Life in Los Angeles is never more bizarre than during the holidays. The sheer twistedness of a Christmas in such an environment of artifice and reinvention is endlessly amusing, and it puts the naive chiding of mere commercialism in a quaint perspective, a thing of a more innocent time. On the playful side, there is the desperate attempt to create a momentary illusion of a fairytale winter, taken to its extreme in the locations where faux 'snow' is launched from roof-top nozzles onto Christmas shoppers and tourists below, made from soap suds or god-knows-what.
My personal favorite island of amusing insanity is on Hollywood Blvd, where the religion of Scientology has seemingly bought half of the real estate and opened various 'shrines' to the memory of its mastermind L. Ron Hubbard. Here you will find the "L. Ron Hubbard Winter Wonderland" which is the home of "Scientology Santa" with whom tourists can have their picture taken for a mere $10. On New Years Eve, the winter wonderland hosted a free concert that continued the theme of fakeness, with a band of Beatles impersonators, introduced by an Ed Sullivan impersonator. (I was fortunate to witness the band's out-of-costume sound check, rather like seeing Kiss perform without make-up.
At the other extreme from such kitschy, commercialism are the Holiday bandage Ball gatherings, with go-go dancing elves and Santa's Sadists giving spankings and wrapping the naughty and nice with rope, like so many enticing presents. Ah yes, Los Angeles, I love you, but I still leave the party early in search of the genuine and the traditional, among friends to drink a toast to Auld Lang Syne.
