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My most excellent friend Joe Stump has just published a great blog post about the cities he’s lived in. Speifically
- San Francisco
- Boulder
- Portland
- Seattle
I think on most days I’m just as much of a tech nerd as he is, but during the entire time he’s talking about in his post (and, actually, considerably longer) I’ve been living here in Los Angeles. This confuses a lot of my nerdy brethren, and I think sometimes Joe in particular. I have my reasons though, so I figured I’d write them down just for posterity, if perhaps not as verbosely as my comrade.
I’ll start off by saying that out of the tech hubs Joe’s lived in, I would personally not really ever consider Portland or Boulder. I just need more city. I grew up in a small college town, and it was a great place to raise kids and go to school, but I’ve learned I like the bustle. The feeling that things are moving around me, even if I’m not moving myself at the time. Seattle is a great town and I could definitely imagine living there, though the rain would suck. After thirteen years in Southern California, having a lot of precipitation would be about as much of a culture shock as moving to a non english speaking country.
San Francisco is a different matter though. There are times when I’m not even sure why I haven’t moved there. To start off with, I love it up there. I have tons of friends there, the food is great, peoples’ politics and priorities are in line with mine… there’s just a lot to that makes sense about it. As such, I’ve never ruled out the possibility of making the move. Occasionally, (mt) Media Temple (my employer) talks about getting a company apartment up there since a lot of us are there and back for work. If they did, I would conservatively guess I’d spend at least two or three months a year there.
And yet, I’m not there. I’m here, in Los Angeles, and yes I’m talking about the Los Angeles that has created things like reality television and oxygen bars. I realize this doesn’t make a lot of sense on the surface.
Which is what I think a lot of people don’t really get about LA. There’s so much of “the surface” that gets projected out. By which I mean truly awful, loathsome, superficial shit that gets shoved at people ruthlessly by the media because people can’t stop watching it, just like they can’t help but slow down to look at a horrific accident on the freeway. I can assure you, dear reader, that every single awful stereotype you have about how superficial LA is, it’s true. Well, it’s true in the sense that whatever you’re thinking, it’s here, somewhere.
But the reason it’s here is because, in LA, everything is here. And that’s why I love it, and why I haven’t left, and why I have no current plans to. I’ll say that again. Every imaginable thing that you might want to do, whatever that thing is, it’s happening somewhere in this city. You want to be a world class banker? No problem. You want to get into serious paragliding? Yup. Wanna get your rockstar on and become a musician? Duh. Do some serious technology? Believe it or not, that’s here too. Compared to a place like San Francisco, you’re likely going to have to put in some real footwork and go and find these things you’re interested in, but I’ve never struck out in thirteen years. Not once.
It’s an ongoing issue in my mind, and I admit this freely. The hardest part of resisting the Bay Area gravity, for me, is that I personally fit in up there. When people there ask me what I do for work, I can actually tell them, and I’m not instantly a fish out of water. At home when folks ask I literally just say “computer stuff” and 90% of the time, that’s a sufficient answer. That’s a fairly big deal for me. However, when I step back and take a look at my life and the things that I wish were different, I never come up with the answer that “man… I really wish I could spend more time talking about / thinking about / dealing with computers or the nerds who use them.” So I honestly don’t know if my feeling of fitting in up north is the result of an environment that would actually be good for me, or if it’s just my natural (bad) impulse to put myself in comfortable situations whispering in my ear.
Everybody in my generation who I know here in LA refers to it as “The City of Lost Angels”. I think it’s quite accurate. The angels range from grotesque and horrific, to quirky, to very very beautiful, and there’s something like ten million of them flying around here to interact with. As for being lost… that can be trying at times, but I don’t know of a better way to get yourself pointed in an interesting direction.
I think tomorrow I’ll go get a burrito and text Joe to remind him that it never rains here.
[...] Los Angeles Chris Lea: The City of Lost Angels [...]
I totally agree with your post “City of Lost Angels”. You have to dig deep to find fellow hardcore geeks here but Santa Monica and Venice seem to have it covered.
P.S. Media Temple kicks ass! I have had a (dv) server for years.
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