Video of the Day: Your East Side Moment of Zen
The Big Pink @ El Rey Theatre 11/18/09
Sobriety Checkpoint in Sherman Oaks Tonight
If You've Got the Time: Sunday Brunch @ Casa del Mar
The Great L.A. Walk Treks Adams & Washington Today
There was a time when one would cringe to make a trip "behind the Orange Curtain". Those times are still with us. Perhaps now more than ever.
But fortunately MTV, VH-1, Bravo, and A&E have decided to fight our (culture) war for us. Instead of castigating our neighbors through witty editorials, or knowingly pointed fingers, the networks simply shone a spotlight into the vacuous, empty, and shallow world south of the 91 (roughly).
Thanks to shows like "The OC", "Laguna Beach", and "The Real Housewives of Orange County", one simply has to turn on the television, extend a palm and sigh, "see", to explain what we in LA have had to put up with for decades.
"The Real Housewives..." return tonight on Bravo for a third season of outrage, plastic surgery, and spending their husband's money. We're still waiting for someone to coin the phrase, "you haven't hit rock bottom until you're married to one of the Real Housewives of Orange County", but it's bound to appear.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
as our faithful oc rep, i am obligated to at least partly defend this "vacuous, empty, and shallow world south of the 91".
while there is obviously certain truth embedded in those shows that you mention, oc gets a bad rap for the same reasons that outsiders bag on la for. any la insider knows that the crap they put on "the hills" is a farcical caricature of how much character and personality la has, yet all the haters want to stereotype all of la as a cultural wasteland that that show embodies.
to a lesser extent, oc is the same way, sure it's endless suburbs, and certain sections are toxically cookie cutter and insulated, but it has a lot more diversity and character than it gets credited with. it's just that a lot of people don't take the time or have the opportunity to discover it.
uh oh, i think i've been drinking too much of the orange kool-aid, that means it's probably time for me to move...
some would argue that The Hills is bad because of all the people from orange county that are in it.
but alas, if only all of the oc was like our oc rep.
fair enough, though i think most of the people on that show now other than lauren are la socialites without ties to the original laguna beach or oc. um, not that i watch that show or anything...
Yet another reason for not watching TV. What's that old saying, "garbage in, garbage out".
yeah, LA and the culture it generally propagates isn't in the slightest empty, vacuous, or shallow.
having lived in both LA and OC, LA is actually way worse, with by far more ridiculous behaviors and displays of wealth. but i obviously know that not all of LA reflects this - OC is the same. i think the shallowness trickles down the 5 freeway, and the effects can even be seen in the 909. OC is merely a product of LA.
i wholeheartedly agree with Ryan's comment.
also, I think you need to lay off the OC bashing because it probably alienates some of your readers. just a thought.
if a blogpost is capable of alienating someone, then they deserve to be ridiculed. just a (better) thought.
Okay, I think everyone can all admit that TV needs writers now.