L.A. is the apocalypse: it’s you and a bunch of parking lots

So you live(d) in LA.

"It is so over-the-top optimistic a place that it moves Pollyanna and Doctor Pangloss toward the morose-despondent-suicidal end of the spectrum." It's about a car, sure, but a car is like oxygen in LA.

"Who cares? 

Literally no one cares, is the answer. No one cares. You’re alone in the world. L.A. is explicit about that. 

If you can’t handle a huge landscape made entirely from concrete, interspersed with 24-hour drugstores stocked with medications you don’t need, then don’t move there. 

It’s you and a bunch of parking lots."

There was the sister of my girl friend who was dating someone from the movie industry. At least that's what she said, or he had told her, because, frankly, who is not in some way related to that factory of illusions? Was it true? Who gives a shit, you're in LA. You are everything and nothing.

Anyway, he was absolutely certain he had AIDS. Why? Well it was 1985, you either wore Reeboks, shopped at Whole Foods or mimicked to be the soon to be late Rock Hudson 2.

"You’ve got a surgically pinched, thin Michael Jackson nose? You’ve got a goatee and a trucker hat? You’ve got a million-dollar job and a Bentley? You’ve got to be at work at the local doughnut shop before 6am? Or maybe you’ve got 16 kids and an addiction to Yoo-Hoo – who cares?

It doesn’t matter."

The city, or better the sheer expanse, is absolutely insane, sucks you dry, spits you out ... and you love it. The movie 'Live and die in LA' gives a perfect impression and yes, that is exactly the sunrise you will see.

This sums it up nicely:

"L.A. is the apocalypse: it’s you and a bunch of parking lots. No one’s going to save you; no one’s looking out for you. It’s the only city I know where that’s the explicit premise of living there – that’s the deal you make when you move to L.A. The city, ironically, is emotionally authentic. 

It says: no one loves you; you’re the least important person in the room; get over it.

What matters is what you do there."

 Great post