The Bates Motel on Sunset

Sundays are nice downtown.  Quiet, only locals walking around at a more relaxed pace.  After sleeping in a bit, I scurried down to the Starbucks on 6th and Spring to grab the Sunday times and sip a grande. Sundays are a big day for film crews downtown.  Much less traffic and noise.  I made my way through a big crowd of interesting looking people and traffic cones when I realized I was about to walk through a set of big cameras.  A friendly guy said, "It's OK you can walk through" I turned and smiled but continued my roundabout path.  I'm sure it would be OK because these people are never really filming anything, they just stand around 99% of the time.  It's funny to see.  As I sat at the window in Starbucks and read the paper I could see the same people standing on their same marks the whole time across the street.  The life of an extra.  For a ten second flash of a scene in a commercial, it must take a half a day of prep and standing time.  Maybe they are waiting for magnificent light. Somehow it's still exciting to see.  I can't imagine a cooler job; except maybe being a pirate.

Yesterday's adventure was by design.  I took the Red Line train to Sunset and Vermont with the plan of walking back downtown along Sunset Boulevard.  I usually plan these things a little better but as I got underfoot I realized I had forgot to bring my umbrella.  The clouds looked dark and showers were in the forecast.  I also had not treated the small blister I got from wearing dress shoes to the interview the other night.  I was worried but I couldn't seem to make myself turn around.

As I got off the subway and made my way to street level, another traveler asked me which way was east. Good question. I keep forgetting to download a compass app for my Droid.  We kinda figured it out and each headed our merry way.

About 10 minutes down Sunset and I hit the jackpot.  An abandoned motel covered in graffiti and surrounded by barbed wire.  It was beautiful. An epic statement on man's desire to creatively mark his territory and proudly express his unique name... on somebody else's shit.  Oh how I wish I had a time lapse of what was once a brand new motel as it devolved (evolved?) into beautiful chaos.  The notorious motel has the nickname of "Bates Motel" because it's near Bates Avenue and it's creepy. Yah, creepy beautiful. According to local lore, at the turn of this century is was full of drug dealers, hookers, murders and IT recruiters.  I found an article in the LA Times dated 2002; the locals were all terrified of what when on there and a judge ordered the owner to fix up the place. I believe it was shut down in 2003.  So what you see now is 10 years worth of decay.  A very rare sight these days.

The rest of my walk down Sunset was coffeehouses and vegan restaurants through Silver Lake with a few interesting bars and not much else.  The light was gray and muted, but it was still a good two hour walk with a few spots to add to the list of places to stand; when the light is magnificent.