LA Observed blog has this short piece about The Grove, quoted from the NY Times, that I just had to link to because it really captured something I have thought a lot about.
The first time you go to the Grove, the immensely successful and completely fabricated commercial center in Los Angeles, you will try to hate it. But then you will watch the old-fashioned trolley passing by, or the dancing fountain as it splurts jovially to the cadence of a Sinatra song, and you will drop your snobby urban integrity and walk around consuming things in a mouth-breathing stupor just like everyone else.... [more]
My wife loves The Grove - I try to avoid it at all costs. I do like the Farmer's Market part. But I have to admit, when I'm there, the nostalgia kinda gets to me. The funny thing is that for me and most everyone in my generation, it's an imagined nostalgia. I've never lived in a quaint town like that with a trolly car and cobbled streets. This is somehow part of our national imagination about "the good life" and, as the New York Times write correctly points out, it is part and parcel of "our brand-saturated American lives."
Rick Caruso's Glendale version of The Grove, called Americana at Brand, is slated to open this summer.
LA Times columnist Steve Lopez writes about his tour of Americana here. [Note: I posted list sentence and link to Steve Lopez BEFORE I read his article. Just so you know.]
Are those actual trolley tracks I see? Anything that encourages actual trolleys is fine by me.
Posted by: Tompaul | April 24, 2008 at 07:17 PM
Hey Pastor Ryan, want to grab a bite some time? I know this great place at the Grove... (:
Posted by: Angie | April 26, 2008 at 08:42 AM
Hey Angie - you're on! :)
Posted by: Ryan Bell | April 26, 2008 at 09:42 AM