The thing about LA is it is ugliness surrounded by beauty. You drive down the street and it's nothing but strip malls. But then you look up and there are hills and mountains or these wild trees that look like something drawn by Dr. Seuss and you are blown away. You can be in bumper-to-bumper to traffic and just look to your left and see a beautiful sunset and suddenly you are calm.
Today I discovered that Venice Blvd. is pretty empty even in rush hour. Was coming home tonight and got on the 10 and knew I'd made a mistake. Even though I missed the Lakers traffic, it was still crazy. I keep thinking this time the freeway will move and then it doesn't. Anyhow, I jumped off and went west on Venice and flew to my destination. Have to remember that trick.
The time zone is still throwing me off. I feel like I'm three hours behind rest of the world. That'll pass.
Oh and I forgot that while one rarely sees roaches in LA, there are lots of flies. In fact, every day I walk out of the LA Times there are a bunch flies circling like they are ready to dive on a carcass, which may very well be the case.
That's all I got for now. I'm sure Tourguide has some thoughts on this one.
1 comment:
The view is sometimes best when you are on a freeway. The road is actually above most LA development, so you can see almost the entire basin from there (except for the smog).
But the roadside garbage architecture is another thing. I saw a painting of this kind of development The only thing that gave the picture a center was one tall building in Albuquerque, NM. Otherwise the plastic signs faded into the distance.
You are right, though, rambler, that in LA's case the surroundings give it it's character. Those brown hills and weird trees that don't rise up above everything in a canopy like DC or Atlanta.
Please listen to the song "Los Angeles is Burning," by Bad Religion, I think. If not, try another group.
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