LA in one post

Oh, lazy, distracted Jeremy! I am about to leave San Francisco for Chicago and I haven't even written about LA! That's OK, because there is not a lot to say on the matter. LA is a dirty, unappealing city, and I only went there to visit my friend Dain, who is originally from a small town in Texas, and so regards LA with a fair amount of contempt. But, he's in the music business, so it's the best place for him to earn money. He now gets paid to make music from woe to go: write, perform, record, edit, produce. He makes his own guitars to use in his songs, or includes a weird water instrument here and there. The music goes into a huge catalogue that TV producers choose from to go into their ads or whatever. All things considered, it's a pretty good living. He lives with his girlfriend Julie and their friend Ted, both also musicians. One of their dogs, Oscar, has a pretty interesting howl too.

LA was a roughly even mix of hanging out at their place, out with them and out by myself. Vintage shopping was a big fat zero. The only two decent shops I found had plenty for women but nothing or very little for men. I signed up on CouchSurfing.com and was promptly invited to an event at a nightclub in Hollywood. I went along, feeling a little nervous, wearing my new knickerbockers & vest outfit, and soon found myself inundated with meeting other Couch Surfers or randoms inquiring about my outfit. Everyone thinks I'm English, partially due to that outfit, but it happens even when I'm not wearing it. Even an Englishman thought I was English! So I met a few people, felt the vibe and went home. The club & music was certainly not my thing, but the CS people were very nice. On my last day, we went to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, in Culver City. Well, that was just the weirdest museum I have ever been to! There was a such a diverse range of curiosities that it is impractical to describe: from trailer parks to eye-of-the-needle sculptures, and mice on toast. I can't think about it any more without feelling woozy.

So that was LA. Ate some good Mexican food, drank some awful Mexican beer; watched a hilarious old Sinbad movie with excellent clay animation by some old master of the craft. Next, San Francisco...