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Tag Archives: North Hollywood
The View In North Hollywood
I went for a walk around NoHo looking for some cheer this 5th of November. Didn’t find any. It’s not just quiet, it’s eerie.
This is the normally one of the busiest corners in the Valley. Everyone seems to be expecting riots or a civil war to start tonight. Damn everybody who puts up plywood, especially these former porn studios. I think all the fear of a rebellion is snidely performative, a way to make a casually racist statement of power. Feh. As if any protest would instantly target these places for revenge looting! Grow up, scaredy-rabbit Buddhists. You’re in NoHo. The most interesting sight was a broken-down homeless-home jalopy, overloaded with survival supplies, slowly coughing down the backstreets, looking for a free parking spot to crash for a few hours, days, weeks. Sigh.
As I walked the weather went gloomier too. Dad’s birthday, too. Came home and am fretting the results of the Election in the garden, giving in to the gloom, with a Beefeater martini, very dry.
I Guess They CAN Take That Away From Me %^&!
So apparently all the accursed Millennials spent the weekend bopping around all the public beaches and parks, playing volleyball and hugging each other with high fives, or hiking Runyon Canyon six-abreast, arms around each others necks; or else “cruising” the trafficky, gas-fumed arroyos of Griffith Park in their cars. One imagines them, fists thrust in the air, boobs and armpits to the wind, singing “woo, hoo, woo hoo” all day while alternately gulping de-natured alcohol soda pop, and tossing their silky blonde hair in the breeze, shedding millions of virus as they bop along to the silent beats of their headphones, perched on the backseats of their Stingray convertibles, bronzing their young skin.
So they’ve CLOSED THE DAMN BEACHES, PARKS, AND NATURE TRAILS. Millennials!! I hate them so much. [Old Man Yells At Cloud]. Boomers too!! Ahh, I hates the lotta yuz!
Since WE CAN’T DO HEALTHY THINGS, I will try to cope by reliving past escapes to solitude. Here’s the first place I CAN”T GO, BUT VERY MUCH WANT TO RIGHT NOW, AND PLANNED TO GO WHEN I WOKE UP AND SAW THE RAIN HAD STOPPED DAMMIT.
Last December, just before Christmas, I hiked up Fryman Canyon, in the most beautiful part of the Santa Monica Mountains. It was a rare day when there was fog down in the Valley basin, but parts of the hills poked above it into sunshine. That’s Mt. Hollywood, with the broadcast towers.
The View is to Studio City, in veiled fall colors; and NoHo, the white urban sprawl.
Rainbow’s End…
Treasure lies at the end of the rainbow: the NoHo branch of California’s beloved In-N-Out Burger. Imagine how many hot, steamy 1970’s Boogie Nights cruising Lankershim Blvd. with the top down, ended up at this hamburger stand.
N.B., the skydusters (planted in the outdoor seating area). A symbol of oasis, of abundance, visible from blocks away for the automobile culture. Fan palms are in fact one of the key style elements of Googie architecture, beautiful ambassadors from the restaurant to the community, anchoring the site in memory and nostalgia, along one of LA’s most ghastly placeless boulevards. The welcoming palms are as necessary to the design as the sign (not lit) with its atomic dog’s-leg vector logo. In-N-Out has embraced their palms, showcasing them on their branded merchandise.
After a long impasse that divided the founding family, the company has recently compromised: In-N-Out’s planning to expand, but slowly, to other markets; still the goal will be retaining the fresh, local sourcing that has been the key to success of the brand. The View wishes them luck.
The Valley Village View 