People come from all over the globe to visit "Hollywood" - that vague word meaning the world of movies, actors, and the industries that support them. It only makes sense that they would go to a street named Hollywood Boulevard to find it. Hollywood Boulevard, after all, is designed to deliver it to tourists.
It might be easy to imagine folks who live in L.A. spend a lot of time around the glamor and excitement of show business. Speaking just for myself and my family, I have to say trips to Hollywood Boulevard are pretty rare.
Recently, we spent an afternoon at the movies at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. So even though we're locals, at the end of the move we decided to make like tourists and cruise down Hollywood Boulevard! Come with us on a tour!
"There's something in the air in Hollywood
The sun is shining like you knew it would
You're ridin' in your car in Hollywood
You got the top down and it feels so good!"
The sun is shining like you knew it would
You're ridin' in your car in Hollywood
You got the top down and it feels so good!"
"I lost my memory in Hollywood
I've had a million visions, bad and good
There's tomething in the air in Hollywood
I tried to leave it but I never could"
I've had a million visions, bad and good
There's tomething in the air in Hollywood
I tried to leave it but I never could"
"Shine your light now
This time it's gotta be good
You get it right now (yeah)
'Cause you're in Hollywood"
This time it's gotta be good
You get it right now (yeah)
'Cause you're in Hollywood"
"Everybody comes to Hollywood
They wanna make it in the neighborhood
They like the smell of it in Hollywood
How can it hurt you when it looks so good?"
They wanna make it in the neighborhood
They like the smell of it in Hollywood
How can it hurt you when it looks so good?"
"'Cause you're in Hollywood'Cause you're in Hollywood
In Hollywood"
- Madonna, "Hollywood
2 comments:
I don't know how/why tourists continue to be duped into believing that there's a thing or a place called "Hollywood" that you can go and see. You'd think the word would be out by now.
Hollywood Boulevard--as opposed to "Hollywood"--is THE SoCal urban faultline, a century's worth of cultural extrusions poking through the tarmac:
--Glamor spots of the '20s and '30s (e.g., the Egyptian Theater and Musso and Frank Grill),
--Authentic tourist crapola of the '40s, '50s and '60s (the marvelously mouldy Frankenstein model teetering in front of one old souvenir store and the Hollywood Tobacco shop neon sign)
--Inauthentic tourist crapola of the '70s, '80s and '90s (soft porn fashion and bong shops, and the poor stiffs dressed as Darth Vader and the Cowardly Lion, who would but for the grace of god be spinning cardboard real estate arrows in the dry heat of the San Fernando valley)
--Corporate crapola of the 00's (Kodak Theater, etc.).
Kind of an urban pop historical parfait with a few veins of tar-like consistency running through the whole (junkies, winos, hustlers, whores, gangbangers) and a Wax Museum to seal the deal like the lid of a peanut butter jar terrarium.
That's my Hollywood, uh huh....
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