Visiting Los Angeles, an Aucklander can't help but think of home, though not in a homesick way. It's more to do with wondering if this vast, sun-baked, car-mad, homeless-filled place is actually future Auckland.
The taxi driver from the airport is garrulous but, unusually liberal for an LA cabbie, says the city is hurting over the Hamas-Israel war. "There's a lot of fear." And, as usual, he's never been to New Zealand, but he hears it's very beautiful.
Wife working, me tagging along, for our first few days in Hollywood we're based at the Thompson Hollywood, new and hip and full of rich youngsters. There's a rooftop bar and a pool. It's just a hop off Sunset Boulevard and I can see the skyscrapers of Downtown in the heat-hazy distance.
After 6pm, the sun a fading glow way above Santa Monica, we venture out for a drink and food and go around the corner to the rooftop bar in another hip hotel. The seats have no backs and everyone is less than half my age. There's no tap beer, just cocktails with names like Jolene. Incongruously, the sound system is playing Dire Straits.
Next morning, even hotter, an Uber driver says, "I'm starting to notice the homeless in parts of town they weren't before, like Beverly Hills, even Rodeo Drive. There was an influx after the epidemic. For the first time, it's starting to feel dangerous."
But the thing he's really in a state about is the price of petrol. "It's so expensive now, hitting $6 a gallon." When I tell him that back home, we pay the equivalent of $14 a gallon, he refuses to believe me.
TAKING SHELTER
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 25 - December 1, 2023-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 25 - December 1, 2023-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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Spilt milk
Excess dietary calcium goes into toilets, not bones.
To the Max
The testosterone and torments of late adolescence are centre stage in this novel about finding your place in life.
A chemical killer
A new book outlines the life of a woman who may well have been New Zealand’s most prolific poisoner. What was it that led police to exhume the body of her husband from its watery grave?
Creating the WOW factor
Meg Williams, in charge of the biggest festival involving a bunch of people wearing wacky outfits, admits she's not very flamboyant in her own dressing.
Leaving it all on the park
After cancer treatment, Graeme Downes takes stock of a musical life leading The Verlaines and lecturing future generations of songwriters.
Wrong message
A UK journalist who came here to talk about Rwanda’s authoritarian regime found herself the victim of a social media hate campaign.
Busting a gut
IBD is escalating, seemingly thanks to the Western lifestyle, and New Zealand has one of the highest rates in the world.
The point of Peters
There's been much to admire about the NZ First leader's politics over the years, but where has it got him?
Don't call us ...
Finland's ingenuity galvanised the rapid global uptake of cellphones, so it's paradoxical the country's latest claim to fame should be the elevation of no-speakies to a new commercial opportunity.
He is here
In the week my brother died, there was a storm in the universe.