The rambling metropolis of
Los Angeles sprawls across the thousand square miles of a
great desert basin, knitted together by an intricate
network of congested freeways between the ocean and the
snowcapped mountains. Its colorful melange of shopping
malls, palm trees and swimming pools is both mildly
surreal and startlingly familiar, thanks to the celluloid
self-image that it has spread all over the world.
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LA is a young city; in
the mid-19th century, it was a community of white American
immigrants, poor Chinese laborers and wealthy Mexican
ranchers, with a population of less than 50,000. Only on
completion of the transcontinental railroad in the 1880s
did it really begin to grow, as a national mecca for good
health, clean living, plentiful sunshine and endless acres
of citrus crops. The biggest group of transplants were
refugees from the Midwest, who created a new political
ruling class to replace the old Mexican elite. The old
ranchos were soon subdivided, the population grew rapidly,
and the enduring symbol of the city became the
family-sized suburban house (with swimming pool and
two-car garage). The biggest boom came after World War II
with the mushrooming of the aeronautics industry.
The first-time visitor
may well find Los Angeles thrilling and threatening in
equal proportions; it's a place that picks you up and
sweeps you along whether you want it to or not. While it
has its fine-art museums, California cuisine and a few
old-fashioned urban plazas, what people really come here
for is to experience the city that has come to epitomize
the American Dream the fantasy worlds of Disneyland and
Hollywood, as well as the gilded opulence of Beverly Hills
and Malibu.
With
only limited space between the desert, the mountains and
the ocean, LA has long since filled in the gaps between
what were once small and isolated towns. As a result,
it's a massive conglomeration of interconnected,
amorphous districts, often with little in common.
Los Angeles has had numerous Real Estate opportunities
over the years, with a high influx of population driven
by the Hollywood and beach lifestyles offered. As far as rentals and
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If LA has a heart,
however, it's downtown, in the center of the basin. It
offers a taste of almost everything you'll find
elsewhere around the city, from upscale avant-garde art
along Bunker Hill to the abject dereliction of Skid Row
in the Eastside, compressed into an area of small,
easily walkable blocks. The area around downtown
contains some decaying Victorian suburbs, 1920s Art Deco
buildings and the center of LA's enormous and growing
Hispanic population.
Los Angeles Hotels - If you like to stay in
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Heading west from
downtown to the coast, the first major district you come
to, Hollywood, has streets caked with movie legend --
even if the genuine glamor is long gone. Adjoining West
LA is home to the city's newest money, shown off in
Beverly Hills and along the Sunset Strip. Santa Monica
and Venice to the west are the quintessential seafront
LA of palm trees, white sands and laid-back living,
while the coastline itself stretches another 20 miles
northwest to glamorous Malibu, home to the movieland
elite.
Suburban Orange County,
to the southeast, holds little of interest apart from
Disneyland and a handful of laid-back beach towns. On
the far side of the northern hills lie the San Gabriel
and San Fernando valleys, or simply "the Valley."
RESOURCES
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD:
Many areas of the world can be accessed from LAX - The main Los Angeles
International Airport. More information is is available at:
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Los Angeles News:9 Feb 2010 at 1:00am
Headlines from latimes.com
•
When the talk show host signs off Tuesday, it'll be different than when Johnny Carson left. After all, it's not really goodbye.
When Jay Leno signs off Tuesday, it'll be different than when Johnny Carson left. After all, it's not really goodbye.
Ed Harris has excelled for so long as a Hollywood everyman with a gripping steely-eyed intensity that he doesn t always get enough praise for the finesse of his acting.
Los Angeles News:5 Feb 2010 at 1:00am
Headlines from calendarlive.com
• Also reviewed: 'Frozen' and 'Shinjuku Incident.'
Joining "From Paris With Love" in U.S. theaters this weekend is "District 13: Ultimatum," more frenzied action from style-conscious Gallic popcorn impresario Luc Besson, and a follow-up to 2004's "District B13." That cult hit (directed by "From Paris With Love's" Pierre Morel) took the reality of France's immigrant unrest and devised a future Paris in which the government has cynically walled off the most gang-infested and racially charged ghettos.
• This adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks romance isn't always true to the letter of life.
Dear Reader, I'm so sorry, gulp, but "Dear John" is like a very bad relationship with a very beautiful someone: You want it to work, you truly do, but the pain, the guilt, the boredom, the CW soundtrack . . . .
• John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers team up to create chaos in the city during an anti-terrorist assignment. Did you expect a Valentine's Day movie? You are in for a different kind of heart-throbbi
Stupid fun, "From Paris With Love" doesn't do much for Paris or love, or your brain cells, but it flies like a crazed eagle on uppers and comes from the talented, propulsive schlocketeer Pierre Morel. A former cinematographer who learned to light brutality stylishly under the tutelage of international violence impresario Luc Besson, Morel turns his kinetic eye to a tale (story by Besson, script by Adi Hasak) of a low-level spy and Paris embassy functionary, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. He lives a fine life in Paris with his fiancée (Kasia Smutniak) but longs for more, job-wise.
• "The Last Station" is a paean to the enduring power of both love and that long list of irritations between couples who've spent a lifetime together. Newly Oscar-nominated Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren as writer Leo Tolstoy and wife Sofya create such an authentic sense of long-suffering affection that it's easy to imagine that life off-screen. But Tolstoy's estate is a bitter issue, with Sofya intent on leaving the rights to his works to their children and the writer planning on giving them to the Russian people. There's a fine supporting cast, including James McAvoy as a Tolstoy acolyte and Paul Giamatti as an advisor. The film captures the struggles of a great mind troubled by fame and tormented by his wife.
Los Angeles News:9 Feb 2010 at 1:00am
Headlines from latimes.com
• Michael Jackson's personal physician entered a plea of not guilty Monday afternoon at a standing-room-only arraignment attended by Jackson's parents and several siblings.
The insurer should give a 'detailed justification' for its plan to raise premiums on individual policies by as much as 39%, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says.
California insurance regulators asked Anthem Blue Cross to delay controversial rate increases of as much as 39% for individual policies, hikes that have triggered widespread criticism from subscribers and brokers -- and now from the federal government.
With more women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, some advocates say, more services are needed.
Kristine Wise remembers driving from San Diego to Victorville to visit her brother and seeing haunting messages on the freeway signs. Instead of the speed limit or the miles to the next town, she envisioned: Beware of Snipers. Watch Out for Bombs. 40 miles to Baghdad. Death Ahead.
• A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corps officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77.
