New Gotham

(Note: This is the first of two pre-RTW weekend trips we're taking. We begin our RTW in earnest on Sept 15.)

For me, Los Angeles isn't about Hollywood. No, for me, Los Angeles represents a sort of New Gotham.

Decentralized yet with an intense urban vibe, gritty and real. Blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, American mestizos, Hapas, God-knows-where-you're from. And yes, a darkness and sinisterness.

In the old Gotham, the darkness lurks in shadows and in dimly lit alleyways. The scale is vertical, always at the bottom and looking up. The hero is a bat, the villian is a cackling joker.

In new Gotham, the darkness lives out in the open. Inexorable sunlight exposes everything -- the vanity and shallowness and depravity of contemporary worship.

Airbrushed movie stars seduce from the sides of buildings, brand names beckon as sirens. Even at the venerable Roscoe's Chicken and Biscuits, they call out -- Nike, Louis Vuitton.

But where is the hero? A solitary figure, a Lone Ranger has no chance. A hero for the New Gotham has to be like an octopus or a jellyfish, fingers outstretched and inescapable. Sinuous and bending, sentient everywhere.

Communities of the real, that's the hero of Los Angeles. Churches in the projects, Grand Central Market, a wedding among old friends.

Connection is the hero, separation and falsity the villian. In new Gotham, the villian's airbrushed smile is sexy and seductive, provoking envy and desire.

The freeways are constant, electric and pulsing. Los angelinos are the blood, coarsing through the veins of their city corporeal. Their wingbeats buzz, bearing them to heaven or to hell.

-Ian
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