Hollywood, Schmollywood
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2009
1
6
22
Trip End
Sep 20, 2009
Hollywood, California, United States
Thursday, September 3, 2009
We were unaware of this on the morning we set off from Venice beach in the hope of running the gamut from Bel-Air to Hollywood, so had unknowingly but oh so predictably bitten off more than we could chew.
We began by following the coast through shabby and well lived in Venice beach and on through to Venice's gentrified, upmarket and palm-tree-lined sister, Santa Monica
Jez at J Paul getty Museum
. Slightly further along we turned 90 degrees west and headed inland along Sunset Boulevard, which runs through Beverley Hills and into the heart of Hollywood. At length the road wound up through the hills and we arrived at the J. Paul Getty Centre, which is a gigantic art museum, housed in a purpose built series of monoliths amid the verdant grounds. The museum is perched on a hill in the Santa Monica Mountains, looking over L.A. and out to sea.
We had nowhere near enough time to do justice to the whole four buildings, each of which contains different styles of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, but had a good look around and enjoyed the peaceful and exquisitely conceived gardens, interwoven with sculptures and water features. The whole complex is constructed from Travertine (1.2 million square feet of it) which is a fossilized, textured stone that reflects the bright Californian sunlight, imparting the whole place with a luminous, ethereal glow. Overall an incredibly successful public space and a great example of modern architectural design and realization. And all free of charge!
And this is about as interesting as our day was destined to get. Next we hit Bel-Air, which is an estate on the edge of Beverley Hills where you have to be richer than God to live and all you see when you drive round is towering security gates, intercoms and maybe a mock roman column or two through the railings. Rodeo drive is an equally pointless venture, lined with flagship stores from every Italian fashion house and luxury label you can think of and the walking clientele featuring more botox plumped flesh per square inch than anywhere else in the world
The beautiful J Paul Getty Museum
. Max-synthesised life.So much exposure to plastic beauty and unreachable levels of wealth had left us hungry for Sushi and it just so happened that we found a great little place a little further down Sunset and made a quick pit-stop for a sashimi fix.
We spent at least half an hour driving around the hills behind Sunset Boulevard trying in vain to find a route to the Hollywood sign, thinking that a quality shot with the sign looming in the background would be cool. We got within about half a mile but were foiled by a fenced off broadcasting station and lack of time and energy to continue. We parked up in Hollywood which is basically a theme park and as plastic as anywhere else in this godforsaken shithole. Samuel L. Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader lookalikes prowl around, vying with each other to hawk their dubious photo services to the passing, camera toting tourists (us included!). I don’t know what I thought was going to be so cool about seeing Bette Midlers name on a faux gold star laid out on the pavement in front of a tat stall selling mugs and t-shirts. Nor an impression of Jim Careys hands in front Graumans Chinese Theatre. What a tacky mess it all is and none of the magic or mystique I had subconsciously come to expect from a visit here. The only way to make something out of the experience would have been to go into the Chinese Theatre and see District 9, which was showing at the time. Alas our parking metre was due to expire and a towed Chrysler is not much good now is it?
Of course this scathing attack is just another tract of my usual one-sided nonsense, based on our measly 4 or 5 hours on the ground and passed through my bias lens of unrealistic expectations. As ever, time was against us and given a week or two I bet L.A. has some marvellous nooks and crannies but no matter! We negotiated our way back through the endless traffic to our home and boon to the whole L.A. venture, Venice Beach!
Our schedule was to leave the next morning and make a break for the Mexican border and Tijuana, but after the day we’d had some serious beach time was definitely in order. So we took the executive decision to stay another day. This proved to be a very wise move.
