Over dinner last evening I mistakenly thought it was Monday night. It wasn't. We laughed. In this way LA has a familiarity and also lacks boundaries. When the weather never changes and the people intentionally deny the relevance of aging, it can be awfully hard to place yourself in time and space. I mean, this looks real.This town is a completely surrealist reimagining of the American city. It's a piece of post-modernism in a few steps.
First, take the center out and spread it around. Downtown? Yeah, that's way over there - and no one goes there unless they have to. For your purposes, learn the neighborhoods. Each one has a different localized gravity but no overall coherence. Downtown, it's in a million little pieces. You'll pick it up.
Second, take the best parts of other places and make them louder or brighter or bigger. You like it sunny? We can do that. All the time. Warm? Done, how 'bout hot? You like driving your car? Sure, keep it - there will just be 9 million other people who also keep their cars. You want to live near the beach and in a city? Sure, it's doable; maybe a geographical deal with the devil, I mean, we put it on a major fault line. You could always just fall into the ocean. It's the price you pay.
Third, unlike other towns with a diversity of industry and profession, we will center everything around one industry - which, believe it or not, is an industry all about make-believe. Yes, everyone will work promoting or selling or defending or marketing or suing or hating entertainment. This is a town of people in bed with fiction. It's art. Completely. Divorced. From meaning. You can't make this up.
Which makes LA kind of like a remixed version of a good song. Weird, not particularly original, but maybe better in some ways - teasing the best parts out and making them louder. Putting the chorus first. You should already know Wolf Gang. But here's the remix of "Pieces Of You" by Baby Monster.
Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Pieces of You" (Baby Monster Remix)
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