"California Dreaming" Los Angeles by Ramonq

click: Californian music

Mention Los Angeles, or what Californian slackers call "L.A.", and the first thing that comes to most people's minds is the world-famous dream factory, Hollywood. Like many others, my initiation to all things American came from the television or movie screens at home, and these vicarious images were mostly produced in the Los Angeles suburb of Hollywood. Little did I know that I was a willing victim of this well-concerted and powerful American global assault on foreign cultures. Many American myths and urban legends were spawned here, and I had to see this place that beams American culture into my living room for myself.

Well it's all a facade really. Because Los Angeles is not all glitz and glamour. Hollywood Boulevarde isn't paved with gold, but with plaques and anatomical imprints of faded or deceased stars. The scenes that I saw on the screens were mostly filmed within the confines of plain-looking warehouse-type studios around the suburbs of Los Angeles. And the fantastic special effects on the big screens that wowed me, were actually graphically designed by geeks using rows upon rows of computers in workstations, much like the mundane typing pools of years gone by. Was I disappointed? You bet.

Greater Los Angeles isn't a pretty little city, it's mightily vast. This huge conurbation spreads out like a relentless volcanic lava blanketing much of the valleys that stretch from the Pacific Ocean till edge of the Californian desert and the foot of the San Bernardino mountains. This is a city that is designed for motor vehicles, and it's definitely not a good idea if you're a traveller who wants to explore a city by foot. Downtown Los Angeles is gritty and has some very rough and tough neighbourhood such as East L.A. The Central Business District and the Civic Centre have got their fair share of extremely tall skyscrapers which house thousands of Angeleno employees who then quickly disappear from the city to their suburban homes as soon as the sun sets. However, downtown area has a curious mix of lively ethnic neighbourhoods such as Chinatown, Koreatown and even a Little Tokyo; and these areas are one of the highlights of Los Angeles city. There are also plenty of feshly-arrived Latino migrants living in the poorer sections of downtown Los Angeles as well as homeless destitutes standing in street corners looking for that elusive job. The scenes here are a galaxy away from the ritzy suburbs of Beverly Hills and Malibu where entertainment stars live.

Majority of the Angelenos live among the endless sprawl of the suburbs that usually cater for the burgeoning middle class, which have rows upon rows of free-standing bungalows. They fully rely on cars to commute from one place to another which are connected by a dazzling array of super-wide freeways that crisscross the expansive metropolis like a bowl of spaghetti. You can easily get lost in the city if you do not know the labyrinthian freeway system well. I really find it astonishing that even with all these sophisticated road systems, the freeways are still littered with cars stalled in the traffic jams. But these freeways do take you from one place of intrerest to another quite efficiently. I definitely suggest the L.A. visitor to hire a car if you want to explore the Los Angeles area thoroughly. Los Angelenos are in love with their cars and if you don't have one, you're definitely frowned upon as a loser. It's the desire to "keep up with the Joneses" that drives the L.A economy into an unstoppable consumerist juggernaut.

There are several suburbs in the L.A region for the travellers that are well worth taking a driving trip . There's Burbank for the Universal Studios. Los Angeles region has a string of beaches that have been legendised by surgers such as Santa Monica, Malibu, Redondo, Long Beach etc. Much further south in the Orange County, is the world famous and the original Disney Land. You must bear in mind that these areas are miles from each other, that a vehicle is defintely necessary.

Spain colonised California in 1769, and an expedition was led by Gaspar de Portola who then camped in the riverside area now known as Los Angeles. One of the members of the expedition, Father Juan Crespi saw the potential of this fertile land he named the river, El Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reyna de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, which means "The River of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula. " A Spanish Mission was built in the area and a company of settlers called "Los Pobladores" were recruited from Mexico to establish a pueblo on that spot . Over time, the pueblo grew and became known as the Ciudad de Los Angeles, "City of Angels," and on April 4, 1850 became the City of Los Angeles after the Treaty of Guadalupe which made California a United States territory. When California was admitted to the Union, Los Angeles, was already a large community, and pioneers from Midwest settled here to take advantage of the warm Mediterranean-like climate.

It's the pleasant climate that triggered the Los Angeles' population boom. Millions of Americans migrated to the Los Angeles region to take advantage of the free and easy Californian lifestyle. By 1910's , film-makers Cecil B deMille and D W Griffths set up shop in Holllywood, which attracted even more migrants perhaps after watching the glamorous movies on the silverscreen. Hollywood superstars moved to Beverly Hills and for the mere mortals, the beach suburbs of Santa Monica and Venice became the city's playground.

Because of its popularity, Los Angeles has now grown too large with some of America's worst air pollution. The people of Los Angeles are a stressed lot. They live in a very modern fast-paced, fad-proned consumerist society. Although it somehow appears impersonal and dysfunctional, many people make an effort to turn their local suburbs into something that's close enough to be called a community. Or if not, they simply cocoon themselves in the privacy of their homes and watch some more of those images on the screen that were conconcted from the dream factories nearby.

• Pros:Experience California lifestyle
• Cons:Attractions are widely spaced out
• In a nutshell:Dream Factory