This is of course a hundred TV shows and movies talking as much as my direct impressions, but it’s like words and meanings have been left behind on the screen for the rest of the world for who, Hollywood spins narrative magic. The city itself is backstage of its own global brand.
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Went to Hollywood yesterday. The Walk of Fame is — and there’s no polite way to put it — incredibly tawdry. My wife told me it’s basically something you buy with PR dollars, not a great earned honor. It’s basically a big brother to Vegas, with better distribution for products.
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This essay shared yesterday hits the nail on the head wrt my immediate impressions. bldgblog.com/2007/10/greate
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In many ways it feels like my head was meant to be in this space though I’m the opposite of sensate. I’m probably 100% ideational. Still, this landscape feels like the right backdrop for a lot of my thinking.
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Example: Divergentism, is a very LA type idea. People retreating from each other in an expanding social universe where they gradually lose the ability to connect.
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“No true Angelino”? 🤣
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Replying to @vgr
Oh god, that's not where you go to explore LA!
Some mixed suggestions:
- both Getty's and LACMA
- aquarium
- Mulholland drive
- drive along crest of San Gabriel mountains in the Angeles forest
- Huntington gardens or Arboretum
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Harmonizes with my impressions (I’ve been here as a resident for 3 days, but as a visitor have spent perhaps 10-12 days across 5-6 trips over 15 years... so not entirely a cold intro for me)
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Replying to @vgr
I've been to LA twice, and it's always seemed less of a city and more of a resigned diagnosis that gets slapped on after all of the quantifiable tests come back inconclusive.
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I thought of getting more active on Instagram as a way to process LA as creative input, but I’m probably not sensate enough for that. It’ll have to be words. Whether twitter threads or an LA diary blogchain remains to be seen.
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I’ll close with initial sense of pros/cons:
Pros: La dolce vita, most authentic (ironically) embodiment of postmodern human condition where authenticity is a not-even-wrong idea in funhouse mirror palace of simulation
Cons: high powder-keg potential due to deep-rooted denialism
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Let’s totally do a podcast (or series) on LA. I have a ton of thoughts on the matter, that I’ve been mulling for decades.
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