Ahh, Lost Angeles, California: the City Of Angels, home of 224 different languages, birthplace of the Z-Boys, and the Entertainment Capitol of the World. The second largest city in the United States is of mythic proportions to us swanky east coasters, and I am no exception to the conflicting synopsis of those who have been/lived there from which I have built my own warped opinion.

And yet now, in the midst of a complicated global economic recession, forgotten wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, convoluted human rights situations in Gaza, Darfur, and Burma, and a rising American population living in poverty, the small college in Boston that I attend is spending thousands of dollars to send me and several other students to practice hard-ball journalism with the big dogs: by reporting on food, fashion, and the film industry at the 81st Academy Awards.

Even being the curmudgeon that I am, I'll admit that it's perhaps not as simple as my snarky remarks above. With mainstream Hollywood's fingers slithering throughout much of what we see and do on a daily basis, it's hard not to get caught up in it, myself very much included. I’m highly entertained by the Star Wars franchise, for example, which is chock full of cinema archetypes and stereotypes, and leaves little to the intellectual imagination. The Hollywood machine successfully employs many of my close friends. And maybe sometimes we need such lavish distractions from "real life," a version of reality that, when closely scrutinized, is full of death, destruction, lies, inconsistencies, contradictions, and turbulent complexities- enough to make your mind spin right off your body.

And sometimes the Hollywood juggernaut can even be used for good, by perhaps bringing mainstream attention to obscure issues. Spielberg's Schindler's List, for example, never fails to move me to tears by preserving the raw emotions of something that's nearly impossible to put into words. I gave $3 the other day to cystic fibrosis at a Showcase Cinemas. Slumdog Millionaire put Mumbai ghettos and Indian corruption in the spotlight. And yet when the ball of reform is in the court of Hollywood producers, they often fall short of the basket. A trust-fund for two child actors won't do much to budge a pickle involving 1 trillion people....but Hairspray 2, now THAT'S an investment! And plus, Hollywood blockbusters are always more fun then the world's socio-political quandaries.

After throwing around the word "Hollywood" like it's some kind of corporate CEO smoking a cigarette at a clean-air conference, it may behoove me to define my terms. And yet, I'm not even sure that I know what I mean by "Hollywood." Is it the major studio collective that pumps billions of dollars into dazzling special effects showcases? Does it refer to the physical place in which they are made? Or perhaps it's the filmic ideology where directors, writers, and producers adhere to the motto, "if we motion capture it, they will come [and consume].”

During my week in the front-line trenches of the studio/star system lovefest, I will sit back, appreciate my free trip, [try to] shed my preconceived notions, and attempt to deconstruct this wacky, ubiquitous, and comfortable phenomena we call "Hollywood." With the amazing interactivity beheld on this World Wide Web, I encourage all my readers to post responses of both agreement and dissent, for after several years of deja vu-inducing chef / Winkler / red carpet television coverage, we might as well try to say something new.