Showing posts with label scottie taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scottie taylor. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2026

July 3, 1995 - Los Angeles - Journal Entry

The last day in LA. Bags are packed and I'm ready to go, even if that means going to LAX at 2:3O AM. The terminal doesn't open until 5 AM. What a square no-sidewalk town.

But I knew that being her before.

It's not a city to me.

More a collection of suburbs. Its citizens buy the City of Angels' illusions of self-importance from 5e dntertainment industry's propaganda. None attacks the lie. The glamor of the cinema is all smoke and silver screen with the press flaks protecting the lie that you can make it here, but people do at the expense of their souls. The thousands of hopeful candidates for fame and fortune Hirding from parts unknown for roles unknown having abandoned who they were for who they might be with a little luck, but this world is tough to break into, because most of your days are spend in cars to avoid any corruption of their pasts

I don't go to the movies anymore. I hate the multiplexes. The smell of fake popcorn and Holden aufield's line from CATCHER IN THE RYE. "If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me."

Truthfully I loved the movies.

SUNSET BOULEVARD, CHINATOWN, SINGING IN THE RAIN, BARFLY, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.

I still dream of being a screenwriter, although they are the low man on the ladder, as movie star friend once said, "At Six O'Clock the female star will go with the producer, by 6:30 she's worked her way down to the dir3ctor, then the male lead, ut they'd rather go home with the valet than a writer. They are always a problem."

Later at LAX

Goodbye Los Angeles.

Adios to the freeways, the Milk Bar, Beverly Hills, North Hollywood, the bums, the club-goers, the LAPD, the Beverly Hills FD, Santa Monica Boulevard, the 420 bus over the hills, the 4 bus to South Canon Drive, the Hollywood Hills resembling Babylon's Hanging Gardens in the morning mist of the June gloom, Scottie driving back to the Valley in his Pinto, huevos rancheros, the wave churned Pacific, eucalyptus trees, The PCH, car, cars, cars, freeways, Dennis, our loving landlord, his street dog Rascal, Sara, bible chanting strippers by the pool house, always Genesis, Perry and her mutt Hairy the Dog, the White Watusi of Malibu Lake, Tujunga Canyon, drugs, Fantasy Island, the home of Dennis' strippers, cars, cares, cars,the freeways.

Everyone blisslessly going nowhere.

Me too.

Not this morning.

I'm flying East.

To Boston. To my baby brother. To see him off.

I wish it were me.

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Much more to come.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

EVES IN THE FLESH

In the winter of 1995 I was sitting at my desk in the diamond exchange, when Scottie Taylor phoned from LA.

"How you doing?"

"Great, I'm opening a Milk Bar in Beverly Hills. How'd you like to be the doorman?" The ex-lightweight mentioned the numbers. The salary was on par with what I earned selling diamonds for Manny on West 47th Street.

"What's the weather like?" Gray snow covered the sidewalks of the Diamond District and icy slush filled the gutters. The temperature hovered well below freezing. Business was dead this time of year and I calculated that I could double my salary on tips at an LA nightclub.

"Sunny."

"Any rain?" This time of year Pacific monsoons splashed the Santa Monica Mountains and transformed the yellow slopes to gold.

"Sometimes, but not enough to cause any floods."

"We got a place to live?" I had never lived in California.

"A pool house in North Hollywood. My friend Dennis owns it and a go-go club too."

"Go-Go bar?" I had been a big supporter of the exotic arts ever since frequenting Boston's Naked I in 1970 and honestly preferred stripping to ballet.

"Best in LA. Every morning the girls come over to touch up their tan."

"Naked?"