Namely, you must not try specifically to do the thing. The more effort you expend in so attempting, the further you will fall from the goal. Achieving it comes from sticking to fundamentals and hoping it happens. That being the case, I don't hold it against any particular artist if they don't step up, and so I retract the call I made. The artist must feel it to do it, and no call will help if no artists have shown signs of feeling it.
Recently, I gave some thought to who has answered the call where I live now: Los Angeles. As I made no mention of it in that post, it seemed worth a revisiting. Immediately, a couple of laureates of Los Angeles who suit my taste came to mind: one a musician, one a novelist and one a writer not neatly categorized. This is of course going to leave out plenty, since it is rich with qualities to move artists to create in its honor.
Recently, I gave some thought to who has answered the call where I live now: Los Angeles. As I made no mention of it in that post, it seemed worth a revisiting. Immediately, a couple of laureates of Los Angeles who suit my taste came to mind: one a musician, one a novelist and one a writer not neatly categorized. This is of course going to leave out plenty, since it is rich with qualities to move artists to create in its honor.
The very first I thought of so happens to be my favorite musical act, and is none other than the Excitable Boy himself, Warren Zevon. He had a number of songs that really conveyed some kind of truth about this place. I'm reminded of "Join Me In LA", "Carmelita", "Desperadoes Under The Eaves" and others. More songs concerned matters other than LA, but I'm beginning to see how it takes less than an artist's whole body of work to serve. Other people might favor Randy Newman or Tom Petty, but mine will always be Zevon.
In literature, I think first of novelist and poet Charles Bukowski. His LA is is somewhat different from Zevon's, it seems to me. Perhaps filthier and more exposed. Maybe he's just a Zevon without the glamour afforded by a guitar and the rock star lifestyle. His haunts were in different areas, and he was inclined towards slightly different activities, so his perspective on that LA reflects that. Most important, I suppose, is the nature of his media. Writing has a way of bringing out different things.
As I said, there are many more in a number of artistic disciplines, but these at least and some others have done as much as any histories I've read to tell me the story of LA, to show me what there is for me here, and how to live. They tell me the feeling of the place, and not a lot of factoids about square miles, population density and tax base. They provide orientation to the heart and the soul in addition to the means by which other sources provide the same thing to the body and the mind.
In literature, I think first of novelist and poet Charles Bukowski. His LA is is somewhat different from Zevon's, it seems to me. Perhaps filthier and more exposed. Maybe he's just a Zevon without the glamour afforded by a guitar and the rock star lifestyle. His haunts were in different areas, and he was inclined towards slightly different activities, so his perspective on that LA reflects that. Most important, I suppose, is the nature of his media. Writing has a way of bringing out different things.
As I said, there are many more in a number of artistic disciplines, but these at least and some others have done as much as any histories I've read to tell me the story of LA, to show me what there is for me here, and how to live. They tell me the feeling of the place, and not a lot of factoids about square miles, population density and tax base. They provide orientation to the heart and the soul in addition to the means by which other sources provide the same thing to the body and the mind.
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