We Love LA!

The most common piece of information we received about Southern California is that "no one walks anywhere" and while we can't really confirm or deny that, we can say that it seems like everyone has a car (and 1 out of every 7 or 8 has a vanity license plate) and that walking any type of distance is not so common.

My cousin Josh David grew up in NYC and moved out to LA a few years back. He loves it in LA and we understand why, though he does say that he misses having people on the sidewalk with him on the few occasions when he walks, and we saw what he meant.

He's also a talented writer and is currently on the staff of FoxSports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."  Thanks to him, we had front row seats for last Tuesday's taping. While we thought the actual content of the show wasn't so strong (except for the piece written by Josh, of course), we were extremely impressed by this 'behind the scenes' look at what is involved in putting a TV show on the air. Furthermore, as it is a 24/7 cable sports network, there's round the clock activity, which gives the building (where Rupert Murdoch's office is as well) a sense of motion.

As for the show, the raw number of people who are required- and we didn't even see most of them-show you that when people talk about the entertainment industry, it really is an industry. Camera and light people, stage people, people to move the furniture, writers, a guy to manage the applause for the audience, hair and make-up people, and my personal favorite, the woman whose job it is to remove the lint with one of those sticky rollers from the clothes of the show's stars.

We further investigated the entertainment industry as Josh gave us a tour of the studio. He told us that almost every studio has a "New York" street (Fox uses theirs to film NYPD Blue which they sell to ABC) and which looks like the real thing. Of course, if you open any of the doors, you see nothing but wood and support beams for the fake facades. The scenes are so real, right down to the NYC yellow taxicab and the trashcans.

They also have massive, warehouse-like buildings where sets are constructed for movies which the studios make. But, to be honest, Fox's didn't really compare to what we saw the next day on the lots of Universal Studios.  Part of Universal City, which may even have its own mayor, if I recall correctly, is truly a city unto itself. Universal Studios provides a healthclub, a hospital, a dry cleaner, multiple restaurants, and many other amenities, as well as housing the offices for many famous producers/directors, among them Steven Spielberg.

We were guests of Marc Guggenheim, a writer on one of our favorite shows, NBC's "Law and Order." We lunched with him and two other writers discussing some of our favorite episodes and tried to understand the business of entertainment, which they (as well as Josh the day before) described as very difficult to enter and very difficult to stay in.  Though the industry produces a lot of entertainment, it really sounds like a relatively small clique of people who work together over time.

We heard about how you break in as a drama writer. You should write a sample show for a show on which you don't want to work. For example, you'd like to write for 'ER', send the writers of 'ER' a sample show for another drama.
The idea being that the writers of ER will see the immediate flaws, no matter how small, in a script for their own show, but will appreciate good writing if done for a different show. So, there you have it, for all of the aspiring writers out there.

Universal Studios' lots and sets are absolutely massive. We got into a golf cart with Marc and traveled around, waving to the tourists on the 'regular'
tour, giving them the impression that we were famous, but friendly, Hollywood stars (or at least writers). We saw where Psycho was filmed (I got out and took a picture in front of the Bates Motel sign), JAWS who came shooting out of the lagoon, how Hollywood creates thunderstorms and flashfloods in a special lagoon area, and our personal favorite, the huge concrete tub with blue screen (onto which any image can be projected for effect), where the capsule from Apollo 13, among other things, crashed into the ocean. When it's not in use for water, they build regular sets there, or as we were told in the case of Paramount Studios, they use it as a parking lot. Imagine coming to work one day to find your space underwater.  Speaking of parking spaces, the big perk on the Universal lot seems to be having your own. If you're a star, that's where you want to be.

These sets, though, I'll tell you, when we watch a movie, we just have no clue about how much work has gone into it. The location, the set design, the fake trees made out of rubber and located on wheels so they can be easily transported around the studio, the materials, the design, the location. I really have a much greater appreciation for Hollywood as a serious business than simply a place that turns out mindless drivel. At least the drivel had to have some thought go into it.

Lest you think all we did in LA was schmooze with the powerbrokers at the various studios, we also hit some other highlights, including Venice Beach, which has a magnificent boardwalk with a lot of activity and I think may be the pott smoking capital of California, for reasons I can provide later, if you are really interested.

We took a nice romantic walk on the beach as the sun was setting and appreciated the completion of our first trip across the continent.

The Getty Museum is built on a hilltop in West Los Angeles and which requires a tram to reach from the parking lot.

The thing that struck me most about the museum was the full-scale dedication of the museum to its stated mission of, paraphrased, "bringing art to the masses.'

First of all, the museum itself is an architectural marvel, with stones imported from Italy covering the entire façade and which add to the light, airy feeling that the designers had in mind. Each room is naturally lit through skylights, so that you are viewing the works in much the same way that the creators and original owners did.  There are five different permanent exhibitions, including French furniture, sculpture, and painting from the 17th-19th centuries and there is no admission fee.  Furthermore, there are free guided tours given by Art History Ph.D. students.  We took one focusing on Italian and Dutch paintings from 1600-1800.

