'Bosch' house evokes amazing California memories

I have lived in a lot of different places, some special and some not so special.

Some provided spectacular views, others were pretty mundane. Seeing the monuments and memorials of Washington, D.C., at age 13 pretty much blew me away. By 32, when I was getting ready to move to North Carolina, it was "been there, done that" for the Nation's Capital.

As I worked my way across the country in the 1980s, I saw the Mississippi River (and the Gateway Arch), the Rocky Mountains and the deep blue of Lake Tahoe. But it was April 30, 1990, my first day on the job as a suburban sportswriter covering the Los Angeles Dodgers that gave me my first look the the most amazing view I would ever see.

Dodger Stadium by night.

You sort of have to imagine this one from the photo. The press box is essentially at the top part of the photo, behind home plate.

Parking for reporters was at the top level behind the home plate portion of the stands. When I came out of the building at 11 p.m. and looked to the southwest, the lights seemed to go on forever.

Incredible, and for most of the next two summers, it was a view I saw almost every night.


In the late 1960s, folksinger Phil Ochs had a line sung sarcastically that still contained a lot of truth.

"Welcome to Los Angeles, city of tomorrow ..."

View from Laurel Canyon

That first summer I was dating a woman who was secretary to a vice president at Universal Studios. There was one week she had to house-sit for him in his home at the top of Laurel Canyon.

That time it was the house itself that was amazing, but the daytime view looking all the way to the ocean told me that living in a house like this would be like dying and going to heaven.

It has been 8 1/2 years since we left California and moved top Georgia. The most special thing about living in the Southeast is the incredible amount of greenery. I have never lived anywhere that had so many trees along both sides of the highway.

Still, I think in general the West has it all over the East when it comes to the view. And when I watch Amazon's wonderful show "Bosch," based on Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, I again see Los Angeles at its best.

Chez Bosch

In fact, Harry Bosch's home is one I both wish I owned yet know my issues with heights would prevent me from being able to live it it.

The view it unmatched, but the house juts out from the Hollywood Hills so far that most of the house has nothing under the floor but air.

Still, what a spectacular view.