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02.05.04
I took a
non-tourist approach to my week stay in L.A., leaving the studio tours,
amusement parks, and star maps for another time. My focus instead was on
learning as much about the area and lifestyle as possible, so I spent most of my
days meeting with long time residents and recent East coast “transplants.” Here
are some of the highlights of my trip:
Monday
– spent 13 hours traveling from Albany to L.A. due to weather delays (not fun)
Tuesday
– got exceptionally lost but saw the
Hollywood
sign and Universal Studios for the first time along the way
Wednesday
– went to
Pasadena to visit my future
place of work and wisely
bought the Thomas Guide (an extensive map of every street in the city);
watched the
sun set off
the Pacific Coast Highway
Thursday
– walked the infamous
Hollywood Blvd.
(most of the “stars of fame” are unrecognizable names); saw the 1981 movie
Scanners
at the
Egyptian Theater; went
to one of Hollywood’s
oldest bars later that night
Friday
– attended a live taping of
Real Time with Bill Maher for HBO at
CBS Studios (Sean
Astin was a guest – very cool); checked out the outdoor mall
Hollywood and Highland; explored the nightlife of West Hollywood; saw
"the" Ron Jeremy at the Hustler Store; tried to get into the Ashton
Kutcher owned
Dolce
on Melrose Ave. – failed
Saturday
– stopped at a
Santa
Monica beach; walked the
Venice Beach
boardwalk which draws a highly eclectic crowd
Sunday
– drove up Muholland Dr. and stopped at the
lookout point; saw the
ridiculously blown-out-of-proportion Janet Jackson breast exposure at a Super
Bowl party in Beverly Hills (they had
TiVo!)
Monday
– much shorter (but rockier) flight back to Albany, greeted by 19 degree
temperatures and snow
Some
interesting facts about Southern California:
-The volume of traffic in
Albany at 5 o’clock on a Friday is the bare minimum L.A. has all week
-Due to the insane amount
of wealth, in most areas a BMW is as common as a Honda is here. I
saw a brand new yellow Lamborghini parked in front of a restaurant...it
was surreal.
-There’s no snow, but
cars have to alternate parking for <drum roll> street cleaners. I spent 10 min
in traffic on a freeway because one lane was closed “for cleaning”
-Nearly every night club
and bar closes by 1:30am! Yet fast food drive-thru’s are open all night! WTF?!
-Maybe it’s just the sun,
but the days feel at least 4 hours longer
-These people know
NOTHING about bad weather: a rainstorm is reason to panic
-In-n-Out
Burger really IS as good as they say...it’s also packed 24/7. I waited
30 min in a line 9 cars long with another line just as long on the other side.
-Smoking is banned in
public and overall frowned down upon, but apparently two teenagers can snort
lines of cocaine outside the entrance of a chain Mexican restaurant (seriously,
I saw this).
-J.D.
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