View of L.A. from Runyon Canyon circa October 2002

By Heather B. Armstrong January 15, 2005

Oh, how I miss thee, dear homeland.

116 Comments

sophie
2005/01/15 at 4:48 am

first?
alyssa
2005/01/15 at 4:48 am

smog! it still looks beautiful.
sophie
2005/01/15 at 4:49 am

and it was just a fluke! ha!
RazDreams
2005/01/15 at 4:51 am

Just lovely!!!
Goose
2005/01/15 at 4:51 am

I can’t believe I’m actually gonna say this, but Utah is just so much nicer.
Carol
2005/01/15 at 4:52 am

*cough*

I love LA. I wish I had lived there.
DG
2005/01/15 at 4:52 am

Kinda creepy.

Reminds me a bitta that Magritte painting where it’s dark on the ground and light in the sky.
MrsDoF
2005/01/15 at 4:56 am

Whatcha doing up this early on a Saturday morning? I thought it was only this old lady who is having night sweats and heart palpitations.
Oh wait, maybe the baby had a rough night…been there with that, too.
At any rate, missing LA and its nice weather must have its reasons. A very pretty picture–smog and all.
maxigumee
2005/01/15 at 4:58 am

Yeah, it is kind of creepy. It looks like an abandoned ghost city or something. 😛 Really cool picture, though. 🙂
Wicked H
2005/01/15 at 5:02 am

Smog-a-lishous.

Have a great weekend Dooce and all!
Kimberley H.
2005/01/15 at 5:04 am

I went to L.A. last year, and was amazed at all the fake boobs that are REALLY THERE! No, people, it’s not a myth!
mjm
2005/01/15 at 5:05 am

long time reader, first time poster… i’m originally from southern california (live in arizona now) and miss that smoggy haze. *sigh* home sweet home.
Tina
2005/01/15 at 5:07 am

Awesome shot, Heather.
bb
2005/01/15 at 5:08 am

Really cool. sometimes blue, sometimes green, nice pics!
Ana
2005/01/15 at 5:08 am

I love the colors.
Eric
2005/01/15 at 5:09 am

Ya dun gud ba geddin owwt.
BarefootGoddess
2005/01/15 at 5:10 am

I was in LA once, making a connecting flight to Hawaii. Seeing that I was terrified of flying and was making my first plane trip, alone, from NC to Hawaii, I don’t remember much. Not that I actually saw LA. Just the airport. I remember being freaked out when the plane took off over the ocean.
psyche
2005/01/15 at 5:13 am

i love the green hue. beautiful view 🙂
Michelle
2005/01/15 at 5:20 am

I hurts to breathe just looking at that! great picture though.
Danielle
2005/01/15 at 5:20 am

So, I looked at the thumbnail and thought “well, it _looks_ like a city-scape, but yesterday’s pic looked like plumbing, so who the heck knows what it is really going to be.”
(yes, I have bad grammar even when I think to myself)

click

bummer. It really is a city view.

No, really, I wasn’t that bummed out. It is a good shot. I like the shadowy buildings in the foreground. And the comment about it looking like an abandoned ghost city (maxigumee) fits with yesterday’s skeletal/ghost-like picture of Chuck.
Michelle Brady
2005/01/15 at 5:22 am

That really is a cool picture. I wonder where it was taken, and how far away from the city Dooce actually was when she took it.
Michelle Brady
2005/01/15 at 5:23 am

Now I just want to kick my own ass for not reading the title before asking my ridiculous question. Although I don’t know where Runyon Canyon is, so I suppose it’s still valid.
Lewis
2005/01/15 at 5:26 am

I never liked LA, i don’t like places that they write songs about usually.

You’ll never hear a song about Sandy Ut.
Gia
2005/01/15 at 5:28 am

Oh! I love LA… and I hate it too. Lived there for 3 years… There is just something about that “city” that makes me go back yearly – and that is quite a trek from where I live now!
Martha
2005/01/15 at 5:38 am

Wow. The smog is out of control.
kEma
2005/01/15 at 5:39 am

Auch, that’s awsome
Amanda B.
2005/01/15 at 5:40 am

I just can’t picture Dooce in L.A. Not that you aren’t super fabulous. I’ts just my own perception I’m sure. When I think L.A. I think billions of cars, and boobs, and botox and Jean Claude Van Damme.

