I have been living in (near downtown)LA for a year.
The city seems like a urban ruin, a megalopolis that expanded and therefore collpased on its own.
Yet, there are very interesting patches in the city hidden as well.
To Everyone, including people who live or lived, visited LA, I would like to ask, what do you think the problems/good points of LA are?
Maybe this is the first entry in my post about ruins. L.A. has always been astonishing to me. A place of immense natural beauty overrun by humans. This strong contradiction is what fascinates me so much about L.A.
Arata Isozaki once said that the fate of all contemporary cities is the ruin- and since then I have been very interested in ruins, and cities decomposing
LA is a peculiar city- because it is too big and dead and boring, yet I dont feel hopelessness. its a ruin, which shows hope, but will perhaps remain to be a ruin.
One big inhabited ruin. No matter what my mental image of L.A. is , it's always on fast-forward. Like one of those time-lapse films. When you're there in 'real-lfe', it kinda feels that way as well. L.A. is the definition of American - Bigger, Better, Faster...tear it down, put it in the junkyard, pull it out & build something else again.
frogpiss you don't feel hopelessness in LA because the West is eternally optimistic. Everyone who arrives in the West is seeking something new and better.
The east coast is the place that people can't escape from, so there is an overarching hopelessnes to it. The people who manage to rally enough of a sense of optimism to inspire them to escape it? Why, they head West!
hmm...there comes the contradiction. Hollywood culture and hope of the west coast. maybe los angeles is born, or a victim to the instance of the contradiction. Or am I thinking too much needlessly?
I am fascinated with how LA is not as readily identified by its "natives" (Mexicans) than it is by its transplants --immigrants, folks from the Midwest and East Coast looking for a fresh start and/or opportunity. I think the erratic nature of the building designs and city plans runs parallel to the unstable identity of LA.
funny - i was happily surprised when i visited l.a. it was a city built up of distinct neighborhoods, each with its own particular character. really very nice and, because of these distinctions, of a more intimate scale than i could have ever imagined.
The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place in the belly of the beast that is californ-i-a,
I drank from a faucet and i kept my receipts for when the weigh me on my way out (here nothing is free).
The greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the street until the gutters overflow and los angeles thinks, "i might explode someday soon."
It's a lovely summer's day and i can almost see a skyline through a thickening shroud of egos.
(is this the city of angeles or demons?)
Here the names are what remain... stars encapsulate the gold lame and they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.
steven ward: did you witness any communication between these disparate communities? I live and work on the eastside and there is absolutely no dialogue with the westside, other than what city hall might dictate through whatever laws and restrictions/regulations they make up. Coupled with the poor public transportation system (it is getting better, I have to say) and the vast size of all of LA county, I don't see any real interaction happening. The only exception to this is when people want to try more "ethnic" food, then it's time to go to an "authentic" part of town. Har har.
i'm glad you enjoyed it. it's really a beautiful city in part because these strange pockets of communities and forms exist. I also think it's a very quiet, humble city. then again, i only speak of the eastside. i can care less about anything west of la brea blvd. :)
los angeles has a sinister side to it as well, often in terms of economic and racial divides.
many times in the past and present this divide leads to preferencial treatment of los angelites by the police and municipal services. it gets worst when you see certain bus lines exclusively used by domestic helpers = modern slaves. in los angeles this is always on, always in your face divide. many residents in this city have never passed these divides and i know some people only know some neighborhoods thru the local television crime reporting.
i remember, during rodney king riots, beverly hills police effectively blocked and closed the city of beverly hills (bh being in the middle of this dense fabric), causing the thru traffic to take impossible reroutes or not being able to reach to their families on the other side, during an emergency such as riots, which is sometimes more preciesly called racial uprising.
sure, whats new? all metropolises, even smaller cities share these problems. what i really want to say is, los angeles ain't a la la land, boring or dead. it is a very serious city and can fume with 4000 fires going all in the same time. it takes a lot of energy and survival skills to live here. you never have a correct idea how big the place is, since it spreads beyong any scale and very street you are living on, is repeated endlessly often within its own length.
i love los angeles, mini malls and gas stations included. it is indeed a major cultural engine beyond borders and that alone gives you the energy to create, destroy and re-write.
ok, end of my LA doodle..
What is Los Angeles?
I have been living in (near downtown)LA for a year.
The city seems like a urban ruin, a megalopolis that expanded and therefore collpased on its own.
Yet, there are very interesting patches in the city hidden as well.
To Everyone, including people who live or lived, visited LA, I would like to ask, what do you think the problems/good points of LA are?
Maybe this is the first entry in my post about ruins. L.A. has always been astonishing to me. A place of immense natural beauty overrun by humans. This strong contradiction is what fascinates me so much about L.A.
