Good morning everyone.
I saw a documentary yesterday that I really enjoyed:
City of Gold. It's about food critic Jonathan Gold and his love for his hometown of Los Angeles. It's about food, yes - but it's more of a love letter to the cultural working class vibrancy of L.A. His love of the people and the neighborhoods - not the trendy neighborhoods, the Hollywood and Beverly Hills or even the gentrified older neighborhoods, but the hard-working immigrant neighborhoods that he's lived in and around through what would be several lifetimes for the average person. He knows these places intimately... it's tangible - even measurable, as he once tasted his way down the entire stretch of Pico Blvd. I've been on Pico, and it's a long, long stretch - over 15 miles.
He says how much he loves L.A., and as a San Diegan, I understand why. San Diego has always lived in the shadow of L.A., we're a fainter version of it, but still, watching him drive across the city, it's so, so familiar to a Southern Californian. I love my state. I love my city, but I could love another city in California just as much. Anyone who hates being here (yes rocketman I'm thinking of you), I'll gladly show him the door, because there's no place like here.