11–20 of 96 posts
Are all of the landmarks there really so generic?
Did the movie industry influence less-recognizable monuments and other features in the past? Or is it just that the city's culture lends itself to a "scrubbed" culture?
Thought that this was going to be about this movie (which I thought was a great watch as an LA transplant): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Plays_Itself If I recall correctly the first line of the article is almost verbatim from that film as well… [EDIT: Guess I should have read the whole article before posting. I still think that it's an odd choice to co-opt the name of the film, and then give a throwaway…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a friend in Santa Monica ask me a few years back if i wanted to get a burrito, so we get in her car, get on the 10, the 405, and another freeway towards downtown. After driving 40 minutes, i ask her, "are we getting close?", she says, "of course, don't be so impatient"
When I lived in LA, I found that driving the 405 was always a mistake. Fortunately it wasn't part of my commute. b^)
It's amazing in a kinda-depressing way to think of LA as a "City without a name/face". It's really a melting pot in more ways than one. Are all of the landmarks there really so generic? Did the movie industry influence less-recognizable monuments and other features in the past? Or is it just that the city's culture lends itself to a "scrubbed" culture?
The author sounds like she spent most of her life west of Hollywood. I would be bitter too if my outlook was so myopic. She somehow managed to miss the bustling Jewelry District and Gallery Row on her way to Skid Row, and must have turned around before she reached the Arts District.
It's amazing in a kinda-depressing way to think of LA as a "City without a name/face". It's really a melting pot in more ways than one. Are all of the landmarks there really so generic? Did the movie industry influence less-recognizable monuments and other features in the past? Or is it just that the city's culture lends itself to a "scrubbed" culture?
The city does seem to be in constant flux, but there are plenty of landmarks. Griffith Observatory and the Downtown Library come to mind. The author sounds like she spent most of her life west of Hollywood. I would be bitter too if my outlook was so myopic. She somehow managed to miss the bustling Jewelry District and Gallery Row on her way to Skid Row, and must have turned around before she reached the Arts District…
> Nobody knows where to go; it’s not a city designed for accidental social discoveries. You think of a place, you look it up, you go; you look up the way back, you go home.
>She refers to their relationship as long-distance. It takes her an hour to get to where he lives, so she stays for three days at a time, then comes home for one or two. I assume this isn't a typical reaction? I live in London, and if it takes me an hour to get somewhere, I consider that fairly reasonable. Is it actually common for people over there to consider an hour journey as something extraordinary?
I don't mind an occasional 2 hour train ride into NYC for the weekend, but hell if I'd do it in my car regularly.
>She refers to their relationship as long-distance. It takes her an hour to get to where he lives, so she stays for three days at a time, then comes home for one or two. I assume this isn't a typical reaction? I live in London, and if it takes me an hour to get somewhere, I consider that fairly reasonable. Is it actually common for people over there to consider an hour journey as something extraordinary?
In most of the US, an hour drive is a long way[1]. You're talking about a 40+ mile trip since few cities experience the hours-long traffic of LA (in LA, it's easy to spend an hour driving 5 to 15 miles, if you have to go at the wrong time). The flip side is that LA is far denser than most of the US, so you don't generally have to drive nearly as far... but relationships and commuting to work can get you, and that's where you get the time-consuming drives in soul-crushing traffic.
[1] In most of the US, public transport isn't an option, and even in LA taking the bus generally adds a fair bit of time over driving direct, and the train coverage is only slowly improving.
>She refers to their relationship as long-distance. It takes her an hour to get to where he lives, so she stays for three days at a time, then comes home for one or two. I assume this isn't a typical reaction? I live in London, and if it takes me an hour to get somewhere, I consider that fairly reasonable. Is it actually common for people over there to consider an hour journey as something extraordinary?
I had a friend in Santa Monica ask me a few years back if i wanted to get a burrito, so we get in her car, get on the 10, the 405, and another freeway towards downtown. After driving 40 minutes, i ask her, "are we getting close?", she says, "of course, don't be so impatient"
http://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-por-favor-santa-monica
There are some things you have to drive for, like great dim sum, but the great Middle Eastern and Japanese food more than makes up for it.
Two of my favorite restaurants in the world:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/zankou-chicken-los-angeles-2
http://www.yelp.com/biz/hide-sushi-japanese-restaurant-los-a...
>She refers to their relationship as long-distance. It takes her an hour to get to where he lives, so she stays for three days at a time, then comes home for one or two. I assume this isn't a typical reaction? I live in London, and if it takes me an hour to get somewhere, I consider that fairly reasonable. Is it actually common for people over there to consider an hour journey as something extraordinary?
There are people who commute for an hour, and who select a place to live knowing they'll have to commute for an hour, despite having options within 5-10 minutes. I can't even begin to fathom why someone would do that, and waste 10 hours of their life every week for years.
(There's a bit of an exception for commuting by public transit with minimal transfers, since at least then you can spend the time productively rather than behind a wheel. Even then, I wouldn't want to regularly spend an hour on a train, but it's slightly less terrible.)
It's amazing in a kinda-depressing way to think of LA as a "City without a name/face". It's really a melting pot in more ways than one. Are all of the landmarks there really so generic? Did the movie industry influence less-recognizable monuments and other features in the past? Or is it just that the city's culture lends itself to a "scrubbed" culture?
It is definitely an A->B city where it is hard to notice what comes in between. So often I'm invited to a restaurant or event and it exposes a cultural micro-climate that I've never guessed was there despite driving within a block of it every day for years. It's a great city if you want to have territory to explore.