View of a Hotel Window, 10/25/15: LA
Posted on October 25, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
My hotel room is on the first floor, which means that the view out of it is a little on the nose for where I am, so instead here is a view of the window itself, with some of the outside world visible from it. It’s a very nice hotel room, though, so. No parking lot.
I’m in LA for meetings and for seeing a couple of people, but no public events, so, sorry, folks. Maybe next time. I came down from the Seattle-Tacoma area, where yesterday I did a writing workshop and reading, and both went pretty well, in my opinion. No one booed and threw rotted vegetables, in any event.
Off to take a quick walk down to the local convenience store. I’m here in LA for a couple of days. Better stock up on essentials, and yes, I mean Coke Zero.
I presume the ritual In N Out has been consumed?
But there was no view from a window in T-town! OTOH, well, T-town. I attended both the morning and afternoon sessions yesterday, and I am glad I did so. While I had read/heard some of the material before, I enjoyed how you put it all together. I definitely got something for going, and consider it a day well spent. So, thanks be to you and Cascade Writers for making it happen.
When you bring the audience pie, there tends to be fewer vegetables thrown.
It was an excellent day. I’m glad I got to be part of it.
Welcome to my town, enjoy the lovely weather.
hello
Why do you hate pepsi ?
Out of curiosity, have you ever had anyone track you down and go full-on stalker before?
JDF:
From hotel pictures? No. The large majority of my fans appear to be, you know. People who understand boundaries.
a.nonyme:
I don’t hate Pepsi. I prefer other things. There’s a difference.
I was going to say, enjoy our kinda-like-fall except it will be 90 today nice clear weather, but Lym beat me to it.
Hope your time is productive and that you get to enjoy one or two of the wonderful things about L.A. (good food maybe, or a view of the ocean) and avoid pesky traffic.
Glad to hear it! I read Harlan Ellison’s essay “Xenogenesis” in Asimov’s in the late 80s, and it gave me certain preconceptions of how (some) fans act. Then I went to Worldcon on 2009 and found it to be refreshingly grown-up and pleasant.
It’s the Peninsular Hotel, isn’t it? If not, the studio is being cheap.
Or Motel8, if you’re paying.
Nice. Pictures of windows always seem rather philosophical to me. JDF – if you’ve ever read Stephen King’s ‘Misery’ you’ll know what an extreme fan is like :)
I don’t know if it was the above mentioned “Xenogenesis” but I read an essay (in Locus?) by Ellison where he said the fans were so horrible, there must be a conspiracy among authors not to say anything.
Soon after that I was talking to David Gerrold. He was at a six-foot table and at the next table was either Pol Anderson or Frederick Paul (I’ve been getting the Pauls mixed up since I was in elementary school) I asked David about fan behaviour, saying I just couldn’t believe it. He said something like, “I read the same essay. That could only happen at cons where (gesturing to the next table) they don’t know his name.”
I was astounded that any fan wouldn’t know the man’s name… and thus started my education about media fans: Some of them choose not to read.
I suppose, to be charitable, some media fans find reading a chore or an almost impossibility. My waitress is motivated to read Stephan King, but when she reads him aloud it’s very slowly. My father read less than one book per year. He also, come to think of it, had no use for the cinema, and saw TV as being for ice hockey, and the news, and Ed Sullivan’s variety show, not for those frivolous fiction shows.
In LA, for meetings…probably Santa Monica / Culver City / Paramount? Anyway, for NEW things (since you have plenty of LA experience), I suggest Bestia in downtown (there’s always a spot at the bar, even if the reservations are full – they save seats for walk ins). Great Italian. Or Lukshon in Culver if you want some more asian-stye. I hope you get some thins that are not really around the mid-west. Of course, there is always just in-n-out.
Finally an image with some interesting visuals.
I hope your stay at the Chateau Marmont was suitably debauched.