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Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, it is rated an alpha world city in Southern California.
Additionally, the Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nearly 12.9 million people who hail from all over the globe and speak 224 different languages. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous and one of the most diverse counties in the United States.
Los Angeles was founded in 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola). It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain.
In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850 — five months before California achieved statehood.
Los Angeles is one of the world's centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and it is one of the most substantial economic engines of the United States.
Los Angeles also leads the world in producing popular entertainment - such as motion picture, television, internet content, video games and recorded music - which forms the base of its international fame and global status. A large number of celebrities are known to live there.
 CITYSCAPE OF LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles is the only major city in the United States bisected by a mountain range. The highest point in Los Angeles is Mount Lukens, also called Sister Elsie Peak, Located at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles is divided into many neighborhoods, many of which were towns that were annexed by the growing city. There are also several independent cities in and around Los Angeles, but they are popularly grouped with the city of Los Angeles, either due to being completely engulfed as enclaves by Los Angeles, or lying within its immediate vicinity.
Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown Los Angeles, Northeast - including Highland Park and Eagle Rock areas, the Eastside, South Los Angeles (still often colloquially referred to as South Central by locals), the Harbor Area, Hollywood, Wilshire, the Westside, and the San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys.
Some well-known communities of Los Angeles include West Adams, Watts, Venice Beach, the Downtown Financial District, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Koreatown, Westwood and the more affluent areas of Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hollywood Hills, Hancock Park, Pacific Palisades, and Brentwood.
LANDMARKS OF LOS ANGELES
Important landmarks in Los Angeles include Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kodak Theatre, Griffith Observatory, Getty Center, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Boulevard, Capitol Records Tower, Los Angeles City Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Watts Towers, Staples Center, Dodger Stadium and La Placita Olvera/Olvera Street.
MOTION PICTURES IN LOS ANGELES
The greater Los Angeles area is the most important site in the United States for movie and television production. This has drawn not only actors, but also writers, composers, artists, and other creative individuals to the area.
The area is home to many institutes that study and appreciate film production, such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and American Film Institute. Various awards are given annually for movie and television production, some of which garner huge worldwide audiences.
There are many small Film festivals, like the Los Angeles Film Festival sponsored by IFP/Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival conducted by the Outfest. Specialty theaters like Grauman's Egyptian Theatre and art houses like the Nuart Theatre screen eclectic mixes of new and historic movies.
Although film production in Los Angeles remains the most important center for the medium, Hollywood has become more international, thus it faces increasing competition, however, from other parts of the United States and from the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Toronto as well as numerous other countries around the world such as Romania and Australasia that provide Hollywood with lower production costs. The phenomenon of entertainment companies running away to other locales in search of lower labor and production costs is known as "runaway production" although the trend shows signs of reversing due to the current slumping American economy.
The motion picture and TV industries have helped create the image that defines Los Angeles across the world. Many tourists flock to see Hollywood-related landmarks such as the Walk of Fame and the Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
MUSIC IN LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles is also one of the most important sites in the world for the recorded music industry. The landmark Capitol Records building, which resembles a stack of albums, is representative of this. A&M Records long occupied a studio off Sunset Boulevard built by Charlie Chaplin (who wrote the music for his own films). The Warner Brothers built a major recording business in addition to their film business. At the other end of the business, local Rhino Records began a reissue boom by digging through archives of old recordings and repackaging them for modern audiences.
Los Angeles had a vibrant African-American musical community even when it was relatively small: a number of musical artists congregated around Central Avenue, and the community produced a number of great talents, including Charles Mingus, Buddy Collette, Gerald Wilson, and others in the 1930s and 1940s before disappearing in the 1950s.
In the 1960s the Sunset Strip became a breeding ground for bands like The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Doors. The Beach Boys were founded in nearby Hawthorne. Much hard rock has come out of Los Angeles, including hard rockers Van Halen from nearby Pasadena, "hair bands" like Mötley Crüe & Guns N' Roses, thrash metal acts like Metallica and Slayer, and also 90s rock bands such as KoRn and especially Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles is the Music Center of Los Angeles County. The Music Center consists of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Ahmanson Theatre, and the Mark Taper Forum. The courtyard, fountain, and public art make it a beautiful location. Adding to its cultural importance, on the same street are the Los Angeles Central Library, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Colburn School of Performing Arts, and the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra now performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall after having spent many years in residence at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and performs summer concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.
The demands of scoring thousands of hours of soundtracks for TV and movies also provides work for composers and classically-trained musicians, bands, orchestras, and symphonies.
CUISINE OF LOS ANGELES
While the cuisines of many cultures have taken root in Los Angeles, it is the home of the Cobb Salad, invented in the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, the French-Dip sandwich, originated by either Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet or Phillippe's restaurant in downtown, the ice blended coffee drink by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Tommy's Hamburger.
The strength of the city's scene is in "ethnic" dining and it is considered to be one of the most dynamic scenes in the world in terms of range and depth.
From Wikipedia
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