Who Dares Defend L.A.?
From a review of Robert Redford: The Biography in today's Wall Street Journal:
He didn't like Los Angeles—who can blame him?—so he set up an aerie for himself at Sundance in Utah, which, on the evidence of this biography, gradually became the focus of his life.
The reviewer, Scott Eyman, concludes that the book, like its subject, is pretty good at what it does, despite infuriating limitations.
But that's not what interests me here. What interests me is that Eyman feels free to take that little pop at Los Angeles without a word in defense of his position. The dreadfulness of the second biggest city in America, he assumes, is so self-evident, so obvious, that it represents a fixed point or given--a shared assumption--throughout the Wall Street Journal's readership.
Can this be so?
Rob Long? Troy Senik? Joe Escalante? Would any of the denizens of Los Angeles care to rise to the defense of his city?
- Comment (53)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (3)
Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Peter, I've lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Manhattan, Florence, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Marin County.
The one place I truly despised was Los Angeles. It's not a city, it's a soul-less jigsaw puzzle, with no center, no identity and no sense of community. And I lived there more than 30 years ago; I can just imagine how it must be now that it's become a suburb of Tiajuana.
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
All right, then, Kenneth, two questions for you:
1. How did L.A. get that way? What went wrong?
2. Are we--let's face it--force to conclude something unpleasant about American life itself? L.A. does represent, after all, the second biggest city in the nation.
Kenneth? Anyone?
Jul '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Peter Robinson: All right, then, Kenneth, two questions for you:
1. How did L.A. get that way? What went wrong?
2. Are we--let's face it--force to conclude something unpleasant about American life itself? L.A. does represent, after all, the second biggest city in the nation.
Peter, L.A. had no real organic reason to be in the first place: it was a creation of the railroad companies, who bought up large tracts of cheap land and then advertised throughout the United States, drawing feckless new residents with visions of plucking fruit straight from the trees. It was never a city, it was a real-estate hustle - an aggregate of disconnected developments.
As such, it never developed a unique character until the advent of the movie business - a culture of get-rich-and-famous fantasy. Nathaniel West wrote Day of the Locust in 1939, but it's still relevant today.
I used to say that in Los Angeles, ideas and character are liabilities; you are what you drive and who you sleep with.
Edited on Apr 30, 2011 at 11:15amMay '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
LA is Las Vegas, with a port. Beyond that, my only defense of it is that I had a good weekend there once. I think. It's a fuzzy memory. Don't quote me.
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Kenneth is trenchant, Kennedy Smith, marvelously witty. But doesn't *anyone* care to defend the place?
Jul '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Peter, my defining L.A. story: the young and pretty brother of one of my female friends became the latest-in-a-string catamite of a 3rd-tier movie producer who lived in Hollywood Hills. For some reason, the boy developed an attachment to me, but I was unresponsive.
His sister told him that I loved books, so he invited me to his master's mansion on the promise of showing me a very special tome. After a tour of the home's lavish walk-in closets, we found our way to a gorgeous library, where there was exactly one book, among scads of movie memorabilia.
The boy presented the book to me as though it was the Dead Sea scroll.
It was a screenplay for a never-produced movie of the life of Harry Houdini.
The producer invested in the boy, even buying him placement on several covers of Tiger Beat, a magazine for teen film fans. But Ricky's career went nowhere and his master soon booted him out onto the street, where he became a male hustler - just one of legions of starry-eyed losers discarded once their novelty had faded.
Edited on Apr 30, 2011 at 6:16pmJun '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Well, Peter, my sentimental favourite movies are those set in LA roughly between 1920 and 1950. Examples, Chinatown, The Two Jakes (hat tip to Kenneth for the term real estate hustle), Ask the Dust (I'm still carrying a torch for Selma Hayek as a result), L.A. Confidential, and The Last Tycoon. As for the city, only visited once and have no, as in zero, lasting impressions.
Edited on Apr 30, 2011 at 12:39pmJul '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Oh, and by the way, that movie producer gained his status in Hollywood for having cast Steve McQueen in his first starring role, in a low-budget horror flick called The Blob.
Hardly great art, to say the least, but in Hollywood, you can dine out on stuff like that for years.
Sep '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Defense #1: My daughter lives there. :-)
Defense #2: She likes it for all the reasons Mr. Kenneth hates it.
