I like LA

Never thought I'd say this- I like Los Angeles. Actually, that may be why I'm saying it. I'm a contrarian. Just like other stuck-up urbanites, I have long expressed my disgust for the wasteful and poorly planned city of Los Angeles. (Eh, but I'm "totally over" New York, and if one more person tells me how awesome Portland is, I'm going to punch them.)

So I thought, maybe the gritty streets of downtown LA will win me over!


I imagined myself as Woody Allen attempting to drive a stick shift through the streets of Hollywood, cursing the lack of public transportation and the annoyingly bright sunshine.

So of course I made people drive me around and did my fair share of snarling at the glaring sun, but I also went hiking for the first time. In the rain!

I walked around Echo Mountain for 10 miles (omg, i KNOW!) with the funniest nerds in California- the writing team for G4 Network's Attack of the Show. These guys! Told you they were nerdy.

I sure learned a lot about the newest RPG games on the market.

The Googie/Spaceage aesthetic was practically born in California, so I knew I'd fall in love with various car washes, gas stations and other types of roadside architecture.

These buildings make me want to watch the Jetsons with my cat and a bowl of cereal. "Jet-SON! ...Rut-rohh." Remember when the future was futuristic!?

I can't get enough of LA's classic institutional modernism. Unlike some cities I know (Chicago), The LA Conservancy is progressive enough to care about preserving mid-century architecture.

Here's a list of some awesome modern buildings in and around LA:The Theme Building at LAX, Pereira-Lukeman - amazing.Binoculars Building, Frank Gehry - wacky 80s pop architecture.VDL Research House, Richard Neutra - classic.Ennis House, Frank Lloyd Wright - Deckard's apartment building in Blade Runner.Eames House, Charles and Ray Eames - don't breathe on this house, it might collapse (or at least the conservators think so. There's "no photography allowed".)



That's LA's local experimental art/music/hangout space The Smell. Where the average meticulously disheveled, DIY-art-school-kid can really let go! Oh, FYI - there's no alcohol or smoking allowed, and toilet seat covers are available for your convenience in the restroom. (WTF!!)

My LA stereotypes are mostly Mike Davis' socialist ramblings on the LAPD and gated communities, Blade Runner's gorgeous dystopian megalopolis, and bits of Noir films I've caught on PBS. That and the parking lot of Mr. Chow as seen on TMZ.

While half-drunk in Chinatown at 3am, I thought I saw a replicant in a clear plastic coat strolling down the street, but it was only a club kid. Either way- cue the hazy brown-tinged synths of Vangelis' Blade Runner sound track. (...pretty sweet fanboy music video here.)

I don't know how LA's 3.8 million GPS-addicted inhabitants deal with its disconnected labyrinth of motels, bungalows, highrises and highways every day. Oddly enough though, Los Angeles is technically more dense than Chicago.



My favorite lo-fi/am radio/pop artist EVER- Ariel Pink - lives in LA. So, it can't be that bad, can it? Here he is bouncing around Ventura Boulevard for his "Are you gonna to look after my boys" video. Ahhhh, swoooon.

At five in the afternoon in Culver City, I stumbled into a bar and heard an amazing blue grass band. And there's this weirdo place (pictured from Johnny's window) called Happy Valley that sounds like a Chinese restaurant, but it's a rural neighborhood in the middle of LA where impossibly steep gravel roads are considered driveways.

And if you want to feel like you got punched in the stomach with bass, LA is home to the largest dubstep night in the US.

With so much variety in landscape and people, you're an asshole if you don't like something about LA. Haters: go to In n Out Burger, crank up the Beach Boys, and get over yourselves.

But oh God-- I could NEVER live there.