Iranians, Jews and art deco cinemas in Westwood Village, L.A.

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The Travelodge I stayed in (Denise had already returned to London) was just round the corner from Westwood Village, not a quaint little village as we would understand it in Britain, but built-up, commercialised and with 6-lane highways running through it! Nevertheless it has a lot of character with palm tree-lined avenues, lots of little restaurants, and Mexican-influenced architecture. The houses in the residential sector are all unique, ranging from the small hacienda-style to mock classical collonaded mansions.

There's a large Iranian community here, which surprised me (for no good reason other than the effect of listening to George Bush's anti-Iranian vitriol) and there's one main street which is full of Iranian restaurants and shops, interspersed, bizarrely enough, by Jewish artefact shops. The 'village' is also home to some cool art deco cinemas, often with only one screen, quite the opposite to what I expected in America.

Being the sad introvert that I am, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the delightfully huge 'Borders' bookshop, where a surprisingly large number of other sad introverts would gather in a sociable mass of non-communication, the only form of contact between us being through the shared, thumbed, unbought books still on the shelf. In one of those thumbed unbought books I read "A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed, and is, thereby, a true manifestation of what one feels about life in its entirety" by one of my heroes, the great photographer, Ansel Adams.

Each evening as I walked back to my hotel I passed a little old lady camped outside an aquarium shop with her shopping basket and cardboard box, couldn't help being troubled by the fact that the fat looking fish looked better fed than she was and they had two roofs over their heads.

Eating out is another of my favoured passtimes. There were several good Thai restaurants which brought back happy memories of Thailand, one of my favourite countries of the world. I even had a Thai woman cut my hair, although it was rubbish as she was in a rush to speak on the phone to one of her relatives from Thailand! One evening I decided to indulge my culinary love affair with Indian food at the Ambala Dhaba restaurant, an unconventional place having been redecorated in a North Indian Moghul style with lots of 'Changing rooms' special effects giving it a somewhat kitsch appeal. The couple sitting opposite me were quite the opposite, the epitome of conventionality. In their early 20's, he was dressed in a white shirt and tie with a beige jacket on top, he had thick black glasses and chatted excitedly with lots of 'like's to link each sentence. She wore a respectable mauve blouse and a pigtail and smiled innocently. They looked like they would have two happy American kids and go on camping vacations every summer. It seemed strangely attractive to me in that instant!

Sad, but I suppose advisable, is the demise of the giant American car which we're used to seeing in Hollywood films. I was amazed to hardly see one in the streets of LA, now there is a proliferation of German cars, Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and Volkswagons.

I bought my new camera here for about half the price it is in UK. My old camera got ruined after a freak wave drenched me in the Cook Islands!

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Photos

Art-Deco Style Cinema in Westwood
I was amazed to find that many cinemas here only have one screen. I went to see 'Sideways' which had scenes from where I was staying in Santa Monica, otherwise it was a pretty boring film. The inside of the cinema was much more interesting as the walls were decorated with old Hollywood scenes.

UCLA Hammer Museum on the right, Westwood
UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) is just round the corner.

Borders Bookshop, Westwood
As I passed this bookshop on the way back to my motel most evenings (alone) and it was open until 11pm I used to spend hours browsing and reading there. It was a great place where people just lie on the floor and read! Shows how studious I am or sad (I suspect the latter).

No dumping
A sign on the pavement in the main street.

Comments

[Cody]

I loved your description of Westwood.
I'm a transfer student at UCLA, so I've been making many of the same observations that you had about Westwood. I came across your blog through a google image search for "Art Deco", and I'm so glad that I did, because it's always interesting to get the perspective of someone who is not from the U.S. Enjoy your future travels.

[Leah]

Brings back good memories
I graduated from UCLA in 2001 and your pics make me feel alittle home sick. I really loved living in Westwood.

[Ken Wallace]

Sideways
Being a southern California native, and having grown up visiting Westwood movie theaters, I find your perspective on the area interesting. I do take issue with your description of Sideways as boring--I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as I did during that movie. Happy travels.