Welcome to the ultimate American dream, Los Angeles, the city where millions of people come to realize their dreams. Eventually a few hundred make it big time, slightly bigger share are doing ok and ‘living the dream’ in the entertainment industry, but the rest end up working in restaurants, bars and doing other handy-jobs waiting and hoping for their big moment to come, as an actress, writer, model etc, and it is very obvious to which group a person belongs to.
If you walk down the Hollywood or Sunset boulevard, you’d think LA has the highest rate of crazies per capita (made up from people who ‘did not make it’), the chances are that most people you see on the streets will be weird in one way or another, cross dressers, homeless, old hippies, grandma dressed as schoolgirl, you name it, it’s all there. The trick is that nobody actually walks in LA, everyone drives, so the only ones walking down the street are tourists from Europe or locals that are off the grid.
Talking about driving, I experienced it first had, when we rented a car, getting out of town in rush hour can be tricky, we got stuck on 12 lane high way for almost 2 hours. But that’s ok, I don’t mind, LA is all about extremes, from top to bottom, celebrity villas in Hollywood hills vs gangs of South East LA, that’s what the town is all about.
One of my favourite movies (Crash) depicts LA perfectly: “It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.”
Another one is with bad boy Tom Cruise (in Collateral): “17 million people. This is got to be the fifth biggest economy in the world and nobody knows each other. I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he’s riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.”
Ok, enough with the movie quotes, here’s a quick photo shoot that I managed to do in LA, thanks to my lovely couch-surfing hosts, Veronica and Ryan.
Posts Tagged 'city'
Hollywood
Published January 22, 2011 Life , Photography , Travel 2 CommentsTags: city, crazies, driving, hollywood, la, los angeles, photoshoot, rtw, Travel, us
Taste of Balkans
Published September 29, 2009 Travel Leave a CommentTags: Balkans, belgrade, city, kosovo, photo, sarajevo, Travel
I recently returned from 2 week trip around Balkan countries, mostly ex-Yugoslavia. I’ve posted some updates during the trip (with no photos). So here are some more nooks and crannies from this adventure as well as links to some pictures.
In 14 days I managed to squeeze in 7 official countries and one almost country (Kosovo). Starting in Ljubljana I linked to Zagreb, then Belgrade, down to Kosovo, Skopje, followed with nightmare ride to Tirana (read post ‘Sprinter’). From there I went along the coast of Montenegro, then Sarajevo and back to Zagreb. If you look on the map its a nice little round trip. No one would advise to do all this in two weeks (including me), I could have easily spent those two weeks in any of the lovely Balkan country. But I saw this trip as a quick intro to the region, sniffing the Balkan air, and that, believe me, I did in full.
Sarajevo and its bullet holes was really interesting experience. Bosnia historically has had as bad luck as Baltics, but its great to see that Sarajevo has bounced back into action, erasing most (not all) scars from the 90`s. The same goes for Belgrade. When talking to Serbs I see a lot in common with Russians, from another ‘ex-super power’ state that have not yet fully accepted the reality of 21st century. Most people are extremely nice in Serbia, at the same time I had this thought in the back of my had that the same people who are now walking the dogs in the park and leisurely drinking coffee, just 15 years ago the same people took to the guns and all but annihilated their closest neighbours.
This picture of punched up mannequin describes Kosovo really well. Despite some smart outfits and shiny cars, it still has lots of restoration to do to establish the basics.
I’d like to add that my trip was not all doom and gloom, I had some nice chilled days by the cost of Montenegro, which is just as good as South of France, the same Mediterranean sun and sea, only cheaper.
As for Croatia and Slovenia, yes, they are really nice, but just so dull, it could be anywhere in Western Europe, with plenty of smart cafes and tourists in white pleated shorts. I rather choose Kosovo.
Here’s a link to full set of pictures from the Balkan trip.
Big in Japan
Published August 12, 2009 Travel Leave a CommentTags: big, city, crime, japan, sushi, tokyo, Travel
I’m 6ft5in (just shy of 2m) so upon visiting Japan I expected to feel like a giant. How wrong I was, I fit in perfectly, nothing was too small, everything was just right, tatami was long enough, sushi portions were filling and seats on trains had plenty of leg room. Clever Japanese engineers have thought about all freaks of nature. Ok, I have to confess I did not go cloth shopping.
Another thing that struck me in Tokyo (the mega metropolis of the world) was total obliviousness of potential street crime – the wallets were out there, the bikes were unlocked etc. Latest teen fashion was over sized Louis Vuitton wallets, size of woman’s hand bags, that teenage boys stuck half way in the back pockets of their jeans. Pretty much in any other big city in the world huge wallet hanging half way out would be an invitation for a thief to snatch it, not so in Tokyo, it was just another fashion craze that everyone followed.
And it is not that expensive either, despite its image stuck with Japan (read Tokyo) from the ’80. Yes, you can have excellent Michelin starred meal for €100 a head, but it is just as easy to find excellent sushi bar and eat for less than €10. The same goes for accommodation, I stayed in lovely single room just outside centre for €25 a night, I’d be hard pressed to find equal bargain in London.
Finally, tidy streets, uber polite people and efficient everything was like a music to my ears. Too bad its all on the island in the middle of Pacific Ocean, where everyone speaks only Japanese and working 16h a day for 35 years in one company is a norm.
Full photo set from Japan can be seen here.
