LA, Again

So I went down to LA again, This time for the voice recordings for our new game. I went with Sound Guru Robert and Other Writer Ree. Both I referred to numerous times as "the Thin People", for whom a cheese danish is a hearty breakfast and the two miles between the recording studio and the hotel is amusingly called "walking distance".

Robert is along as a second set of ears, a more professional set attuned to the popping, gurgling, smacking, and growling that the human body is inadvertently capable of when it is placed near a microphone. Ree is the other game-designer-who-writes at the company, and she is along so that when SHE has to do this for her project, it is not like we're throwing her into the deep end of the pool in a burlap sack.

The taping went very, very well - there is a lot to be said for bringing together a crue of well-prepared professionals. Now Robert gets the odious talks of stitching it all together and seeing if we really made conversations out of everything we wrote.

These trips to LA have been surprisingly painless. Car to SeaTac to LAX to Hotel, the last by horribly expensive but generally capable cab. The hotel this time was the Sportsman's Lodge, a long-time fixture in Studio City because it kept most of its land while the rest of the area has been developed. Once the site of two man-made trout ponds, where Clark Gable fished off the back porch, it now is a nice hotel with a huge pool adjacent to a massive reception complex dedicated to weddings and reunions. The mattresses were firm, the walls solid, the hallway traffic light, and the showers adequate. No idea on the breakfast, because, as you know, I was traveling with the Thin People.

This time I DID manage to get to an above-average restaurant - the Marrakesh on Ventura. Moroccan food, which in our case meant quail, rabbit, lamb, and a chicken pastry wrapped in filo and topped with powdered sugar. Baklava, low tables, and belly dancers. The company may bridle at the cost, but it was worth it.

But I've been down to LA five times now in the past year, and have not given myself the chance to see friends or get to the Getty Museum. The last is a bit of a Holy Grail at this point. many years ago the Lovely Bride and I wanted to see it, but the region was hit by flooding and itw as closed. And each time since, my days have been filled with keeping my head down over the script and listening Very Very hard to the actors. Perhaps next time I will make the time for the pilgrimage. Or perhaps not.

More later,