Thai Foot Massage & Cupcake Economy
The biggest change in L.A. since my last visit is that the five-dollar cupcake shops seem to have been replaced by twenty-five dollar Thai foot Massage operations: they are as thick as three per block, seriously. Maybe that says something about the economy, like people are walking more? Not sure. I picked up some other random intelligence from the far east: Out in Dujiangyan City, in the People’s Republic, repairs from the 2008 earthquake have progressed to the extent that there is more new housing than people around to use it. My friend Ron Gress has been working there, and in Beijing, for the last several years. I was lucky to catch him on a brief visit home in Palos Verdes. Ron is a matte painter and visual effects artist for the movies. After he hit sixty, work started to dry up in L.A., but not in China! He’s way out east doing special effects and consulting work for the booming Chinese film industry. He gets a condo, car & driver, two assistants, and more bucks. ILM has an outpost there, and the visual effects community is looking for workers. Dujiangyan also boasts NeuSoft University (that’s right, a software university), where Ron lectures to crowds in the several hundreds. Plans are in the works for a major film studio and theme park ala Universal City. I hear a lot of Golf Pros are getting work in China, too.
On a Friday night at the newish Landmark theater complex at the Westside Pavilion I caught a 10 PM showing of Wim Wenders’ crazy bio-dance-doc PINA, an incredible performance-laden movie in 3D, all about legendary choreographer tanztheater goddess Pina Bausch. Even better, I went to the screening with a group of dancers, including Rows actor and major Renaissance dude Kenneth Hughes. I honestly liked this movie a lot more than Piranha 3D.
While I did some couch surfing, I also stayed at the Cadillac Hotel, which is right on the Venice Boardwalk. I recommend it if you want to do actual surfing: it’s cheap, easy, and smack in the middle of the Eternal Carnival. The “boardwalk” is thankfully still ground zero for DIY vendors, mentally ill homeless drum circles, and runaways. You smell pot there 24/7, as well as salty air and french fries, and of course, urine.
Speaking of pot and the economy, a friend in Hollywood discussed putting venture capital in the “legal marijuana” agribusiness up in Oakland. I’m thinking if the Feds ever clear the way, Pfizer will jump in and take over, and ruin it for the entrepreneurs. Will Big Pharma be able to copyright pot DNA, like Monsanto did with corn? Follow the money.
And corn reminds me why I am here actually, which is to work on post-production for ROWS, which if you ever read this column you know is my movie (rowsmovie.com) that involves two girls lost in an infinite cornfield, among other things. To that end, I consulted with post-house entrepreneur Bill Macomber at Fancy Film. Bill pushes a ton of cable doc, network, commercial, and indie feature work through his shop, a Silverlake sandblasted brick boutique outfitted with everything from Avid to Nucoda.
My favorite mega-movie house in Hollywood is the ArcLight, which overlooks the old Cinerama Dome on Sunset (reserved seating rocks). I saw Fincher’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I have written about the book and the Swedish film version, which came around last year, in this column. The Swedish version starred Noomi Rapace, which weirdly is an anagram for the star of the American version, Rooney Mara. These actresses are both excellent, and play the real star of the books and the movies, the character of Lisbeth Salander. The men in the movies are sort of, meh. The real problem with the American version (somehow the Swedish version fared better in this respect) is that it all feels so rushed. The super-gratifying emotional pay-offs provided in the book by this most-fascinating of fictional female characters ever is all but lost in the mad rush to squeeze in a faithful but flat adaptation, even at 158 minutes, and even with Fincher’s awesome visuals. The movie really needed to throw out the book and run with the Lisbeth Salander story. As for the Baltimore film economy, it gets a boost when Fincher and producer Kevin Spacey come here to shoot another remake, this one a Netflix redo of the British series House of Cards. I hear they are setting up shop in Harford County.
Thankfully I had time to take my ritual hike in the Santa Monica Mountains before submitting to the drudgery of LAX. One of the best features of Los Angeles is having such vast green space right in the city’s lap. Once you get up in the hills you can see thirty miles, a vista that encompasses Santa Monica Bay and downtown L.A and everything in between. And after the hike you can get a cupcake and a foot massage.
