You've got to remember that there are two separate Los Angeleses. You probably know it and don't even realize it. Think of LA as an iceberg. There's that tip that everyone can see. That's Hollywood, and all the glitz and the big houses and beautiful women and BMWs. Upper Los Angeles. The mythologized Los Angeles. That's the LA you and I write about.

"And lower LA?"

"You probably grew up in lower Los Angeles. That's the better part."

"The Valley? That's the better part?"

"It's not geographic. It's more psychographic. It's the part of Los Angeles that's too dull to be the subject of a TV show or Joan Didion novel. It's normal life. It's people who came out here to be Cameron Diaz of Brad Pitt nd ended up working for Allstate instead. At first, they're disappointed, but you realize that lower Los Angeles is just like where you and I came from -- families, homes, small businesses - but with better weather and less of those East Coast affections or that Midwestern stuffiness. It doesn't matter what school you went to out here, or who your family is - you get to invent yourself. Or reinvent, if your first attempt fizzles."