Subscribe
In this town people who had never had money before were suddenly truly rich, and they didn’t care what they paid for the things they wanted. Rolls-Royce did better here than in India in the days of the Raj. And money was pouring in from all over the world, as old regimes collapsed. In a few years Los Angeles was going to be the most expensive – and corrupt and dangerous – city on the face of the earth.
from Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe 1979
It’s more or less Monday in LA. Interesting weekend and the week is shaping up pretty well. Lots of new people to meet. Slightly rocky start when I got into my hotel room and decided that a new one was in order seeing as I wasn’t here to shoot a porn movie or hang out near the pool. Lovely concierge by the name of Jessica suggested I check out one of the fourth floor suites and passed me a key card. On opening the door I was greeted by a framed photo of the Rat Pack and was happily surprised to find each wall displaying a poster or photograph of Sinatra and co.
Seeing as I’m here because of my own Ocean’s 11-in-space it would have seemed churlish not to take the room.
I’m listening to a lot of John Zorn to dilute the Vegas vibe and the mini bar has remained closed.
Haven’t had a chance to use my camera yet, but when looking on Flickr for photos of the hotel I found the one above taken by someone I know on Twitter. It’s a small world and Hollywood is well trodden.
The quote is taken from the novel that was later adapted into the screenplay for Die Hard. I’ll be swinging by Nakatomi plaza later this week.
Two conversations I’ve had say a lot about the city. The first was with a homeless guy (Dave) who stopped me to talk about music after he clocked my Dead Kennedys shirt – a genuine and warm conversation about the failures of punk rock and why it doesn’t matter. The second was with a music executive (let’s call him Ellis) who gushed about the music station whose logo is on the shirt I wore this evening – I didn’t let on that KAB RADIO 1340 was the station from John Carpenter’s The Fog, but did mention how happy I was that they had bounced back after ‘the incident’ in 1980.
City of angles…
And the terrorists were over-zealous, But it was sweet when they killed Ellis!
Photo credit: from the floor by iced soul (CC license)
“I didn’t let on that KAB RADIO 1340 was the station from John Carpenter’s The Fog, but did mention how happy I was that they had bounced back after ‘the incident’ in 1980.”
Brilliant.