I had jury duty last Friday. The fringe benefit of that is the time it gives you downtown among a lot of LA's architectural treasures (new and old) on an unhurried schedule (even with free parking!) Thanks to a tip from a friend on Twitter, I checked out @starrykitchen for some good Vietnamese lunch at the top of Angel's Flight in California Plaza. I also was struck by how beautiful LA's Hall of Records (designed by Richard Neutra & Robert Alexander across the street from the courthouse) is.  As many times as I've been around there, I don't know how I never noticed. I also had never bothered to walk through the park that stretches between the Courthouse and Music Center - a great modernist version of a formal garden. You can never stop finding great surprises in your own back yard.