i heART downtown

In my newfound freedom from the ties that bind, otherwise known as Shannon's Not Stage Managing Anymore, I found myself with a free evening last night to do as I pleased. So with that as the impetus, here's the beginning of What I Did - chronicling my new adventures outside of the theatre world. Instead of having to say "sorry I've got a show" I now have the option of saying "yes, I just might show (up)."

To inaugurate my first Thursday of freedom I attended the Downtown Art Walk which takes place the second Thursday of every month, and it's free. I've threatened to go numerous times before but never actually made it during the "official" art walk portion of the evening. Last night was different, spurred on in part by needing to rectify the obvious as well as wanting to support a fellow 3BN'er, Dave Bullock (aka eecue), who had an opening at Niche Video Art.

I made my way to Downtown from Burbank and arrived just after 7pm scoring the most perfect parking spot. From there I popped into MJ Higgins #2 and said hi to Richard before making my way over to Niche. Soon thereafter Jim & Celia showed up and that's when the fun began. We attempted to go to Morono Kiang but found it closed upon arrival. From there we headed down to 4th and Main and hit MJ Higgins, Crewest, the lovely DLANC office, the Dale Youngman Gallery, Bert Green Fine Art and MJ #2.

One of the many highlights of the evening came as we were visiting with Ginny in the DLANC office; a rather large and entertaining Marching Band strutted by, who I would later find out was Killsonic. I wanted so very much to join them on their march-about-town but we were thick in conversation about something terribly important at the time. Later on, as we were having dinner at the non-hip but tasty Ensenada Restaurant, Celia spotted the DASH shuttle bus driving down the street with the band in tow. The LAist crew captured the adventure on video and has posted an edited down version of the fun. Here's to hoping they make repeated appearances at Art Walk in the future...both the LAist crew and Killsonic.

It was a fantastical sight to see so many people out on the street, at night, that it felt like a different city altogether. My usual experiences with the area are during daylight hours on weekends and the varied night about town, but this, this was altogether magical. It was a fun night, and one that I can now wholeheartedly endorse after finally experiencing the full set of festivities firsthand.

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Comments

[JSnark]

I definitely have to hit the next art walk, is it normal folks or is it all funny haircut people that hang out at the smell?

[shannon]

it's L.A. - a veritable melting pot of people