Oh..I just had a little panic attack.
Carol
2005/01/15 at 5:41 am

hee hee. good mornin’ mandab!
Sarah in Alaska
2005/01/15 at 5:49 am

I’ll take Alaska and the cold ass weather over that smog any day!Currently it is -36…..
squish
2005/01/15 at 5:54 am

About boobs, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million American women have breast implants. That’s 4 million fake boobs.
squish
2005/01/15 at 5:57 am

Barefoot Goddess said:
“I remember being freaked out when the plane took off over the ocean.”

You should try landing in Reagan International in D.C. The runway ends about two feet from the Potomac. Very scary.
coffeegirl
2005/01/15 at 6:01 am

When Eli sets off to conquer Constantinople, please advise him to go to Istanbul, not Constantinople.

(Been a long time gone, Constantinople. Why they changed it I can’t say. People just liked it better that way.)
Moxie
2005/01/15 at 6:01 am

I need my asthma inhaler.
Chloe
2005/01/15 at 6:06 am

All that black shiny stuff in the bottom of the picture makes it look like there’s an evil pond in between you and L.A. Or, maybe an evil tar pit. Or, maybe shadows. Maybe that’s why this picture appears slightly sinister (sinister means left, which I take handed offense at).

Or maybe, it’s just that NO ONE should be up this early on a Saturday morning!
Ranger Rick
2005/01/15 at 6:13 am

what are you putting october 2002 photos up for?
JuJuBee
2005/01/15 at 6:19 am

Interesting picture…have never been to L.A. (well, never outside the doors of LAX airport, so that doesn’t really count) I might be a bit afraid.
Stephanie
2005/01/15 at 6:19 am

You live in Utah, and you miss that?
heidi
2005/01/15 at 6:22 am

Dude, you’re making me homesick. I miss LA.

I can’t believe I actually said “dude.”
closet metro
2005/01/15 at 6:23 am

This picture makes me want to play with Legos. Damn you, Fish.
Rob
2005/01/15 at 6:32 am

Ugh. How can anyone breathe air like that. It ain’t quite as cold here as #29’s Alaska (-30’C here) but she’s got a point – I’ll take cold air I can breathe over big city smog.

#30: I’ve always wondered … do they call it a boob job because of what parts of the body are involved or because of who it is being done to ?
Dr. Johnny Fever
2005/01/15 at 6:41 am

I used to work on the 48th floor of the building second from the right. Hated it. My boss was this British bitch with a moustache and Dorito breath.
byrneout
2005/01/15 at 6:44 am

Smog-haters, quit clutching your pearls. Even in your no-doubt crisp, pristine mountain paradise, you’re breathing enough dead skin flakes and dust mites and those little bugs that live in your eyelashes that hey! A little smog doesn’t sound so bad right now, does it?

Also, there are boogers in your nose. Every breath you take, every breath you’ve ever taken in your LIFE, has touched boogers. So there.

Anyway, it’s been beautiful the past couple of days. Amazing what a few days of record-breaking rain can do for the air quality.
romy
2005/01/15 at 6:46 am

beautiful. l.a. is beautiful.
Southern Fried Girl
2005/01/15 at 6:47 am

Being a transplanted Angelino, one would think that picture would make me homesick. It so does not – moving from there was the best thing I have ever done. Thank God.
Amy
2005/01/15 at 6:51 am

Very cool. It does evoke a feeling of longing..even with all the eerily beautiful smog, there’s a sentimentality attached with the skyline of any big city one might be from. ( I’m that way with Philly. )

Seeing the big picture from further away can make your heart feel a little flutter of excitement and longing.

It’s also cool to look at that skyline and then think about all the ppl there and all that could be going on in LA that day!!
laura
2005/01/15 at 6:55 am

I had lived in the LA area for a full YEAR before I actually even SAW the skyline.

You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to that soul-sucking slough.

I’m lovin’ Nebraska, despite the fact that it is -15 this bright sunny morning. *sigh*
Claude
2005/01/15 at 6:57 am

DG: The painting you’re thinking of is called “Empire of Light” .

It’s odd that one of the side effects of pollution is that it produces such spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Maybe it’s not so attractive; the foods we love the most are the ones that are most likely to kill us in a hurry.
mrs. holmes
2005/01/15 at 7:10 am

byrneout, that’s funny. boogers.

it looks like the city is rising from some dark swamp land or something. cool.
sak
2005/01/15 at 7:16 am

hahahahaha that’s so true claude.

mmmmmm froot loops (choke choke CLUNK)
Marj
2005/01/15 at 7:21 am

Ew…not gonna lie, but LA’s kind of ugly. I’m not too fond of the city. I prefer the Utah pictures, Heather!