I agree. I moved here in 2022 because I had always loved movies. But since day one I’ve been surprised and totally engaged by the natural environment. The white light in the morning is unlike anywhere and the twilight sun at my work plays on tall evergreen trees that look like they should be somewhere else. Love the nature of L.A. so far. Visited San Fran recently and it had great nature but in a different way than L.A. Keep rockin’ in the natural world.
There’s an ol’ saying cautioning newcomers in recovery about the necessity of avoiding old drinking buddies and old watering holes — “If ya hang out long enough in a barbershop, you’re gonna get a haircut.”
Sounds like NYC mighta been just one big barbershop for ya. Geographic cures don’t work in isolation but a change in scenery can be a real boost to a solid recovery program. Hell, I’m almost thirty years sober and I still get the screaming fantods whenever I drive through the little town where my drinking career spiraled in.
Best wishes in your sobriety and your new found love of wide, open spaces.
I enjoyed reading that. Glad you’re here. Sunshine, the smell of jasmine, palm trees, hummingbirds, lizards, praying mantises. Not one iota do I miss London!
I made the move myself a few years after you and that question kept haunting me (from others and myself)- I just needed to escape NY and two key words were driving me: “space” and “light”. I thought I wouldn’t last very long in LA but here I still am… 12 years later.
Hey Moby, I like this. And I can't help feeling you've reached a stage in your life when it makes sense to withdraw from human noise. A sort of cleansing of the senses. Just being at one with the earth and sky.
Okay, since you went “esoteric,” I will offer this. As an astrologer, what came up for me reading this was, I wonder if NYC is on his Mars line or if he has a Mars/Pluto influence there. For years, whenever I visited Paris, I would get angry, punch a sack of babies angry. I’m not an angry person. I have an extremely long rope and high tolerance for people and situations. But in Paris, my rope is about two inches long and my tolerance is nil. A while back, I had an Astrocartography reading and I found out my Mars line sits right over Paris. The planet of war, for me, runs through Paris. The city of love is my least loving place on earth. It would be fascinating to know if NYC has a similar correlation for you. I believe we are given systems like astrology as guides. To provide an answer. Not all answers. But an explanation and from there, we can find solutions and maybe a bit of peace. Walking in the sun helps too. Much love.
The music scene in all of NY, not just Manhattan and Brooklyn centers around booze and other substances. I thought moving away from the hardcore and noise scenes to Texas would help the first time I got sober, but I brought my other problems with me. Tried the geographical cure over and over and while I'm glad I'm now in a blue state again, I'm not sober becauee of the move - freakin' Boston - but because of working the program after rehab. I read the Big Book all the time and keep it within reach. I've managed to stay sober since 12.15.16 even after losing my oldest kid, my step dad, step mom and some of my best friends from NYHC.
But hell, Los Angeles sunshine and a total change of scenery is a good enough reason to move.
I live in a tiny village in the South East of the UK and trees, nature are all around me. I visited LA a couple of months ago and I remember what a shock it was (I wrote a piece on it on Substack) and how much I craved a connection to nature, to life itself. It was a physical, visceral, heart wrenching yearning.
I cannot imagine how people stay sane when living in a world of concrete and sky scrapers. I guess they don't!
It’s not esoteric—it’s just hard to see through the veil of individualism.
Most people code themselves as singular beings. But from a systems perspective, every “individual” is a collective intelligence: an emergent stack of body systems, neural subroutines, gut biomes, psychic fragments, historical echoes, cultural scripts, and environmental feedback loops. You are not one thing. You are many things functioning as one thing, temporarily.
Zoom out further and you’re also a node in multiple other collective intelligences—your community, your biome, your language, your algorithms, your ancestral line. The idea of muses or inspiration isn’t just poetic—it’s pointing at real parapsychological effects we don’t know how to measure yet. There is something upstream from the conscious mind. We just don’t have a science of it.
When people step away from addiction, they’re not just quitting a substance. They’re reorganizing their alliances with whole networks of intelligences—some helpful, some parasitic. Leaving the region matters. Changing the landscape of cues and reinforcements matters. But when that’s not possible, psychedelics offer a temporary surge in neuroplasticity—a window of radical self-restructuring.
This isn’t mysticism. It’s systems work. It just doesn’t fit neatly into current science because current science isn’t built to study this kind of mind.
I'm an animator and illustrator. I used to live in Mexico City and just moved to Porto, Portugal, for the same reason. I think that in times like this, the best thing to do is to think about what's good for us!
"The mountains are calling and I must go."
"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
~ John Muir
I agree. I moved here in 2022 because I had always loved movies. But since day one I’ve been surprised and totally engaged by the natural environment. The white light in the morning is unlike anywhere and the twilight sun at my work plays on tall evergreen trees that look like they should be somewhere else. Love the nature of L.A. so far. Visited San Fran recently and it had great nature but in a different way than L.A. Keep rockin’ in the natural world.
