Los Angeles flexes its muscle as the new kid on the art block

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , LOS ANGELES
Sunday, May 16, 2004,Page 12

Palming a remote-control wand, Eugenio Lopez slowly rotated a plasma screen television suspended from a bedroom ceiling at his multimillion-dollar house atop the hills of Trousdale Estates.

"Look at this," said a delighted Lopez, as he activated a hydraulic mechanism that lifted a screen scaled for an outdoor drive-in and then tucked it out of sight in some overhead panels.

"It's only the second one they ever made," said Lopez, like a 36-year-old kid with an incomparable new toy.

Angelenos enjoy their contraptions, as is well known. They love their amenities and their accouterments, and they so relish the trappings of the good life that at times one can be forgiven for concluding that the satirists who relentlessly mine cliches about lotus-eaters are actually stating the bare facts.

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