Is Los Angeles the most hated city in America?

On Thursday, my buddy Andrew Kurtz and I hung out for a bit before going to watch the movie Thor (!). I had just got done watching the new music video from Death Cab for Cutie which was filmed entirely in Echo Park.

The video can be found here:
http://echopark.patch.com/articles/sheperd-fairey#youtube_video-6114435

As a soon to be card carrying hipster [wouldn't be so, like, ironic if hipsters gave out cards to denote membership in something?] Death Cab is one of my favorite bands, I told Andrew that my sister went to see them back in 2005. She said that Ben Gibbard (the lead singer) got on stage, said something to the effect of "We hate Los Angeles" and then proceeded to play the entire "Plans" album from start to finish with absolutely no energy. Telling Andrew that story reminded me of when I went to San Diego to visit my buddy Andrew Matey and see The Hold Steady. Two songs into the set Craig Finn shouted "You guys are so much cooler than Los Angeles!"

Smearing Los Angeles in pop songs is nothing new, some examples that come to mind are the Decemberists "Los Angeles, I'm Yours", Tool's "Hooker with a Penis" and Strung Out's "Cemetery." Calling Los Angeles vapid is like having the kettle telling the pot that it's black, it's pretty damned obvious some times. Andrew brought up the point that people move to Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons, actors 'trying to make it' get my goat. Once, I met a girl at a bar and I learned that she was an 'Actress' I then asked her where she waits tables. The girl didn't take my question very well and stormed out of the bar (Derek, I'm still not sorry for ruining your game that night). As a native of this city, I tend to see actors as people who don't want to get educated, and don't want to work. To me, and many others, they are people who simply want to be famous and have money. They are the tinsel in tinsel town (this very euphemism denotes the falseness of Hollywood 'glamour').

Los Angeles occupies such a central part of America pop culture that it is nearly impossible to divorce the Los Angeles of fiction from the actual, living, breathing, city. Even the most sensational murder in Los Angeles' history was named after a movie (the Black Dahlia murder was named after the movie the Blue Dahlia which was playing in theaters when Elizabeth Short's body was found)! It's this falseness which is the real core of the disgust of LA.

I tend to believe that as the city grows up and undoes the mistakes of the past (i.e. putting in a reliable mass transportation system) that this disgust of LA will vanish. Until that time, we'll have to deal with tinsel town and all it's falseness. When you choice to live some where you must accept all its faults along with its beauty, I hope others can come to appreciate the city and it's history. But until then, forget it, Nick. It's Los Angeles.