Smog Life

This weekend I am assisting with a short film. My posting will be infrequent until Monday.

Song Stuck in My Head: Debra by Beck. (The P.A. on the film's name is Debra)

A helpful hint from someone who has recently moved to a city 10 times larger than the last city she lived in; buy an NFT (Not For Tourists) guide. The NFT guide has saved my life many a time. I just wish I had the NFT guide before visiting the Santa Monica Pier Park bathrooms. Declared by me and the NFT guide as the worst bathrooms in the continental United States. If they had a contest for the worst this would get the blue ribbon prize.

The NFT guide is also great for locating Wells Fargo Banks because it costs you $4.00 to take out YOUR OWN MONEY at a non Wells ATM. Also to find Coffee Beans when you are addicted to their Chai Lattes on ice.

I know, I know the NFT guide does show you some very touristy or trendy places to go in the neighborhoods, but there is always Laist to turn to or Daily Candy Which both have nation wide and sometimes world wide affiliates.

Treat William from the Blogs I Heart really isn’t gone. He has changed into THREE MINUTE RECORD

Here’s to new places and new aliases. Cheers!

Little things about Los Angeles are weird to me, like that they have flat screen televisions in all of their city busses. These televisions do not play primetime television but a special loop of metro line programming. I found myself mesmerized by the amount of times that the television screen thanked us for being riders, that they provided national weather programming, I learned that the coup in Thailand is bad for international business and how to make beef stroganoff, until this woman with a really big head sat infront of me.

So, if you would like to know what the weather is like in Kansas City or if you were wondering how your stocks were doing just jump on a Metro. It only costs a $1.25.

www.mta.net

Disclaimer: Not all of the songs that get stuck in my head are songs that I particularly like. Oftentimes they are songs that I do not like. For example, I have "Angels" as covered by Jessica Simpson stuck in my head because I heard it in the grocery store an hour ago.

The song "Angels" reminds me of the VH1 show I wanted to have called "When Remakes go Awry" That is songs that were better in their orginal form and should not be altered with. Not that "Angels" is a particularly great song, but I'll take Robbie Williams over Jessica Simpson any day.

Songs that I would have featured on my VH1 show would be: (Not in any particular order)

"Waiting in Vain" covered by Annie Lennox originally by Bob Marley
"Love Song" covered by 311 orignally by The Cure
"Train in Vain" covered by Annie Lennox originally by The Clash
"Lady Marmalade" covered by Christina Aguilera, Pink, Maya and Lil' Kim originally by Patti LaBelle
"I saw her/him standing there" covered by Tiffany orginally by The Beatles

This is just the few that have popped into my head. Let me know what your submissions would be smoglifemail@yahoo.com .

Only in L.A. can you see a hooker bring her chihuahua to the laundrymat.


Song stuck in my head: Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie.

No, I did not move here to follow Paul Magers . He can tell some serious news though and I think he is a welcome antithesis to Los Angeles news. (Another post maybe)

Why am I here in this state destined to fall into the sea?

1) I gave Minneapolis all I had to offer. Minneapolis to me was like that person you know that you should really break up with but you don’t because it is was too comfortable and you do not think that you will ever have the strength to start over again.

I was in this horrible rut. Get up, go to work, go home, eat, sleep, get up, go to work eat sleep. Benchmarked with random outings and pretending that my best friend was not in love with me.

When my non-profit sank into the red and there was get up, go to work, go to job number 2, eat perhaps, sleep barely enough I new that it was time to go.

2) I honestly have not done anything outside of my comfort zone since going to an arts based high school as mentioned in Hookers on Stilts. Not since sixteen, that is way too long to go without risking something big. I didn’t want to be on my deathbed in the Powderhorn, Cochran or Hale Page neighborhood and think to myself “Wow, I haven’t done anything risky since I was a teenager. Who is going to feed all of my cats?”

3) I moved here too because I fell in a Norah Ephron-like love with a former high school mate. Like how I saved the real sappy reason for last?

So that is how I found myself here.

I was born in a factory town outside of Chicago. When I was five my parents moved to a small town in northern Minnesota very close to the Iron Range as depicted in North Country.

I remember being young and thinking that Minnesota was always below freezing. That I would always need a parka that I would always be cold. This was perpetuated by my then uncle Leonard.

When I was a little older and thought about California, I couldn’t understand why on earth people wanted to live here. If there weren’t earthquakes there were mudslides, if there weren’t forest fires there was an intense drought. In fact in grade school social studies class I learned that it was predicted that there would be an earthquake so fierce that California would eventually fall into the Pacific. (Maybe Porfirio Diaz knew that when he sold the land to the U.S. for a million dollars.)

California, especially Los Angeles, was definitely not a place I ever wanted to live. This time not perpetuated by then Uncle Leonard. (The secret family in Georgia took care of him) It wasn’t just the natural disasters, it was smog, traffic and Paris Hilton.

I have found myself here anyway.

Since I've been gone a lot of things have happened in the world of the Blogs I Heart located on your right hand side.

Hookers on Stilts has moved to New York.

Waiterrant got a book deal. I am so very happy!

Unfortunately though I am one blogger down and Treat Williams has disappeared. I keep the webbutton on as homage to you TR.


Two blogs are still making a difference in introverted music lovers lives Erebus+Terror and Souled On

I have a lot of catching up to do.

Big parts of Lemon Life, after this post I will stop name dropping myself, that I will continue on Smog Life are:

• Songs stuck in my head-To save you from reading from the beginning, I have this affliction where I get songs stuck in my head for days.
  
• Organizations of the month
• What I think in general about my new surroundings

I hope you enjoy.

I moved to Los Angeles eight months ago from Minneapolis. You might remember me from Lemon Life , but probably not. Lemon Life was my Minneapolis blog and I wanted to continue it here in Los Angeles, but somehow LL felt very Minneapolis. (Whatever than means right?) So, I left Minneapolis and left Lemon Life, much to my and my readers chagrin.

I welcome you to Smog Life, my L.A. Blog.

Comments are always welcome- As always with the exception of the cyber booty calls
Ideas are appreciated- I am still new here and always looking for suggestions.

Email me at smoglifemail@yahoo.com