
Los Angeles Plays Itself - Thevet
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/city-by-city/los-angeles-plays-itself/
======
christianbryant
Born and raised in Los Angeles. Lived in Downtown Los Angeles, Venice Beach,
Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey.
Lived on a boat, in apartments, in houses. Commuted 2 hours one way, 1 hour
the other, and then 10 minutes max each way.

I love L.A. - every facet of it, top to bottom, rich to poor, chilled to
stressed. But there are more L.A.'s than two. Los Angeles is a bona fide
schizophrenic. If the layers of Los Angeles were onion layers, you'd need a
thousand onions to demonstrate the complexity of this county, of this town.

I appreciate the article, but I recommend taking a trip to the library and
checking out a book from each decade going back to 1930, written by an
Angeleino, preferably a few from different ethnic and social backgrounds (and
genders), and then you will closer to unraveling this beautiful mess I call
home.

~~~
calinet6
I grew up both close enough and far enough that I always hated LA—hated going
there, hated the traffic, the city busy-ness, the randomness and amorphousness
that was both easy and difficult to describe.

I hated it so much so that I began to love it. It reminded me of a person:
human, flawed, honest, complex, paradoxical, somehow both ignorant and wise at
the same time—and fundamentally alive and beautiful and generally happy in
spite of it all. Some would say it lacks perspective, but I do think it has
one. And it has such a personality, and knows itself. I've lived in cities
without much of a personality, and I think knowing LA has helped me see that
clearly. I miss it, for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

~~~
spotman
Your comment and the parent comment are exactly how I feel.

I've now lived here for almost 15 years. I've traveled all over the world, and
LA is still my favorite city of them all.

It's a cruel mistress one day. And a wondrous utopia the next day. Never
predictable. Home.

------
jack_jennings
Thought that this was going to be about this movie (which I thought was a
great watch as an LA transplant):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Plays_Itself](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Plays_Itself)

If I recall correctly the first line of the article is almost verbatim from
that film as well…

[EDIT: Guess I should have read the whole article before posting. I still
think that it's an odd choice to co-opt the name of the film, and then give a
throwaway shoutout halfway through.]

~~~
bqe
About midway through the article, the author mentions the titular film.

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Tenoke
>She refers to their relationship as long-distance. It takes her an hour to
get to where he lives, so she stays for three days at a time, then comes home
for one or two.

I assume this isn't a typical reaction? I live in London, and if it takes me
an hour to get somewhere, I consider that fairly reasonable. Is it actually
common for people over there to consider an hour journey as something
extraordinary?

~~~
gtani
I had a friend in Santa Monica ask me a few years back if i wanted to get a
burrito, so we get in her car, get on the 10, the 405, and another freeway
towards downtown. After driving 40 minutes, i ask her, "are we getting
close?", she says, "of course, don't be so impatient"

~~~
staunch
West LA has lots of plenty of legit Mexican food, you shouldn't be driving for
it. I suggest Tacos Por Favor next time you want some in Santa Monica.

[http://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-por-favor-santa-
monica](http://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-por-favor-santa-monica)

There are some things you have to drive for, like great dim sum, but the great
Middle Eastern and Japanese food more than makes up for it.

Two of my favorite restaurants in the world:

[http://www.yelp.com/biz/zankou-chicken-los-
angeles-2](http://www.yelp.com/biz/zankou-chicken-los-angeles-2)

[http://www.yelp.com/biz/hide-sushi-japanese-restaurant-
los-a...](http://www.yelp.com/biz/hide-sushi-japanese-restaurant-los-angeles)

~~~
9999
Can't say I'm a fan of Tacos por Favor. Any taco truck is better and cheaper
in my book. Monte Alban on the west side is a pretty great for Oaxacan. If you
must eat tacos and can make it to midtown go to El Chato for excellent tacos.

~~~
beachstartup
this place is better than tpf, although tpf still has the best breakfast
burritos.

[http://www.yelp.com/biz/tacomiendo-los-
angeles](http://www.yelp.com/biz/tacomiendo-los-angeles)

monte alban is great but not for tacos/burritos.

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lisper
I vividly remember the first time I saw LA: it was 1982. I drove in from Santa
Barbara, and when I got to Van Nuys I looked around and thought, what a
horrible place, I'd hate to have to live here.

Six years later I was living in Glendale, and 22 years after that I left,
having fallen deeply in love with LA. It's a terrific place, but it demands
practice and patience. Finding the good parts of LA isn't easy. But once you
find them, LA is deeply rewarding.

------
maceo
This is written by someone who has little knowledge of Los Angeles, especially
east of Los Feliz. Her descriptions of downtown are outdated.

Yes, Skid Row and the surrounding area still has the largest concentration of
homeless people in the US. Just a block east of Skid Row is The Arts District,
which is in terms of real estate prices, the hottest neighborhood in Los
Angeles right now. It's where all the trendy cafes (Blue Bottle, Stumptown,
Urth Cafe, etc.) have decided to open up shop in Los Angeles. Traditionally
the area had attracted artists because of the large, cheap commercial and loft
style spaces available, but in the last 3-4 years it's become unrecognizable.
Back in the 90's it was an extension of Skid Row. Today, it's filled with
yuppies who can afford to pay $3,000 a month for a 1,000 square foot studio.
It's the only neighborhood on the Eastside where rental prices are comparable
to Venice/Santa Monica. The homeless population continues to hang on to
control of an ever-rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. It's an eerie feeling
watching a hopeless residents of Skid Row slowly push a shopping cart down a
busy intersection like a living dead man, as Teslas and Benzes swerve to avoid
him.

Just one block west of Stumptown coffee, there are boarded up commercial
buildings on 7th street. It's the southern border of the Arts District, and
even though most of the foot traffic is homeless people, the landlords are
asking $12,000 a month for a storefront of under 2,000 square feet.

In Los Angeles, Hollywood is the cultural capital, downtown is financial
capital, and the SM/Venice is the tech capital. But East LA is the soul of the
city IMO. Not just the city of East LA, but everything east of downtown all
the way to Rowland Heights. Of course Boyle Heights and the neighboring cities
are the Mexican cultural centers. Remnants what LA used to be before the mass
migration west and before the US government deported millions of US citizens
of Mexican heritage [1]. I live here now and I love it, even though living
here means that you're more car dependent than most other places in Los
Angeles. A few miles east and you're in Monterrey Park, the city with the
highest concentration of Chinese residents of any city in the US. Walk into a
popular restaurant around here and the sights, sounds, and smells will be
almost identical to Hong Kong. And then there's everything South of the 10,
which the author didn't really get in to either. The point being, Los Angeles
is much more than Santa Monica east to Los Feliz, and people who are
considering moving here ought to look beyond those boundaries if they want to
get a better understanding of the city.

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation)

