Foursquare and the Fair

I went on a bike ride yesterday. I stopped by the site of the Old PAL studios:

The engineer was some guy called Frank:

a neat Mural:

From 5-1-2011

I decide to go to the La Times Festival of Books. I missed the early train, but no problem, no one takes the Metrolink on weekends, right?
Well, this weekend is the Lemon Festival in Upland, so downtown was packed. I got a ticket, despite the vending machine insisting there were no train that day, was soon on a Bombardier car going to Union station:

From Book fair

Once I got there, I hopped on a shuttle bus:

From Book fair

and was soon face to face with Tommy Trojan:

From Book fair

They had a number of seminars that could have been of interest to me as an aspiring writer, but there were all sold out. so I wandered around outside:

From Book fair

I've also been playing around with Foursquare. while it is neat, you do have to have GPS enabled on your phone. I usually keep mine, which does produce some strange results. Hopefully, I won't make it on Pleaserobme.com. I did manage to persuade my phone and Foursquare that I was on the USC campus, and checked in.
I found out that UCLA has extension program for people like me, but the folks running the booths for USC and Chapman U were much more friendly. hmm (USC and Chapman are private - more tuition) Made the trip worth it. Chapman had a project where you wrote down a word, thy took your picture with it, and then the students would try and make a story with it.
I wandered around and around some more. Curiously, the part devoted to Food books seemed more busy. Probably because they were handing out free samples. I was also thinking about an analysis I heard on the royal wedding hoopla - That we, as a society, have been trending toward "reality" entertainment rather then "fictionalized." Maye I should devote my energies to "Revolutionary Idol" instead.
I found a free seminar that was interesting, but glanced at my watch. Time to go back to union station.
Turns out everyone else had that idea, too. Thankfully, they had a larger bus. we went by City Hall:

From Book fair

(the "effect" is the Target "advertising" wrap on the bus) before making it back to Union station.

From Book fair

If you've never been there, it's worth a trip. LAUPT was built in the late 30's, at the height of rail travel, and is wonderfully maintained as a period piece.
I bought a Madeline doll for a souvenir( The Times is using the artwork from the books as theme for this year.

From Book fair

before riding the Hyundai car back:

From Book fair

Of course, we stopped at Pomona for an hour due to ride with a medical condition, so maybe I should have taken the later train. I didn't want to go today, as there is an Immigrant rights march downtown in honor of May Day. Plus Metrolink has even less service on Sundays.
One other I did a bit different was I did'nt take my camera, but relied on phone for pictures - worked out well. Amazing how much "phones" have progressed.