When I moved there from Somewhere Else (on my way to Something Different), I loved the sprawl of Los Angeles. I loved that high-rises don’t interfere with your view of the sky or the mountains. I loved driving a block from any of the major roads and finding myself in a snug grid of small neighborhoods with orange blossoms on the corner. I particularly loved how the night-blooming jasmine in West Hollywood would push through the diesel on alternating breaths when I was stuck in traffic on the 101. Since my brief stint with the studios, I’ve come to think of Hollywood as the most honest city on earth… no, really. We each construct our own vision of the world, and as much as we do try to understand each other, it’s our own perspective that is most real to us. Nowhere but in Hollywood can you so literally create your own reality; embrace it to the exclusion of all others; and make no apologies. What’s more authentic than that?