Mapquest tells me to turn left on Hollywood Boulevard, but the road is blocked by a giant white tent and I'm blinded by the lights after the dark approach to Los Angeles, and I remember: it's Oscars weekend. Mapquest didn't allow for that. Later, walking along Sunset Strip, outside the Standard Hotel, under the upside-down sign, I see a man who looks like Elton John. In Los Angles on Oscar weekend, it probably *is* him. I'm staying just off the Strip, in a kitsch bed and breakfast called the Secret Garden. Raymond, the camp German who owns the house, loves Los Angeles, and he can't understand why anyone would drive across the wasteland.. "For me, the US is LA, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, maybe. The rest: you can keep it."