When living in LA one gets accustomed to not having a lot of friends who are actually 'from' LA. Most people seem to move here from somewhere else pursuing a dream or whatever. To me, this tends to create a weird electric energy around the city. Lots of people around doing their best to fake it until they make it. There are lots of people who act famous or accomplished and or dress like they are in a famous band when they are actually still just trying to form a famous band, etc. A lot of people hate that 'fake' part of LA but I love it. I was born here and tend to stay here for the Holidays and it's nice because the city empties out as people go home to wherever they are from for a few weeks of 'reality' before they head back to LA's self-diagnosed 'fantasy'.

I'm not sure if the transient nature of the city is partly to blame for its lack of visible history but for whatever reason, LA has almost zero landmark history. I could go on and on about this as it is something I care about as a history buff.

The pictures I'm posting below are hardly exciting. I didn't even include any recognizable landmark to prove that these were taken where I say they were taken but that's because they don't need it. As of this posting the gross sidewalk below is gone or torn up. This morning the city started ripping up the sidewalk on the famed Sunset Strip -  a small section of the street home to some of the city's most famous rock venues: Johnny Depp's Viper Room where River Phoenix died on the street, the Rainbow where Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses played, and the Whiskey A Go Go where Jim Morrison famously said he wanted to fuck his mother - all in the spirit of existential rock n' roll angst, of course. This small famous section of land is hardly the rock mecca it once was. I sure as hell don't go there. I'm pretty sure the Whiskey will book any band from Bakersfield desperate enough to play the legendary venue and that can sell enough tickets to their friends for their first show to get on the stage. And, for some of those downtrodden reasons the powers at be thought what might be needed to revitalize the area is a new clean sidewalk. So, that's what they are doing. 

Who cares about an old sidewalk? Probably not many. I never knew I cared until I heard they were removing it. But, since the sidewalk in front of those famous venues hasn't changed in 75 years it isn't hard to imagine all the spit up gum, beer puke, empty drug bags, and all the rest of the history that has happened on those streets over the past 75 years. I live down the street from Sunset Strip and so the other night, before this week's rip up, I walked up the hill and over to the strip and took a few last shots of this used up walkway.

Good bye, Sunset Blvd sidewalk circa 1935-2010. R.I.P.

I caught the above 'Rottwielers' sidewalk tag and my imagination soared. Who are The Rottwielers? Some 60s motorcycle rock group? Some 70's street gang? An 80's metal band? A rap group from the 00s? I'm sure they rock whoever they are/were.

I love how the arrows below don't seem certain where they are telling you to go, 'Just keep going, sorta that way or whatever' they say as you or I drunkenly stumble home. 

I actually did look up and snap one shot of the Whiskey as I was walking home so here it is:

I was googling to try and find a better photo of the Whiskey than the one above to end this with but the ones I found aren't very cool - at least via Google Image search. But, I did find this awesome LP cover of Rodney On The Radio Vol.1 who is a super famous (in LA) old Hollywood dj who still makes the rounds about town. LOVE the image on the cover. So, we'll end with that. Nice one, Rodney.

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