Keep Art Alive :: “L.A. Scene” :: Art by Loui Jover

“Talk about things and nobody cares,
wearing other things that nobody wears,
you’re callin’ my name,
but I gotta make it clear,
I can’t say, baby, where I’ll be in a year.”

My relationship with Los Angeles is that of a tumultuous lover, the kind that take you sometimes in a passionate embrace, tearing at your clothes in reckless anticipation, sending you into a frenzied sense of wonder and delight, and then dropping you off with no promise to return, or call again.

It is the kind of lover that you can’t get far enough away from sometimes. They are clingy and rude and insult your friends. So you leave and they try to win back your affections, promising endless sunny days and kisses on the sand. The lights are bright, dizzying at times, and there is nothing but possibility when you walk the streets. But the nights come hard and heavy sometimes, weeks and weeks of drought when your mouth is parched and you feel like you’ll never feel sated again. You choke on all that exhaust and dirty sky.

I have left Los Angeles four different times, each time for a unique reason, each time feeling as if I was on the right path. The distance between me and that City of Angels helped me breathe again, find my center again, and in some cases, fall in love again. But that city, that errant lover, that damn winged creature of a town, she calls me to her again, pleading for my return, and I always do just that, return. She singes my skin, let’s me down, but she also cradles me in her scarred arms and reminds me who I truly am. She rocks me into the night until I’m screaming her name again, leaving me breathless and shaking.

Oh, Los Angeles, I am forever your girl.

Sweet Emotion :: Aerosmith