Setting: Sunday afternoon at the Geffen MOCA for the Ecstasy exhibit. The Usual Suspects and I have just exited a light display in shades of Apple II E green and were approaching a display of Glenn Brown paintings (including "Death Disco," which you can see if you follow the link).
"Hey, that girl from High Fidelity just walked in there," Nelson said, nodding back to the room we had just exited.
"Which girl from High Fidelity?" I asked.
"The singer."
"Lisa Bonet?"
He didn't respond.
"As in Denise Huxtable?"
"As in Lisa Bonet from A Different World?" Carlos asks.
"As in Lisa Bonet from Angel Heart?" I add as Juan starts to giggle.
"Yeah, her."
"No, shit! That's cool."
A few minutes later, we stared at a series of Fred Tomaselli pieces, pointing out hemp leaves and Vicodin tablets embedded in the layers of the work, when I noticed her.
"Wow, he's right. That is Lisa Bonet."
Celebrity sightings are remarkably common in Los Angeles, so common that we generally don't give a damn. However, it is not very often that you go to a museum and end up five feet away from Lisa Bonet looking exactly as she did on A Different World. Her face is the same as it is on tv, unlike some people who, in person, look like a plastic surgeon's malpractice suit in the making. Her hair still hangs in those ass-length braids she still dresses like a Hillman-bound Denise, baggy pinstriped gray pants, man-tailored jacket, oversized straw hat pulled low on her head. The only celebrity sighting we have had the could possibly top this was when the usual suspects and I saw Gary Coleman at the Derby one night and Carlos walked into the bathroom right after him.
Lisa Bonet aside, I highly recommend checking out Ecstasy. "City Glow," a video produced by Murakami, is my personal favorite. Also, there is a large painting and sculpture by Murakami, a mushroom room, light displays that made me dizzy in a very good way and a piece called "Homo Crap #1" (I can't remember the name of the artist) that is better than any gay club in West Hollywood. After two hours, we left feeling unsure that we had covered the entire exhibit. That said, we'll probably see Ecstasy again. It's open until February 20, 2006.