There’s an ol’ saying cautioning newcomers in recovery about the necessity of avoiding old drinking buddies and old watering holes — “If ya hang out long enough in a barbershop, you’re gonna get a haircut.”
Sounds like NYC mighta been just one big barbershop for ya. Geographic cures don’t work in isolation but a change in scenery can be a real boost to a solid recovery program. Hell, I’m almost thirty years sober and I still get the screaming fantods whenever I drive through the little town where my drinking career spiraled in.
Best wishes in your sobriety and your new found love of wide, open spaces.
Welcome, blessings! Hope you also check out Pacific NW, perhaps on a rambling, blue highway road trip!
I enjoyed reading that. Glad you’re here. Sunshine, the smell of jasmine, palm trees, hummingbirds, lizards, praying mantises. Not one iota do I miss London!
Hi Steve, I’m moving from London to LA in October. I’d love to connect and get some advice!
Sure! Just say the word.
Thanks! When works for you?
I made the move myself a few years after you and that question kept haunting me (from others and myself)- I just needed to escape NY and two key words were driving me: “space” and “light”. I thought I wouldn’t last very long in LA but here I still am… 12 years later.
Hey Moby, I like this. And I can't help feeling you've reached a stage in your life when it makes sense to withdraw from human noise. A sort of cleansing of the senses. Just being at one with the earth and sky.
Okay, since you went “esoteric,” I will offer this. As an astrologer, what came up for me reading this was, I wonder if NYC is on his Mars line or if he has a Mars/Pluto influence there. For years, whenever I visited Paris, I would get angry, punch a sack of babies angry. I’m not an angry person. I have an extremely long rope and high tolerance for people and situations. But in Paris, my rope is about two inches long and my tolerance is nil. A while back, I had an Astrocartography reading and I found out my Mars line sits right over Paris. The planet of war, for me, runs through Paris. The city of love is my least loving place on earth. It would be fascinating to know if NYC has a similar correlation for you. I believe we are given systems like astrology as guides. To provide an answer. Not all answers. But an explanation and from there, we can find solutions and maybe a bit of peace. Walking in the sun helps too. Much love.
The music scene in all of NY, not just Manhattan and Brooklyn centers around booze and other substances. I thought moving away from the hardcore and noise scenes to Texas would help the first time I got sober, but I brought my other problems with me. Tried the geographical cure over and over and while I'm glad I'm now in a blue state again, I'm not sober becauee of the move - freakin' Boston - but because of working the program after rehab. I read the Big Book all the time and keep it within reach. I've managed to stay sober since 12.15.16 even after losing my oldest kid, my step dad, step mom and some of my best friends from NYHC.
But hell, Los Angeles sunshine and a total change of scenery is a good enough reason to move.
"Everywhere I go, there I am" 🤭
I live in a tiny village in the South East of the UK and trees, nature are all around me. I visited LA a couple of months ago and I remember what a shock it was (I wrote a piece on it on Substack) and how much I craved a connection to nature, to life itself. It was a physical, visceral, heart wrenching yearning.
I cannot imagine how people stay sane when living in a world of concrete and sky scrapers. I guess they don't!
Thank you for sharing, you sound very sane to me!
You’re too old, it’s over, let go, NOBODY LISTENS TO TECHNO
Moved to Los Angeles 21 years ago and never looked back. The diversity and beauty....
It’s not esoteric—it’s just hard to see through the veil of individualism.
Most people code themselves as singular beings. But from a systems perspective, every “individual” is a collective intelligence: an emergent stack of body systems, neural subroutines, gut biomes, psychic fragments, historical echoes, cultural scripts, and environmental feedback loops. You are not one thing. You are many things functioning as one thing, temporarily.
Zoom out further and you’re also a node in multiple other collective intelligences—your community, your biome, your language, your algorithms, your ancestral line. The idea of muses or inspiration isn’t just poetic—it’s pointing at real parapsychological effects we don’t know how to measure yet. There is something upstream from the conscious mind. We just don’t have a science of it.
When people step away from addiction, they’re not just quitting a substance. They’re reorganizing their alliances with whole networks of intelligences—some helpful, some parasitic. Leaving the region matters. Changing the landscape of cues and reinforcements matters. But when that’s not possible, psychedelics offer a temporary surge in neuroplasticity—a window of radical self-restructuring.
This isn’t mysticism. It’s systems work. It just doesn’t fit neatly into current science because current science isn’t built to study this kind of mind.
What a lovely piece. So interesting because the reason wasn’t one that most would expect. Anyways. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on your sobriety
I'm an animator and illustrator. I used to live in Mexico City and just moved to Porto, Portugal, for the same reason. I think that in times like this, the best thing to do is to think about what's good for us!