20 Things I Love About LA
This month's Los Angeles Magazine featured an article called The 64 Greatest Things in LA, an exhaustive list that featured well-known institutions and LA-isms like Pink's, the weather, palm trees, and Vin Scully. There are, however, seven points the writers missed:
- Smog. Yes, it's technically noxious pollution, but smog feels like a warm blanket that covers you year-round. Our lungs are so used to its omnipresence that we cough and sputter upon entering cleaner air elsewhere.
- Traffic. Another completely underrated phenomenon. How else would the next generation of aspiring Hollywood actors cram for their next audition? And businessmen! Why, they'd have noplace to talk on their phones and cut people off, screeching across four lanes of freeway sans turn signal!
- The crazies. Every area has a few. Silverlake has "Five Dolla Make Ya Holla." Downtown has any number of homeless personalities, but my favorite is the one in the wheelchair who was relieving his bowels right there on the 6th Street sidewalk. Hollywood has all the singers, strummers, percussionists and breakdancers. Venice has the stoners and beach bums.
- The Jewelry District. Deep down in your heart, you know that the three carat custom diamond your fiance gave you was really a cast-off from some rich divorcee.
- The 405. It's almost never not crowded, and yet most people still think it's the only way to travel to and from the Valley, and to and from the airport. That clusterfuck, however, is what makes LA such a fantastic city to fly into. The sea of ant-like red dots one way and tiny white dots the other way is breathtaking. Who needs to travel to space to feel insignificant?
- Tito's Tacos. I love Pink's, and the Apple Pan, and Spago too, all places mentioned in the LA Mag article. But damn, $5 gets you a dog and maybe a drink at Pink's. $5 feeds a family at Tito's, and feeds them well.
- Mulholland Drive. Sure, PCH gives you an unbeatable view of the Pacific Ocean. But Mulholland straddles the Valley and Hollywood/West Hollywood/Beverly Hills, and there are plenty of curves to keep the ride interesting.
What else did they miss?
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