Fabiola為西元四世紀時的一位基督教聖人(saint)，而在當時及後來一般大眾認知裡的形象為一個穿戴著深紅色面紗(crimson veil)望向左方(facing left)的年輕女性。在19世紀晚期，法國藝術家Jean-Jacques Henner曾把Fabiola的形象用紙、筆描繪出來，但這幅作品後來丟失。但，很奇妙的是後來Henner的這個prototyp卻造成了一股流行，許多藝術家都爭先模仿這個形象來創作，而因此有許多類似的畫作產生。

而比例時鑑賞家Francis Alÿs自1990年起開始對這一系列的(集體?)創作感到興趣，並開始蒐集這些作品，到目前為止共收集有307件Fabiola作品，而之前就在LACMA展出，在踏入這展出307幅藝術作品的展覽室時，心中不禁讚嘆起來，而所讚嘆的不是這些作品有多麼精緻或特出，而是整個房間滿滿的都是Fabiola，真是所謂的數大便是美啊。

更多關於Fabiola的介紹可以參考這邊。

聯合車站是這次去LA的終點，有著和週遭高樓截然不同的傳統美式火車站建築。

當光線透過大窗戶進入約70年的建築，搭配上木製的座椅與偌大的吊燈，整個大廳顯得相當溫暖；火車的聲響與忙碌的月台都被隔絕在外，若沒有低矮的通道里穿梭的人群，實在難以想像這是個火車站。

LACMA全部共有七座展館，開放時間是從中午開始到晚上八點(detail)，所以即使是上班族，也可以在下班之後來場藝術饗宴。

在LACMA裡頭有超過10萬的收藏品，其中包含20件的Picasso作品，以及Ansel Adams、Edward Weston等大師的攝影作品。特別是那些攝影作品真的很吸引人，不過這次去的時候攝影作品的展館在整修中，所以就無緣了 Q_Q

雖然有些展館在整修，不過LACMA這個美國芝加哥以西最大的博物館還是很難在一天內看完，當然我也沒有全部看完，希望以後會有機會再來一次，特別是那些攝影作品。下面就來放一些我看過之後覺得比較有趣的收藏品吧。

Urban Lamps，忘記作者是誰了，這張是取部分拍起來的，我覺得很漂亮。

看到這個作品，不禁會聯想到在舊金山的de Young Museum看到的類似作品(link)，後來回來一查果然是出自同一位藝術家之手，不過我覺得擺在de Young Museum的那一個比較漂亮，大概是因為比較金閃閃的關係吧。

擺在de Young Museum的。

The Jewel, by Jay Defeo.

Smoke, by Tony Smith

Red/Blue Combination Arc, by Harvey Littleton

超巨大電梯，塞個50人應該綽綽有餘，這也是個作品，不過我忘記作者是誰了，沒有拍下來 stO

那天在去了Queen Mary和巧遇CSI: Miami 之後，就在附近找地方吃，最後我決定來吃這家Tokyo Wako。點了 Sake Nigiri (鮭魚握壽司)、California roll、Beef Salad (生牛肉沙拉)。其中生牛肉沙拉的醬汁味道真的很接近在台灣吃到的口味，而有著大塊新鮮鮭魚的握壽司真的是入口即化且油脂不膩，對此我大大讚賞了吧台師傅。這個墨西哥裔吧台師傅是去日本學藝過的，而或許是因為被讚賞之後心情很爽，所以他多給了我一份水果，簡單做出的造型讓品嚐甜美柳橙時還能有滿滿的視覺享受。重點是連同稅金小費只要 21 塊米金，真的是太划算了。 (L)(L)

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Queen Mary 皇后瑪莉號(wikipedia)過去跟Titanic一樣是是艘Royal Mail Ship(郵輪)，服役於 1936~1967年間，退役之後就停在Long Beach當作博物館及旅館使用。

在Long Beach，如果只是要在Downtown區域遊玩，那只要搭乘The Passport路線的紅色巴士就可以不花一毛錢逛完downtown區域，而要找到這紅色巴士也很簡單，只要注意路上的站牌有沒有The Passport標誌就可以了，或者也可以在Long Beach的Traveling Information Center (在metro station附近)找到這方面的資訊，而The Passport的路線也有經過Queen Mary喔。

