Comments on: Meanwhile at 34th and Vine

By: Kirk

Kirk — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:55:01 +0000

C’mon, Chaz — close your eyes, hold your nose, take a drink! You know the drill.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:58:51 +0000

Better late than never.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:48:55 +0000

There's a 20-year gap between making the original trip and consulting the map, so don't go thinking I'm some sort of mutant. Although during my entire stay in southern California, I kept a Thomas Bros. map close at hand, just in case.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:35:39 +0000

Are you kidding? You are a Man That Consulted A Map When Lost!
Not an Endangered Species (that would be “asking a native”), but pretty unique nevertheless.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:10:16 +0000

On my first trip to Los Angeles, I found myself on Vine Street, and decided to head southward to 34th. Never quite got there. (Vine apparently peters out around Melrose.)

Having recycled that old memory, I fired up Google Maps, determined that Vine was the 5800 block West, and headed for 5800 W. 34th St., which doesn’t exist either: it seems to fall somewhere in the middle of the Baldwin Hills Recreation Center.

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, I conclude, chose this address for prosodic reasons, not as a guide to the location of gypsies.

(Getting back to the topic, in a lifetime I’ve met exactly one woman who’d appreciate the line of thinking displayed in the previous paragraphs, and, well, that’s not happening.)

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:15:12 +0000

I’m visualizing vast hordes of recently medicated individuals hanging out at 34th and Vine, prime targets for a crime wave because that cop, he ain’t going anywhere near the place.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:16:40 +0000

I’m sorry but EW. The whole idea of there being a “love drug” squicks me out.

I suppose that despite the several layers of cynical shells I’ve built for self-protection, I am kind of a romantic at heart, and would like to think that’s it’s more than just brain chemistry. (Though I’ve read that the early stages of love are something similar to OCD, and from my very limited experience I would be inclined to agree).

I guess my song-based sentiments go a few decades earlier than yours: to quote Billie Holiday, “I’ve locked my heart and thrown away the key.”