I never thought I would live in LA. Like New York, Los Angeles has an outsized reputation, a function, I believe, of movies and television. In New York's case, and London, for that matter, this is due to those cities being the place of so much writing. I'm looking at you, Dickens and Doyle. Take a bow, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. MIllay and Truman Capote. Add TV shows like Friends, Seinfeld or 30 Rock.
Los Angeles suffers from its expectation. Surf City. Movie Land. Sun kissed California on roller skates. Muscle Beach and the Hollywood Hills. Which is why I get a perverse pleasure from encountering the opposite:
The industry blocks surrounding Compton and Bell
Oil wells pumping like mad often surrounded by a school, a mall parking lot
The jungle of Rustic Canyon
Quirky houses on the canals of Venice
