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Los Angeles :
Features
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To read part one of
The Dude's Los Angeles
, follow this link:
http://www.up-magazine.com/magazine/features/The_Dude_Los_Angeles.shtml
How do you understand a movie that was never intended to be understood, about a city makes even less sense itself in real life?
You get in a car and drive to a strip mall at 6757 Santa Monica Blvd., where the city’s shadier characters convene around Benitos Taco Shop, which sells five rolled tacos for $4.29.
Topped with guacamole.
Just like in the movie.
And just like in the movie, there’s a pawnshop called Casa de Empeño. Unlike in the movie, though, 6757 itself is a business called Eden Therapy. Not Sobchak Security. A piece of paper inside the door reads:
All patients must present: State Issue ID. Original Doctor’s Referral.
A chain and padlock wrapped around the door, a memento of L.A.’s recent raid on medicinal marijuana clinics.
As you head east on Santa Monica, the stimuli piles up on itself.
We turned south onto Kenmore, where John Turturro, playing Jesus Quintana, had to perform his walk of shame in the movie. Our small group of pilgrims and location freaks inhaled the street. There were Mini Coopers and Nissan SUVs and fences in yards.
“These are $500,000 houses,” one of the L.A.-based pilgrims told me, trying to explain the nature of gentrification in the city. “The neighbourhood’s not bad. It’s the
ways in to the neighbourhood that are sketchy.”
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