Getting the flavor of...L.A.’s unknown park in plain sight

L.A.’s unknown park in plain sight

Los Angeles’s oldest park is “home to a parade of oddments and unexpected delights,” said R.J. Smith in the Los Angeles Times. Most locals know Elysian Park as the woods surrounding Dodger Stadium, but they don’t know how many surprises its 604 acres hold. Some may know, for instance, that they can find the city’s police academy there but not that a tunnel to the left leads to the academy’s rock garden—“a verdant stash of waterfalls, winding paths, and scenic vistas.” They’ve noticed gorgeous red-tailed hawks flying overhead, but they don’t know about the handmade birds that an artist placed randomly in some of the trees—or the century-old cluster of former lodgings for tuberculosis patients. Lest anyone forget where they are, modern color abounds too. Guerrilla art openings share lawn space with quinceañeras, and every now and then, low-rider enthusiasts parade their tricked-out cars down a concourse lined with palm trees.

Atlanta’s surreal orchids

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Raining umbrellas and plants sitting in high heels may have visitors to the Atlanta Botanical Garden asking, “What in the name of Salvador Dalí is going on?” said Howard Pousner in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A tribute to the great surrealists of the 20th century turns out to be exactly what’s going on. The garden’s annual orchid show adopts a new theme every year, and the surrealist concept proved especially inspiring. Walking into the Orchid Center atrium is “like entering a composite of Magritte paintings, from the hovering umbrellas to the huge banner of clouds that forms a backdrop for dendrobium orchids hanging from the ceiling.” Various surfaces are covered with enlarged reproductions of the surrealists’ paintings, as well as some of their more provocative statements. “Surrealism is destructive,” said Dalí, “but it destroys only what it considers to be the shackles limiting our vision.” The show runs through April 14.