They’re something to be said for cutting out the muddleman and in La La Land they’re gearing up for it being all over for Uber with LA‘s driverless cars.
And at the risk of getting blacklisted by the car ride behemoth and getting stranded somewhere unfriendly.
I’ve decided to get on board the driverless revolution.
Which transforms your holiday from. the moment you land at LAX.
Flying by the seat of your pants
Jimmy: in old Los Angeles
From standing around jet-lagged after your luggage has been waylaid and you’re looking out tired for a car-reg to take you Downtown.
When you could have taken the train, explored the historic station and original Spanish settlement which I did on the way back.
Or if you just want to get to your destination after your weary journey then LAX will cut out that muddleman.
You know the Uber driver who is new to the country and doesn’t know their way around and drives you around in a circle.
OK that was in Santa Monica and then before that in Washington DC but you get the picture, which they didn’t.
Where one of the world’s largest multi-billion dollar airport modernisation projects is creating a faster, smarter and more seamless journey.
Which gets you out on your trip quicker because of facial recognition and biometric screening to automated check-in and faster immigration processing via the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app.
LAX is embracing a future of frictionless travel.
Electric trickery
Quiet drive/‘: Without a driver
The result is shorter queues, fewer document checks and a faster journey through one of the world’s busiest airports.
And you can put money on Jessie Buckley gushing about being a mum in her Oscars acceptance speech, and while Hamnet is a tour de force, here are our five fab films for Mother’s Day.
With a nod, of course, to the mumdoms where they ruled the roost.
Let’s start at the very beginning
The parent Von Trapp: In Austria
The Sound of Music: And if a mother’s love is unconditional then all the more credit for women who take on another man’s children.
Of course, she will remain forever ageless but this year they’ll be lighting 100 candles for Marilyn in La-La Land.
Like Bertie Taupin, who wrote the immortal lines for Elton John, I never knew you at all but like the millions of other Marilyn fans.
But I have managed to get as close that anyone now can by visiting your last resting place in Los Angeles.
Marilyn is, of course, all around us but nowhere more so than in LA.
Where you’re always likely to bump into her around the Walk of Fame or anywhere around Hollywood.
But because you can never get too much of a good thing we’re taking you today on our Marilyn tour.
With these whistlestop locations where you can pay homage to the Great Woman.
S0mething new
Still blowing up a storm: Marilyn’s famous move
The Academy Museum’s Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon is a new exhibition that will celebrate Marilyn Monroe as a visionary actor and image-maker, opening on May 31.
The exhibition will display hundreds of original objects, including posters, portraits, photographs, production documents, letters.
Where she put her signature, hand and shoe prints into cement at the famed Forecourt of the Stars.
While Marilyn’s Walk of Fame star is just a block away at 6774 Hollywood Blvd.
Marilyn’s maisons
Home run: For Joe
So, you want to channel Marilyn where she actually lived, then the landmark Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was Marilyn Monroe’s home for two years.
Just as her modelling career began to take off.
Marilyn stayed in one of the vintage 1950s Cabanas at the time of her first professional magazine shoot, at the Tropicana Pool.
The 750sqft Marilyn Monroe Suite features a loft-like open floor plan, kitchenette, and a balcony that overlooks the pool.
While Marilyn lived at the Beverly Hills Hotel, or ‘Pink Palace, several times during her career.
Marinade with Marilyn
Norma Jean: The original
And where she wined and dined too.
In the Fifties, Marilyn and Joe and Elizabeth Taylor, and Steve McQueen were just a few of the Hollywood legends that enjoyed drinks and appetizers in the Back Room of Musso & Frank Grill.
For their classic steakhouse fare and famous Martinis.
While the Formosa Cafe was famously billed as the place where ‘the stars dine.’
Its interior was lined with hundreds of autographed photos of its famous patrons.
Including Marilyn, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor.
Most of Marilyn’s movies were created at the historic FOX Studio Lot located in Century City and while this isn’t open to the public, visitors can head to the nearby Paramount Studio Tour for a look behind the scenes.
When young Marilyn (then Norma Jeane Mortenson) lived in Los Angeles Orphans Home Society, it is said she would look out her window at the water tower of RKO Studios (now Paramount Studios) and dream of stardom.
And a Who’s Who of pop culture, including Marilyn, Truman Capote, Farrah Fawcett, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, Natalie Wood, Frank Zappa and many more.
Now we know that Marilyn, who is interred in a pink marble crypt (no. 24).
At the Corridor of Memories, has an unsavoury neighbour there in Hugh Hefner.
But we’d rather dwell on Joe DiMaggio’s enduring love, where he had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years.
Why not do the same this year on her 100th birthday.
Major airlines fly out to LA and as we always recommend, flights out of Ireland come with pre-clearance and Aer Lingus will get you there direct.
And she went on to wing 19 surfing titles across her career including multiple World Dog Surfing Championships, Surf City Surf Dog and Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge titles.
Because as all you devoted readers here know and I found out one spring morning over breakfast in Ballsbridge, Dublin with our HB visitors dog surfing is definitely a thang.
With, of course, me being professionally incapable of avoiding asking if Bono surfed the waves in his shades.
Follow in Sugar’s pawsteps
Chairmutt of the Board: Outside the museum
We do hope that Sugar’s elevation to Hall of Fame status will push on other surfing dogs to follow in her pawsteps.
And we’ll be following Sugar’s progress and our other pooch pals on SURFER website.
Not that 14-year-old Sugar’s surfing days are behind her with Ryan promising his pooch .
That he will take her to Waikiki, the real birthplace of surfing, as a treat.
‘She does a lot of surf therapy for lots of kids,’ he said.
‘It’s not just [about] surfing against people but also putting smiles on the little kids’ faces and the athletes that are disabled. She gets to ride with them.’
Dogg days
Catch a wave: In Huntington Beach
This year’s deserving inductees into the Surf City Hall of Fame are world champion and Olympic gold medalist Caroline Marks.
Outstanding surf photographer Tom Servais and HB local standout surfer Dwight Dunn.
All taking their place alongside Sugar the surfur of Huntington Beach.
HB, of course, ought to be on everyone’s to-do list when in Los Angeles, just an hour north of Surf City USA.
And, if you are lucky enough, you might see another famous Dogg down there doing one of his sets.
And you thought I make all this stuff, well here are the pictures to prove it.
I don’t know how I offended St Eithne to get chucked off my flight back from Dublin but my Aer Maidens got me back on board as they always do.
And here’s me who says a prayer to all the Irish saints every night.
Those who have flown on Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline carrier, may have observed that the planes are all called after saints and are thus blessed.
But Eithne’s wings (or another part of her body) showed signs of wear and tear.
And poor dear she had to rerouted back to Ireland.
Of course, this being a chatty Ireland-Scotland flight and me being stupid tired after five days in LA, the City of Angels, I hadn’t heard the announcement.
And woke up with Baile Atha Cliath looming up in huge letters in front of me.
