LA Museums, La Brea, Pedersen Auto May 2-3

Spent a couple of days in the museum complex on Wilshire Blvd in LA. The complex is great, with numerous museums, including a Renoir exhibit (lots of nudes), a number of Picassos, a wonderful Japanese museum and an exhibit of early American art including Remington sculptures and paintings. Audio lectures made it very interesting. Marlene in the Egytian room.





Next door to the museum complex are the La Brea tar pits, a 25 acre Hancock Park, where since 1900 excavations have been made of over 250,000 fossils that have been preserved in tar (asphalt). Below a researcher is working on a Columbian mastadon bone. Looks like a messy job.

The picture below is a clump of fossils yet to be "un-tarred".

Across the street is the Pedersen Auto Museum, somewhat different than the Nethecutt, but very interesting. Below a custom '57 Olds that was a national winner; it was a beauty. Double click on the picture to enlarge it.

They also had a section "What were they thinking?" with some hilarious vehicles. Below, the 1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo, a 3200 lb motorcycle with training wheels when it slowed down (had a V-8), never made any more (surprise), made the list as one of the worst automobile ideas ever.