Gloss Angeles

Without a commute every day (and with an abruptly curtailed social and collaborative schedule after working hours) I've finally had some time to tackle some long-delayed projects.Well, let me rephrase: I've tackled some long-delayed projects while being kind to myself. As some smart folk have pointed out, we've been habituated to believe that we must always be Making The Most Of Every Moment and Producing Content and Knocking Out Projects and Achieving Accomplishments, and that's always been a little bit bunk. So while I'm trying to use my former commuting time thoughtfully, I'm letting everything else be driven by what I feel and need in the moment. Sometimes that's reading a book, sometimes playin' games, and sometimes getting little creative projects done. Hopefully you're being kind to yourself too and letting it be okay if you don't, y'know, write King Lear while under quarantine. (That play is a drag, gang.)

As for me, when I feel the "make a thing" impulse, I've been sewing, writing, web-designing, and yes, taking the creaky trunk filled with video files out of the attic, wiping off the dust of the past year, and crowbarring it open to get at our 2019 footage. After the jump: let's talk about Los Angeles, and why I was there almost a year ago, and what I thought about it! What could be more essential and important in this historical moment

So, L.A. I'd absorbed a lot of Feelings about LA over the years from friends who'd been disenchanted by it, and the vast landscape of TV and films that recoil at the city's grossness. I've had pals who have lived there since we graduated in 2005 who I had never visited, not out of active animus but because every time I imagined going out there, I got as far as "and then I leave the airport and uh........" get on a bus? Sit in traffic for an afternoon? It seemed Bad, in theory.

Los Angeles! The Big Smoke! A Foggy Day in Los Angeltowne! Old Kippers-and-Herring LA!

For a whole mess of reasons, a few years back I made an effort to get myself excited about the city - its art and comedy scenes, its gorgeous-looking farmer's markets, its proximity to natural beauty - but for an equal and opposite mess of reasons, didn't end up making it out there. This trip wasn't as long as I'd hoped it would be, but it was a chance to dig in and do what I most like to do when I travel, which is: explore what it would feel like to live in the place I'm visiting.

Well, frankly, it'd be pretty okay! Look, some of the clichés are true: traffic is gross and having to drive most places is #bad. Yes, the city is building out its public transit and you can do a lot more than I think is apparent at a distance, but we should never stop cursing at the capitalist pigs who ripped up the city's streetcar system and condemned it to automotive hell. (This is obviously connected to the most striking-in-a-not-great-way thing about LA, which is that most of my mutual friends out there see each other 2-3 times a year max; it's just a commitment to navigate when you're working all your side-hustles.) I also doubt that the grossness of the entertainment industry has evaporated overnight. But there is an awful, awful lot to love about the place regardless.

For example: LA's got BOOKS, did you know that? Books: available in Los Angeles, check them out! (Please ignore my very frightening friend Sara, she just loves them books.)

To start, it's got my favorite feature of Boston, which is: easy proximity to lovelier and more naturally beautiful surroundings. (I tell people that I don't miss Boston at all, I just miss New England.) Particularly if you live in L.A. with weekend getaways and hikes and camping an easy add-on to your life rather than something you have to budget for on a vacation, that's... a considerable and considerably magnificent asset. There are some gorgeous parks and gardens in the city proper, which I was happy to wander with friends, but once you add in the coast and the mountains... I get it, friend, I get it.

But also, it's got that great thing major cities have of a lot of people trying to do their thing. There's the eyerolling version of this, where everyone is a self-affirming aspiring comedian/performer/writer/whatever, but honestly the hustle is invigorating, and the fact that the city has a robust art and music scene lends it a lot of depth. (So, too, the food scene, which takes every single advantage of California's agricultural potential and throws a lot of passion and obsession at it, at literally every level of fine-dining-or-lack-thereof.)

Remember earlier? About nature and stuff? Yeah. It's NICE, you knobs!!!

Of course, the best thing going for LA is that it is pal-wealthy, with too many lovely folk scattered across the area; I was touched at how many made time for me and showed me their own little corners and subcultures. That's the sales pitch, really - LA would be an incredibly tough nut to crack if you had to find those communities on your own without the kind of urban development that lends itself to easy wander-and-connect moving-around... but once you start to see the lives people make for themselves, and find the goodhearted folk who are there because they like collaborating and creating, not because they're hoping to Make It (i..e be wholeheartedly miserable no matter what), it really starts to shine.

PAL THE SECOND in this pal-centric post. And hey: more cars!!!!!!!

Part of the subtext of this trip was my job hunt. I'm still tapping away at my academic career, working on some articles and exploring some teaching opportunities as I try to rebuild my CV after a couple of (necessary but) fallow years. And given the "must go anywhere to get a job" state of the field even before our present economic meltdown, I've been trying to assess where I could see myself landing. I still think it has to be cities, and ideally cities with vibrant live performance culture to extend the classroom. But the question was, is LA the kind of place I could hang my hat? And the answer, maybe 30% surprisingly, was: yes! Absolutely.

(Yes with the caveat that the odds of educational work paying enough to afford to live in LA seem extremely slim, but who knows, now that the world is in freefall maybe the market will be slightly less kookoobananas?)

I do not think I took a more Los Angeles photo than this: a cultural artifact/piece of antiquity suspended over an interstate.

So, L.A. A too-brief trek that is hopefully a prelude to longer trips in the future, but a happy one. As ever, nobody knows what comes next - travelwise, careerwise, being-allowed-to-leave-my-apartmentwise - but it's nice to broaden the horizon.

I ALSO SEEN THAT 70MM DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE APOLLO MISSION AT THE ARCLIGHT AND IT WAS REAL DANG GOOD good thing we have the Arclight in Chicago, everybody go to the Arclight RIGHT NOW. (When they reopen, everything is closed on account of Pandemic.)

Next up, maybe some Maine footage? Maybe the State Fair in Minnesota? Maybe Portugal? I've got deep digital boxes to rummage around, so who knows, but keep yer eyes on this space, maybe we'll actually start making something regular of it after all.

Stay safe out there, reach out to friends n loved ones, and keep reminding yourself that you're not alone.