from the LA High Scene to the coast

So, this morning at 7:30am I arrived in Beverly Hills, seeking early morning substance through a latte and coffee cake at a Starbucks on Beverly Drive. Immediately after sitting down i felt the "high scrutiny" style over substance moods of the city start to seep in ... people walked in the door looking at everyone else, seeing how they were dressed, what they were doing, if they were with someone or not, etc, etc. I stayed there for an hour until I had enough of the shop, although interestingly, the coffee cake was half the price that it is in Boston. Continued to wander around the Beverly Hills shopping area, passing very chic stores that specalized in somewhat ridiculous things, such as a store devoted to bags ranging from purses to ornate knapsacks, and then other stores that had different types of rings. It does have a certain market...but it's obviously not for me. I was more amused by knowing that I'd been in Beverly MA just two days ago (Beverly Hills namesake) and that I was probably the only person in BH today who had been in Beverly for the past month, at least.

It was staggering to see the amount of flashy cars and how that reflected people's wealth...from ferraris to lamborginis to BMWs to rolls royces and everything else under the sun, but mostly things with high price tags.

Eventually I found a Jamba Juice and a small park on Rodeo Drive to do exercises in the sun. Was able to meet up with an old friend for lunch and I enjoyed the reunion. I went off to visit the Museum of Television and Radio afterwords, which offered a staggering range of television programs, radio advertisements, commercials and historical television to pick out of an old Macintosh computer and then watch on a video station in an adjacent room. Eventually I decided to watch:
taped footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing (novelty)
and then three retro-fabulous tv shows:
You Can't Do That On Television
Square One TV (finally seeing Mathnet in LA!!!)
and the "Star Wars" guest episode of the Muppet Show
all very silly, but nostalgic and fun ... until I suddenly wanted to get out in the sun again and out of Beverly Hills.

So that meant it was time to take the bus to Santa Monica! The beach, sun and sand were intoxicating in a very holistic way and very welcome after the smoggy start to the day. The ocean seems endless on the other side of the continent :) and backed by the mountains, it is simply majestical.
Spectacular. Amazing.
Unforgettable.