Comments on: Good things about Los Angeles

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:30:09 +0000

Anyone mentioned easy access to sex and drugs and rock and roll?

By: engels

engels — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:09:19 +0000

Turning right on a red light?

By: Ozzie Maland

Ozzie Maland — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:57:04 +0000

Excerpt from Ask Oxford:
What is the origin of the word ‘posh’?
The story goes that the more well-to-do passengers travelling to and from India used to have POSH written against their bookings, standing for ‘Port Out, Starboard Home’ (indicating the more
desirable cabins, on the shady side of the ship). Unfortunately, this story did not make its appearance until the 1930s, when the term had been in use for some twenty years, and the word does not appear to have been recorded in the form ‘P.O.S.H.’, which would be expected if it had originated as an abbreviation. Despite exhaustive enquiries by the late Mr George Chowdharay-Best, researcher for the OED, including interviews with former travellers and inspection of shipping company documents, no supporting evidence has been found.
[end excerpt]

I lived in the Boston area seven years, the Chicago area twenty-eight years, and So Cal (San Diego) the last eighteen—So Cal has my vote for being the POSH place: Porsche out, starlet home. If you get this far, be sure to visit Cabrillo National Monument, the La Jolla Cove, and the Hotel Del Coronado. The famed zoo, the Wild Animal Park (better than the zoo), and Sea World are for kids, as is Legoland up in Carlsbad.—Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego

By: Lisa Spangenberg

Lisa Spangenberg — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:54:40 +0000

I’m about to leave L.A., after 22 years, for Seattle.

Good things: Santa Monica—home of El Cholo, and the best margaritas, ever, and lovely mexican food, the Wednesday farmer’s Market on the third st. promenade, especially Harry’s Berries for strawberries, and John Tennerelli Orchards for peaches, nectarines.

Elsewhere—the Getty, and the Huntington. The UCLA Graduate Research Library. O’Brien’s on Wilshire for Irish Breakfast, and the best Irish coffee in the county (best ever is at the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco). Homemade tortillas and tomatillo and cheese salsa at Casablanca on Lincoln near Rose.

I know, I really do, that I’ll find wonderful places and people in Seattle—maybe even used bookstores—but I’ll miss Santa Monica, and UCLA, a lot.

By: Mantooth

Mantooth — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:05:20 +0000

I came out there several years ago for work (academia) and left after two years because I hated it so badly, for all the predictable reasons. But I did find some things that I really have missed. Hollywood Farmer’s Market on Sunday mornings is fantastic. Restaurants in general are very good, and the good ones are great. The beach south of the Ballona Canal/Marina del Rey is nice and underused, and the Ballona Canal bike path is wonderful. Topanga State Park is surprisingly close and isolated, and Joshua Tree is of course a highlight. Amoeba Records is huge and has good in-store performances. LACMA and the tar pits; Larchmont on a weekend morning; the downtown library. There’s a little area near Olympic and Wilshire, Vermont and Western where Oaxaca meets Seoul and Fujian—just a crazy place with a genuine street life. East of downtown is interesting as well, in the old Chicano East L.A. markets. And the best dim sum in the world is just east of the city in Monterey Park and Alhambra, where you can go before hitting the track at Santa Anita.

By: Demosthenes

Demosthenes — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:18:40 +0000

Sounding like something from SWPL is not something to be ashamed of. At this point, that guy’s gone all the way to South Park-style self-parody.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:07:52 +0000

Dan Simon, it’s not comedy. I really would have preferred Astana to Los Angeles, at least for the first few months.

By: thompsaj

thompsaj — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:52:22 +0000

Silverlake, Echo Park and Highland Park are pretty neat neighborhoods filled with the aforementioned murals, and the indie rock scene is centered on the east side- there’s famous small venues like The Echo, Spaceland, and Silverlake Lounge. HP has a pretty good farmers market on Tuesday. Also well connected to downtown by the gold line train, which I’ve been riding for free lately and no one’s ever asked me for my ticket. They’re actually more walkable and bikeable than LA’s reputation would lead you to expect.

By: Kenny Easwaran

Kenny Easwaran — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:29:48 +0000

Re: 2 – I’m also a vegetarian, but I like In’n’Out too. Although the menu doesn’t list anything vegetarian other than fries and shakes, you can order a “grilled cheese sandwich”, which is their cheeseburger without any meat. Still got the cheese, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and whatever their special sauce is. And from what I hear their ingredients are actually rather fresh and good, unlike other fast food.

