{"id":401,"date":"2009-03-05T02:21:26","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T09:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/attractwomenanywhere.com\/blog\/?p=401"},"modified":"2009-10-31T11:50:23","modified_gmt":"2009-10-31T18:50:23","slug":"frat-boys-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/attractwomenanywhere.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/05\/frat-boys-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Frat Boys, Forever…….."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Manhattan Beach Sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is a place on the planet where time stands still, where the inhabitants stand aloof and indifferent as the wrinkles in their skin show their many years spent baking on the beach under a sunny blue sky that shines in every season.<\/p>\n

There are words that cease to have meaning in this place.\u00a0 Well, it’s not the words.\u00a0 It’s the concepts or virtues that these particular words have come to define for us:\u00a0 Loyalty, integrity, passion, philosophy, Art<\/em> all cease to have any significance.<\/p>\n

It’s the place that resembles the “Eloi” people in H.G. Wells’ Time Machine movie (from 1960.)<\/p>\n

It’s the only place I know where you talk to a 22 year old guy and he tells you,<\/p>\n

“Wow, Bro, last weekend was crazy man.
\n\u00a0We started drinking at 1 in the afternoon,
\n\u00a0kept it going til 3 am,
\n\u00a0So wasted man… ended up at John’s house,
\n\u00a0next think I knew I woke at noon the next day
\n\u00a0on the couch with no pants on… crazy…
\n\u00a0then we had breakfast and
\n\u00a0started drinking again…
\nhey, you going to the party this coming Fri..?”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And you figure, “hey, he is 22 years old, going through his partying College Phase.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then you talk to a guy who is 45 years old, AND he has the exact same mindset, and tells you the exact same story.<\/p>\n

This place is called the “South Bay” area of Los Angeles.\u00a0 It describes cities Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and vicinity.<\/p>\n

This is an amazing place.\u00a0 If you visit Los Angeles, and you’re interested in seeing a complete vaccuum of anything that resembles any culture, then you have to spend a few days there.\u00a0 You won’t completely grasp the local culture until you attend a few house parties and mingle with the locals.<\/p>\n

If you’re a perpetual frat-boy, you’ll love this place and you won’t want to leave.\u00a0 They’ll have to drag you away by your hair…\u00a0\u00a0 If you have any depth to your character, you’ll feel like you’re in some surreal land where outside of the normal time\/space continuum.\u00a0 A place that may nauseate you worse than the massive alcohol consumption ever could.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Somehow these people have found a way to create “high-school forever.”\u00a0 The same principles apply.\u00a0 The king and the queen of prom have been replaced by the popular guy who throws the most “kick-ass” parties close to the beach.\u00a0 The “Prom King and Queen” have tried hard to capture and recreate their glory years of highschool past.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It’s not that everyone who lives in the South Bay is this way.\u00a0 There are people of character, especially if you delve further into Torrance and such.\u00a0 However, the area within a\u00a0 mile radius to the beach is densely populated by the frat boys and the wannabe high school girls that have recreated high-school forever.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It’s a love\/hate relationships for me.\u00a0 On the one hand,\u00a0 I basically grew up out there (since middle of High School) and have met some of my closest friends here, have had some good times, and love the beach area.\u00a0\u00a0 (Note: my close friends are not part of the hollow crowd.)\u00a0 There is something uncanny for having a stroll by the beach in the late afternoon on a warm sunny day in the middle of the winter.\u00a0\u00a0At times, this place can feel like paradise.\u00a0 Beautiful beaches, hills in the background, low humidity, and weather that revolves around 75 degrees (24C) every day of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0In many ways, that’s the draw of the area.\u00a0 You have beautiful scenery, and warm enough weather that allows you to talk around in a T-Shirt in the middle of winter while the rest of the world is fighting frostbites and blizzards.\u00a0 But then that’s what draws the party crowd.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few nights ago, the movie “The Beach” was playing on HBO, and though I am not a real fan of this movie, I caught 10 min of it.\u00a0\u00a0 A fortuitous coincidence as it happened to be the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio goes back to the mainland to purchase supplies and he sees the masses of drunken idiots.\u00a0 In disgust, he utters about how “Cancers and Parasites of society” dwell here.\u00a0 In some ways, it’s very\u00a0reminiscent to the South Bay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yet, it ought to be mentioned that these are not evil people.\u00a0 They don’t have bad intentions, and there is no malice involved.\u00a0 In fact, if they see you at a bar, they may offer to buy a drink and if you go to their parties, they’ll provide cocktails free of charge.\u00a0 It’s just that they care about nothing.\u00a0 Artistic expressions<\/strong> (Be it Music, Paintings, Film), Philosophy, literature, culture, history have all been rendered obsolete here.<\/strong>\u00a0 So have values such as loyalty, integrity and a sense of responsibility<\/strong> to anything or anyone. All that matters are parties, cocktails, getting wasted, drinking more, talking about the following weekend and conversations about being drunk and parties past, and present.\u00a0 They really are\u00a0the Eloi people of “Time Machine.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are probably plenty of places in America (and Europe) where 21 year old spend a good chunk of their time partying. Then, at some point, those people are past that stage.\u00a0 This usually takes place some point in their mid to late 20s.\u00a0 They don’t stop having fun, but they discover a few other passions and hobbies in life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Not in the South Bay. You could meet people nearing 50 who’d make 22 year-old blush in shame.\u00a0 It’s essentially a bubble of empty tin cans walking around.\u00a0 The land of the Hollow people devoid of any soul, and yet these exists a scientific anomaly.\u00a0 A science phenomenon\u00a0where life-form composites of elemental oxygen, carbon and hydrogen atoms seems to gravitationally pull massive quantities of the alcohol molecule from miles around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The South Bay also serves as a good barometer for measuring someone’s character.\u00a0 If you take someone down there and they’re in love with the place, you probably want to chalk that one up as a superficial friendship that will never have substance.\u00a0 On the other hand, if they’re repulsed on some level, chances are that person has a bit of depth to their character.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The “South Bay” people will party with you, invite you to their home, and even treat you to cocktails and alcoholic beverages of your choice.\u00a0 This is all fine and dandy as long as you realize that you can never count on them to help you for anything in life, that the conversations will never have any depth and that if you bring a girl you’re dating to a party, the many meatheads who spent lots of time in the gym (who are also your pals) will hit on her.\u00a0 That’s all par for the course.\u00a0 If you get that going in, then you won’t be in for any surprises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Collectively, they pride themselves that they’re not superficial because they don’t care about what kind of car you drive or how much money you make.\u00a0 Yet, they’re just as shallow in judging everyone based on how “Cool” they are.\u00a0 This is high school.\u00a0 I actually have many acquaintances who live in the area and I have partied with them as well. They don’t read blogs.\u00a0 They don’t read anything, actually.\u00a0 And really, if somehow through a cosmic coincidence one of them read this Blog-post, he’d reply, “Bro, you’re too intense.\u00a0 Chill out.\u00a0 You need a cocktail!!”\u00a0\u00a0And while I know that they accept me, (because I am fit and can shit-talk with the best of them), I also know that they would not be accepting of some of my friends who are not socially cool or physically fit.<\/p>\n

After 20 years of living there, I finally moved out. Perhaps the greatest phrase to capture the essence of the South Bay came from an East Coast girl I was dating for a while.\u00a0 It encapsulated my thoughts on this region of the world in a one sentence:\u00a0<\/p>\n