HUSTLERS VS. HOES

Most of the street prostitutes in Hollywood wear skirts, and high heels, but have testicles, and five o'clock shadows. Although their customer base is primarily male it is not specifically homosexual since johns prefer transvestites, and transexuals to hustlers.

PROSTITUTE UNIFORMS

Like Police Officers, and Postal Workers, prostitutes have to be recognized as such when they walk the streets.

HAND PRINTS, FOOT PRINTS

Since movie stars are rarely craftsmen or athletes, the cement prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre don't really capture their essence. The same can be said for the prints at Studs Theatre, with the exception of John Holmes, whose hands, and feet show there is no correlation between the size of a man's penis, and extremities, a fact that allows his myth to grow.

THE WALK OF FAME PARADOX

To receive a star on Hollywood's walk of fame is both an honor and an insult. Like a tabloid the star legitimates celebrity status by denigrating a celebrity's name, which is lowered from a figurative pedestal to the very real dirt.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY DESTINATIONS

Times Square had 42nd Street, Union Square (San Francisco) has the Tenderloin, and Hollywood has Hollywood, a family-friendly tourist destination with easy access to pornography, prostitution, and drugs.

THIRD WORLD THEME PARKS

The port destinations of cruises to Mexico, and the Caribbean all have a similar feel, typically offering a beach paradise, a unique archeological or geological attraction, and prized local goods for sale. The authenticity of indigenous culture in these areas can be questionable, as they cater to foreign tastes, however unlike Disney World, they are never fully sanitized, which provides for an interesting mix of culture, and class.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

In major metropolitan areas, airports, train stations, bus depots, and shipping terminals are frequently located in heavily industrialized, low income, high crime areas. Sometimes these ports are isolated from their surroundings, sometimes they aren't, but they are always the first thing a visitor sees.

DESTINATION ANYWHERE

The majority of shops that attract tourists in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica can be found at any mall in suburban America.

TOURISTS AT HOME

Hollywood Boulevard, the Sunset Strip, Rodeo Drive, and many other popular areas in the Los Angeles region are frequented by tourists and locals alike. This sets the city apart from places such as New York, and San Francisco, where tourist districts are mostly avoided by residents.

GRAY VACATION AT THE TEMPLE OF OIL, THE LA BREA TAR PITS

The central feature of the La Brea Tar Pits is the oil slicked Lake Pit, an abandoned asphalt mine which filled with groundwater and rain in the eighteenth century. Eventually fossils were discovered here, and the Tar Pits became a popular tourist attraction. Today the Pits seem like a quaint relic, however few things capture the essence of Los Angeles as well as this man made disaster.

SMOG

The air quality in Los Angeles has been improving over the past thirty years.

NOISE POLLUTION

At certain elevations in Los Angeles it's possible to escape the ocean-like rumble of traffic, however the constant disturbance created by jet engines is unavoidable.

VAPOR TRAILS

LIGHT POLLUTION

above left, night sky in Zion National Park, Utah, 7/5/07
above right, night sky in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, 7/6/07
below left, night sky in Las Vegas, Nevada, 7/4/07
below right, night sky in West Hollywood, California, 7/8/07

ILLEGAL DUMPING

GARBAGE WARS

The garbage cans in Los Angeles are owned and maintained by private companies, funded and used by residents, and controlled by the men and women who scavenge for recyclables and divide the bins amongst themselves. Similar to how street gangs carve up neighborhoods, specific bins in specific locations (driveways, alleys, etc.) belong to specific people. Since this marketplace lies beyond the reach of the legal system, disputes are often settled with violence, a form of self-regulation in many parts of the informal economy.

DISPARITY AMONG THE RICH

above, garbage cans, West Hollywood
below, garbage cans, Beverly Hills

IMPROVISED CART

DISPARITY AMONG THE POOR

RESERVED PARKING

THE POVERTY OF STYLE

above, Best Buy Cosmetics
below, The World of Vintage T-Shirts on Melrose

At Best Buy Cosmetics in downtown L.A. style transgresses social structure. Best Buy caters to a clientele that is mostly poor and homeless, selling raglan tees leftover from the eighties for six dollars apiece. Eight miles away on Melrose, similar shirts can cost hundreds of dollars.

SODA MACHINES, VANDAL PROOF, VANDALIZED

OMEGA MAN '07

After biological warfare annihilates the world's population in the movie Omega Man (1971), Charlton Heston wanders the deserted streets of Los Angeles, thinking he's alone. Today, thirty six years later, many Los Angeles neighborhoods seem as empty as those depicted in the film, even though the city's population is at a record high.

FAST FOOD, PROSTITUTES

Without the luxury of expense accounts, many of Hollywood's prostitutes run their businesses out of fast food joints. Primarily set up for take-out, and easily accessible by car, these in/out establishments are well suited for sex workers.

CHILDREN PLAYING