary and intense rides (e.g. the Jungle Cruise) to more intense rides (like Pirates of the Caribbean).

* A lot of young kids find giant costumed characters somewhat disturbing (just like Santa Claus in the mall). Don't force it on your kids just to take a photo to send to your relatives. A crying child doesn't make for a good photo anyway.

* Most girls of a certain age will really, REALLY enjoy meeting Disney princesses in person, getting their autographs, and taking pictures with them.

* Since most young kids won't last a whole day running around at Disneyland, it helps a lot to have a stroller for those long walks from land to land and ride to ride. Even with a superwide stroller, you will be able to navigate the park without major problems.

* When you get to someplace like Fantasyland where there are multiple attractions you want to visit, just park the stroller next to a ride (don't worry, yours won't be the only one there) and ride the rides you want. Just be sure not to leave any valuables in the stroller.

* Sometimes the park staff will move strollers if they are blocking traffic. It helps to have something distinguishing on your stroller so you can find it easily later in the mass of strollers.

* For the parades and other shows like Fantasmic, you will get a better seat if someone in your group can go early (an hour or more) and reserve seats in a good location. In Main Street, the sidewalks are narrow and because of crowd control, the staff won't let you stop so you often won't be able to see the parade if you show up at the last minute.

* Don't forget to write down where you parked your car. Nothing is worse than being tired and having your kids cry while you hunt through the parking lot for your vehicle.