comments

1. Sheila Ryan on October 13th, 2007 at 12:10 pm

   People Like Me don’t like Los Angeles. We’re not supposed to like Los Angeles. We like San Francisco. (And like as not, we speak of “the Bay Area”.) We like New York. We like the Great Capitals of Europe.

   So wasn’t I surprised to discover a good many years back that . . . I kind of like LA. I don’t love LA, but I do kind of like it. I always have a good time when I’m in LA. Granted, that could have much to do with the company I keep. Still, I like the things we do in LA. I like the places we go. And the city’s major newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, is a durn sight better than either of Chicago’s wretched daily rags. It is surprisingly good for a metropolis packed with supposed illiterates.

   Anybody else out there not-hate LA?

2. Deron Bauman on October 13th, 2007 at 12:47 pm

   I think it might be at the top of my list of places to move.

3. India on October 13th, 2007 at 2:57 pm

   I have only driven through it once, sixteen years ago, and we didn’t stop. But I didn’t like it then, because we couldn’t get any radio reception, the whole way through. “Too many car phones” was my guess.

   I can’t imagine how I would ever end up anywhere near L.A. again, but I suspect that I still wouldn’t like it, because I’m a pedestrian. I wouldn’t be able to get to whatever it is about the place that’s supposed to make it fun or interesting.

4. Sheila Ryan on October 13th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

   Well, India, of course you’ve hit upon exactly what would drive me mad (so to speak) once I found myself in LA for more than four or five days. Having to jump in the car and drive for an hour and a half just about any time you want to do anything — no, no, no. That is not for me.

   That much said, I have enjoyed wonderful (long) walks in LA. Three or four years ago I went out there for a conference, having (as usual) dilly-dallied about lodging reservations. The conference hotel was in Century City, and for the first day or two I was obliged to stay at a hotel on “the wrong side” of Beverly Hills. I hoofed it to and fro, and that was fun, though I suspect the charm would have evaporated ‘ere much longer.

   And naturally, late one afternoon I encountered . . . say, have I ever told you about this? No matter where I happen to be — even a place I’m visiting for the very first time — people will stop and ask me directions. They will pick me out from among scores of other candidates. (Now I am very good at direction-finding and -giving, but still . . . ) Anyhow, on one of my long marches from (what was it? — the tattered fringes of southeast) Beverly Hills to Century City, I was stopped by a pedestrian couple who inquired of me what was the quickest and easiest way to Rodeo Drive. I was all chuffed up over the fact that apparently I looked like someone who would know. And the damned thing is: I did. Don’t ask me how. It may be the only knack I possess.

   Maybe it accounts for my fondness for LA.

   Come to think, years and years and years ago I walked Sunset Boulevard for something like an entire day — from morning till after dark, when I wound up at a spooky little Hollywood park where there’s a Deco-ish monument to Rudolph Valentino. (Or was it the cemetery where he’s buried? Surely not, though I don’t think he’s buried in Forest Lawn.) It was all very Black Dahlia and Hollywood Babylon.

   Now aren’t you just itching to fly out to LA with me, India? (I know a good Best Western near LAX, and so long as we steer clear of the nearby Denny’s where I once contracted a vicious case of food poisoning, we should be just fine.)

5. Andrew Simone on October 13th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

   I wish I had great stories about L.A. or that I could be poetical about how much I love it but I hate it. So Much. And for the reasons that the article just described.

6. India on October 13th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

   Yes, of course, Sheila—I’ll go if you’ll go.

   I’ve been thinking, actually, that I need to find an excuse to visit Chicago one of these days. I’ve known some people there, at various times, but I’ve never gone to visit. It’s not gonna happen in wintertime, though, I tell you what.

   Ditto Pittsburgh. Elizabeth’s drawings and what I hear from some other members of the IT crowd there make it seem like a very hip and happening place.

   See the world, with Clusterflock!

   . . .

   Meanwhile, I can’t even give directions in my own damn city—it’s something of a cliché, but I really am one of those New Yorkers who confidently gives totally incorrect directions, about 30 percent of the time. Another 30 percent, I say, “Uh, I’m sorry, but I’m just not sure.”

