Searching For- Californication In- -

Let’s start with the literal. If you are physically the landscape, you aren’t looking at the pristine postcards. You are looking at the edges.

To understand what you are , you must first understand the source. In the Chili Peppers’ lyrics, Anthony Kiedis sings about a place where "hard-core soft porn" dominates the landscape. It is not just sex; it is the commodification of desire. It is the transformation of natural beauty (the redwoods, the Pacific, the desert) into a backlot for synthetic experience. Searching for- Californication in-

The opposite is not New York (which is its own kind of brutalist fornication). The opposite is perhaps the Pacific Northwest, or the rural Midwest. It is inertia. It is contentment. Let’s start with the literal

You will find it on Sunset Boulevard at 2:00 AM, where the homeless tent sits twenty feet from the velvet rope of a nightclub. You will find it in the San Fernando Valley, where porn is a legal industry with its own chamber of commerce. You find it in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where tourists step over stained concrete to photograph a star belonging to a celebrity who died of an overdose. To understand what you are , you must