Hollywood experiences, take 2

I cannot keep up, so much is there that I have seen and done since Burning Man! Even more amazing considering I was sick for a whole week (probably first stage of a bronchitis, I let me talk into taking antibiotics and then got better).
+++ Burning man post has been continued +++

Last Friday we tried Annies tip of eating Hamburgers at "Father's Office (FO...)" in Culver City. Good indeed! On Saturday Jan and I cruised through Venice and went to explore the houses on the canals. That area is where the name comes from - somebody tried to rebuild the flair of Venice. Once a rundown quarter you don't want to know how expensive these houses are now. But they look soooo gorgeous, so individual. We had afternoon meal at our beloved Novel Cafe, THE hang out place for the Villa residents in South Santa Monica. Then we were late for some gallery visits in Culver City but met Paul and John, a local, to attend some gallery openings in Beverly Hills in the evening. The crowd was just as interesting to look at as the pictures were. (I mean the pictures were really good, some of them.) Beverly Hillians look so polished, almost photoshop-worked-over... Clearly a different kind of inhabitants as in Venice. There was the personal fitness trainer next to the pianist next to the bodyguard next to the movie actor. In fact, a lot of people you get to meet are in the film business. On the block party the weekend before last we met a stuntman who "does mainly car crashes", as he stated, in major studio productions. He did Transformers, Angels and Demons and now today Eagle Eye premiered in Hollywood, on which he worked lately (will certainly make its way to Germany, looks big). We saw Ben Stiller at the gallery opening. That guy is tiny! His girlfriend is really much taller.
On Sunday we spent 5 hours in the LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We saw art from ancient Egypt through antique, middle ages, renaissance, baroque, romanticism, ex- and impressionism, cubism, surrealism and contemporary art as well as photography. That was why we took so long. Still, we have only seen half of the works in the museum! Lena and Nico were up in San Francisco for the weekend. I would have gone, but I was still sick when they left on Thursday. Too bad.
Monday I worked very hard on finding a solution for our rat problem (we have rats in the kitchen, they are so cute ( - just kidding)) and our mold problem in the basement. Pour Paul has to live there. I was proud to announce the prompt beginning of the work today and tomorrow. The first rat has been trapped and buried already today. Poor thing.

Yesterday night I went to the Topanga State Parc (the wilderness starts at the end of our road, so it's just a 7 min. walk) to see the sunset. It was just overwhelming. With the full moon so big and red and the view over LA and the ocean from up there... I will have to go there more often! Today we drove the Villa's van with a large party (felt like a field trip) to Santa Paula to see a photo exhibition of David Bacon about migrant farm workers in rural California. The Villa's writer in exile Xu Xing from China is planning a documentary that compares Chinese farm worker's living conditions to those here in California. (And I am his assistant in the project, yeaah!) Farm workers are all Mexican. So the speeches were all in Spanish as the majority of the people were Spanish speaking. It was very interesting to talk to the photographer and also the Mexican food was delicious and the music so nice.
I got so American! I start saying things like: "Oh, aaabsolllutely!!" or "Are you seeerious??".