“I guess I just wasn’t made for these times.” – Brian Wilson, R.I.P.
California Dreamin’ in LALA Land
Southern California has wonderful weather. Within the coastal zone it’s especially wonderful. The sun shines brightly every day, there’s low humidity, and a cool breeze wafts off the Pacific Ocean making things perfectly pleasant. You just can’t beat it.
But for every sweet smelling rose there’s a stem full of jagged thorns. In Southern California, the traffic, cost of living, state and local government taxes, and the large swaths of urban blight and homeless encampments fall far short of perfection.
The remnant luster of Hollywood’s golden age was irreversibly corroded with the slaying of Sharon Tate and her unborn baby by the Manson Family in the early morning hours of August 9, 1969. By then, the cultural decline of Los Angeles was already well underway.
Brian Wilson lost his mind in 1964. The Watts Riots burned hot in 1965. And by 1967, Pacific Ocean Park – a rival to Disneyland – had fallen to terminal disrepair.
The inflation of the 1970s blighted the expansive boulevards and urban sprawl. By the 1980s kids like Jordan Hiller were overdosing on doors and fours. Others found joy in bashing their heads in. Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris captured the aesthetic in the documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization. Continue reading