Curious Sight

I felt like a local here in Los Angeles the first time I passed by the Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame while on my way to someplace pressing. It was a job interview, in fact. The tourists clogging the sidewalks earned my ire in spades, and I felt like a local for the first time in that way. At such times, I am short-tempered and impatient, but I have had subsequent experiences along that stretch that are somewhat more pleasant.

The other day there was such a time. During the summer, or around mid-day most of the year, that area of Hollywood Boulevard is heavily congested with foot traffic. When you are there at another time, it's something of a different story. On this particular day, I was passing by there before eight o'clock in the morning, and in less than optimal weather. It was largely clear of people, and I imagine that the bulk of them were at that time taking advantage of their hotel's continental breakfast.

There were some people, however. Really by that I mean a couple of people. I recall two men gleefully taking pictures around the front of the historic theater. I wondered at that, but figured that for these guys it was a red letter day not for their year but for their lives, and simply being there in the damp cold for a few pictures even before the placed opened was special enough to be worth coming out with such a spirit of enthusiasm.

I could not muster such enthusiasm now, being at liberty to go down there any time I like, and being able to favor the more opportune times. I think of going there more in terms of a conventional movie-going experience, and not in such terms as visiting some kind of film Mecca. I don't know whether I'm sorry that's the case. I don't like the idea of something special becoming mundane, but there's something special in the special being so abundant as to be mundane.