End of the rainbow

I'm hoping the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow. Seems like I've been chasing after it long enough. There have been a few hiccups along the way (all right, a lot of burps too) but I'm finally here.

The ride to JFK was ok – I got to see the matchboxes and pencils of Manhattan skyline one last blurry time.  The view was typically conflicted and, set against the flat sky, probably looked better in my memories. I was happy to leave.  I was used to the smells of New York, where refuse jostled for space with rats and people, but the stench of BO in my LIRR compartment only hastened my departure.

The Big Apple had gotten more bitter than sweet.

Flew 'cross country and about a million emotions that zigzagged between memories and hopes and fears and expectations and got to LA.  One bright moment from the 6-hour flight, stuck in the back row wedged between a foul-breathed Italian and a fidgety mom separated from her child: the Grand Canyon was still pretty fuckin' grand from high above. Reminds me of how scarred Mother Earth really is. And vaguely threatening.

Spent some time in LA, where my opinions about that City of (broken)Angels didn't change much. Good food, uneventful (sunny, mild) weather and a whole lot of nothing interspersed by shopping strips with few parking spaces and freeways with too many cars. It was a playland set in the desert. And maybe I didn't get it, but I think I had gotten enough. Did get to hang out with friends, and I suppose that makes all the difference.

Highlight: we made a pilgrimage to Orange County, the mothership of Vietnamese cuisine, where we spent a day crawling between restaurants. And upon visiting Laguna Beach, I realized that the real OC was not full of moody, rich, hot girls cavorting under the afternoon glow. It was more like regular people with oddly formed bodies and waistlines that were very much American.

It's a little sad, but with a few exceptions, all of Candice's and my possessions could fit in the back of a mid-sized rental.  The ride up the Pacific Coast Highway was punctuated by stops to peruse the beaches, taquerias and gas stations' aisles of Doritos, Gatorades and peanuts. The sky was bluer on this side of the map. The air was cleaner, too. Brown hills gave way to yellowing shrubs that surrendered to short deciduous trees, to taller willowy Dr. Seuss creations, to towering pine and conifers and finally, opening up to the bejeweled Bay.

So now what? What now, in a town where the weather drops twenty degrees at night? Where a fat girl with purple hair walks by a desolate guy who may or may not be homeless strolling along with a backpack on his shoulders in front of a pink house, along a row of green, blue, orange houses, along a street full of dharma bums, and she's meeting her girl friend, walking hand in hand, nose rings glinting in the bright sun, and from corner to corner there are weirder and weirder people: bums again - yeah - who've never shaved in their lives, smelling like mildew, piss stains on their pants, sleeping bags dangling from their arms – and afro-headed white boys who skate by mired in a cloud of pot-smoke, crew-cut black boys on rusty bicycles and tattered sweaters, and skinny and large, butch and lithe – girls and women – cruising and whistling, eating burritos and vegan burgers, smelling vaguely of coffee, or beer, or just the excitement of being here, just not caring if they're watched cause everyone around is just a bit off, and everyone is watching everyone and no one really gives a damn because its all all good cause the sky is blue blue blue, the fog is rolled back, and it's a good day to be alive — can you spare a dollar?

Yes, you did not get it. It is not about SIGHTS, it'a all about VIBES.

Posted by: vinny | August 16, 2007 at 05:06 PM

Ha! I knew you would respond to this. Different strokes I guess. I suppose LA doesn't have that soul for me -- can't really explain it. Cities have it or they don't. It's a wide brush to paint with but a lot of what LA is geared towards is consumption. Build places to consume. And I think it's a lot more of an individually driven place. Consume = being happy. Not that I don't like consuming, I suppose the vibes of different cities appeal to me more.

Posted by: j.fisher | August 16, 2007 at 05:18 PM

As opposed to the rest of the US, or for that matter, the western world? It's all built for consumption. Same goes for the consume=being happy thing. I dunno, I feel like everyone says "LA sucks cause it is fake and artificial" because everyone says "LA is fake and artificial" but I have yet to find someone who can really explain to me what that means. Or even explain it for themselves. You know I am all against herd thinking and all about independent thinking :)

Posted by: vinny | August 17, 2007 at 12:16 PM

LA is not fake - it's very real - really superficial because it's head is turned towards pursuits that, when compared against other cities (e.g. Rome, London, New York), are concentrated on image.

It's built on the image industry. So everyone has an image – and in typically herd mentality, the image is set so that everyone sort looks, wants, and acts the same. So there's a lack of diversity, if you will, that contributes to the superficiality.

The same goes for the actual physicality of the city. Where are the neighborhoods? The mom and pop shops? The architecture? The inside of buildings may be air conditioned, but the exteriors are uniformily boxy, dull and uninspired. I think people just don't care for other things like individuality, expression – and it shows in the city. Build a bunch of malls, build freeways to get to them, and done.

I'm painting with a wide brush, but you get the idea. There's a stark difference in vibe between LA and any other city.

Posted by: j.fisher | August 17, 2007 at 06:29 PM

Well, I think you are right in many ways, but I guess to me pretty much modern society is "really superficial" so being in the city that was designed as the epitome of it all is somewhat/somehow better. Numbness all in?

A city about "destination" and not the "journey", I definitely miss sometimes the ability to walk somewhere just because that journey is fun in itself.

But anyway, it's Monday morning, fluorscent lights making me greed, AC drying me out. Sigh. Keep charging....

Posted by: vinny | August 20, 2007 at 09:24 AM