The Best Picture Misses the Big Picture

Standing cautiously but bravely at the intersection of Beverly and Normandie, I could feel the racial tension in the air.

The place was about to blow.

A white woman walked into Video Hot, which is run by Koreans, and an Asian man bought flowers from a Guatemalan woman. Given the boiling hatred that pumps through L.A.'s veins, as depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "Crash," could ethnic violence be far behind?

I used to think we could all get along, more or less. I believed that despite its many flaws and obvious divisions by race and class, Los Angeles was one of the more successfully integrated cities in the world. And so to me, "Crash" felt like an artless, dated and manipulative morality tale on the evils of the sprawling metropolis, shot with a long lens from behind the bars of a gated seaside community.

But that was before the all-knowing wizards of the academy set me straight, choosing "Crash" as the best picture of the year. Could so many kabbala and Bikram yoga practitioners have been wrong, even if it's been years since any of them ventured east of Robertson except to hand out Oscars or cruise for hookers?

I think not. All I can figure is that in my own travels across the city, I must have sped past one powder keg after another without seeing the fuses. And so I ventured back out there to see what I could see.

Beverly and Normandie. Can you get any more L.A. than that?

The corner businesses tell the story: Subway, Chinatown Express, Tokyo Sushi Academy, Pizza Hut, Chicken Wok, El Chipilin Salvadoran and Honduran restaurant, Green Village Acupuncture & Herbs Clinic, La Nueva Flor Blanca Salvadoran and Guatemalan restaurant, Yoshinoya, Dr. Julio Guzman Medical Group and Pacific Market, owned by a brother and sister from India.

As I pulled into the parking lot, Latino, Asian, white and black patrons were coming and going without apparent incident, but it was early.

I got out of my car, looked both ways, and dived for cover when I saw an Asian driver enter the parking lot.

Whewwww!

Still in one piece, I spied a suspicious black man standing in the parking lot next to a car.

Burglar?

Or was it worse? Was he reaching into the glove box for a pistol, planning to knock off Yoshinoya and pistol-whip customers for their teriyaki chicken bowls?

\o7You know it's hard out there for a pimp.\f7