What's Up with California?

Well since you asked, let me just make it plain. In my mind, California = the bomb! For the past four days we’ve been exploring the state and I am so much more knowledgeable of the Sunshine state.
We started in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and it was really interesting. We headed over to studio city and got a tour of CBS Studios from Canaan, one of the video journalists with Entertainment Tonight. As we walked around, I was so impressed by the size of the facilities. We actually got to walk through the Entertainment Tonight set and as we walked in Mary Hart was standing there with her family. It was her day off, but she specifically requested for the crew to light the stage for her family, and obviously the crew complied. So imagine walking in the Entertainment Tonight set, with the lights blaring and Mary Hart standing there... With the tour we also got to see glimpses of the news room, the control room, and even the city set that was once used by the cast and crew of Seinfeld, which was pretty satisfying. As we were leaving, I couldn’t help but appreciate how nice the people seemed to be. Too often I think do we always expect people in Hollywood and the Entertainment Industry to be really pretentious, but these guys were honest and I was grateful for that. Everyone that we talked to was genuinely excited about our trip, especially Canaan. We talked with him about possibly doing dinner but he had a flight for London the next day at 6 AM, so he was turning in early.
After we left Studio City we took a drive of the coast and got to see some of the different beaches of Los Angeles. First we did a scenic drive through the famous Malibu. I tried to be cool because I was in Malibu, but on a certain level I couldn’t contain myself because after all I was in Malibu. We got out of our van and took in the scene for a few minutes which I think we all enjoyed. It wasn’t until I saw the water hitting the sand on the beach that I knew I was in LA, one of the cities I had been waiting for. From there we headed off to Santa Monica. I would have to say that thus far Santa Monica is probably my favorite part of LA. With the Pier and the Promenade, and the overall level of diversity, Santa Monica makes me feel so comfortable that there’s no way it couldn’t be one of my favorite spots. Happily for me we spent a significant amount of time there, and I even got a chance to hang out with my friend Mia, who now lives in the area. Seeing someone that I knew living in Los Angeles, and surviving it was inspirational because it showed me that it wasn’t as hard as it seems sometimes.
From Santa Monica we continued South on our coastal drive. We hit Venice Beach then Redondo Beach then Long Beach and finally Huntington Beach. Though it was a beautiful ride for the most part, it was in this ride that I also began to get glimpses of the negative sides of California life. The first was the traffic. I’ve heard people make mention of gridlock, but I had no clue of what it was really like. A five lane highway with a mile of bumper to bumper traffic is unacceptable in my book, and unfortunately LA experiences it often. Also while experiencing traffic on the coastal drive to Huntington, I couldn’t help but notice the industrial districts located in the Redondo and Long Beach areas. Although the right side of the highway offered an aesthetically pleasing view of the beaches and the areas in between, the left side of the highway was often crude. There were huge oil refineries, eighteen wheeler trucks and loading areas that didn’t seem like they belonged in Los Angeles, or at least my idealized view of Los Angeles. Also, driving down the coast I got to see different cultural communities that seemed to be pretty separated, more separated than the diverse Santa Monica that I was so used to. Is it possible that even the city of Angels could be slightly segregated? I pondered this all the way to Huntington and luckily felt some relief when I got out and walked around the pier. Again I found myself immersed in diversity. I saw people of different colors, classes, subcultures (although most people seemed to prescribe to the skater/surfer community), and even ages walking around and enjoying the beautiful sunset that was taking place over the endless body of water to the left. There was a festival going on which probably brought out a much larger group than usual, but it was also obvious that this area had a consistent flow of patronage. Later on that night there was even a street show taking place, featuring five teenaged guys (of different races) who were doing acrobatics for money. For some reason this didn’t bother me as much as watching the little boy in Memphis do the same thing, and I’m not sure why. But I’ll come back to that later.
During our next day, we experienced Disneyland and Hollywood which were not that wonderful in my opinion. As I stood in line for the Indiana Jones Adventure ride, I couldn’t help but think about Jean Baudrillard and his theory on intentional architecture. The question that entered mind was why. Why is it that I have to stand in a line that swerves and curves outside, in order to go to a place further in line where I continue to swerve and curve, to go back outside where I am still standing in a line that swerves and curves even more, before I even get to a point where the ride that I’m standing in line for is even visible? Why the maze? Then I realized that the answer was because it is a maze. It seems like the elaborate line setup is strategically placed in a way that creates a sense of adventure in the rider before they even sit down to ride the Indiana Jones Adventure. Why else would someone wait fifty minutes in line for a ride that lasts only five minutes? Unless, they felt as if they were already being entertained…
I was not entertained or even satisfied when I first reached Hollywood however. For whatever reason, when I stepped onto Hollywood Boulevard I was immediately over it. I just wasn’t “feeling it” anymore. This attitude could have been caused by the fact that I had a throbbing headache and had just been traveling in the back of a fifteen passenger van for two hours. So given the situation, I think it’s pretty understandable as to why I chose to find food and medicine with the hour of free time I had in Hollywood. With the time I did have to explore, the impression that I got of Hollywood was that it was commonplace. By commonplace, what I mean is that it was like a luxury car that has been driven far too much on streets that are much too undeserving. There were so many tourists and Batman Impersonators that I couldn’t even fully appreciate the Walk of Fame. I got so frustrated with a woman who kept blocking my view from all of the star squares in front of me that I finally shoved my camera in my pocket like a spoiled child, because she was “ruining my experience”. But then I realized that I was a tourist just like she was and we both were really trying to have the same experience. I wasn’t above these tourists at all, in fact I was on the same level as them. So I pulled out my camera and got in line to grab a shot of the Kodak Theatre.
