Senseless Twitter Updates

follow me on Twitter

Here we are on another tour of my neighborhood, one of my frequent morning walks. Today we embark on an east-west walk, rather than north-south. I start out heading south on the big boulevard I mentioned in my previous post for a block or so, then make a ninety degree turn and head east. 

This neighborhood is nice and quiet, a bit on the exclusive side, and becomes more so as you head further east away from the boulevard: The reason being that all the streets in this section dead end at the local movie studio. Once upon a time this area used to be farmland until it was purchased in the 1920s by Twentieth Century-Fox. The surrounding neighborhood was sold off to become housing and what is now known as Century City, but the studio remains, an island of Hollywood commerce in the middle of Westside suburbia. 

I like to check out the homes in the neighborhood as I walk along. The styles and sizes of the houses vary. Some are still the one-story ranch type homes that were originally built here but many have been renovated and are now much larger (read: taller). In this area, if the homeowner wants to enlarge the house there is nowhere to go but up. The newer homes are two, sometimes even three, stories and really are too large for the lots they are built on. Many are starkly modern and, to my mind, not very attractive when compared to the Olde California mission or classic ranch styles of their smaller brethren. Some front yards are drought proofed with cactus and gravel; some are tangled webs of rose bushes and overgrown grass with winding paths of brick or stepping stones glimpsed when you crane your neck or venture onto the driveway (with caution, at 5:30 am).

There are a few north-south cross streets here which run between the two defining east-west streets of the area. They are lined with apartment buildings, most of which are new and look fairly nice. As I approach the terminus of my walk, however, there are a few holdout buildings which are older and shabbier - the chief of which is a faceless two story building, which could best be described as a single block of stucco dotted with a few minimalist windows. It is surrounded by a blasted patch of dry earth which likely has not seen water since the last rain months ago. As I plod up to the dead end of the street the side of the stucco block is enlivened by a small side porch lined with potted plants and an oil-stained driveway on which usually lounge two wary cats. 

Welcome to Feral Cat Land, the most exclusive amusement park in Southern California. Population: two cats and me. As per my custom I chirp to the cats, which either ignore me or give me a shocked look and disappear. The attraction of Feral Cat Land, other than the cats, is a battered pickup truck several decades old painted teal blue and bearing the International Harvester logo. The truck is a fixture on this street: it's always there every time I come here.  Based on my (minimal) online research, it dates to about 1951. By the time I reach this part of my walk I usually lean on it and pant for a while.

Feral Cat Land is bordered by a tall wrought-iron gate edged by two impressive Art Deco-styled concrete pillars, painted white. The pillars are topped by two lovely, elaborate street lamps which burn bright in the predawn twilight. If you look more closely you will see a placard on the gate which states that, per municipal code, you can't go through the gate without permission - although you can peer through at the little bungalows by the gate (probably administrative buildings) and a large filming stage looming in the background. Occasionally a golf cart will zip across the parking lot. This is the closest most Angelenos who are not employed by the entertainment industry will ever get to a studio or film set. I always linger here for a minute or two, wondering what it would be like to slip through that gate. The whole matter-of-factness of the location fascinates me: six inches on one side you're looking at a rundown apartment building and feral cats; six inches the other side and it's Movieland!

If you turn away from the gate and walk north you will find several similar streets dead-ending in similar pillars, marking the borders of the studio. It's rather like traveling from Main Street U.S.A. to Tomorrowland in the Kingdom of the Mouse. Except here, Tomorrowland is strictly off limits.