Thanks for this post, since I’ll be moving to LA in January and want to know what some more good things about it are. But as someone said, so far it seems Santa Monica/Westwood-centered, whereas I’m probably hoping to live closer to downtown or silverlake.

One thing people haven’t mentioned which I found interesting when visiting my parents down in Orange County at some point is that if you go a bit south (perhaps the town is actually Artesia rather than LA proper?) at Pioneer Blvd and about 186th st, there’s all of a sudden about five blocks with excellent Indian food, clothing, music, and other stores in a neighborhood that seems to be otherwise largely Korean. I had a very nice dinner at one of the chaat places there just before heading to the airport a few weeks ago.

By: mds

mds — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:38:15 +0000

I suspect that I would agree with Delicious Pundit and sara about the quality of the light and the sky, since among things I loved growing up in southern Arizona were the sharpness of the light, the intensity of the sky, especially at dawn or dusk.

And sara:

But the sky, my lady, the sky!

If only there were a way to perform the secret Ken MacLeod handshake online…

By: JE

JE — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:23:40 +0000

The commenters seem to be relatively young, live on the Westside and have limited vision. I have very mixed views of LA, having lived here for twenty-four years (I still miss rain) but to be fair, you must consider:
1) if you are not afraid of none-white people with limited English the food in LA is the best in the country with partial concessions to NYC. Contact me for restaurant recommendations, but you are going to have to go east of La Cienega. Ethnic correction – outstanding Italian, Armenian, Hungarian and Greek food here as well.
2) This is a capital of the Pacific Rim. You have to look for the signs of it, but you won’t find any in Westwood. If you have some understanding of slow change this place is fascinating. The amount of Chinese “flight capital” not to mention immigration staggers the mind. I will take you around if you want.
3) The spontaneous unplanned cultural mixing, borrowing and matching is unbelievable here and arguably historically unprecedented but you have to go east of La Cienega or south of the 10 to see it.
4) There is serious theater, literature and art here, but you have to know where to look for it. The LA Times is dead but doesn’t know it yet.
5) Go surfing and reflect on your statements.

By: sara

sara — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:49:02 +0000

I lived there for a year with no car, so it’s damn inconvenient to get around the city by bus. Neighborhoods, even commercial ones, often have a low-density quality that is frustrating for pedestrians.

But the sky, my lady, the sky!

Especially at sunset with palm trees silhouetted against it.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:31:57 +0000

By far the best thing about Los Angeles is the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes.

http://www.mjt.org/

By: FMguru

FMguru — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:35:21 +0000

1) The Big Blue Bus system (as seen in SPEED!). Limited range, but if you live in the UCLA/Santa Monica/Venice area, you can get by with only limited access to a car. Cheap and reliable.
2) KCRW, the finest radio station on the West Coast (streaming live on the internet, hooray!).
3) The shopping. There’s weird stores and swap meets and markets and ethnic enclaves for just about everything you might be interested in.
4) As mentioned above, bicycling/roller-blading from Malibu to LAX and back along the beach trail.
5) In-N-Out. Best chain burger joint anywhere, and just one of LA’s surprisingly long list of notable hamburger restaurants.
6) The Industry. Again, in West LA, it’s just a part of life, even if you don’t work for it directly (or indirectly). Nothing like having the radio tell you to prepare for delays passing through downtown because the streets are blocked for the Oscars.
7) The music scene. Every act, big or small, comes through LA at some point on just about every tour.
8) Architecture. LA has its own gifts to architecture, from awesome things like the whole Googie diner design aesthetic to terrible things, like the “dingbat” apartment and the two-story mini-mall (with little wall in front and underground parking accessable via a 45-degree ramp.)

The weather isn’t so great, particularly in the Valley, where it gets beastly hot, or inland where all the smog blows. San Diego and the Bay Area have it better in that regard.

By: anonymous37

anonymous37 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:26:52 +0000

The art museums are great—better than SF (but second-rate compared to NY and Chicago). The Getty and LACMA are pretty solid institutions. The symphony is better than SF (and also not as good as Chicago and NY).