Los Angeles on three senses a day
The ring of fire surrounding - but not penetrating - Los Angeles presents familiar sensations, and I have called upon all the descriptive instincts of my profession to translate the feeling of impending doom to people who don't live here.Tactile
Los Angeles feels like the air is about to catch fire, as if all this dense, warm air needs is someone to light a match.
In that way, Los Angeles is like a crazy ex-girlfriend.
Visual
Los Angeles looks gray, though today's temperature (95 degrees) would suggest a sunny day. I wipe off my glasses before I drive home and am surprised by how much debris has collected on them, and my windshield when I park outside is covered with a thin film.
It's like being in an Irish bar from noon 'til close.
Olfactory
- It smells like the char I would scrape off the grills at the end of my shift at McDonalds when I was 15. Back then, we would throw ice cubes on our grill, and then power-scrape the residue with a special tool. Los Angeles feels like the resulting steam and smells like the resulting sludge.
- It smells like Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- It smells like someone else's burnt microwave popcorn through a dirty vent.
Previously: Fire on the mountain; "No chance" of Catalina fire spreading to L.A.; L.A. is burning
Labels: fire, los angeles
posted
by Marty Barrett at Thursday, October 25, 2007
2 Comments:
Yes, but New York does have the benefit of not smelling for three months a year, since odors require above-freezing temperatures.
Wow. You've almost sold me on moving there. Except that a house the size of the one I have here would probably cost like 2 million or something ridiculous.
"It smells like someone else's burnt microwave popcorn through a dirty vent."
You, my friend, are a fucking POET.
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