Today would be my first ever experience of Labor Day, the day that signifies the end of the summer break. I'd previously asked around and wondered what was supposed to happen. It's pretty much a bank holiday. You do nothing, and maybe drink beer. I decided I was going to be more productive than just drinking alcohol all day, so I spent most of the morning trying to pick out the best places to visit, and plan my route throughout the day. After the Museum of Death on Saturday, I had a hunger for knowledge, and had been told by a couple of people to visit the Page Museum and the La Brea Tar-Pits. This was my first port of call.

The La Brea Tar Pits is what it says it is; pits of tar. Every Summer they carry out archaeological digs to uncover bones of extinct animals that first appeared around 40,000 years ago. It didn't smell very nice due to the methane given off by the tar bubbles, so visited the Page Museum to learn more. Also, it was less smelly. The actual museum wasn't very big, but there are lot of exhibits in there, mainly large skeletons, bones and fossils of mammoths, sabre-toothed cats (apparently 'tiger' is incorrect), bison, ground sloths, dire wolves, and various other extinct ice age creatures. I've uploaded a few photos so have a look. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it.

As it was so close, and still intending to be cultural, I thought I may as well pop into the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where they're also having an exhibition of Tim Burton's work. It was labor day and packed, so I was given a ticket to see Tim Burton's exhibition at 3pm. Having around 2 hours to kill, I had a mince around the rest of the museum. There's quite a lot to see, and I was surprised how many of the pieces I'd recognised from A-Level art. Picasso, Moore, Matisse, Lichtenstein, Braque. Again, I've uploaded photos of the stuff what I saw in there… Some good, some dull, but I felt good in myself for doing something educational.

It was approaching 3pm and one of the security people said I should probably go and start queuing for the Tim Burton display. I was dreading that it'd be full of art based on his more recent films. I'm not a fan of most things he's done since Mars Attacks! It was actually very good. Unfortunately, pictures were prohibited so there are no photos I'm afraid. A lot of his older artwork/script ideas/poems was in there dating back to his mid-teens. There were various props used in films, as well as ideas he'd sketched for the films look. A couple of Batman masks, the crib Oswald Cobbplepot was abandoned in, several martian maquette's, Jack Skellington heads, Beetlejuice's long black/white striped sleeves, and the best item of all, the catsuit Michelle Pfeiffer wore as Catwoman in Batman Returns… This was probably my favourite.

Whilst browsing the free Wi-Fi the LACMA offered, I spotted an Irish bar just round the corner so headed there for a brief break from being cultural. I assume my unusual accent gave away that I was 'British', leading to a guy called Kent making small-talk. This meeting would ultimately alter the rest of my day…

Him and his brother Dustin offered to take me to another bar to meet their friend at work, who was an Englishman into metal, who'd been living in America for little over a decade. The bar/restaurant was Ford's Filling Station, Harrison Ford's son's place. We intended to catch up with him a bit later. I was still being a bit cautious, just because I didn't really know what these guys were like, but went to another bar with them called the Backstage. A bit more dark and dingy, but much more me.

They had to go back to their place briefly before meeting up with Liam (the English guy), and is MUCH nicer than where I'm staying. Apparently the entire estate is the biggest apartment housing place in the world. It's not anything like the housing estates you're probably picturing at the moment.

We then went to a place called Little Bar for few more beers and some darts. However, the darts idea would have to be forgotten for now, as it was karaoke night… Kent had had a few alcoholic beverages previously, and so was one of the first people up to sing. He took the challenge of Smooth Criminal, not an easy task, but did pretty well. A few hours later, and I'd had a few more beers too, I thought I should do the polite thing, and sing one myself. I say sing, but I'm not sure yelling the lyrics to Parklife in a bad, and very over-the-top, cockney accent, was what everyone wanted to hear, especially as the other singers tonight were pretty good.

I thought it was time to leave after such an eventful day, and knowing that I had school first thing in the morning, and Dustin had kindly offered me a lift back, I chose to retire. There's probably a lot more information I could've included, but this has been quite a long blog. A fulfilling labor day indeed, even if it wasn't what was originally planned.