It was like a detox program, actually.
I spent most of this week completely ignoring the news, politics, current events, and all the other things that usually make up a majority of my day. Oh sure, I listened to a couple of California talkers while I was in Los Angeles, and even some Sean Hannity, but it was different this week. It was as if anything I saw almost stayed where I saw it.
For some reason, very little of what I saw or read or listened to sank in. Almost other worldly, but definitely refreshing.
I could come up with about a million reasons for it… The coverage out here isn’t what it is in New York, the people here just don’t care about it as much (even the most spirited debate I had was more of one of the warehouse guys in LA being absolutely stunned that I wasn’t a raving right wing lunatic like I was painted to be), or even the slight chance that I was just too busy to really care about that sort of thing.
I did realize one thing while I was out here, though, and that’s that no matter how hard I try, and contrary to how little of it all I consume, I still have a media jones like no other addiction I have. One of the first things I did at both hotels was try like hell to get some sort of internet access working. I failed at the Sheraton, but mission accomplished at Aladdin, and even then, the most I did was drop into #mixedwingnuts for a few minutes to chat with Slobokan and Chris, and drop by Drudge a few times to catch the story that almost invariably get covered very lightly everywhere else.
No waking up to Fox News, no sneaking a peak at Newsmax or CNN… In fact, the only paper I read was USA Today, and we all know what a great paper that is.
Looking back on it, I have no idea how I survived, but somehow I did. The fact is, I had an amazing time out here. 3 days in LA, one day in Vegas, and spent all of them with very cool people. Went to a bar to watch a basketball game, went out for my first real business lunch in Las Vegas, even stayed in a suite in a 3 star hotel and rented a $35,000 car to drive around Marina del Rey California.
I mean, what more could you ask?
I don’t know if I could live here permanently, but the truth is I really did enjoy this little change of work scenery. I may be doing it all again on June 18th. This time, I won’t be so reluctant 