Southland Weekend

Friday night SFO-LAX flight on United. Packed at 9pm. Arrive to a misty Los Angeles. LAX is an internal mess, but pretty from the outside.

Stayed in Sherman Oaks/Bel Air, up on a mountain. Saturday was the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future, which looks terrific on the big screen and is remarkably relevant despite its age.  Met a bunch of people who in "the industry." One cool aspect of LA is that people have extensive knowledge of films, and like to talk about the  movies they've seen.

Out to dinner in West Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard, which is as depicted in Entourage. Fancy cars, paparazzi, model-esque blondes in glittery minis.  The Glitterari in LA seem friendlier than their east coast counterparts in NY and DC: easy to strike up a conversation randomly.

Lazy Sunday. Went to the Arclight 2 to See Red. The Arclight is the nicest American movie theater to which i've been: supremely comfortable seats, pre-selected seating (as in europe), coffee spot, bar, gift shop, and hollywood costumes on display. Red was nothing to write home about, except for a strong performance of paranoia by John Malkovich.

Virgin America Red-eye back to DC.  Experientially pleasant, though not especially so. highlights included:

-printing my boarding pass at a hotel-lounge-like check-in counter. Small square document.

-ordering food (excellent cheese + fruit plate, honest tea) via the seat console, having it delivered with the ice.

-mood lighting.

-amusing safety video.

The seat was reasonably comfortable, but not especially so. Leather is not impressive in and of itself.  While the plane was new (airbus 320), I would have preferred to be on a 767.

Overall, B+.  I might go so far as to say that I like JetBlue's model better (free snacks, more destinations, less pretense).