In praise of the ordinary people of Phoenix and Los Angeles


I like ordinary people, and that's fortunate because it includes everyone, like me. But it seems to puzzle a lot of people who think that the only people who count are the ones who are rich and famous, whereas the rest are just "nobodies". And it's a lesson that I learned after I moved to Los Angeles from Phoenix.

I didn't go to LA to become rich and famous, or to break into the movies. I went there simply because it's the closest big city to Phoenix, the same way that London is to Liverpool, or New York to (well, I don't know any places back east, but you see what I mean). I wanted to see what I could do in the Big City.

What I learned is that everyone is an ordinary person, even people who are rich and famous. Some people may have big bank accounts, or their pictures on billboards on the Sunset Strip, but they breathe the same air (which is awful in LA!), they have families, had pimples in high school (probably) and the list goes on and on. Once I realized that, it was all the same to me.

I wore sunglasses because I have weak eyes, not because I'm trying not to be recognized. And it really is true, celebrities walk around places like Studio City all of the time. I had a friend who was fascinated with "the stars" and could alway point them out to me. To me, they just looked ordinary. And I liked that.

I was once approached by someone at a grocery store in LA and was asked if I was an actor. I immediately said what any ordinary famous person would say, something about having been in a few TV shows... Yes, I was putting them on, but really it's rude to walk up to someone and ask "are you a somebody?" They must have figured that I was a nobody because they just walked away.

In this blog I focus on ordinary people, and ordinary places, around where I live. To me it's all the same.

Image at the top of this post: With some ordinary people in Los Angeles. My friend there had a hat that said "Warner Brothers" but I doubt that he ever worked there. I have no idea who the little girl was who photobombed.
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