Sunset Marquis
$$$ Hotels
1200 Alta Loma Rd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Forty years ago – back when it was a divey Sunset Marquis with a dirty astroturf-surrounded pool, people took pictures of their hedonistic rock star friends passed out on their plastic patio furniture.
Sometime in the recent past, the folks who brought you heavily manicured gated apartment complexes purchased this hotel and gave it a kind of Floridian lawn in the jungle kind of vibe. IT IS REALLY FITTING FOR THE AREA! I mean – jesus – even with the lush green and secluded tropical plant-lined paths, you cannot really forget you are in drought-stricken Los Angeles. Look upwards into the sky and you’ll find high-rises under construction voraciously towering the nearby area. Maybe if everything withers away when the water runs out, and the two pools dry out, you’ll find the aura, a semblance, of the cool rock star hotel that the books found in each of the hotel rooms and the art gallery in front is trying to push about this dump.
When I was staying in the hotel with a friend, it was so air-conditioned and the grey cubicle kind of rooms that exude the near colorless gradient of the innards of an empty seashell gave me a kind of sobering headache. My friend kept pushing me to look at the book – look at the book! The heavy table book contained pictures of Joe Strummer, Joan Jett and Bob Marley in the 70s, back when this place seemed to hold a kind of edgy vibrance about it. It’s strange in a way because what’s cool about this place can only be found in ‘the book’ and in their art gallery. Everything else is now clean, hidden, pool and $6 toasted bagels at their breakfast place.
Useful: 10 Funny: 7 Cool: 6
8/26/2015