I wrote a post earlier for Metblogs about my plan to bike to work because gas prices have spiraled out of control. Then I came to a horrifying realization:

I’m stuck in the Valley, and I have been for a while.

When I moved to L.A., one of my favorite pastimes was the random drive around town. Get on the freeway, exit somewhere, and turn right or left. I would drive around Hollywood, Downtown, wherever. Somehow, I always ended up on Broadway, marveling at once was and will be again. It wasn’t until I read a post by Will about his nightly drive through the 2nd Street Tunnel that I dawned on me. He stopped doing it because of the high gas prices. Without realizing it, I had stopped driving around, too.

In fact, unless I have to, I never venture outside of the home-work zone of Studio City-Sherman Oaks. I don’t visit the beaches anymore. I don’t venture out to the San Gabriel Mountains. I can’t remember the last time I was Downtown, and the last time I was in Hollywood was for acting class.

I wonder how many others are feeling segregated by gas? Could the silver lining to all of this be reduced traffic congestion in L.A.? Even so, it will only help to strengthen the divide between the 100 suburbs in search of a city.

Photo from Shoreline’s photostream

I just had the best experience in customer service since I moved to L.A. - at a local shipping store.

In an era of form email responses and calls routed through Pakistan, you could make the argument that customer service is dead. Maybe it was in the same accident that killed chivalry. No place on earth exemplifies this more than the fantastically bizarre City of Los Angeles.

Everyone is in a hurry. 7-days-a-week in a hurry. They each have more pressing matters than you and everyone else, so stay out of the way. As a result, we have people that cannot use turn signals, cannot use the drive-thru microphone properly, and cannot be bothered with things that have no bearing on their own agenda. But, ocassionally, we are thrown off guard by that one store, that one employee or owner that flies in the face of “that’s so L.A.”

Continue reading ‘Customer Service Found in Studio City’

NBA Playoffs. Lakers-Celtics. The bandwagon is loaded up and ready to crawl South down the 101 into beautiful Downtown Los Angeles.

Am I the only one in L.A. that can’t wait for this nonsense to be over? Here are 3 reasons why I do not care if the Lakers win or lose. Ever.

1. The Weather.

Suddenly, everyone is a Lakers fan. EVERYONE. You know people are bandwagon when the shirts, hats, and jerseys all look brand new. Where is your Kareem jersey? What do you mean, Kareem who? That’s what I thought. Move back to New York.

Continue reading ‘Lakers? Whatev.’

Even thugs need career assistance during these trying times.

We are in a full-on recession economic slowdown, and that is beginning to take its toll on bad ass hustlerz all across America. No thugs have been hit harder than Los Angeles thugs, where desperate times call for desperate measures. Many have thugs have taking to acting as a way to pay the bills between random acts of thuggery. Evidence to support this theory can be found on many area job boards, such as CraigsList:

Casting “Thugs” for TV Promo (Los Angeles)

Continue reading ‘Now Casting Thugs On Craigslist’

Has MTV jumped the shark?

Being that I have successfully arrived from my third trimester, I no longer fit into the MTV target demographic. Therefore, the humor of celebrities smoking fake joints in front of an audience of impressionable teenagers escapes me. So does the off-key Adam Sandler tribute to his own lifetime achievement award.

But the most painful moments of the 2008 MTV Movie Awards may bring us the greatest new drinking game ever invented: THE MOVIE PLUG CHUG. I wish I had begun counting from the very beginning. I’m sure the number of variations on “Hey, check out my new movie coming out this June/July/August” would have amused me. If by ‘amused’ I mean made me throw up in my mouth a little.

Good work, Music Television. Max Headroom would be proud.