USA Trip: Los Angeles, CA

I’ve been putting off blogging about LA because I don’t know how to strike a balance between telling the truth and showing you only the pretty sights.

In actual fact, LA is a shitty place. At least Hollywood is a shitty place. Nothing like the glitz and glamour we see on TV. Those are only found in the rich estates and the rest of LA, quite the slum if you asked me. Furthermore, when I was there, it was cloudy and unusually chilly for this time of the year – the bad weather really added to the misery of this place. It’s a different misery compared to New York – New York is the concrete jungle misery and LA is the culture-shock misery. Why culture shock? West Hollywood is practically a vice district. Imagine shops selling smoking paraphernalia (and I don’t mean lighters and cigarettes) dotted between tattoo shops and shops selling porn star outfits. And it’s not like I intentionally sought out these places. They are on Hollywood Boulevard – the tourist district, just about 200m away from Kodak Theater. Oh well. Prudes shouldn’t walk too much in LA.

Speaking about Kodak Theater – arh the golden tourist district. Probably the safest part of LA, in daytime.

From left: Walk of Fame (running on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine), Kodak Theater, Chinese Theater, and El Capitan.

I caught the new Pixar film Up in 3D at El Capitan. The tickets aren’t cheap, but it comes with a live HSM-like performance with Mickey mascots before the show, something that cannot be found elsewhere. I also took the 3D glasses back with me. Gone are the days where 3D glasses are blue and red; nowadays they are able to produce 3D glasses with clear glasses.

The concrete slabs are before the Chinese Theater. Only the big big stars can have their palms and foot imprinted there. To get a star on the Walk of Fame simply requires one to be in the industry for 5 years and one has to hand over the payment of 25,000$. On hindsight, I should have sought out Michael Jackson’s star.

Oh but I did go to his house though.

On a walking tour in Beverly Hills to see the stars’ homes.

Here’s Dustin Hoffman’s house.

Woohoo Ben Stiller!

And this is MJ’s house. Did he collapse here? It’s so surreal isn’t it. First time I step on his driveway and he quacks. (ha!) Really. I don’t really care if he died. I’m too young to have been a contemporaneous fan of his.

Beverly Hills isn’t really that glamorous. Sure, big houses (apparently Jennifer Anniston’s driveway is 1/2 mile long), nice landscaping, flash cars … but you know, it just lacks that starry atmosphere I was looking for. I don’t know why.

Of course, Beverly Hills is not Beverly Hills without Rodeo (Ro-day-oh , in the true American fashion) Drive.

This is the LA we see on TV baby. Palm trees that don’t belong to the climate, nice clean paved sidewalk, glitzy shops selling things plebeians can’t afford … a Hollywood experience!

And another Hollywood experience that’s mandatory on a trip to LA:

Hollywood Hills. Apparently when a certain Pope went to the US for a visit, some pranksters took down one L, so it spelt Holy Wood. Quite a joker, that.

My favourite place in LA is the Getty Center. It’s an art museum built on a hill and boy it’s a pretty place .

The entrance. To get to the main entrance, we had to take a monorail from the foot of the hill. Oh yeah, entry to the Getty Center is free; it’s fully supported by its own funds.

On top of the hill, it overlooks the rest of LA.

Beautiful place. The garden is really really beautiful. Their cafe serves a great chicken salad.

A quote on the wall in the photography section of the museum – “Art is life as seen through a man’s inner craving for perfection and beauty – his escape from the sordid realities of life into a world of his imagining.” Paul Outerbridge. Actually, looking back now, I don’t know why I took a picture of this quote. Maybe it’s because this photo looked nice. Oh well.

The Getty Museum is filled with 15-20th Century European art pieces (many related to religion). There I saw some pieces I studied in an architecture history course before and I was really excited. I had a great time in the photography section as well. It’s a nice place to get away from the grossness of Hollywood, really.

And as a parting shot, I leave you with another picture of Beverly Hills and the Jacaranda trees that line its roads -

(Admittedly at first sight of the purple flowers my first thought was “Wisteria Lane” since Desperate Housewives is probably the brainchild of one of the residents. How wrong I am. Wisteria is a vine, not a tree. I have no botanist knowledge at all.)