LA Unconfidential

Thought I'd share my LA experience (25/12/04 - 31/12/04). Hello Picasa! Thanks for making the job so much easier.

Take me to your leader - So I can whoop him for not telling me this was going to be the only day with lovely weather.


"Rowwwf! My eye!" - Looks are deceiving. Meet the Chinese water torturer of The Grove.


I've got me happy toes! - When in Santa Monica, wear flip-flops.


Sea of silence - There's just no escaping reminders of the year gone past.


Visual feast - I love the art scene. From fat palm trees in Santa Monica...


.. to arresting murals on Venice.


Cool cats - I have to say, at the La Brea tar pits, the statues were much more fascinating than the excavation finds.


Tumble tots - Oh, to be 5 again and get away with rolling down the hills! Sigh.


Mann's Theater Mystique - I discovered that this was as glamorous as Hollywood could get.


And whaddya know? Even thought I stayed in Hollywood, I didn't take a single picture of that goddamned sign.

So what did I think of the city? It was surreal all right. When I first got into town on Christmas Day, I saw a man washing his car - his white t-shirt soaked to titillation. And I remember thinking, "This only happens on television."

That set the tone for the rest of the trip and I didn't fall in love with LA because it felt so fake. It didn't help that the people I encountered were as superficial. Guess I fell into the wrong crowd.

There were some good moments though. (I use 'good' very loosely here.)

I went to Skylight to catch The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. And fell in love with Owen Wilson again. Stepped out of the theater and muttered to myself, "I'm in Hollywood. I will bump into Owen."

Then I stepped on the bus to get some grub 5 blocks away and the smell of piss brought me back to reality.

That night, I stayed out late alone against my better judgement and didn't think I could make the 6-block walk back through Sunset Boulevard. So I decided to wait for a bus. Big mistake.

Not only did I get harassed by some drunks (but was wonderfully saved by Mr. Hero), I alighted 2 blocks too soon and had to walk in the rain (fulfilling my customary wet t-shirt moment). Along the way, I saw a man wrestling on the ground with 2 cops - resisting arrest. And ended up making a detour. Finally in the comfort of my boingy-boingy bed much later, I fell asleep - lulled by the sirens I had grown accustomed to.

How does anyone ever make it in LA?