I recently got back to LA after a week in San Francisco. I’m not a very social person, so I can’t say that I made full use of the touristy experience by going to the slew of cool bars that I saw along the way, but I definitely had fun taking pictures and absorbing the vibe.
However, there was a ton to see and theoretically do. I stayed at a music-themed hostel in downtown which was pretty epic.
On a whim, I decided to check out a Bruce Lee Exhibition in nearby Chinatown, which turned out to be one of the best things I did in the entire trip. I posted some pics at Blue Sky, but essentially the exhibit highlighted Bruce Lee’s road to action stardom, along with his acumen as a thinker. Did you know Bruce Lee was a philosophy major? He actually devised his own martial arts style with its own philosophical principles, and understanding this is just as important as learning about his action roles (his overall story is phenomenal; if you’re in the area, I recommend that you check the exhibit out!)
Guide Jimmy Chinn explaining how Bruce Lee was essentially the real action star in The Green Hornet, but was severely underpaid. The movie Kato was essentially a bunch of Bruce Lee scenes spliced together, à la YouTube–the coolness ahead of its time in many ways 😂
The payroll showing how Bruce Lee earned $400 as Kato whereas everyone else was paid in thousands.
There was a gallery next to the Chinese Historical Society of America that had a solo exhibition by Dixon Ngai. Ngai worked with both porcelain and paint, and his work entails the feeling of longing and displacement caused by both being part of a diaspora and being LGBT.
Afterwards, I roamed a bit through Chinatown, then headed back to the hostel to recover for the next outing.
There’s way more where that came from but I’ll post about it next time!
À la prochaine,
Wind Ma
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