Back to the Future

OK, this isn't a great picture, in terms of resolution, but it is one of the iconic images of Los Angeles. Which is where I spent most of the last week--primarily for work, of course, but I did get to do a little sightseeing (so expect more photos).

I wanted to record a few of my thoughts about L.A.

*It's strange to go to a place that seems so familiar, even though you've never been there before. (Or, in my case, only once before about 36 hours.) Because of all those 70's and 80's teevee shows, like CHiPS, Charlie's Angels, Hunter, etc., and all the movies set there . . . when you walk around, you say, "Yeah, that's what it looks like." Except, in a strange way, everything is dirtier, seedier, and about 20-30 years older than it is in the mind's eye. Part of that is probably a matter of set design, part a question of time. But walking around L.A., or from the bus or the cab, it looks like it should look, but not so nice.

*Hollywood Boulevard is very seedy. It's strange to see so many tourist destinations surrounded by lingerie stores, tattoo parlors, and strip clubs ("Girls Girls Girls").


*Chinatown in the morning--say when you're running--smells like rotting fish. Very pungent. Later in the day, it smells just fine.


*Dodger Stadium is a great ballpark. It's strange to think that it's one of the oldest ballparks still in use, but it is. It's also terribly expensive--a beer is $10. But that comes with the territory. In some ways, Dodger Stadium reminded me of Jacobs Field. The grandstand, some of the lines. Not the palm trees in the outfield, though.

Another fact about Dodger Stadium you might not know--it's really close to downtown L.A. Like, so close that I walked to the game I went to from my downtown hotel. Now, it's maybe two miles, and a good part of that is uphill--did I mention that L.A. is pretty hilly?--but it can be walked from downtown. Not that anyone in L.A. does that.


*The Getty Center is beautiful. It's also extremely difficult to get to. Maybe not if you have a car, but if you want to get there without spending $50 on a cab, and you want to take the bus--it's a haul. But definitely worth seeing.

The thing about the Getty that gets me is just how ambitious the project is. It's an effort to build a great, world-class facility, and it's only about ten years old. That's the kind of ambition that used to be commonplace in American cities. But is it any longer? It strikes me that it's not. But there's a lot in L.A. that still speaks of that kind of . . . civic pride? It seems strange to say that L.A. is building a city . . . of the future. One more picture along these lines. The Caltrans building is pretty new, and it says the same thing that the Getty Center says to me, which is that L.A. is still building, not just preserving. (In fact, I'm not sure how much preservation goes on in L.A.)