Over Easy:’We Must Party’
Last weekend I returned to California, strange but familiar as always.
Since I left a couple of months ago, the coral trees and their late spring splendor have bowed out, and the jacarandas electric lavender moment has passed. In their place, there are fires, heat waves and drought and the sun has turned red.
The stratified nature of L.A. life is fully in evidence. On the way to my place from the airport we passed the sidewalk city on nearby San Vicente Blvd., flags hanging limply in view of the Veteran’s Administration building and restless residents gathering on the street outside their tents in the steamy summer heat.
The wages of the pandemic continue to be paid in changes like the shuttering of my favourite local restaurant Pizzicotto, run lovingly for 23 years by Isabella and her sister Luciana. I’ve seen lots of changes, some harder than others to accept. I miss Mr. Wendell who has been gone for a long time - the roadside poet of Brentwood who would pass his poetry through car windows and make a living with love stories and political chronicles of the day. Now there’s a statue to Mr. Wendell on the block he used to command.
One constant, as long as I’ve been coming to California, is Angelyne. Who is Angelyne, you may ask. And truly, even those of us who have followed her over the decades, and see her as a central player in the Billboard landscape, riding high in her pink Corvette, might ask the same question. I think like much of Los Angeles, Angelyne‘s whoever you would like her to be. She’s the missing link between Pia Zadora and Paris Hilton; and like Pia, known for her breakthrough performance in “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”, a series of Sunset Boulevard billboards boosted her career. All three have made albums.
There have been exposés in which we find out Angelyne’s real name and where she actually came from, but I prefer all that to remain the stuff of legend. Like many people in LA, I had an Angelyne moment late one night at the pharmacy when I saw the little pink ghost floating down the nail file aisle. I could hardly wait to tell my friends. I don’t know why.
It should come as no surprise that, as she did in 2003 when Gray Davis was recalled as governor of California, Angelyne is running for governor as Gavin Newsom faces a recall election. 18 years ago Arnold Schwarzenegger put an end to Angelyne‘s electoral fantasies and she finished 29th in the race. But this year who knows?
When asked about what social issues she’d like to tackle, her answer was elegant in its simplicity–“I would love to get everybody a place to live that doesn’t have one.” Her website features T-shirts, cosmetics and meditation cassettes. How can she miss?
Of course if Governor Newsom had skipped that pandemic era dinner with friends at the exclusive Napa eatery, French Laundry, we might not be at this moment. Was it really worth the $310.00 per person tasting menu which includes “All Day Braised Snake River Farms Beef Cheek”? He could have learned from Angelyne, who, if she was going to indulge gastronomically, would probably have chosen somewhere like Pink’s Hot dogs in Hollywood. Many celebrities, and no doubt politicians, have visited Pink’s and one of the menu highlights is JAWS - The BIG one - a Poli-bacon chili cheeseburger, with one grilled Polish dog, hamburger, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo (add burger and slice of cheese for $2.25) All for $10.95!
Newsom’s campaign slogan is “Roaring back”, a reference to the post pandemic California economy of people’s fantasies. The fantasy girl keeps it simple – “We Must Party” is her slogan.
There’s no choice, really. As she said back in 2003, “We’ve had Gray (as in Davis) and we’ve had Brown (a reference to Jerry). It’s time for blonde and pink.”
