Bucket List

I will be visiting the Peterson Automotive Museum sometime this week. Depending on whether/when my wife wants to go with me, that will determine if I go today or later this week.

This article in The Los Angeles Times spurred me to get this done.

One by one, in auctions across the country, some of the world's most collectible cars are quietly passing from the Petersen Automotive Museum's vault into private hands.
The sales started in March, and they include the automotive equivalents of a Pablo Picasso or a Salvador Dali. A 1995 Ferrari F50 went for $1.375 million. A 2006 Bugatti Veyron — the first sold in the U.S. — fetched $924,000. A 1990 Ferrari F40 garnered $715,000.

Before the auctions end, the museum plans to liquidate nearly a third of its cache of about 400 classic cars. The sales — conducted under the radar until the museum confirmed them to The Times on Monday — will raise money to finance a major face-lift and reconfiguration of the institution, which occupies a former Ohrbach's department store at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.

The new plans include a greater emphasis on motorcycles and French art deco vehicles, passions that match the tastes of the museum's new leadership. The strategy was launched this year by Executive Director Terry Karges — who owns a motorcycle company, Champions Moto — and new board Chairman Peter Mullin, who also heads an auto museum in Oxnard that boasts one of the world's foremost private collections of French cars.

$15 admission; military free. Often "military" includes retirees. I will let you know.  Parking will probably cost more than $15. But they have great restaurants in the area. That will probably be the tie-breaker when my wife decides whether to go.

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As a rule I don't go to movies any more (the cellphone activity by attendees is the number one turn-off). Having said that, I have seen some nice movies. Two come to mind: "The Japanese Story" and "The Swimming Pool."

I recently bought "The Japanese Story" video; thoroughly enjoy it.

Then yesterday, a long review in the Los Angeles Times featuring Charlotte Rampling who starred in "The Swimming Pool":

Charlotte Rampling has gone from "The Look" to "The Legend."

She received the moniker "The Look" when as a beautiful, carefree dolly bird in swinging '60s London she made an early name for herself in Richard Lester's 1965 comedy "The Knack" and 1966's dark comedy "Georgy Girl."

A 2011 documentary on the actress was aptly titled "Charlotte Rampling: The Look."

But in France, where's she lived since 1979, Rampling's been lovingly nicknamed "The Legend" because of memorable performances playing brave, daring and often difficult women in such acclaimed films as Luchino Visconti's 1969 epic "The Damned," Liliana Cavani's controversial 1974 drama "The Night Porter," Sidney Lumet's acclaimed 1982 drama "The Verdict" and Francois Ozon's "Under the Sand" (2001) and 2003's "Swimming Pool."