There is a great deal of California in what I consider to be Angelino, and vice versa. If California and Los Angeles were individual tapestries, they would sample from the same material – but ultimately hold their individual integrities and aesthetics. It is in this way that I have come to analyze Los Angeles – in light of its role in defining California, yet not ignorant to California’s suckling from the sun-tanned teat of all things Angelino.
We live in a city of colors, a city of scents, of dollars, of determination – a city where sunsets succeed hour-deficient days, a city whose citizens are cultured on consumerism and dance in the sun-casted shadows of swaying frivolities. Los Angeles has so many hues, scents and textures that choosing one would demean, and overall minimize the vast depth and breadth the city, and region have to offer. I will delve into one such medium I feel is iconically ‘Los Angeles’, and ascertain why they are so.
Upon reaching the final two weeks of my six-month stay in London, England this past year I very much longed for California. In an effort to block out the freezing weather, the brevity of sunlight on whited winter days, and ultimately to prepare myself for the Angelino life I so clearly envisioned. More tangible than anything else in this vision was the notion of warmth. This sense of warmth I so specifically remember, and quite literally felt on my skin, was a placeholder for all the times I myself had melted under the overpowering warmth of the sun – and done nothing but feel its presence upon my skin, and repeat.
I want to specify the type of warmth I’m talking about – because there are varying types transcending different and specific sensations. Being from the north of California, albeit a place of temperate weather and kind temperament, warmth is often categorized by the lack of fog, or is defined by what is expected but either does not arrive or is fended off. Warmth is refreshing, warmth is relaxing and it is a privilege.
Angelinos expect their warmth; they want to be able to control it with their own fingers, to succumb to its increasing comfort like an adjustable shower handle. I too came to desire a dial which could control the warmth, to reject the world’s realistic weather patterns, burn away valleys of fog, melt frozen street grout, and idealize the elements. This warmth is so iconically Los Angeles because Angelinos live in an unrealistic climate, especially when compared to the rest of the world.
This commitment-cancelling warmth which I tie so intimately to Los Angeles is so because I clearly see the following: as was discussed in previous articles, the Los Angeles area is one in which the people battle against the landscape and elements (in an uphill manner) to preserve their highly coveted way of life. Just as Angelinos defy logic by settling (in the masses) in an area with an inadequate water supply, with desert conditions, perched next to the ocean – which to has rapidly become overcrowded, sprawled and polluted so as to further my claim –they now perpetuate this notion of ridiculousness by continuing to live here, in an area deficient in life’s bare necessities, but abundant in pleasurable pursuits – such as exercising one’s will in order to attain that sense of warmth. I too am ridiculous, sun-seeking, and excited to stay in this topographical who-done-it for as long as necessary. The question remains: what will we, and the next generation need to do in order to preserve this stellar mental placidity?
-- Ryan Cavalier
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