Follow My Coffee: It's All Greek To Me

Southern California is known for its vast and diverse museums. Many of them in Downtown Los Angeles along Museum Row, oddball museums in Hollywood like the Museum of Death and Museum of Broken Relationship, some so fascinating with new exhibits arriving all the time that a person would have to make a full time career out of visiting them to see them all. I have been to dozens of museums in my life here in So Cal, but this week was my first time to the J. Paul Getty Villa in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is uniquely packed into the cliff side adjacent to the miles of pavement that makes up just a small section of the Pacific Coast Highway. The Getty has two properties; the Getty Center in Brentwood (L.A.), is the Museum with its meticulously manicured gardens, photography, and dazzling views of Los Angeles, and Getty Villa that houses antiques, restored artifacts, and all things Greek, Roman, and Etruscan. The extent of my knowledge and interest on this subject has been Disney's animated feature Hercules, where Danny DeVito voices a satyr, leading this museum to be visited when my teacher friends invited me out for a day of acting like tourists.
Even though my enthusiasm for this period in history is minimal, any chance to broaden my knowledge is seen as a positive opportunity and I will gladly take it. It's a scant drive through the curvaceous Santa Monica mountains that empties out at PCH, make a left and two streets up is the tiny driveway that is the unimpressive entrance to the Villa, then up the driveway to pay the parking fee. The Villa is free, as is the Museum, but parking is charged in both places. However, with the Villa, online reservations must be made in advance as to prevent overcrowding. We didn't have reservations but we asked when we got to the gate and were granted admittance, assuming it was all due to flashing my beaming smile and giving a flirty wink. Now that we were on the property, the scenery changed. Large cobblestones cause the car to shake as we drove to the parking structure. We were now surrounded in greenery and hedges. We now ascended staircase after staircase, lines with roses and extended views of the property and Malibu. There is a large outdoor auditorium in front of the entrance to the main exhibits. Housed in individual rooms, some the size of an apartment bathroom, some the length of a horse stable, are carved statues, painted clay vases, and long forgotten forms of currency are displayed behind glass and out of children's reach. There is one example, a formidable, ancient carved bear, all the stone was a beautiful white while a single paw was a greasy grey color. The placard stated it was destroyed from decades of oils transferred through human touch. As you make your way through the grounds, history meets beauty as you see the delicate hand carved statues and ceilings, some with gold inlay, painted mural walls, marble floors, and pools with human replicas displaying actions of a time past.
There is a modern section displaying new installations, a family center where children can act out Roman war scenes using shadows or design their own vases on paper or using washable markers on actual pots, and in the reasonably sized gift shop, there was a full wall of bookcases stuffed with a magnificent selection of books for all ages.
Above the gift shop is the cafe offering Mediterranean eats but only one style of coffee. They had a separate menu boasting about the Afternoon Tea package available upstairs with the ocean as the backdrop. I wasn't ready to drop $42 dollars for tea and cakes so the last option across from the cafe seating area was a little coffee kiosk. One push button machines gave for many options of coffee and other hot beverages. Being across the street from the cool water's breeze had me craving a hot drink. My super foamy and slightly bitter cappuccino was exactly what I needed. One of my friends ordered a simple iced coffee and the three of us discussed potential future museum visits elsewhere. Seems my friends prefer more traditional museums so the Bunny museum in Pasadena is out but maybe I can convince them to join me Grammy museum. Seems Los Angeles has a museum for everything.

"Hercules". I really enjoyed that the Disney Animated feature showed Hercules just as this original stature was poised, using Scar from The Lion King in place of this lion skin. This is the Disney G-rated version of the Hercules statue. According to the plaque, he had been all restored but one very obvious body part was missing still and no further information was given.

This was part of the family activity center where guests could come draw on the vases with washable markers. The docent told us she enjoyed this two pieces so much that she didn't have the heart to erase them. They look extremely historically accurate, down to the Captain America shield and MouskerToga.