Going lalaloopy

Some idiot decided she wasn't going to pay Ticketmaster $5-8 per ticket for the immense privilege of using their website to purchase tickets for the Hollywood Bowl this summer. But not being an organised sort of person, she neglected to note that tickets went on sale on the 6th of May (this Sunday past). So in a move of immense stupidity, she decided to take the morning off get herself to Hollywood on the hottest day this year (so far). With temperatures averaging at 34degC in LA today, she made the phenomenally stupid further decision to alight two stops early because of past experience with road-crossing difficulties. Walking uphill in the late morning sun on a hot day is bearable if one walks under shade. But not only is there no avenue of tree-lined shade on Vine, the damn cars in a traffic jam coming off the 101 generate even more heat. I swear an egg left on the pavement would have cooked from the hot exhaust expended by the stuck lines of bigass cars (not that you'd want to eat the smog-laden egg). At least the staff at the Bowl had thoughtfully provided kegs of drinking water for the patient concert-goers lined up under shade-providing umbrellas. Still, the idiot who decided she really needed to save all that money was drenched in sweat by the time she got her paws on 7 pairs of music-under-the-stars tickets for the summer. And this was even before she started her return journey under the midday sun. The only other thing of note to happen to said idiot was her pedantic spotting of a mistake in the Hollywood Bowl's hoardings at their front entrance. It proudly proclaimed "SALONEN CONDUTS LA PHIL". It amused her somewhat that not only did the sign-men miss the second C, but that a photographer and his assistant who were setting up on a ladder to take photos of the sign missed it too. Pedantic idiot thought it would be kinder to let them know right away instead of keeping an eye out for the sign and blogging about it later. Ah well, her loss, their gain.

Incidentally, the other venue for summer fun under the stars may well be under threat. Our familiarity with the layout of Griffith Park is somewhat sketchy, but if there are fears the fire could spread to the Observatory, then the Greek is next. Not to mention the entire hillside of extremely posh and expensive houses.