Donna in Hollywoodland

The blog from Los Angeles and Hollywood by Donna Grayson

Wednesday, March 09, 2005


The Marathon and The Audition
I knew Sunday would be a busy day. After being out so late last night, I still got up in time for church this morning. After church, I had to skip the Bible Study I had just started to go to.
I had an audition for an indie film in Redondo Beach.

Now, five years ago I lived in Redondo Beach. In a house that I shared with a revolving-door of roommates from all walks of life. It was strange, but I had the hardest time keeping people. And the one person who lived with me for two years, I kept asking to move and she wouldn't. Finally, my landlord decided he wanted to sell the house, and I decided to fulfill my dream of living in Hollywood. Oh boy...

Living in the South Bay of Los Angeles had its plus side and its minus side. First, the air is clear and sunny, and there is always a nice breeze and the beach. But there is no art or entertainment business, and if you want to be where it is all happening, you need to be in Hollywood, where the air is filthy and smoggy - but there's plenty of exciting stuff to do.
When I lived in Redondo Beach, I drove an hour each way into work in West Los Angeles. It was more than that to come up to Hollywood. And I didn't even know what Studio City or The Valley was.
Here in Hollywood it is a ten minute drive into work each day, 5 minutes to church on Sunday. And nearly everything else I do is less than 20 minutes away.

So my plan was for a nice drive to my old stomping grounds. But I had forgotten one BIG thing....
Sunday was the Los Angeles Marathon !!!!

I had already arranged with the Director to be the last audition of the day at 2pm. I figured that this would allow me plenty of time after church got out at
12:30, to drive down using my short cuts.
Usually I take Highland down to La Brea, going west on Venice, down Sepulveda where it crosses with Lincoln to become PCH. Or I will take La Cienega straight down the same way. The nicest scenic route is going east on Culver Blvd, along the Ocean
in Playa del Rey and then through Manhattan Beach .
The route with the least scenery involves Aviation Blvd in Redondo Beach.

But none of this was going to happen. I got stopped at Highland. I had
to turn right and go west along 4th street - me and everyone else in the entire world. Bumper to bumper. I finally got on La Cienega and we were allowed to turn right on Olympic. Traffic finally opened up.
I ended up taking Sepulveda through Culver City , then past LAX airport. I called when I was in Manahattan Beach, and got the directors cell phone.

I managed to arrive at the location in Redondo Beach at 2:10 ... only 10 minutes late which was pretty good considering the circumstances. They were just getting ready to pack up their cameras. But I made it in time to be able to audition for them. It went fairly quicky, and it was fun to do the cold reading in front of the camera.

Then it was time to head home. I made a pit stop at the Manhattan Beach Village Mall. And I figured since it was close to 3 pm, I would have smooth sailing back. Not so... the Marathon still had all the streets blocked off.
I took Lincoln all the way up to Venice. I went past the old area of Mar Vista, where I lived when I was in my 20s.
I took Wilshire straight east, and everything was fine until I got around La Cienega.
It would be impossible to turn left on La Cienega. It was the first major street going north, and it was bumper cars all the way back to Wilshire.
I made the bad decision to stay on Wilshire. And got stuck around Van Ness and 6th street - beautiful houses there - me and everyone else in the world trying to go north. All we met were police blocades to the north.
I finally double-backed and by that time Highland had opened up, and I could move north.

It took me twice as long to get back home to Hollywood than it
should have.
Stuck in traffic on a Sunday afternoon.....


posted by Donna Grayson  # 1:43 PM
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