Arata Isozaki once said that the fate of all contemporary cities is the ruin- and since then I have been very interested in ruins, and cities decomposing
LA is a peculiar city- because it is too big and dead and boring, yet I dont feel hopelessness. its a ruin, which shows hope, but will perhaps remain to be a ruin.
One big inhabited ruin. No matter what my mental image of L.A. is , it's always on fast-forward. Like one of those time-lapse films. When you're there in 'real-lfe', it kinda feels that way as well. L.A. is the definition of American - Bigger, Better, Faster...tear it down, put it in the junkyard, pull it out & build something else again.
frogpiss you don't feel hopelessness in LA because the West is eternally optimistic. Everyone who arrives in the West is seeking something new and better.
The east coast is the place that people can't escape from, so there is an overarching hopelessnes to it. The people who manage to rally enough of a sense of optimism to inspire them to escape it? Why, they head West!
hmm...there comes the contradiction. Hollywood culture and hope of the west coast. maybe los angeles is born, or a victim to the instance of the contradiction. Or am I thinking too much needlessly?
a mile northwest of downtown los angeles. pre hollywood, pre belmont highschool, pre arata . before the glamour, grease ruled.. the oil boom..
As Dame Edna says, "I always like LA, very raunchy, very me."
Wierd - I spent 2 hours friday just scaning LA from above on terraserver. It looks so fractal and windy like vine growth between the mountains.
I am fascinated with how LA is not as readily identified by its "natives" (Mexicans) than it is by its transplants --immigrants, folks from the Midwest and East Coast looking for a fresh start and/or opportunity. I think the erratic nature of the building designs and city plans runs parallel to the unstable identity of LA.
funny - i was happily surprised when i visited l.a. it was a city built up of distinct neighborhoods, each with its own particular character. really very nice and, because of these distinctions, of a more intimate scale than i could have ever imagined.
The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place in the belly of the beast that is californ-i-a,
I drank from a faucet and i kept my receipts for when the weigh me on my way out (here nothing is free).
The greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the street until the gutters overflow and los angeles thinks, "i might explode someday soon."
It's a lovely summer's day and i can almost see a skyline through a thickening shroud of egos.
(is this the city of angeles or demons?)
Here the names are what remain... stars encapsulate the gold lame and they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.
steven ward: did you witness any communication between these disparate communities? I live and work on the eastside and there is absolutely no dialogue with the westside, other than what city hall might dictate through whatever laws and restrictions/regulations they make up. Coupled with the poor public transportation system (it is getting better, I have to say) and the vast size of all of LA county, I don't see any real interaction happening. The only exception to this is when people want to try more "ethnic" food, then it's time to go to an "authentic" part of town. Har har.
sleeping on planes was a very hard thing for me to do until i picked up that book. thanks, mike davis! (he's from fontucky!)
geez, didn't have a chance. only there for five days. covered a lot of ground, but didn't get a sense of the daily workings of the place.
only responded because visitors got a shout out above and because of my surprise: i had really not expected to like the city so much.
i'm glad you enjoyed it. it's really a beautiful city in part because these strange pockets of communities and forms exist. I also think it's a very quiet, humble city. then again, i only speak of the eastside. i can care less about anything west of la brea blvd. :)
los angeles has a sinister side to it as well, often in terms of economic and racial divides.
many times in the past and present this divide leads to preferencial treatment of los angelites by the police and municipal services. it gets worst when you see certain bus lines exclusively used by domestic helpers = modern slaves. in los angeles this is always on, always in your face divide. many residents in this city have never passed these divides and i know some people only know some neighborhoods thru the local television crime reporting.
i remember, during rodney king riots, beverly hills police effectively blocked and closed the city of beverly hills (bh being in the middle of this dense fabric), causing the thru traffic to take impossible reroutes or not being able to reach to their families on the other side, during an emergency such as riots, which is sometimes more preciesly called racial uprising.
sure, whats new? all metropolises, even smaller cities share these problems. what i really want to say is, los angeles ain't a la la land, boring or dead. it is a very serious city and can fume with 4000 fires going all in the same time. it takes a lot of energy and survival skills to live here. you never have a correct idea how big the place is, since it spreads beyong any scale and very street you are living on, is repeated endlessly often within its own length.
i love los angeles, mini malls and gas stations included. it is indeed a major cultural engine beyond borders and that alone gives you the energy to create, destroy and re-write.
ok, end of my LA doodle..
See Felinis' ROMA- If that ain't LA I don't know what is.
Wow pomotrash, that's wild! Now take that with what abracadabra just wrote and there might be the makings of a great movie: Rita Novel in Tunis.
Actually, the LA / Fellini's ROMA comparison is very astute.
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