I get asked a lot how I could leave the US to live in Nicaragua. The decision to leave the US was easy. The (very) hard part was leaving Los Angeles.
People think LA is just West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice, Korea Town and Skid Row. Traffic, homeless people, dirty, grime, crime, gang bangers, etc.
Yeah, LA is all of that. But it’s so much more.
Bitch I’m from the land. Don’t say you hate LA when you don’t travel past the 10.
– dodger blue - Kendrick Lamar
One of my pet peeves is hearing people say how much they dislike LA but have never actually left the areas I mentioned above. Those areas are just a small part of the huge tapestry that makes up the city and community of Los Angeles. They’re also home to many of the city’s transplants. People who were not born and raised in LA.
There’s nothing wrong with transplants, but like in any city, to really feel the soul you need to spend some time with the locals. See how they live. Live like they live. Feel LA how they feel it.
Windows down, it hits him full force. The velvet brush of an ocean breeze in late afternoon. It’s action - fractal, arterial, the feeling everything is possible. Sexy, rich, dangerous Los Angeles.
– Excerpt from Heat 2 by Michael Mann
In my family you’re born wearing a Dodgers hat and a Lakers jersey. It’s literally in our DNA. In our blood. We bleed for these teams.
The Asian food in Cerritos or Alhambra. The noodles of Thai Town in East Hollywood. The soul food or Jamaican spots in South Central. The birria in Boyle Heights. Hell, you can find Nicaraguan spots in Little Nicaragua off 7th St and Western. Time travel via Retro Row on 4th St in Long Beach.
LA at night. Bright lights. Everything there spread out in front of him. Maaaaaan… A flat constellation that goes on forever… City of light, Jim Morrison sang, or just another lost angel, city of night…
But the traffic, the music, the party rocking downstairs; the cars, the money - the vibe.
– Excerpt from Heat 2 by Michael Mann
LA has so much to offer. Most will never know or understand. Most people visit and think that the transplants are LA. They aren’t. Well, they are as in they’re a part of the greater LA tapestry that makes up such an amazing city.
The locals love it in a different way. For us, we can leave the city but it can never leave us. Those Southern California mornings where it’s just warm enough but the breeze makes you almost not feel it. When you can walk along the beach with a cup of coffee and just stare out at the surfers and the waves and the oil tankers for hours.
He pauses, inhaling. Being here. Feeling it. Chris lets the city he left, and longed for, and fears, and dreads, and dreams of, sing up to him. It rides circuits in his blood stream like five milligrams of heroin. This natural ambition making the difference. This is mojo rising!
– Excerpt from Heat 2 by Michael Mann
LA is a giant moving poem. It’s beautiful. It’s home. Always.