mo mo mo ca la la la it looked as if the moca were just blocks away from my hotel. w*lking distance (this is los angeles after all. nobody really w*lks here.) it did not look rainy despite the 90% rain probability, and so i walked towards what i imagined to be the takashi murakami retrospective at moca. i ended up on deserted melrose avenue, in front of a closed pacific design center. most of the stores were closed all around. a spiritual bookstore was the place i ended up visiting. a throat singers tape made the experience especially smoky. back at the hotel i actually gathered my courage and got a cab that brought me to the actual moca, the one across the street from disney's gehry hall, or gehry's disney hall? (oh, and the ride was $40 or so. turns out los angeles is a huge place.) i managed to buy a little orange moca sticker which allowed me to see shows that looked not very much like any of murakami's work. apparently there was a third moca. now that moca would indeed have the show i wanted to visit. the w*lking distance to the other place was 10-15 minutes according to one person, 20-25 minutes according to another. oh, and they were of comparable body type. it was just obvious that they had actually never w*lked the distance. i followed the simple directions and made it to a place called "little tokyo" right beyond that magical place was my final destination, the third moca, a packed place with more than 90 pieces by takashi murakami. the show was beyond anything i had expected. there was a grace, a fragile layer to the work, which does not reproduce very well, it seems. yes, some of the pieces are obviously factoresque creations. many hands were involved in their creation... but apparently also many minds and many hearts. the work looked really really great. i could have spent a much longer time in the show if the place were not closing at five. perhaps where will be an opportunity to come back at some point. maybe not. and there was also a line to the store. (which looked a bit as if santa had been here and picked up all the better gifts.) dinner was eaten at a very tiny japanese restaurant in little tokyo. and then a cab was called by an incredibly friendly japanese lady at the miyako hotel los angeles. now i will need to actually sleep. a three hour walk, a moca moca visit, little tokyo... i might just give in to my body's internal clock. it feels like it is almost midnight again. oyasuminasai and sorry for this rather simple entry.