Quintessential Hollywood

LT and I took a walk today, and the second half ended up being a quintessential Hollywood experience. At least, for people who know what Hollywood is actually like.

There was of course the part that people who don't know Hollywood think of--celebrity event. We passed a throng of kids outside of some theater, waiting to get into a benefit concert starring a whole bunch of kid stars. One was outside signing autographs, but damned if I know who it was. He looked like he was about 10, and I thought about how weird it would be to be 10 and have to learn how to work a crowd and greet fans and sign autographs and stuff. The neatest part about it was the street performer we saw a block earlier getting ready to make an appearance, getting himself up on pretty decently sized stilts.

Then there were two blocks that were really almost a complete picture of the real Hollywood. It started with a new condo/apartment/shopping development, across the street were a bunch of old trees that had completely decimated the sidewalk. A block down we noticed this really neat looking building with balconies with fun designs and admired it for a bit, then when we got to the corner we saw the sign saying that it was housing for elderly LGBT folks. Then the next block involved a restaurant called Big Wangs, advertising Bikini Bingo every Sunday night at 8; two guys yelling back and forth across the street while one was parking an old beater car; another guy driving by in an annoyingly loud Mustang; a loud and rowdy bar; a shady bar that you couldn't see inside at all, all you saw was a dark doorway with a sign above it; and a minor celebrity standing outside a closed auto body shop smoking a cigarette.

And that, my friends, is Hollywood.