Transcript: The Juicy Backstage Stuff

Rob Long on the Hollywood tourists don't want to see

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

I usually record these in a quiet place, but today I decided to forgo the studio interior and record it out in the open, where it still sounds like summer, with a dramatic summer thunderstorm proving some terrific atmosphere. 

Even though it is, technically, still summer, let’s face it, summer is over. That’s what Labor Day really means.

Not that it really matters in Los Angeles, where the seasons blend together and the hottest month, often, is October. In L.A., you know when the summer is over when the tourists thin out.

Every year it’s the same. The news is filled with horror stories about summer travel — canceled flights, missed connections, people putting their bare feet on airplane armrests — but that never stops people from heading to Los Angeles to get a look at Hollywood, up close.

It’s a familiar sight in Southern California. Tourists from all over the world walk around in the hot and dusty sunshine with disappointed looks on their faces. They expected glamour and glitz, and instead discover that Hollywood is, mostly, a working town of drab, beige stucco buildings.

Like everything else, L.A. looks better on television.