Back on the L Train
So i hit the road again with my rented wheels and styrofoam sparkely southbond on the freeway toward to the city of light. Made it over the pacheco pass, through the grapevine and the hills of fire past the farmers daughter and the hoards of japanese tourists to the carl’s junior drive-thru. double meat double cheese, 2 tacos and a diet coke,you know, your standard midnight snack in downtown Fastfood nation, USA. Considered going to Pinks, “world famous”, “a legend in hollywood” hot dog stand but was dissuaded by the DMV length lines. Not even if Turtle and Johnny Drama were serving em up would i wait 45 minutes for a weiner in a white bread bun (well... mabybe) - truth be told, i really regret not going and as I have no time for regretting things, I must make-believe that it would have been a waste of time to begiin with.
Meet me at 3rd & Fairfax
Saturday morning, in a very untypical l.a. fashion, we ‘walked’ over to the farmers market for hot sauce shopping, eavesdropping and crepes nutella. At Light my fire there is wall to wall, floor to ceiling, ass-burning hot sauce organized on a heat scale of 1 to 10 from wimpy to pleasant burn to off the scale. Figuring I was around a 6 at Nice & Spicy, I got a habanero from belize and a mexican jalepeno verde. And for padraics palate, amusement and collection a XXX rated ‘it hurts so good’ and a ‘smack my ass and call me sally’. The food-court is an impressive pointa vista of behind the scenes hollywood, the workers and the wannabes, grips and groupies, people having breakfast meetings on plastic lawn furniture talking about ‘the business’ in some way or another. Where young upstarts sit around talking the talk boosting each others ego’s and flirting shamelessly. I couldn’t resist my chance to join in the game, so i turn to scott:, “hey man, are we gonna make this movie or what? James Cameron’s onboard. Did you talk to leo?” It was funny at the time.
Then along came Vu
It was hard to imagine Vu in l.a., Vu driving, Vu driving a SUV, Vu on atkins -it was hard to imagine Vu not in new york, but he seems to be better than ever - i’m sure it’s love that makes him glow but I think the l.a. living really suits him too. At any rate, I was just stoked to be hanging with my brooklyn brethern westside, worlds (and worlds) away from bedstuy.
Fred Segal dress for less
What a nightmare! resembling a discount department store during christmas week, there was no order to anything, not a star in sight and no sizes above an 8, which meant I was out of luck by a long shot. It was their annual half off sale which i’m sure attracted more than the usual riff raff fighting through the racks and racks of designer hoo ha. I bought an orange bag and promptly split.
High tea & House of Blues
Stopped off at Silverlake (home of the l.a. hipster) for some mint ice-tea and a wander. Poked my head in a few vintagy stores, talked to a lady at a bargain bin about the price of t-shirts and how “all anyone does in l.a. is eat and shop” - i said where do i sign? (I guess the car loan application would be the answer). Back down along the Sunset strip we split a house burger and headed for the pool in the sky, for glass clinking, wine drinking and wishful thinking. Fake is in!
The getty at twilight
The smog looked neat at sunset
the mice came out to play
art temple on the hill
Cars, cars, valet divebars
Probably my favourate thing about l.a. is the curbside assistance upon arriving at your destination, whether that be the crazy chicken at the strip mall or the closed liquor store, someone, for a small fee will park your car for you. At the mondrian that included a mob scene of suits spit polishing the hubcaps before we even came to a standstill.
to be continued...
'The sky at night', 'Hammer Time', 'Sunday siesta' and 'El Carmen'
