There was an age when not everything was known. Googling your neighbor/next boss/home prices were future concepts, and things outside of one's immediate ken -- "ken" here being the half mile area a person called home -- probably remained, for the most part, mysterious and unexplained.
Panoramas -- large-scale paintings of faraway places -- had quite the fan base back in the 19th century (and a bit earlier); they allowed non-travelers, in a day before around-the-clock cable travel shows, to make a journey of the mind. The Velaslavasay Panorama near downtown LA has revived the beauty and wonder of this old-fashioned and enchanting concept, and done so with style and a dash of surrealism. If you adore period experiences, lace-trimmed costumes, flights of fancy, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, sextants, monocles and/or carrying a parasol, and yet you haven't been to the Panorama, make a date.
Saturday, April 11 at 8PM would be a fine time to do so. "The Cognomi Theory of The Antarctic Interior" is opening, and the imagery is icy, bleak, and nearly supernatural. There will be a lecture, likely resulting in some profound, exciting thoughts on your part. $12. 1122 W. 24th Street, Los Angeles. 213-746-2166
