Everywhere Is Disneyland
South Central L.A. is about to become a theme park. Randal C. Archibold writes in The New York Times of the latest in neighborhoods to have tour buses passing through:
LOS ANGELES -- The tour organizer received assurances, he says, from four gangs that they would not harass the bus when it passed through their turf. Paying customers must sign releases warning of potential danger. And after careful consideration, it was decided not to have residents shoot water guns at the bus and sell "I Got Shot in South Central" T-shirts.Borrowing a bit from the Hollywood star tours, the grit of the streets and a dash of hype, LA Gang Tours is making its debut on Saturday, a 12-stop, two-hour journey through what its organizer calls "the history and origin of high-profile gang areas and the top crime-scene locations" of South Los Angeles. By Friday afternoon, the 56-seat coach was nearly sold out.
To German tourists, is my guess.
Alfred Lomas, 45, a former gang member and the creator of the tour ($65, lunch included), said this drive-by was about educating people on city life, while turning any profits into microloans and other initiatives aimed at providing gang members jobs.But aside from its unusual logistical challenges -- the liability waiver describes the tour as "inherently dangerous" and warns of the risk of death -- the venture has also generated debate about its appropriateness. Chicago has a tour of Al Capone sites and Las Vegas has one devoted to the mob -- but this gangland lore is still happening.
And the reality.
The odds of seeing an actual gang member on the street at the appointed hour -- Saturday morning -- are low, though Mr. Lomas said four or five members will be on the bus to keep watch and offer their stories. Many of the sites, like the location of the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout in 1974, take a lot of explaining to link with contemporary gangs (Mr. Lomas's research was done on the Internet and by talking to old-timers.)
Wanna see a gang member? I'll drop you off in the hood in Venice for free. But, I have to tell you, it's really not that cute or entertaining, violence and death that doesn't have the patina of history on it.
My old neighbor in Venice, a former gang member who went straight, was murdered with a screw driver on Brooks and Electric in Venice, around the block from the old Eames studio and Dennis Hopper's place.
And one of the German guys who lived in the apartment upstairs from me on Santa Clara in Venice back in the 90s was pistol-whipped not far from where our neighbor (Mark, the former gang member), who lived across the street, was killed.
Me? I'll take my thug violence on screen, thanks.
. . . and other initiatives aimed at providing gang members jobs.
I thought they already had jobs, as gang members. They might not have to fill out W-4 forms, but truck hijackers and drug dealing are jobs.
Suki at January 16, 2010 11:21 PM
We've heard that Hopper is having difficult days.
By the way--
> I'll take my thug violence on
> screen, thanks.
Even screen violence is way, way out of control. At a new job I've recently seen narratives I'd never seen before: A movie (Saw) and a TV show (CSI). Both were appalling. I mean really fucking twisted and disturbing. Think of the maiming sacrifices being made by bright young Americans in Iraq; some of them will come home to the States and learn that their fellow citizens are being entertained by such things. What will we say to them?
Nothing they want to hear, but...
Pauline Kael once said "Audiences hiss the sight of blood now, as if they didn't have it in their own bodies." You'd expect that casual approach to corporeal realities from a woman who titled one of her books "Taking it All In." (And she wrote it just as the slasher-film trend was getting underway.)
Paglia was probably closer to the truth when she said, of Halloween (the holiday): "[T]he eerie sense of ghost-filled pagan night has been lost -- probably because the once-dangerous wilderness has been receding with the spread of suburban developments."
American life is incredibly safe for millions and millions and millions of people. That kind of safety is not what the human soul was built for... So some of these games and movies were probably made for kids (boys mostly, for obvious reasons) who truly want to be reminded that there's blood in their veins, and that it's not just a well-oiled machine. It's an animal process.
This is what I tell myself so as not to be too ashamed of Hollywood.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at January 16, 2010 11:29 PM
Damn, I didn't know Hopper was dying.... he's always entertaining.
>> That kind of safety is not what the human soul was built for.
Off to go hiking, and that is my thought for the day.
>> This is what I tell myself so as not to be too ashamed of Hollywood
Never underestimate the power of denial!
Eric at January 17, 2010 8:06 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/01/17/everywhere_is_d.html#comment-1689479">comment from EricHopper seems like a good guy, and seems to be without the movie star bullshit. (Knew him a little from Venice, and once dined with him and his wife at Chaya Venice when I was there with a friend who knew him.)
Amy Alkon
at January 17, 2010 8:22 AM
I guess they are getting divorced from his deathbed.. beautiful woman.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1243900/Cancer-stricken-Dennis-Hopper-files-divorce-deathbed.html
Eric at January 17, 2010 8:43 AM
I always thought so too... Strikingly attractive, even for a Hollywood second (third? fifth?) wife.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at January 17, 2010 4:38 PM
Great Idea - this could jump-start the Palestinian tourist industry.
Or maybe not.
Ben-David at January 18, 2010 12:21 PM
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