The Arts & Entertainment Underbelly in Los Angeles, California

If you come from out of town to Los Angeles CA, here's what not to expect; don't expect to dine with the stars every night, unless it's the Big Dipper or the Milky Way (not the candy bar). You can expect plenty of traffic though, tons of people driving aimlessly (unless it's me) to get to god knows where. One great thing about the arts and entertainment scene here; there's plenty of it!

In Hollywood there are theaters for movies, live shows and 12 step meetings. A lot of networking gets done at the various 12 step meetings here. There's over 10,000 of 'em and anyone (even you) can plop down in a seat next to a celebrity or a wannabe. But you can't have dinner with them, don't even try. However you are more than welcome to join them and an entourage for a hot cup of coffee after the meeting; welcome to LA.

Down by the ocean there's the Venice Beach boardwalk, lively during the day, plenty of street performers, belly dancers, acrobats, jugglers and skate boarders. Back in the day you had to really watch your back at night around there, you know how temperamental those drug addicts can act when they are not working on their sobriety. Yeah, the scene down in Venice Beach has changed a lot over the years, the police have stepped up their presence and most of the addicts are either in rehab, just getting out of rehab or on their way to rehab...or jail. I've actually seen people have a good time frolicking up and down the boardwalk day and night.

Santa Monica Pier offers a better night life with free summer concerts, dining at Bubba Gump Shrimp and the new Ferris wheel is awesome, you can see it illuminating and changing colors and patterns from miles away. The roller coaster there is awesome! I rode on it with my niece last year and had so much fun we had to go a second time. Aptly titled, Pacific Park, It's the West Coast's only amusement park located on a pier. You can enjoy all the rides, games and fun attractions; they have midway games, ocean front specialty food outlets and seaside shopping.

Further down the coast is Malibu. Now, this is where you may actually get to dine next to some celebrities...and a gaggle of paparazzi. This year in Malibu, actually Calabasas, I got a chance to participate in the LA Haunted Hayride, the first Haunted Hayride on the West Coast. It was the experience of a lifetime. A lot of celebrities came down to get spooked by this spookctacular event. We even had Linda Blair as one of our scary story tellers; now imagine that, she was the demon possessed girl in that movie "The Exorcist".

The Getty Museum is a place you will want to spend he entire day. They used to be in Malibu but moved to a place high above the 405 freeway off Sunset Blvd. I've yet to visit the new location, so I guess that will be the topic of a future article.

Other places to visit for arts and entertainment would be, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Long Beach, Pasadena, Huntington Beach and Lemiert Park...yep, Lemiert Park, plenty of Jazz. Blues and on Sundays the best drum circle in town! That will have to be an article all by it's self as well...stay tuned.