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Tag: Los Angeles

Los Angeles: More than Clichés

Yeah, LA is more than our clichés, but they do exist.

Cliché LA

Golden days

Summer haze

Pacific Coast Highway

Awesome waves

Screenplays

Valets

The Palisades

Silver Lake

Fake…

Boobs

Surfer dudes

Film debuts

Malibu

Attitudes

California Dreams

Palm trees

Plastic surgery

Itsy bitsy bikinis

Purple mountains majesty

Paparazzi

Graffiti

TMZ

Venice Beach

Slangy speech

Movie…

Stars

Luxury cars

Sushi bars

Award Shows

Chateau Marmont

Spago

Limos

Studios

Rodeo…

Drive

The 405

Blue skies

Pulled back eyes

Toned thighs

Chili fries

Hollywood sign

Social climb

I, me, mine

Gang Crime

Drive thrus

Swimming pools

Sparkling jewels

Glamour

Clamor

Rush hour

Want more

Power…

Trip

Sunset Strip

Film script

Set Grips

Hollywood gossip

Hoes and pimps

Star-struck

Nip and tuck

Make a buck

Life don’t suck

Taco trucks

Traffic

Psychic

Pornographic

Manic

Panic

Organic…

Sprouts

In-n-Out

Celebs bailed out

Droughts

Injected pouts

Golden State

Earthquakes

Lose weight

Get sedate

How much you make?

Old age can wait

Cuz…

Life is great…

in L.A.!

But if you look a little closer, you just might find the unexpected.

Here’s my slide show of just a bit of what I love about LA. All the great stuff is tangled, woven, and often hidden amongst and beneath LA’s clichés.

Written by Michele Miles Gardiner

LA punk band X, “Los Angeles”

 

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Growing up in the 1960s & Beyond, “Craving Normal,” by Michele Miles Gardiner

“Craving Normal,” my stories as a child growing up in the 1960s and beyond, will be available soon. Here’s my nearly complete book cover. Think I’ll keep “Enthusiastic quote goes here.”

Growing up in the 1960s
Book cover for “Craving Normal,” written by Michele Miles Gardiner

“Craving Normal,” by Michele Miles Gardiner – back book cover text:
Living in a rock hut on a nude beach, staying in a religious commune,
facing an angry man with a gun, riding camels, hiding her freaky health
food lunches from lucky Twinkie eaters – Michele didn’t experience any
of this when her family lived in the suburbs of San Francisco. Then came
the counterculture revolution. Her entire life changed: Michele’s young
parents sold their home, bought a car and trailer over-seas and took her
and her little sister to explore the world.

We know a lot about the “flower children,” but what does an actual child
growing up in that era have to say? While many tales about that revolutionary time
are on record, few come from the perspective of the children who lived it.
This collection of stories are from one child’s perspective – tales of
becoming a young adult whose brain, and life, transformed from her early
experiences. Rebelling by cheer-leading, eating junk food, attending honor
roll parties, dreaming of being a foxy stewardess/actress? Lame, sure.
But how else does a child of young parents of the wild Sixties generation
rebel? By countering the counterculture.

Michele’s collection of stories – in which she rarely takes herself too
seriously – span from her earliest memories of the suburbs (her idea of
“normal”), through growing up trying to find a place where she fits in, once
again. Does she find it? Is Hollywood a sane place to search for normalcy?

“Craving Normal” trailer here: https://youtu.be/Z0M1BTXK20Q

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