   It’s because I grew up in the West Village, I think: There was no point in knowing the street names, because they didn’t help you find anything anyway—4th Street and 10th Street intersect, don’t you know; and Greenwich Street is parallel to the avenues, while Greenwich Avenue doesn’t line up with anything. So I don’t pay attention to signs; I just know how to get to the places I go to.

7. Sheila Ryan on October 14th, 2007 at 9:56 am

   I could definitely dig a trip to Pittsburgh. (Big party at Elizabeth’s house!) In fact, I’ve been talking trips with a (nearly) lifelong friend who lives in Galveston, and it’s down to Pittsburgh (her childhood home) or Kansas City (just because). (Big party on Rick’s patio!)

   And, India, if a trip to Chicago is in your future, please do let me know. It’s the city I know best of all. (Ditto: other Flockers and friends. I had hoped — but failed — to be in Chicago this past summer when Elizabeth Perry was speaking at the BlogHer conference. That, however, was then, and Galena is much closer to Chicago than Somerset Township, Jackson County, southernmost Illinois. And who knows? If I stumble back into lucrative employment, I may have both my retreat outside Galena and a little pied-à-terre in Chicago. [Big party in Sheila's little rented room!])

   But India is right about winter not being the time to visit Chicago. When Randy Newman wrote, “Hate New York City/It’s cold and it’s damp/And all the people dress like monkeys”, he should have substituted “Chicago” for “New York City”. It’s the damp that gets you — much more than the cold. Chicago, in case you weren’t aware, is a swamp. In the winter it’s a chilly swamp. So think May or October, and be sure to give me a holler.

8. Deron Bauman on October 14th, 2007 at 11:23 am

   I think we should all shoot for Kansas. It’s central at least, right?

9. Derek on October 15th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

   I’ve lived in a lot of places in the U.S. and after NYC, I couldn’t go to any other American city. Especially L.A. There is nothing to like about it. Then again, I hate cars.

10. Sheila Ryan on October 15th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

    So what I hear you saying, Derek, is that the attractions, say, of the Wilshire Boulevard Ferrari dealership are insufficient to lure you to LA.

11. Deron Bauman on October 15th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

    Sheila, I’ll meet you there.

12. Sheila Ryan on October 15th, 2007 at 3:55 pm

    Oh, it’s fabulous. The showroom is (or was, anyway) devoted to a selection of “if-you-have-to-ask . . . ” classic Ferraris. And there was just one salesperson in sight. A woman. Italian.

13. Deron Bauman on October 15th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    damn!

    what a thought.

14. Sheila Ryan on October 15th, 2007 at 4:21 pm

    Yeah.

    Oh . . . and here’s a recommendation for the (numerous) LA-haters out there. Not that I’m trying to evangelize, though I do have my Aimee Semple Macpherson moments. I find that it helps (precisely what it helps I couldn’t say) to pronounce Los Ang-eles with a hard ‘g’, as in the line, “Welcome to Los Angeles, Mr. Fink” (delivered by Steve Buscemi [as the Hotel Earle's desk clerk, Chet] to John Turturro [as Barton Fink]).

15. Cindy Scroggins on October 16th, 2007 at 9:42 am

    The Stranger in The Big Lebowski pronounces the hard G as well. Those Cohen brothers like their hard Gs.

    I’m ambivalent about Los Angeles. I love the look of the city–the deco architecture, the stucco houses, the odd mix of people on the streets. But I’ve never been able to get over the feeling that it’s a kind of parody of itself. And it’s hot and dry and people wear shorts in February, which is just wrong, wrong, wrong. I haven’t been there in many years, so I should give it another try. And I’ve never been to Chicago. New York–now, there’s a city.

16. Derek on October 17th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

    This is more my speed than a Ferrari dealership:
    http://www.davidbyrne.com/journal/misc/10_07_07_DB_bike_video.mov

    In response to my LA hating, someone (from LA) told me once that LA doesn’t care that I hate it. That’s a reason to like LA, but then again, NYC also doesn’t care.

    I guess the real thing is LA doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It’s a waste of resources and energy. People driving around in cars, living in big single-family homes. not that they are trying to be but New Yorkers are the most energy-efficient folks in the country, and we live in decadence doing so. Also, the drinking water alone is a reason to live here.