When we first moved to LA there just wasn't the same kind of instant immersion that I was used to living in the much smaller cities of Detroit and Glasgow. Someone informed us that it takes about three years to acclimate to living in LA, but we had not yet learned about the pervasive FOMO (fear of missing out). I understood this concept as the main psychological symptom of using Facebook, but I didn't know that this was the kind of mythmaking that bigger cities produce. Either everyone you know actually was there, or the event was necessarily exclusive so that it wouldn't be as overwhelming as the crowds at Disneyland.
What I must concede after learning key lessons, (lessons which someday soon I will make into a top 10 things that artists should prepare for before moving to LA), is that of course I am part of the problem.
From the day we officially became Angelenos by moving into 90033 we were gentrifiers. We finally found a decent place in our price range as Rachel set aside two full weeks to looking for our next place to live and part time work. Just a few hours prior to our tour of the place we're in now, someone else offered $100 dollars more per month than it was listed for, cash deposit in hand. I had lied about where we lived to get a decent job, but my pay stubs could be a red flag (Rachel wasn't really working yet) so we had to be as attractive as possible. We were just beginning to understand how buying a home was much more affordable than renting, a concept much more palpable seeing that our potential landlords were our age, and also just winging it.
Buying a home actually actually sounds laughable now. On the radio I heard that the average home price in LA is over 600,000 and the situation in our part of Boyle Heights became much more sad when a unit down the street from us with much less perks is advertising for $2,300 per month for a one bedroom.
It's hard to imagine living anywhere else in LA considering that we were priced out of every other part of Los Angeles besides Koreatown and going much farther East. But since moving here we drastically altered my commute from a 1¼ drive to a 15 minute bike ride. My work's woodshop also doubled as my only studio. This has been some next-level quality of life shit, but I also realize now that this is essentially my non-monetary standard of living that I developed since college. I can't work without air conditioning or a studio outside of my home close at hand.
When Ham Poe called me up out of the blue as some tend to do, it wasn't until he asked me what to check out that I realize that I have shifted into feeling at home here. This month we renewed our lease to enter our third year, it comes with the 3% rent-controlled increase, and at work I've asked for and gotten a raise three times. Since coming back from our Documenta trip (Berlin/Athens), our mindset is engaged again with being more light and spontaneous, so not only do we have spaces we can go that may provide some inspiration, but there is more of a balance between weekdays and weekends. There is less of an urge to see what there is to explore and so staying in no longer feels like a FOMO. Also Rachel is looking forward to making work for two exhibitions, the first opportunities not related to CalArts alumni.
I told Ham to grab a piece of paper because I wanted to see if I could come up with a top 10 in order off the top of my head and was about to rattle them all off like I did for Detroit and Glasgow. With annotations/corrections below, here it is in Ham's own handwriting, in order of must-see:
What I must concede after learning key lessons, (lessons which someday soon I will make into a top 10 things that artists should prepare for before moving to LA), is that of course I am part of the problem.
From the day we officially became Angelenos by moving into 90033 we were gentrifiers. We finally found a decent place in our price range as Rachel set aside two full weeks to looking for our next place to live and part time work. Just a few hours prior to our tour of the place we're in now, someone else offered $100 dollars more per month than it was listed for, cash deposit in hand. I had lied about where we lived to get a decent job, but my pay stubs could be a red flag (Rachel wasn't really working yet) so we had to be as attractive as possible. We were just beginning to understand how buying a home was much more affordable than renting, a concept much more palpable seeing that our potential landlords were our age, and also just winging it.
Buying a home actually actually sounds laughable now. On the radio I heard that the average home price in LA is over 600,000 and the situation in our part of Boyle Heights became much more sad when a unit down the street from us with much less perks is advertising for $2,300 per month for a one bedroom.
It's hard to imagine living anywhere else in LA considering that we were priced out of every other part of Los Angeles besides Koreatown and going much farther East. But since moving here we drastically altered my commute from a 1¼ drive to a 15 minute bike ride. My work's woodshop also doubled as my only studio. This has been some next-level quality of life shit, but I also realize now that this is essentially my non-monetary standard of living that I developed since college. I can't work without air conditioning or a studio outside of my home close at hand.
When Ham Poe called me up out of the blue as some tend to do, it wasn't until he asked me what to check out that I realize that I have shifted into feeling at home here. This month we renewed our lease to enter our third year, it comes with the 3% rent-controlled increase, and at work I've asked for and gotten a raise three times. Since coming back from our Documenta trip (Berlin/Athens), our mindset is engaged again with being more light and spontaneous, so not only do we have spaces we can go that may provide some inspiration, but there is more of a balance between weekdays and weekends. There is less of an urge to see what there is to explore and so staying in no longer feels like a FOMO. Also Rachel is looking forward to making work for two exhibitions, the first opportunities not related to CalArts alumni.
I told Ham to grab a piece of paper because I wanted to see if I could come up with a top 10 in order off the top of my head and was about to rattle them all off like I did for Detroit and Glasgow. With annotations/corrections below, here it is in Ham's own handwriting, in order of must-see:
- The Museum of Jurassic Technology
- Hiking
- The Underground Museum
- Korean Spas
- Reserve Ames (art gallery)
- Chris Burden's Metropolis ii @ LACMA
- Commonwealth & Council / Human Resources (bit more community oriented art galleries)
- Frog Town: Women's Center for Creative Work, Biking the LA river, Zebulon
- Little Tokyo for food / Retrokitsch Divebar in Chinatown for drinks
- Relaxing on the Beaches
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