ch-ch-changes / turn and face the strange

L.A. is known as a landscape of rapid change. Sure, it changes, but really no more than anywhere else I've lived. Right? Well, some recent things kind of put this in perspective.

First (well, I'm doing this in reverse order of how this occurred to me, but whatever), I read through some blog links that Sealevel Records is closing at the end of June. This is really distressing. I love their instores. I love the size of the place. I may be the only one, but Amoeba gives me the willies. It's just overwhelming, so I don't like to go there. Now there aren't any independent options.

Next, the Hamburger Hamlet on Hollywood Blvd. closed and soon enough an H&M will be in its place. Why is this a big deal? Especially since I don't even go to Hamburger Hamlet? Because HH only exists in the L.A. and D.C. areas. The first time I came to L.A., about four years ago, long before I ever imagined I'd live here, I took the Metro to Hollywood & Highland 'cause as a tourist you have to go there and see glamorous Hollywood (note: they don't tell Easterners that Hollywood isn't what we think it is...and back then, it was really grungy, really grungy). One of the first things I noticed when I got out of the Metro was the Hamburger Hamlet. Apparently it closed at the beginning of the year (or maybe even earlier), but I hadn't noticed. As a savvy L.A. resident, I never drive that stretch of Hollywood, because it's a surefire traffic jam, thanks to all those clueless tourists. Ah, don't you love how it comes full circle sometimes?

Lastly, and perhaps most personally, on Monday on my drive home I noticed a recently razed lot on Franklin. I looked at it and thought, "Damn, what used to be there?" I looked across the street at the 101 Cafe and realized it was a series of townhouses that had been divided into apartments. I was offered a roommate share in one of them when I first moved here, but I opted for my original place in Silver Lake (still the right decision). It does back onto the 101 freeway, so for my lungs' sake, I really did make the right decision. But damn, had I taken it, I would be homeless. It was just weird. I have no idea when the lot was cleared, but it's probably been more than the two weeks I've now been driving past it on a daily basis. I wonder what's going to go in there. It has a big board boasting of some mixed-used developer. It's not a very big lot. My money's on a depressing strip of Starbucks, Quizno's, and surprise-me-with-another-generic-chain.

C'est la vie.