Jeff Koons’ art really divides people. Some say his work is “crass” and all about the money—or that other people “do all the work”—but personally, I love his stuff. When you see it in person, the incredible amount of craftsmanship and just childlike wonder that his epic works inspire, well, they’re really impressive. And FUN.

Many of the most iconic pieces of Koons’ work normally reside within walking distance of where I am typing this now, at the BCAM annex of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The BCAM acronym stands for the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and billionaire art collector Eli and Edythe Broad are probably Koons’ single biggest benefactor/collectors (it’s not like there are all that many people who could afford to be his Medicis). When BCAM’s stunning Renzo Piano-designed building opened to the public—filled to the bursting point with some of the finest examples of postwar modern art that hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars can buy, the wife and I joined the museum. Some of the very, very best Warhols, Baldessaris, Rauschenbergs, Cindy Shermans, Hirsts, Ruschas, Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, etc, do not live in Manhattan, but in Los Angeles. My favorite things to look at when I’m at LACMA, though, are the Koons: At one point or another, BCAM has displayed the vacuum cleaners; the floating basketballs; the stainless-steel “Rabbit”; “Bubbles,” Koons’ infamous life-size porcelain sculpture of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp; a “Balloon Dog” and a “Cracked Egg.”

We’ve got the good stuff out here on the best coast. And last night, we had the artist himself in town, in a special discussion with “the Pope of Trash,” director John Waters—sponsored by Eli Broad’s foundation—at the stunning Orpheum Theatre in downtown. Waters was an inspired choice to interview Koons—aside from the whole bad taste/bad taste issues that make this pairing a natural, Koons actually went to art school in Baltimore, which figures into the conversation.

Referring to Koons’ art, at one point Waters remarks “It stops you in your tracks, and you feel stupid at first, and then you get smarter by the second as you look at it.”

Koons typifies his work as “optimistic.”

Oddly, he credits hearing Led Zeppelin for the first time—not a work of art per se—for spurring his ambition in life.