Illusions!

First of all, let me say that my spider bite has healed up nicely, and I thank you all for your concern. On Friday Katie and I drove Tracy and her friends to the train station so they could spend the weekend in San Diego. That was an adventure in itself! It will be a little quieter and a lot less fun without her this weekend, but I'm sure she'll have a good time. On the way home, we got to see the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is a truly fascinating architectural marvel. I would like to see it up close during the day, rather than at night from a moving car. Just the same it was all lit up and still very spectacular.

On Saturday night, Katie and I went to a movie theater on Hollywood Boulevard to see Disney's 'Cinderella' on the big screen. As part of a celebration to commemorate the release on DVD they were showing the film in the El Capitan movie house, which is left over from the golden age of film. It is a movie house in every sense of the word: it only has one screen, a balcony, intricate gilded wood carvings on the ceiling and walls, and a host of ushers scurrying around in the dark with flashlights like maniac fireflies. It is right across the street from the famous Mann's Chinese Theater, which looks exactly like the one at MGM in Orlando and the Kodak Theatre, which is where they hold the Academy Awards and various other grand celebrations. Katie knows that movie by heart, but it was only my second time seeing it, so we had a pretty good time.

What is it about famous cities and their landmarks that they are never as spectacular as they look on post cards or on TV? When you hear "Hollywood Boulevard" you think about everything that is glamorous and beautiful about Hollywood. It is, after all, where the stars have their names on stars in the sidewalk. But to actually walk down Hollywood Boulevard, you see tattoo parlors, adult bookstores, and clothing stores with the svelte stripper in mind. Lucille Ball's star is in front of a McDonald's, and Mister Roger's star (that's actually how its written) is in front of a shoe store where the boots are thigh high and the heels are six inches at least and every imaginable shade of pink. There were at least 12 such stores in a 4 block walk, which begs the question: how many trashy shoe stores do you really need on one road in one city? This is exactly what happened to Times Square in New York; until Guilliani came to office it was nothing but nudie clubs and shady dives. The solution was to raise property taxes so now the only businesses that can afford locations in Times Square are those with extremely deep pockets. I suppose it is only a matter of time before that happens here.

But I digress. The idea of a grand movie palace being right next to a lingerie shop is a theme I have found throughout Hollywood and L.A. at large. There is no one particular area that is the Hollywood of the imagination. Everything in this city is designed to look good from one angle, but if you look at the big picture, it really isn't that exotic or fascinating. Katie says that's why a lot of the movie stars choose to live elsewhere. I think it's all just a cleverly packaged illusion.