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April 25, 2012
rollogrady: Advice on moving to Los Angeles - ByDerek Sivers 2012-04-24 Someone moving to Los Angeles asked my advice. Here it is: I lived in LA from 2002 to 2009 and loved it. There are a few things to understand: It’s not really a city. Not long ago, it was just a bunch of small towns: Venice, Pasadena, Burbank, Encino, Beverly Hills - but then for tax reasons they drew a circle around about 30 small towns and decided to call it Los Angeles. So if you go just understanding it’s a bunch of adjacent towns, each quite different in character, and don’t go expecting a city, then it won’t be so frustrating. When someone says they hate LA, you have to ask, “Which neighborhood?” Because Santa Monica is not like Silverlake is not like Van Nuys is not like Hollywood, but they’re all inside that circle called LA. It’s completely de-centralized. (And “downtown” is just another neighborhood. Most people never go there.) Americans are already quite individualist, but Los Angeles is the most individualist part of America. Because so many people are employed by the entertainment industry, most people are self-employed freelancers. They’re very focused on themselves. People talk about themselves a lot because they feel they have to, for survival, for self-promotion.Just as you can’t fault anyone in the world for doing something for survival, try not to fault them for being so self-promotional. Learn to lovingly listen like you’d listen to an 8-year-old who excitedly tells you about their train set for an hour. You know you need a car, but you also need to use it to go exploring, the way you’d randomly choose to go on a walk in London to an area you don’t walk much, just turning down streets that interest you. Do this in your car, and stop and get out in different places that seem interesting. Most of the best parts of LA are on little side-streets you’d never run across. Avoid the highways and take the backroads, for this reason. (Get GPS so you can always do this fearlessly.) Find Little Tokyo, Topanga Canyon, Eagle Rock, etc. Get into nature often. Go hiking up in the hills. Go hiking in Will Rogers State Park in Pacfic Palisades, the beach in Malibu. East to Palm Springs, etc. It’s all so close. Every culture values different things. In some places, it’s your bloodline. In others, your university. In others, it’s where you live. In LA, it’s who you know. Since the entertainment industry is all about short-term projects, everyone survives by their next project, and these projects always come from a connection. So everyone is collecting contacts. (Again: it’s survival.) Friendships are pragmatic and often short. Don’t fault them for talking about who they know, the same way you wouldn’t fault someone from India asking about your family. Introducing people to each other, people who could potentially work together, is the most valuable thing you can do, as it raises your value and theirs. LA people want (NEED!) to have powerful well-connected friends, to survive and thrive. Not just LA but California is the most optimistic place on earth. The side-effects of this can confuse outsiders. When you say, “Will you come to my event?” or, “Want to help with this project?” - they will almost always say yes, full of enthusiasm, and actually 100% sincere, fully intending to be there, to help, whatever. They honestly and optimistically think that they will be there and do it. They have the best of intentions. But when it actually comes to that time, and they’ve optimistically said “yes!” to a dozen other things too, or perhaps they’re just nestled in the comfort of their California home, then… well… they reluctantly “flake” - and won’t follow through. Don’t get bitter and write them off as fake, or backstabbers. Just understand that it’s a side-effect of sincere optimism, and adjust your expectations accordingly. As with any place, if you really want to experience it, don’t just sneer and condemn it, dive in and live it like a local. (Everyone is from somewhere else anyway, so you’re just as local as they are, now.) Drive around the different neighborhoods. Be totally optimistic. Aim to meet as many people as possible, and get something out of your short-lived friendships. Introduce them to each other. Have lots and lots of lunches, and enjoy the conversations. Go to the beach and hike in the hills. It may feel fake, but faking it is fine. (Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “You are whatever you pretend to be.”) If you throw yourself into it whole-heartedly for a while, you’ll learn something useful from it, and have it as a great life experience, as you go back to whatever culture feels a better fit for the real you. This is pretty accurate, especially Number 1!!  I wouldn’t say though that people, in general, talk about themselves all the time.

rollogrady:

Advice on moving to Los Angeles - ByDerek Sivers

2012-04-24

Someone moving to Los Angeles asked my advice. Here it is:

I lived in LA from 2002 to 2009 and loved it. There are a few things to understand:

