Tuesday Tune Two-Fer: This is LA

Seeing another LA landmark last week had me thinking about the years I’ve spent settling in, gradually transitioning from “newcomer” to “resident.” I thought I’d choose a couple of songs about Los Angeles as a tribute. There’s definitely no shortage of them! Frank Black’s, Randy Newman’s, or anything from the La La Land soundtrack comes immediately to mind. But soon after we moved, I started noticing that people almost never write earnestly about the city. At best, there’s a begrudging acceptance: “this place kind of sucks, but I like it anyway.” And there’s always the dissonance of songs and movies calling out LA for cruelly crushing dreams of success, delivered by people who’ve achieved success (or otherwise I wouldn’t be hearing their songs or seeing their movies). Out of all of them, the song I keep coming back to isn’t about Hollywood, or palm trees, or beaches and surfing, but “All I Wanna Do” by Sheryl Crow. It’s the one that most vibes with my impressions of Los Angeles (so…