Oscars = Hollywood Police State

I understand that I live in an area of town that has high traffic and high probability of having a premiere or awards event happening at any moment. The Hollywood and Highland neighbors expect to have trouble with traffic any time an event occurs but the Oscars went overboard.

It was ridiculous! Roads were barricaded for approximately 5 blocks (more barricades along a few streets, fewer on others).

The big event started prepping almost a week ago. Hollywood Blvd. was blocked from Highland to Orange so they could start setting up bleachers and laying down the red carpet. They erected a bridge over the road. A shot from the bridge of the entire red carpet can be seen here. There was a sliver of walkway between the bleachers and the mall to squeak into the train station and stores.

As the week dragged on, more security people started showing up, by the hundreds it seems, to guard the barricades and see that no riff raff touched the view blocking curtains.

As a side note to anyone who works on the big Oscars event - you REALLY should get badges of a higher quality than I could make at Kinko's. I know you have alot of people to make badges for, but a simple hologram sticker on the badge would dissuade anyone who might want to counterfeit them. I took one look at a badge on a security guard and said "All those fonts are native to MS Word and all I would need is a laminating machine - if I felt really devious." *and a note to anyone who might want to get me in trouble for saying that - I DIDN'T do it....I just thought it. Is that a crime? Not unless we really do live in Orwell's world.

Signs went up all over the outside of the Hollywood and Highland mall reading "Oscars" and "Academy Awards." By Friday, the construction/set up people had started laying out the more obtrusive barricades, stacking the metal pieces on street corners around the neighborhood and lining the sidewalks. Saturday night, very late, the actual barricades went into place and traffic around the neighborhood ground to a halt. By Sunday morning, the police had parked buses and trucks at the intersections closest to the theater. At about noon yesterday, 4 helicopters were circling the area, along with a single engine plane towing a sign for ABC (or was it NBC or CBS? whoever has the eye logo.) and the GOODYEAR BLIMP!!

I didn't leave the house except to go to the Korean grocery/convenience tore a block away and walk the doggies. We even made the delivery driver at our favorite local Chinese place (not my absolute favorite, but the best that's in delivery range) brave the traffic for our lunch/dinner.

One of my neighbors was telling me that last year the streets were blocked even further out theater and you had to prove residency to pass the barricades. Yikes!

These are the days that I'm happy to not have a car in LA.

This morning there were still 3 helicopters, but the train station was open again.

One of the things I love about LA is having a sense of smell.

Back in Austin my allergies were so bad that most of the time, my nose was so stuffed up that I couldn't smell anything. Here in LA, my allergies are so negligible that my nose is seldom stuffed up and I can smell everything. Now - I'm sure you're saying "LA is so polluted - how can you possibly smell anything but car exhaust?" But it's true!!! I was born in Houston, a place about as smoggy as LA, so I'm accustomed to the smoke and car exhaust.

I get off the train in the morning in Long Beach. It's close, but not really, to the ocean. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I can smell the sea air, salty and clean and sharp.

About 3 blocks from my office is an Arco oil refinery. Most of the time it's not too stinky when it's polluting the air. But sometimes, it spews out that particular oil refinery funk that reminds me of southeast Texas. I think of all the times we visited my grandparents in Baytown, traveling from Houston through Pasadena. Pasadena, Texas can be identified solely by smell. It is home to so many oil refineries that funk is all you can smell when you get within several miles of the town. It also reminds me of heritage. My great grandfather was a wildcat for Humble Oil way back in the old days. I have history with that scent.

Over Christmas and New Year's it rained cats and dogs in LA. The skies poured for almost 3 weeks straight. When the rain finally broke, flowers and trees started to bloom everywhere. It was beautiful. I was so happy; I was silly and giddy. I didn't really realize what was making me so stupidly happy until I got off the train at home in Hollywood. All I could smell was a wonderful mix of blossoms and green growing things. The air had the same perfume it did the first week I moved here. I stood outside the train station grinning like an idiot and taking huge, deep breaths just to get the lovely smell inside my lungs.

It hit me once again, I'm home....this is Hollywood and I live here....and I love it.