Jill's Journal: How many movies has this Farmers Market tower appeared in? The Los Angeles Farmers Market, an institution since 1934, is not your average farmers market found in big cities and small towns all over the country with weekend vendors selling wares off their tailgates. Oh, no. This is different. Far different.
The Los Angeles version is open seven days a week and has a massive amount of vendors in permanent structures. There’s meats and produce, of course, as well as vintage goods, shoe repair, a barber shop, and so many ethnic foods your mouth waters. Looking for Brazilian, Korean, or Armenian fare? Without getting on a plane, this is the best place to find it.
“Meet me at Third and Fairfax,” the location of the Farmers Market, is said to be the most enduring expression in L.A.
One thing we’ve learned about L.A. is that no matter what you do (like a simple weekend lunch at the Farmers Market, for instance), it turns into an almost-all-day affair. There’s at least two reasons for this. First, other major cities are so much more compact and it’s easy to pack several things into one day because everything is relatively close. Not so in L.A. This is such a massive, sprawling city that few of the major things to see and do are anywhere close to each other. It’s got to be the most spread-out city in the U.S. Drive time (with traffic) to and from anywhere increases each event by at least an hour each way. And second, the amount of people here is just unbelievable. There’s traffic -- always slowed down, sometimes stop-and-go -- no matter what time of the day you might be out: early, late, and especially in between. And whether you need to make a left-hand turn or find a parking space or simply check out of the grocery store, there’s a line. Usually a long one. Everyone here is in a hurry, but nothing is ever quick.
One of the world famous streets in L.A. (and one of the most fun to drive and gawk) is Sunset Boulevard. This 24-mile long street starts in downtown Los Angeles and passes through or right next to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Pacific Palisades on its way to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean. It was on Sunset that Hugh Grant famously picked up prostitute Divine Brown several years back.
The most exciting section of this iconic street is the Sunset Strip, one of L.A.’s most famous neighborhoods which stretches between Doheny Drive and Crescent Heights Boulevard. This has been the home of rock and roll decadence and hard partying for decades. Among the legendary clubs here (like The Roxy, where John Belushi partied before overdosing, and the Whisky a Go Go, where The Doors were the house band) is The Viper Room, which was started by Johnny Depp and is the spot where River Phoenix died of an overdose on the sidewalk.
Yet another famed Sunset landmark is the Rainbow Bar & Grill. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio met here on a blind date. And since then, every musician from John Lennon to Elvis Presley to Alice Cooper to Billy Idol to the members of Motley Crue and Led Zeppelin has been a regular.
The girls and I noticed this pink Corvette when it turned in front of us, while Rob recognized the occupant. Does anyone remember Angelyne? The model and actress is probably most famous for appearing scantily-clad on billboards all over L.A. and Hollywood over the last 30 years. One of her slogans is, “Barbie wishes she were me.” She’ll appear in two movies coming out this year. One of them (a Tom Cruise movie) appropriately features her in a billboard.
The pink Corvette stood out only because of its color, as we’ve seen an obscene amount of Lamborghinis and Ferraris and other over-the-top cars. Rob is endlessly entertained by this.
Maybe it's because they spend so much time in their cars and maybe it's because a nice car seems to equal status here, but people seem to place an extra-high importance on their vehicles in L.A. Here’s the parking lot of a grocery store we frequent: at least half of the cars in the lot are always Mercedes with a number of BMWs thrown in and a heck of a lot of Porsches and Audis for good measure. I’m more entertained by the people found inside the store who are attached to the cars outside: the amount of make-up and plastic surgery and expensive clothing (not to mention shoes) and little dogs in purses is truly extraordinary. L.A. is definitely the home of the beautiful people, but a lot of them have the attitudes to match their high-maintenance outward appearance. I don’t mean that as a criticism; it’s more of an observance.
We’ve passed through Beverly Hills so many times on our way to other places that I had a chance to get a better snapshot of the sign. I never get tired of seeing it. In spite of the traffic and the smog, the Los Angeles area has so much to love about it (not the least of which are year-round gorgeous weather and sunshine).
UCLA: how much fun would it be to go to school here? Oh, the opportunities at a place like this. I often wonder where our girls will go to college someday…one could certainly do a lot worse than UCLA.
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