Hollywood and Vine
Last night, as I was walking up Hollywood Boulevard (to Cinespace, thank you very much; get your mind out of the gutter), I passed a small flock of tourists at Hollywood and Vine.
To me, typical scene. Hollywood Boulevard is one of those places that I spend as little time on as possible: Traffic's terrible, parking's worse, and it has an air of being the sort of place where one doesn't want to be walking alone after dark. It's just another street to me.
"Oh, look!" exclaimed one of the tourists, a silver-haired woman with a Midwestern affect. "It's the Capitol Records building!" She took out a little camera and started snapping away.
It's things like this that remind me that I live in a unique sort of place. It doesn't have the street cred of NYC, but it doesn't care about it, either.
I went into Cinespace and pushed my way through the bar crowd to the restaurant/screening area for this month's Channel 101 screening. There weren't enough ballots to go around the VIP room (which, I should add, always seems to be filled with us riff-raff), so once the lights were up I ventured out to hunt some down. I thought Jack Black was waving at me, but it turned out he was just trying to flag down a ballot -- which was fine, because if he recognizes me then I have a doppelganger who's having more fun than I am.
Jack's something of a Channel 101 mainstay, and is most likely to be recognized as Computerman or The Elegant Hunter. His level of celebrityhood in that room was slightly below that of the people who run Channel 101: Just some guy you recognize from shows past.
I wonder what the tourists on Hollywood and Vine would have thought of the scene. Not as glamorous as they imagned, probably. Hollywood is rarely as glamorous as people imagine.
I'm not one to judge, though. I haven't had much experience watching it from afar. I wish I could get that same thrill that the tourists get looking at the Capitol Records building, the Hollywood sign, the stars on the sidewalk. Maybe it's because I'm used to those that I don't feel much excitement about seeing landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Capitol in Washington, or the Art Institute of Chicago. Or maybe that's just my nature.
To me, typical scene. Hollywood Boulevard is one of those places that I spend as little time on as possible: Traffic's terrible, parking's worse, and it has an air of being the sort of place where one doesn't want to be walking alone after dark. It's just another street to me.
"Oh, look!" exclaimed one of the tourists, a silver-haired woman with a Midwestern affect. "It's the Capitol Records building!" She took out a little camera and started snapping away.
It's things like this that remind me that I live in a unique sort of place. It doesn't have the street cred of NYC, but it doesn't care about it, either.
I went into Cinespace and pushed my way through the bar crowd to the restaurant/screening area for this month's Channel 101 screening. There weren't enough ballots to go around the VIP room (which, I should add, always seems to be filled with us riff-raff), so once the lights were up I ventured out to hunt some down. I thought Jack Black was waving at me, but it turned out he was just trying to flag down a ballot -- which was fine, because if he recognizes me then I have a doppelganger who's having more fun than I am.
Jack's something of a Channel 101 mainstay, and is most likely to be recognized as Computerman or The Elegant Hunter. His level of celebrityhood in that room was slightly below that of the people who run Channel 101: Just some guy you recognize from shows past.
I wonder what the tourists on Hollywood and Vine would have thought of the scene. Not as glamorous as they imagned, probably. Hollywood is rarely as glamorous as people imagine.
I'm not one to judge, though. I haven't had much experience watching it from afar. I wish I could get that same thrill that the tourists get looking at the Capitol Records building, the Hollywood sign, the stars on the sidewalk. Maybe it's because I'm used to those that I don't feel much excitement about seeing landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Capitol in Washington, or the Art Institute of Chicago. Or maybe that's just my nature.
posted by Rose at
8:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home