The Dutch, because of the growing and prosperous burgher class as a result of the maritime successes of the country and the Reformation replaced the Catholic Church as the primary patron of the struggling artists, so it was about this time that the themes altered from religious scenes, which the Church used for advertising essentially to themes which invoked the Protestant work ethic.

Once upon a time, I would have tried to visit every room in the museum in an effort to "see it all" and as a result would have seen nothing. Now, I take the approach that, "you can't see it all, so just see one or two things that are valuable and move on."

That's really been an overriding effort of our trip because the country is just so large and we only have so much time (we have to be back in DC by Nov. 7th so Tamar can go to an Israeli Folk Dance camp). There are those who say "oh, I can't believe you missed X" but we just recognize that this journey, like life itself, requires making choices and selection.

While on the subject of Israeli dancing, I should say that LA was a major destination for Tamar, as her belief was that it would provide non-stop opportunities for her to dance and the lack of practice the last few weeks had been an annoyance for her.  You have to understand, and she will never tell you this, but she is truly 'world class' when it comes to this line of dance, so the lack of opportunity to do something she loves was a problem.

Unfortunately, the city did not live up to its billing. Some of the sessions she had planned to attend had been cancelled and the others, while fun, did not have the high quality for which she had hoped.  Nonetheless, she was thrilled to see some familiar faces and get  a chance to exercise her legs.

Speaking of familiar faces, they kept on coming as we continued our sojourn in the "Land of People We Know."

We had a wonderful visit with my old JHU pal, Aaron Tapper, a Wexner Fellow studying comparative religion at the UC-Santa Barbara.  Here's a guy who's studied in Jerusalem and Cairo, Cambridge and Damascus, Morocco and California. So interesting and a great host.

As for great hosts, we would be remiss if we did not thank the Meisel Family of Beverly Hills, with whom we share common relatives through the Lennon's of Chicago. For five nights, they gave shelter and other amenities to Tamar and me. (I actually flew back to Washington, DC on Thursday and returned to LA on Sunday for a job interview. Tamar met me at LAX and we immediately drove to Las Vegas, but that's the next email.)

They actually invited us to eat with them on more than one occasion, but if you keep kosher and are ever in Los Angeles, you must see Pico Blvd. (near Robertson). For my money, it is the best street of kosher restaurants anywhere in the world. When we drove down the street, after so many weeks on the road, all I could say was "we have reached the promised land."

Promised land or not, we are definitely in a special period in our lives.
Now that our trip is more than half over and we've started eastward again in the long road home, I feel a strange sense of longing or nostalgia for the beginning of our trip.  I did my best to appreciate every moment and I still think that I didn't do it enough. I can't believe that this time has come already and it's almost done.  For me, though, the key is to stay focused on being present at all times and enjoy the ride, because it's the journey, not the destination and if you think about it, the journey is really made up of many destinations.

This journey's next destination is: Las Vegas

Here are a few of the reader comments from the last email which I'd like to share.

Michael Cooperman writes:
"Marion Davies was the name of WR Hearst's girlfriend for the last 30 years of his life. Citizen Kane was directly based on Hearst's life.  It's actually very intereting that the movie was ever made and released in the first place given the fact that Hearst had so much clout in Hollywood, and was no fan of Orson Welles.

Dina Epstein adds:
At the time that Citizen Kane came out, it was widely rumored that Orson Welles based it upon Hearst.  It was basically a fictionalized biopic based on Hearst. Also, the similarities with their wives--both had wannabe actress wives for whom they bought theaters and nightclubs.  There are a million similarities.  It is not very disguised.  The more you learn about the movie and the mogul, the more you realize they are the same.  Even the castle itself.  But in CK it is called Xanadu, from the poem, which begins "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree..."  That is something for you to research--why Welles chose the name Xanadu for the castle.

Gil Kezwer adds the foreign perspective:
No doubt the U.S. is the world's great power, and its culture affects the entire world. I'm always surprised by American parochialism.

You write:

"In San Francisco, you can't smoke in ANY bar or restaurant. In Santa Barbara, houses can only be a certain height and I believe they must all have those red tiles on the roof (or maybe just everyone likes it). In Venice Beach, there's a similar zoning law against buildings…. And In Beverly Hills, you can't park on the street overnight."

But that's the way it is in many First World places.

In Toronto smoking is now banned in all restaurants, with bars to follow in a few years.

In Jerusalem all buildings must have stone cladding.

And in Toronto you cannot park overnight on the streets without a permit - a form of car taxation.

Kevin Epstein:
It's not just San Francisco, you can't smoke in any restaurant in California.  I'm always surprised when I go to a restaurant in another state and they ask me "smoking or non."  What kind of state allows people to smoke in a restaurant?