~~~
9999
I completely concur with you on her knowledge of Los Angeles, I think she is
basing her entire opinion of the downtown corridor on a ten minute long drive.

The transformation of the Arts District has been truly incredible. Virtually
unrecognizable from what it was 5 years ago. It's interesting how the original
anchor location for that transformation, The Brewery, has been more or less
ignored as development focused on the area just east of 2nd and Alameda. As
restaurants like Wurstkuche, Zip, R23, and Church & State became popular, the
housing developments around the area sprang up virtually overnight. It would
be interesting to do a visualization of that based on liquor permit
applications and construction permits, since I can't say for certain which
happened first. Certainly the currently under construction aircraft carrier
sized white condo complex on the edge of the river is in response to the
restaurant/bar scene that has developed.

~~~
kepano
Thirded. I've lived around downtown LA for the past 5 years, at the Brewery
and in the the same building as R23. It's been wild to see it change so fast.
It's now one of the most walkable areas in the county. I feel lucky to have my
rent locked in!

I'm not an LA native but I've grown to love it and hope to see more tech
develop here.

------
RichardCA
The movie is absolutely worth watching, mainly due to sheer force of Thom
Andersen's intellect. Unfortunately he misses a few things that the average HN
reader might find obvious. For example he spends quite a bit of time talking
about Blade Runner but seems completely flummoxed as far as understanding what
the movie was about.

It's available for streaming on Netflix instant.

[http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70000095](http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70000095)

~~~
100k
Oh, that is fantastic.

I saw it at a screening many years ago and was never able to see it again. The
movie clips made releasing it too difficult.

I see now it was released in October 2014 -- ten years after it was finished!

Very worth watching, even if (like me) you've never been to LA.

------
stephengillie
It's amazing in a kinda-depressing way to think of LA as a "City without a
name/face". It's really a melting pot in more ways than one.

Are all of the landmarks there really so generic?

Did the movie industry influence less-recognizable monuments and other
features in the past? Or is it just that the city's culture lends itself to a
"scrubbed" culture?

~~~
beachstartup
making LA sound terrible is an entire cottage industry and this is a prime
example of some top notch product.

the truth is a lot more boring. LA is a great major city to live/work in but
an exceptionally shitty place to visit, unless you stay with knowledgeable
locals.

in that way, it's the opposite of SF and NY, tough places to live in but mind-
blowing next-level kind of awesome places to visit.

~~~
crimsonalucard
Not to mention that the things to do in LA are so spread out. If you try to
visit the city with the intention of visiting as many destinations as
possible, you'll be spending more time in the car getting to these places then
you will actually being at these places.

~~~
beachstartup
by next year with the opening of the expo line, public transit will surpass
that of the bay area, and within the next 15 years will be in the same league
as new york. a lot of money is being spent on it.

blue is being extended next year, then purple:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Rail_%28Los_Angeles_Count...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Rail_%28Los_Angeles_County%29#/media/File:Los_Angeles_County_Metro_Rail_and_Metro_Liner_map.svg)

~~~
crimsonalucard
I doubt that. You need high density living spaces along with public
transportation to get New York. LA is huge suburban sprawl that's too
widespread. No rail network can cover that huge area.

Maybe if they took that diagram and put the entire thing in Santa Monica, you
can probably make Santa Monica like NYC.

~~~
Anjin
[http://www.laweekly.com/news/los-angeles-beats-new-york-
in-u...](http://www.laweekly.com/news/los-angeles-beats-new-york-in-urban-
density-2384204)

~~~
movetola
Sure, if you're considering all the suburbs/metro area surrounding NYC. If
you're really looking at the city, then it's 26k people/square mile, not 5000.
Kind of a huge difference.

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malkia
Kept reading the article, waiting for Venice to come up - this strange weird
place... And some words on Abbott Kinney, the canals, mother's beach...

------
stefantalpalaru
> “Latino” is an ethnic, as opposed to a racial, category

How can we convince 320 million people that there's no scientific basis for
the existence of races in the human species?

