From Day One it's been obvious that I didn't just move 100 miles north, but also an indeterminate number of years into the past. While LA prides itself on being on the bleeding edge of just about everything, it's painfully obvious that Bako is more than content to hang out on the dull, trailing edge of all that and more.
So the question remains, how far in the Wayback Machine have we traveled? Ten years? Twenty?
That isn't as easy to answer as it may seem. Rather quickly I had pegged this place as mid-80's "Morning In America" Reagan Country. But something about that just didn't quite jibe. Whatever your opinion of Reagan, no one can dispute his stupidly sunny fake optimism. And that aint here. It doesn't quite capture the pinched, paranoid, resentful quality of life.
And then I saw something today that suddenly cemented this place in it's appropriate time. It was a TV commercial for a local business, with last minute Christmas suggestions.
"Why not give the gift of art?"
Original lithographs. Signed and numbered.
By..... LeRoy Neiman!
That's it!
It's 1973!
And you know what? It's spot on. There is something SO Nixonian about this place. I hate to admit it by I'm old enough to have lived through it, so I know of what I speak.
It's also the year our all time favorite movie was released...
"The Poseidon Adventure"
Which gives me a tiny bit of hope, in an otherwise hopeless holiday season.
"There's got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on lookin' for the light..."
Maybe, just maybe, we'll manage to crawl out of this hellhole.
Here's to hoping I'm Nonnie and not Mrs. Rosen.
