Every night here in Hollywood has a soundtrack and it varies from night to night, with layers of white sound from the whooshing streets and car alarms, to wafts of booming bass from any of the many automobiles crawling at any given time down side streets; the perfunctory comings and goings of neighbors, music blasting from a nearby apartment; and voices, punctuating the night in symphonies of mood, and nights like this, this is what I love best about living here: that the soundtrack is laughter and silliness and music. There are some new neighbors who moved in across the way, and they hit it off with the girls already there, and now they're having parties all the time. People hanging around outside, smoking, talking, just enjoying the night. Not sounding strained or unfun at all, ripples of laughter and shouts and teasing.....
I like living here, not because of anything but the people. Living in this exact spot feels way different than living in any of my other neighborhoods: Silverlake, Malibu, Venice, Santa Monica--I tried 'em all, but Hollywood has grabbed me in some way. The Hollywood flats, as a matter of fact---what I once thought of as urban wasteland, too rough-and-tumble to make a good place to live---has turned out to be the most vibrant and laid-back, interesting place. Now the voices are laughing, woman's voices, one of them hysterically telling a bizarre story about something that happened and the others howling with glee---that's the sound of a good neighborhood. Which this is. It is a noisy neighborhood, if things like this bother you. I always thought it would---but it doesn't. I feel safely private, people respect boundaries; but surrounded by life and sound and whatever that thing is that becomes the rhythm of a place.
1 comment:
I used to like the multi-culti of my old neighborhood...hispanic mostly, a couple of black families, some white trash...lots of holiday celebrations.
here it's even more so, but quiet. in my building alone, 2 black families, 3 indian families, my next door neighbor is japanese with a very interesting dating life. I hear languages I dont know but maybe pakistani or afghan.
there's a pack of small kids in the afternoon that are all over the map. this wasnt white flight...it's global village.
and the stores. it's a global mall all over this town. I'm within walking distance of some of the best indian, ethiopian, texmex, sushi, brazilian...then there's the ihop and some kickass mom/pop american joints. it's heaven.
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