  1. It’s not really a city. Not long ago, it was just a bunch of small towns: Venice, Pasadena, Burbank, Encino, Beverly Hills - but then for tax reasons they drew a circle around about 30 small towns and decided to call it Los Angeles. So if you go just understanding it’s a bunch of adjacent towns, each quite different in character, and don’t go expecting a city, then it won’t be so frustrating. When someone says they hate LA, you have to ask, “Which neighborhood?” Because Santa Monica is not like Silverlake is not like Van Nuys is not like Hollywood, but they’re all inside that circle called LA. It’s completely de-centralized. (And “downtown” is just another neighborhood. Most people never go there.)
  2. Americans are already quite individualist, but Los Angeles is the most individualist part of America. Because so many people are employed by the entertainment industry, most people are self-employed freelancers. They’re very focused on themselves. People talk about themselves a lot because they feel they have to, for survival, for self-promotion.Just as you can’t fault anyone in the world for doing something for survival, try not to fault them for being so self-promotional. Learn to lovingly listen like you’d listen to an 8-year-old who excitedly tells you about their train set for an hour.
  3. You know you need a car, but you also need to use it to go exploring, the way you’d randomly choose to go on a walk in London to an area you don’t walk much, just turning down streets that interest you. Do this in your car, and stop and get out in different places that seem interesting. Most of the best parts of LA are on little side-streets you’d never run across. Avoid the highways and take the backroads, for this reason. (Get GPS so you can always do this fearlessly.) Find Little Tokyo, Topanga Canyon, Eagle Rock, etc.
  4. Get into nature often. Go hiking up in the hills. Go hiking in Will Rogers State Park in Pacfic Palisades, the beach in Malibu. East to Palm Springs, etc. It’s all so close.
  5. Every culture values different things. In some places, it’s your bloodline. In others, your university. In others, it’s where you live. In LA, it’s who you know. Since the entertainment industry is all about short-term projects, everyone survives by their next project, and these projects always come from a connection. So everyone is collecting contacts. (Again: it’s survival.) Friendships are pragmatic and often short. Don’t fault them for talking about who they know, the same way you wouldn’t fault someone from India asking about your family. Introducing people to each other, people who could potentially work together, is the most valuable thing you can do, as it raises your value and theirs. LA people want (NEED!) to have powerful well-connected friends, to survive and thrive.
  6. Not just LA but California is the most optimistic place on earth. The side-effects of this can confuse outsiders. When you say, “Will you come to my event?” or, “Want to help with this project?” - they will almost always say yes, full of enthusiasm, and actually 100% sincere, fully intending to be there, to help, whatever. They honestly and optimistically think that they will be there and do it. They have the best of intentions. But when it actually comes to that time, and they’ve optimistically said “yes!” to a dozen other things too, or perhaps they’re just nestled in the comfort of their California home, then… well… they reluctantly “flake” - and won’t follow through. Don’t get bitter and write them off as fake, or backstabbers. Just understand that it’s a side-effect of sincere optimism, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

As with any place, if you really want to experience it, don’t just sneer and condemn it, dive in and live it like a local. (Everyone is from somewhere else anyway, so you’re just as local as they are, now.) Drive around the different neighborhoods. Be totally optimistic. Aim to meet as many people as possible, and get something out of your short-lived friendships. Introduce them to each other. Have lots and lots of lunches, and enjoy the conversations. Go to the beach and hike in the hills.

It may feel fake, but faking it is fine. (Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “You are whatever you pretend to be.”) If you throw yourself into it whole-heartedly for a while, you’ll learn something useful from it, and have it as a great life experience, as you go back to whatever culture feels a better fit for the real you.

This is pretty accurate, especially Number 1!!  I wouldn’t say though that people, in general, talk about themselves all the time.

Quote
December 27, 2011
“I love Los Angeles. I know a lot of people go there and they see just a huge sprawl of sameness. But when you’re there for a while, you realize that each section has its own mood. The golden age of cinema is still alive there, in the smell of jasmine at night and the beautiful weather. And the light is inspiring and energizing. Even with smog, there’s something about that light that’s not harsh, but bright and smooth. It fills me with the feeling that all possibilities are available. I don’t know why. It’s different from the light in other places. The light in Philadelphia, even in the summer, is not nearly as bright. It was the light that brought everybody to L.A. to make films in the early days. It’s still a beautiful place.”

—

David Lynch, Catching The Big Fish (via bbook)

That third line is what I tell people all the time when they say that L.A. is all superficial. Only parts of it are, guys, and you can avoid those.

(Source: moresoulthanasockwithahole, via latimes)

Quote
September 01, 2011
“I was the least likely tipped for success. Every band I knew or played with had flyers and properly-recorded demos and contacts; I couldn’t even get a gig. Even when “Loser” came out, I would try to talk bookers into letting me play 20 minutes on a Thursday night, and they still wouldn’t go for it. The only way I was allowed to play was by convincing bands to let me do a few songs while they set up. That went on for years. I marvel at bands now who are playing the Wiltern Theatre after just nine months of existence.”

—

Interviews: Beck: 15 Years | Features | Pitchfork

GPOY!!!

Quote
December 22, 2010
“EleanorRigby: Snow? All I’ve been hearing about is this rain in LA. Rain, rain, rain. It’s all they can talk about over there. Have these people never had water fall from the sky before? All the celebrities seem to own wellies and designer umbrellas somehow, so I’m assuming they have. There certainly haven’t been any clever headlines about it, either. Suck it up, it’s not like you walk anywhere, people.”

—

Reader’s Comment: A Sampling of British Headlines About Snow | The Hairpin

I really, seriously, can’t stand to hear the East Coast’s perception of L.A.  It seems to be steadily getting stupider and stupider.  We all walk A LOT here.  And when it rains for a week straight, all the streets flood, roofs leak, ants start coming in, security alarms get fried, and people have major car accidents every five minutes. 

And no one gives a flying fuck about celebrities in their wellies.

Text
September 28, 2010

psychotic heatwave

Last night my little AC unit struggled to stay on, blowing out power strips and the circuit breaker once, all to keep my place at about 89 degrees.  I slept on my couch bed with my cat, directly in front of it.  Since I couldn’t run anything else electric other than the lights, I couldn’t even cook!  Had pbj and grapes for dinner.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hottest-ever-20100928,0,329968.story

“It was so hot Monday that it broke the all-time record — and the weatherman’s thermometer.”