August 28, 2007- 2012

Five years ago today I moved from Seattle to Los Angeles.
It's been a hell of a ride ever since.

My first residence in L.A. is a place called "Oakwood Apartments," which is featured in the documentary "The Hollywood Complex"-- I recommend it to people.
The complex is old and famous. Every member of Nirvana, Slash from GNR, Jon Stewart, Reese Witherspoon, etc. lived in it when they were younger. Corey Haim and Rick James died there.
I remember distinctly the moment when I stepped into their leasing office. I had driven more than ten hours from my hotel in Oregon. I was exhausted. I wasn't in the mood to sign the forms that they presented to me almost immediately-- forms that acknowledged that I knew there was asbestos in my new apartment and I wouldn't press a lawsuit against them in the future if health issues resulted from inhaling it.
Heh.

Most of the next two years of my life were essentially wasted at a horrible film school, and I began my comedy "career" almost three years later. So in many ways I feel as if I have lived in L.A. for only two to three years.

I have lost many friends and acquaintances who couldn't endure L.A., as I discussed a long time ago on this blog. Almost all of the people who I met during the first two years of my life here are gone now. Danny McBride described this phenomenon in his interview with Marc Maron when he talked about being the sole survivor of a massive group that moved here with him: "It was like the scene in 'Saving Private Ryan' when they're storming the beach and everyone is getting pick off one by one."

But occasionally when I walk into a store that I frequented with my friends or places where I just randomly saw them I experience a millisecond of nostalgia, and I look around to see their faces and half-expect to see them as they appeared five years ago. I know that it's a sign of aging and a desire for some permanence or stability.
During the course of my life I have lived in ten different cities in seven different states. Today marks the first time since the early '90s when I have lived in one city for five or more years straight.

Regardless of the snags that I have encountered in L.A. I love the ever-loving hell out of it. It has provided more opportunities to me than "the real world" ever did. I am very amused when someone whines that Hollywood "is all about the people you know or who you're related to." I always counter with, "yeah, it's soooooo unlike EVERY OTHER AMERICAN INDUSTRY, right?"

Here's to (at least) five more years, baby.

:D