My research into the incarnations of Los Angeles and California in all the media available to us today - film, TV, newspapers, books, Internet - is by no means thoroug or even organised. Considering that in LA only, the motion picture and TV industry employs over 150,000 people, so many a reel of moving images is produced annually, making any sort of organised immersion night unto impossible.
But, for your amusement or benefit, I've collected a random set of media representations of LA and the state itself.
-
Californication, by Red Hot Chili Peppers - music
-
OK, I'm not a huge RHCP fan, I gotta admit. But the song Californication - the tune of summer 2000 - clearly embodied what kind of massive cultural impact Calfornia has had on the Western world. Hence, the name of this rambling essay. And of course, the bazillion-dollar video that accompanied the song is gorgeous, featuring a computer-generated California. Groovy, man.
-
Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, by Reyner Banham - book
-
A seminal classic in the difficult quest of analysing what the draw of LA is to so many people. Banham says the true language of LA is movement, and from that premise, he makes the book a joyride through the city's landscape (or lack thereof) that makes the city so unique.
-
Imagining Los Angeles: A City in Fiction, by Davin M. Fine - book
-
If, like me, you're transfixed by the LA Noir so skillfully depicted by generations of writers, from Chandler to Ellroy, this is the book for you. Giving a sharp look on the evolution of the LA writing genre, the book travels through the century in fiction, with aplomb and elan rarely found in books such as this. Not encyclopedic, but a true literary journey.
-
Mulholland Drive - film
-
Though new, this David Lynch piece is clearly a classic LA piece. Rarely does a film capture the true soul of a city so well on a medium naturally belonging to it - celluloid. In this twisted tale of two women, money found and memory lost, done in true Lynch style, Los Angeles is not merely the setting, but a character player.
-
Magnolia - film
-
Paul Thomas Anderson's disturbed vision of an ordinary day in San Fernando Valley, a place extraordinarily far away from normality. The lives of a seemingly random sampling of people intercept in a myriad of ways, and the film does offer an honest view of what the Valley looks like, if not providing an accurate portrayal of your average Valley dweller.
-
Los Angeles Times - online
-
The Web supplement of Los Angeles Times, the morning bible of so many LA newshounds, is, for an Internet sister publication of a major paper, suprisingly good. With brief coverage on international news, the site offers regional news for various segments of the sprawling giantess that LA is. Rent a flat, see what's on at the opera, browse travel or Hollywood news.
-
losangeles.com - online
-
An eccentric, informative and on occasion funny community resources for those dreaming of the la-la land. The features tend to go on the side of too chi-chi now and then, but sometimes the contents just ring so true of LA it's amazing.