The next day our group headed to San Francisco, and when I woke up the next day we were still headed for San Francisco. It turns out that our bus had a bit of a hiccup the night before as we were driving, and our bus driver Rueben had to turn around and go back to East LA to get the bus checked out. So we didn’t get to San Francisco until one o’clock in the afternoon, but I think we made the best of the situation. We took the BART towards to the Castro district which is known as San Fran’s GLBT District—and also the largest GLBT in the United States— and I could tell there were some mixed feelings in the group. Some people were sociologically ecstatic about it, while others were silently petrified. I would have to say that I was somewhere in the middle. All I had ever heard about San Fran was that it was heavy populated with gays and lesbians, and we were headed towards the heart of that culture…I was a little uncomfortable.
But when we got there, I was surprised to find that it was a normal neighborhood, just with rainbow flags posted everywhere. It was not what I was expecting to see, which I supposed is a good thing. For some strange reason I was expecting to walk around some town with huge penises and dildos on display everywhere and there weren’t—at least not everywhere. There were a few adult stores with some adult videos and toys in the window displays here and there, but you can find adult stores displaying sex toys and videos in any city—they just won’t be for homosexuals. So I think if people have a problem with the “homo” sex on display in the Castro District, then they also should be uncomfortable with the “hetero” sex on display everywhere else in the world. I feel bad that I was surprised at how normal the community was. I feel bad that I’m even using the word “normal,” but that’s where I am right now. I hate that society has programmed me to have these expectations for the gay community overall. Nobody hit on me, nobody tried to turn me over to the “dark side”. I had no reason to be uncomfortable except for the fact that society has put these ridiculous stereotypes in my mind about gay culture. Granted the Castro District would not be the first place that I would go to kick it in San Fran, it no where near as weird and freaky as I expected it to be. After visiting the community twice in one day (because I had to go back after leaving my debit card at the Chinese place where I ate lunch) I felt ready to experience anything else that San Fran had to offer me.
Walking through downtown, I couldn’t help but notice how much San Francisco reminded me of Chicago. With its grid system, tall buildings, water front chill, and public transportation running every five minutes I felt right at home. As I looked around I saw that the streets were pretty diverse as well. I was beginning to like San Francisco a little bit. Also, Dr. Spring took our class on a walking lecture-tour of the Beat Generation that was thoroughly enjoyable. His sharing the history of the Beats was one of the main times for me where I could see the two classes that we are taking come together thus far. Dr. Spring elaborated on how the Beats were influenced by jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance and also how they in turn helped to influence what would later become Bebop music. For me as an artist I was motivated, because they did what seems to be part of every artist’s goal: to observe life in such a way that you can later affect it. And apparently the Beats not only influenced the shapers of bebop music, but also other artists like James Dean and Bob Dylan, and even entire movements such as the hippie movement of the 60’s. As we walked into the City Lights Bookstore, I was more than ready to find a copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and make it mine, but that was when I realized that I left my debit card at lunch. So while the rest of my class headed for the Beats Museum, Dr. Stepnick and I headed back to the Castro to get my plastic. I was really disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to finish the tour, but I suppose now that I’m aware who the Beats are, I need to research them for myself. That sort of is what college is all about.
As I walked through the Castro (both times), the Financial District, Chinatown, the North Beach Area and even Fisherman’s Wharf I was constantly stunned at how much San Francisco was similar to Chicago, but also very different. I liked the similarity but I also liked the difference. It’s funny because I wasn’t really expecting much from San Francisco and it seems as if I got glimpses of a lot. I learned early on in this experience not to discount any city, and San Francisco definitely helped to reiterate that point for me.
Our last day in California was spent relaxing in the Redwood Forest. It was great for everyone to take some personal time to themselves and away from technology for a while. Since this was personal time, I’ll keep it personal, because it should be (and I would imagine that those of you still reading are getting pretty tired). However, I will say that we got a chance to talk as an entire group without the academics for a while which was really nice for all of us. We all are very different people taking this trip for very different reasons, but I can honestly say that despite our differences we get along very well. And more than that, I think that we understand each other on a certain level and that we allow a significant amount of grace for everyone as well.
And as I think about some of the cities that we already visited on this trip, I can’t help but wonder what our country would be like if we gave every American citizen that same grace...
So that’s what’s up with California!