要進去Queen Mary之前，剛好遇到了兩個墨西哥人(我猜的，因為他們有著濃濃的西班牙腔調英文），其中一位是個導遊，帶著他朋友來Long Beach玩耍，詢問之後他們說可以讓我跟著一起進去，喔耶～這樣就有免費的導覽員了。 XD
喔，對了，其中這一位 Mario ，居然還會講台語「吃飽沒？」，而且知道這是台灣人打招呼的方式，真的是太厲害了(雖然這位仁兄也只知道這一句台語)。

進入 Queen Mary 裡頭，如果只是要參觀是不用錢的，只是不可以帶大包包進去，必須要寄放在入口櫃臺那邊。此外，根據這兩位朋友的說法，有時候帶大相機進去有時候也會被刁難，所以建議進去之前先把小相機拿出來放口袋，然後硬著頭皮問問看能不能拿大相機進去。

Queen Mary現在主要的用途是拿來當作旅館，以及婚宴場地，所以可以看到甲板上有結婚場所。此外，由於當天天氣很好，在加上有徐徐的海風，來個sun deck walk真的是一大享受。

Related:
Royal Mail Ship、Royal Mail

In my opinion, if you want to visit Universal Studio and have a great time in it, you better arrive the entrance as early as possible. Beside of the tutorial of Universal Studio, they have many shows related to movie industries more or less. The most important reason is these shows are interesting and fabulous, so, if you want to watch all of them, you have to be an early bird.

There are also some cute shops selling postcards and remembrance, and I brought a hand link as a gift and some good postcards.

Little girl in Universal Studio

After the day of Universal Studio, having dinner and walking around nearby is a good idea. Out of Universal Studio is Universal City, and there are many good restaurants and shops. The most impressive thing I saw there is a painter, who only used spray paints, paper, and tissue paper for painting. Although that does not smell good, I still have to say his works is really good!!

Before I planned to visit L.A., Crystal Cathedal(official site and wikipedia) is not on my “list”. On the day before depart, I saw some information about it from Internet. Then I tried to find more, well, some information is gossipping. And finally, I decided to add it into my list.

This church is famous because of its special building — glass and steel structure. Besides, it is very large, not only the size of the building, also the area size and the amount of followers. From the offical data, there are about 3,000 seats, besides, it also has live broadcasting of religious services on TV and on Internet!! Moreover, it has 3 religious services on Sun., English in the morning, Spanish in the afternoon, and the last one is the night time religious service.

Crystal Cathedal is in the Orange County, located in the southeast of L.A. It tooks a lot of time to get there by public transportation (Metro Orange Liner, Red Line, Blue Line, and Orange County Bus), because I lived near North Hollywood, northwest of L.A.

You can find Crystal Cathedal from a distance due to its high building, that’s also my first impression. When you close to it, you can find it is REALLY HUGE, and the reflection of sunlight makes it more splendid. Just feel easy to walk in and take a seat and look around, you will find the set of organs, and the sunlight becomes soft and warm. Maybe you are the same to me, have no idea about Spanish, but you will not feel the service likes spouting. The atmosphere just calms down your tumult, and peace instead.

There are also some buildings in this area, and each is beautiful and great. Beside of these buildings, you definitely agree this is a beautiful park after walking around this area. I am neither a Catholic nor a Christian, but I still recommend Crystal Cathedal as a sightview point in L.A. if you have enough time.

CSI is a famous series in US, and I know some of my friends in Taiwan like this series. Well, it is about police and crime, and it has many series, such as CSI:NY and CSI:Miami.

During my trip to L.A., one day I visited Long Beach, a county located in south L.A., I walked around there and took pictures with my camera. Suddenly, I heard somebody shouted out, “Cut! Cut! Hey, guy, you are in the show! You should not be here!”

I confused and looked around, and found that, “Wao~ Why so many fashion-dressing people, big microphones, and big film cameras?!”

Oh~ I ran into the filming area of CSI:Miami!!!

The story I saw is about a man and a woman robbed a baby from another woman, and many other actors are onlookers observing the whole progress.

Well, I stayed there watching this scene repeated many times to meet the director’s requirements, and chatted with another of the crowded.

“So, it is CSI:Miami?”, I said.
“Yes!”, the other one replied.
“But, here is Long Beach!”
“Oh, today, here is Miami”, replied again.
“O.K. Maybe they have CSI:Long Beach in Miami someday in the future.” *both laughed*