While in L.A. we did a tour of their most popular sites such as Venice Beach and Hollywood. I won’t say that I was disappointed in seeing these two places but let’s just say that they didn’t live up to my expectations. Remember too, I always try to keep my expectations low so this really is saying something.
Let’s start with Venice Beach where our tour guide gave us 45 minutes to roam around and check things out. That may have been about 30 minutes too long.
In the movies and T-V scenes Venice Beach is usually pictured as a bustling and vibrant place and don’t get me wrong, that it was. But in the movies and T-V it tends to look a little better than it does when you see it up close and personal. There is a great beach and it is a great place for people watching. However, those pluses don’t offset its overall grittiness and the number of homeless, panhandling nere-do-wells seemingly everywhere you turn. We strolled around awhile but in general it depressed me and made me feel very old. I thought somewhat ruefully to myself that there was a time when this would have been my kind of place and yet now I couldn’t wait to get the hell outta there and back on the tour bus.
Hollywood too was another disillusionment. Tinseltown it definitely wasn’t. The neighborhood itself appeared to be run down and raggedy and the whole Hollywood Boulevard scene was nothing but a crowded mess. Sort of like a poor man’s Times Square without any of the amenities.
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| Caitie and Brady Heading Towards Walk of Fame |
However, I did locate one highlight (low light?) worth commenting on – the Trumpster’s star on the Walk of Fame. As you may have heard, Trump’s star was recently damaged by someone who took a pick ax to it and destroyed it. Here is my photo of how it now appears on the Walk of Fame.
As you can see, it is kind of messy and scuffed up – sort of like Trump and his Presidency. Note too, that someone has written SAD on it and I’m assuming that it was a supporter of his commenting on the fact that his star was destroyed as such. Then again I could make a case that it was just another commentary on him and his Presidency in general. (A third interpretation could be that it stood for Seasonal Affect Disorder which may also have some relevance to our current state of affairs.)
Bottom line though, it sort of summarized the whole Hollywood visit for me – lots of hustle and bustle but really nothing of value to be seen nor had.
Returning to the bus and stuck in traffic, Morrison’s mixed feelings and words to L.A. Woman came back to me about him “driving thru your suburbs into your blues…. cops in cars and topless bars, never saw a woman look so alone.” I now see what he meant.