El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles.
Everything looks better in Spanish doesn’t it? And what that means is “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels”, and one week ago I was getting ready to perform my first show there. How time flies. It’s all gone by so quickly – the stress that no one would come to the show, that I would forget my lines and embarrass myself, that if anyone came and if I managed not to forget then they would hate the show anyway. And then before you know it – it’s over and I am back home.
I know most of my New York friends have nothing nice to say about LA but I came back with a love hangover. I have had a crush on LA for years. Being a huge fan of Hollywood and movies like ‘LA Confidential’, and ‘Chinatown’, as well as of shows like “Six Feet Under’ and ‘Entourage’ I just love the way the city looks.
We stayed in the Melrose district where the Spanish-Colonial (thanks Diggi!) style of architecture dominates. Each house is unique in terms of both design and color – and while the cars parked outside are clearly of this century I look at it and imagine that things haven’t changed that much since those homes were first built. And because i feel like the history of LA (as I know it, in my limited capacity) is not that far behind it’s easy to slip in to one’s version of the past.
Before I got there I thought that I would appreciate the weather, and possibly the beach. Turns out it’s neither. What I love about LA is what it stands for – the movies. OK, calm down – of course there is much more. A cute Mexican came to my show – he works with kids, disabled ones. I know. But to me those four days were all my imagination, fueled by the movies and TV shows I had seen all my life. There is this sexy Hollywood haze that hangs heavy over the city, giving me the feeling that at any moment I could run in to someone famous, some people call this smog, screw them.
LA is a huge, multi-cultural, warm city. It’s the kind of city that puts you in the mood for romance – my specific image involved a younger Jack Nicholson (in any film), or Russell Crowe (not from ‘The Insider’). But the best part of the city – like any fabulous city anywhere – are it’s people. They are all uniformly attractive – some may have taken a step too far but so what? You dye your roots don’t you?
Anyway – the point is GO TO LA! And while you are there definitely:
- Stay: do yourselves a fave and live like a local, possibly with a local www.airbnb.com
- Eat: at Pampas Grill in the Farmers Market on Fairfax, and fish and pork tacos anywhere.
- Drive: through Laurel Canyon and Mulholland Drive. The Hollywood Hills are beautiful, take a moment at the vista points (I sound like my mother) – you can view the valley on one side and downtown LA on the other. Carry a barf bag if you tend to get carsick – the roads are windey as fucking hell. Take a picture of the Hollywood sign. I did not and am annoyed. Also drive through Beverly Hills and Bel Air and glare disdainfully at other tourists doing the same shameful thing, in the same shameful mustang convertible (the most hideous, basic version that only a Belarussian and North Indian would select). Admire the Beverly Hills Hotel.
And here are some pictures from the trip.
My entourage. How fucking depressing are these two?
Our back yard.
Our Ride. Just kidding - this was parked across the street from us.
After the first show. With Ms. Jolly. Fellow actor and short-haired fellow.
After second night. With Rockstar Matty P and Katherine.
Last night! Sexy Lady Audience Members.
And some Unladies.
It's over bitch - no need to be nice any more!
Morning after. At Farmers Market with Chriselle Almieda, fellow actor and NY transplant.
Boys from LA, Girls from NY.
Santa Monica. It's like a suburb. But with sexy people.
And as the sun sets on my trip to LA...
...I go 'Hollywood' and learn that I look like an ass with my sunglasses on indoors.