Good morning, it’s Thursday, October 15. A red flag warning is in effect today, with critical fire weather conditions expected across the region through Saturday.
1. Why is Hollywood Boulevard like that?
A Michael Jackson impersonator on Hollywood Boulevard whose story is on this week’s episode of L.A. World (Photo by David Pashaee via Getty Images)
In 2011, I was a college student in the Midwest when the rest of my family moved from my hometown of San Diego to Los Angeles. When I visited, rather than returning to the cozy haunts of my youth, we would go to iconic locations to discover the city like tourists, which we essentially were. Naturally, we ended up on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The experience was overwhelming. We, the churning crowd, were verbally accosted by street vendors and corralled by people in costume — Superman, the Hulk, multiple Spider-Men. These characters were unlike the Disneyland variety I was familiar with as a Southern California kid. On Hollywood Boulevard, there was a glint of desperation in the eyes, and each character demanded payment after posing for photos. But at 19, as a precocious, newly-minted adult, I felt not repulsed but intrigued. The boulevard seemed like proof of something raw and honest among the plastic Oscar statuettes and Hollywood sign keychains.
I had no idea that I was part of the beginning of a record-shattering upswing in tourism to Los Angeles.