OTOH:: My son does not live there. He hates it for all the reasons Mr. Kenneth hates it.
May '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
We expect too much of our downtowns. Their day has passed, and we needn't go there anymore to find the "soul" of a metropolitan area. Here in Cleveland, downtown is dead, and it's no great loss, as mini-hubs of employment and culture have developed in the suburbs and exurbs. It's all perfectly pleasant: In Westlake, 15 mi west of the city, my kids can ride their bikes to a gathering place called Crocker Park, with shops, outdoor concerts, bookstores, restaurants, outdoor sitting areas--all with zero crime and litter. What's not to love?
Andrew Klavan had some well-put praise of the burbs in an UncK episode a couple years back, which captured their value, and values, pretty well.
Oh ya, Ohio's major cities are now building casinos to compete. Good luck.
Nov '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Well, I truly like the place. My first reason is the same as Patrick's (my daughter & her family live in Pasadena) - my son, OTOH, also loves it, but he loves the mountains of BC more....But back to LA, I've always had a great time there. I bring a sketchbook, buy those 5$/day passes for the metro, and just travel around, chatting to folks & sketching. The people I meet are generally curious and friendly - I think that has a lot to do with the fact that though the area is sprawling and chaotic, the buildings are low and spread out (unlike, say, New York), it's like a whole pile of small towns glued together. And the weather, except in late summer, is great.
Jul '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Randy Newman is responsible for the destruction of Cleveland.
"Cleveland, city of romance, city of light
Where the Cuyahoga River goes smoking through the trees"
But seriously, nobody goes to New York City to see the Bronx; to Florence to see the suburbs; to Philadelphia other than to see the historic center.
If the attraction of a city drifts away from its center, it's usually because there was never really much of a center to begin with.
Edited on Apr 30, 2011 at 1:04pmMay '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Kenneth I used to say that in Los Angeles, ideas and character are liabilities; you are what you drive and who you sleep with.
Edited on Apr 30 at 11:15 am
Andrew Breitbart says that the casting couch has been replaced by liberal political activism: "Thirty years ago I would have said the most obnoxious aspect of Hollywood is the casting couch. Hollywood has traded in the casting couch for the political fundraiser. The first thing that a young lady who gets off the Greyhound Bus learns is to see and be seen at liberal-based fundraisers."
Dec '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
L.A. has a variety of interesting bits and pieces, floating in a sea of sprawl and decay. That may be true of a lot of big American cities, but it seems truer of L.A. than most others.
Oct '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Kenneth
Randy Newman is responsible for the destruction of Cleveland.
"Cleveland, city of romance, city of light
Where the Cuyahoga River goes smoking through the trees"
Edited on Apr 30 at 01:04 pm
"I Love L.A." ; one of Randy Newman's few mainstream hits.
He's the only redeeming feature of that city I can think of offhand.
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Los Angeles is a spectacular environment for aviation. Great VFR (visual flight rules) weather, lots of airports and gorgeous scenery.
Jul '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
George Savage: Los Angeles is a spectacular environment for aviation. Great VFR (visual flight rules) weather, lots of airports and gorgeous scenery. · Apr 30 at 2:09pm
Probably looks better when you're flying away.
Jun '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Kenneth
George Savage: Los Angeles is a spectacular environment for aviation. Great VFR (visual flight rules) weather, lots of airports and gorgeous scenery. · Apr 30 at 2:09pm
Probably looks better when you're flying away. · Apr 30 at 2:36pm
Tough crowd!
Jun '10
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Cas Balicki
Kenneth
Probably looks better when you're flying away. · Apr 30 at 2:36pm
Tough crowd! · Apr 30 at 3:35pm
Flying into the city at night you can see the lights of LA disappear over the curvature of the Earth. My thought at the time: "In a catastrophe no one gets out alive."
Feb '11
Re: Who Dares Defend L.A.?
Good grief! What a bunch of cranks!
I love living in LA. It has more people than many countries, which gives it the density needed for lots of business opportunities. The weather is fantastic. There is every food genre imaginable and more entertainment options than you can ever make time for.
The politics, of course, are dreadful. I live in Waxman’s district.
But the bottom line is that property is more expensive here than anywhere other than NY. That means that most people who live here could live elsewhere and don’t. The reverse is not true.
Kenneth: “You are what you drive and who you sleep with.”
You’re right. I drive a blue Schwinn and sleep with my wife.