Los Angeles

Today, something quite unusual happened in Los Angeles: rain! It is very rare that it rains here, but we had a very rainy, windy, and cold day.

I started with a tour of Warner Bros Studios, which I've done several times before, but it's usually different every time. It's another huge studio, where countless movies and TV shows have been taped on the lot over the years.

So, inside the lot we passed by a number of the houses and locations that have been used in movies like Gremlins and Spiderman (the famous upside-down kissing scene), and more recently shows like Young Sheldon.

Of course, one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, Friends, was also shot there, and there are a lot of things you get to see on the tour related to the show. For example, the fountain from the opening sequence, the Central Perk set, and various props and scripts.

They also have sets from The Big Bang Theory which is really cool. I was lucky enough to attend tapings of two episodes of the show back in the day.

After Warner Bros, I made my way to the Pasadena area for a tour of the Gamble House. It served as a winter home for David B. Gamble, son of Procter & Gamble founder James Gamble. While the house is beautiful, I'm not a history or architecture buff by any means. The main reason I wanted to see the house is because it was used as a filming location in Back to the Future! This is meant to be the house where Doc Brown lives in the 1955 timeline. As a huge fan of the movies, it's always fun to see locations from them in real life.

Later, I went to Downtown Los Angeles and the fancy InterContinental hotel, where they have a rooftop bar on floor 73 called Spire 73. Apparently, it is the highest bar in the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, the view is spectacular from up there, but due to the aforementioned bad weather, it was a bit too cold for an outdoor bar, so I didn't stay very long.

After dinner, I went to the GRAMMY Museum for 'An Evening with Jeff Goldblum'. This event was only announced less than two weeks ago, so it was quite lucky that I heard about it and that it coincided with my trip.

I have followed Jeff's acting career for decades, with movies like Jurassic Park and Independence Day, among many others. This event was more focused on his music career though.

As a very accomplished jazz pianist and singer, they talked about the genre and his inspirations, and more about his background in general. He also performed a few songs with a bassist and drummer. It was in a very small venue, so it was an interesting and intimate event with one of the great actors of our time.

When I got back to my hotel in West Hollywood, I went to see another comedy show, this time at The Comedy Store just across the street. I didn't really know any of the comedians this time around, but most of them were pretty good. All the biggest comedians of the past 50 years or so have performed at this club, and frequently a big name will pop in for a surprise set, but I didn't get so lucky this time around.

A long day that took me to several different parts of the city!もっと詳しく