The Sell Out (Part 7)

A Quote on Los Angeles:

"If I close my eyes, and picture L.A., all I see is one big varicose vein." - Marilyn Monroe

Can an entire city be a sell-out?  I have been thinking about this with the recent deaths of Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper.  I know that this may seem excessive - or just perverse - but I have to see both losses as a symptom of that town we all know and exaggerate: Hollywood, the place where dreams come to die. 

I've been there.  We went to Los Angeles when I was eleven years old.  It was a road trip from Canada to California and I loved it, even the bad food, incredible heat, and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements (usually in a van).  But what I remember most is the end of that trip in SoCal.  Dust, desert scrub, expensive houses surrounded by dead air.  We visited a mall and it felt like the last days of Rome (decadent and dying); I went swimming at a man-made lake (perverse again; I only saw the beach once) and was surrounded by the youth of L.A.  It was like the DMZ between the Koreas or the neutral zone in "Star Trek".  You had to learn fast how to deal with the unexpected.  A lot for an eleven-year-old, but still...

So, celebrity death and selling out: they do go together.  I am more convinced of this as the deaths and scandals roll on.  When I was there, I had that inexplicable feeling that I was trespassing.  It was not a place that belonged to me culturally, emotionally or psychologically.  After that trip by van, we had to take a plane home.  Part of me is glad about this.  Getting out that air space helped me think about what I had seen and done.  Again, I was only eleven.

You will be missed, Misters Hopper and Coleman.  We can only hope that there is peace for you both now...