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True Hollywood Hotel Story: The Standard LA, Part 1

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 8300 Sunset Boulevard [map], West Hollywood, CA, United States, 90069

December 18, 2006 at 10:20 AM | 0 Comments

[Ed. Note: We have a very special treat this morning as Jaunted editor Davie shares with us why the Standard LA is the most important hotel in her life. Enjoy.]

Part 1 of 2

I don't "do" t-shirts, but have this habit of rolling up the sleeves of my hoodie no matter what the weather is. I have a few tattoos, but there's one on my left wrist that, because it's the lowest on my arm, is perpetually exposed. Once in a while, people will ask me about it.

I come from a Jewish family; a former boss once told me she never asked about the numbers on my wrist because she presumed them to be "some Jew thing" (that's not an exact quotation). No! So, lest you think the association is so heavyhearted, I'd like to do some explaining.

"154": It's the best room at the Standard in West Hollywood. If I remember correctly, it's in the "X-Large" booking category. I guess because it's a corner room, it has an abnormally huge balcony.

The room is dope, no doubt (at least I used to think so), but the tattoo has less to do with the space itself and more to do with what happened in it. Long story short, Room 154 is where the best friendships of my life were solidified.

Learn more about Room 154 after the jump.

Room 154 is where, on one night during the spring of 2003, a group of us got to know the wisest soul we'll ever know. His name was Steve. Steve was a homeless man we met on Sunset Boulevard and invited back to the Standard, not thinking he'd really show up. But show up he did, with his friend Gregory who wandered the room pouring our wounded soldiers into his Big Gulp cup. Steve brought with him a cache of poetry, some written and some stored purely upstairs, and recited it for us for two hours.

To this day, we continue to analyze his masterwork, "In Custody Release," a riveting account of his release from prison. I still have the original written copy Steve gave us. Somewhere. As for Steve himself, we have no idea where he is today.

Two more of my friends have the same tattoo. And though it's not exactly about the room itself, who knows if the events that inspired it could have happened anywhere else. Being new to LA and obsessed with Sunset Boulevard, where else but the Standard would I have gone for a good time? At the time, I felt welcomed there.

Little did we know that our inspiration would also be part of our undoing at the Standard. But more on that later. Now stop asking me about my tattoo.

Davie and Room 154's True Hollywood Hotel Story will continue tomorrow. If you have a story about a loved hotel room, be it in Hollywood or not, that you would like to share, our operators are standing by.

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Author Photo: juliana by juliana

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