I got into a discussion with my father yesterday about Downtown Los Angeles. I happened to be watching some television with him while on one of my little retreats to Orange County. I go there often to get away from among other things, the parking hassle in LA. The stress of Trader Joe's I hear is soul crushing. I'm immune because I don't step into grocery stores. But, getting coffee at a Coffee Bean is a fucking ordeal.
Anyways, we were watching a movie staring the most underrated actor in American Cinema, Keanu Reeves (who just happened to turn 50 in an ode to Dorian Grey, and is by all accounts the nicest son of a bitch in Hollywood) and a tracking helicopter shot a moving car racing through a completely empty Time Square. The next cut showed our hero (Keanu) with a few passengers including the beautifully eyebrowed Jennifer Connelly (is my memory eluding me) and my mothers favorite leading man, Jon Hamm racing through fake New York, which was in fact real Downtown Los Angeles. Movies and commercials often do this. Shoot exteriors of NY, film in dtla. They look somewhat similar in what is called the Historic Core, but, with any scrutiny, the deceit becomes obvious. Alright, here is the title of the film; THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. And a confession, this was my third time seeing it.
So, the discussion wasn't about the validity of using the two spaces. When I made the observation of the two spaces being used in the cut, to my father, he replied that it wasn't possible because palm trees litter LA. I argued that palm trees don't exist in downtown. And we went back and fourth. My argument was superior because, "I live and work in downtown". And that was the end, he conceded.
Now, cut to today; here I am looking at some shots I developed from my trustee Nikon One Touch, and lo and behold, a shot of the art's district in downtown LA. What we can see in the back is a lovely group of palm trees. I've passed by this area many times, and in a moment of argument, palm tree's where wiped from my memory. As if all the palms in downtown where wiped off the landscape, in favor of a more urban LA, best used to create car commercials or Hollywood films that were meant to be NY.
Memory is an illusion. Enjoy the rest of your day. Never argue from a source of fantasy.
