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03/01/2005: "Outside Is Hollywood"

Magic Beans in foreground, TV Production Crew in Background

This is the third day that the area outside my building has become a parking lot for the cast and crew for some WB television show called Summerland that is filming up the street. All they have to do is put a piece of paper on your door announcing their intention to shoot and bam, they take over. There isn't much you can do because they have filed all their permits with the city, they have a police detail and No Parking signs to put up. Valuable neighborhood parking spaces are filled with equipment trucks and trailers for sullen teen actors.

It is quite surreal to go out onto the balcony with my morning cup of coffee to water the plants and see these trailers right across the street. These star trailers have really loud generators to power all the electronic gadgets required by these "industry" folks, as if the constant city noise and helicopters weren't enough. But hey, what did I expect? I chose to live in (East) Hollywood, and instead of coal mining or education, the local economy is powered by hundreds of similar productions going on all over the neighborhood.

I'm not really annoyed or bothered as much as I'm trying to take it all in and appreciate it. I live a few blocks away from the Hollywood Freeway, which is how everyone else tries to get to where I am right now. In fact, I live in an area that is surrounded on all sides by freeways. Most of the rest of the people who work in this area of Los Angeles do not live here but instead spend hours commuting to and from remote suburbs. When they want to do something interesting, they all drive here to do it. I cannot even fathom the possibility of spending hours in the endless gridlock that I see when I walk on the overpasses just to get here.

When these TV stars and the crew that serves them wrap for the day, my Magic Beans will still be here, soaking up the sun.