Sorry. I am not in Malibu this morning. Had to take my ancient Nissan Maxima to the doctor this morning. The "old lady" has 225,000+ miles on her. The shop is about 2-3 miles from my front door, so I walked home.
Do you name your cars? I name mine. The Maxima is "Frieda." Her license plate has the letters HYK which remind of the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, so that's how she got her name. Some of my other "partners" have been "Mamie," the black Rambler, "Rosalie," the maroon Vista, and "Pachelbel Cannonball," the mustard Pacer. The Miata is "Solar Wind" which I have taken into the Chinese as "Feng Ri" (she's a convertible, yeah, obvious I know). My big-ass scooter, which is like a horse, I call "Sleipnir," after the mythical eight-legged horse.
I decided to take a picture of the major intersection nearest my home, Vermont and Santa Monica in East Hollywood.
This best catches the morning vibe; the long shadows of early AM. This is my homeland. I've lived in this part of town for nearly ALL of my 56 years, and it pretty much says it all. Mostly concrete, asphalt, metal, and plastic. Cars galore on their way somewhere else. Sparse vegetation. Those pitiful trees in the foreground look as unhealthy as the homeless guys who hang out on the cement benches just out of sight.
Amazing how this photo makes it all much cleaner and tidier that it actually is.
The building on the left side, beige front, red-tile simulation along the roof border? It used to be the Campus Theater. It's still a movie theater. There was a scary pervert who ran the projector who would come into the boys bathroom, stand behind you and accuse you of running up the stairs while you were taking a whiz and threaten to tell your parents and to spank you on the spot. At first he scared us, but then some of my buddies and I would go out of our way to bait him out and mess with him. I saw Dr. Zhivago at that theater when it first came out. Good times.
Across the street on the northeast corner is this pod mall and behind that a Staples, Rite-Aid, Pizza Hut, and assorted small shops.
Before it was a Staples, the large store was a Hollytron, a Korean-owned electronics and appliance store. It held the distinction of being the only store on Vermont Avenue that did NOT get ransacked by mobs in the 1992 L.A. Riots. The owners and employees parked their cars in barricade at all parking entrances, and men armed with rifles took positions on the roof and fired at anyone who tried to come within the perimeter.
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| Facing east on Santa Monica |
The pod mall is a total rebuild. It was torched and I believe they found a body inside later. It was a very interesting time to be in L.A. It taught me that police can only do so much and that they will abandon you to your own devices to protect themselves, so it's not a bad idea to own a shotgun when civilization breaks down as it will even in the USA.
When I bus into work, I pick up the 704 west right in front of this building at 5:50 AM. This used to be a Bank of America, where I got my first checking account. Upstairs was a dentist where my mom would go.There is now a medical clinic down on the first floor where I"m pretty sure you can get both an abortion and liposuction. There's a certain kind of perfection of the cycle of irony in that, don't you think? It brings to mind Elvis Costello's poetic phrase "Useless Beauty."
And when I return to this neighborhood, I emerge from under that large leaning metal structure, the portal to the Red Line Metro subway station.
Not as serene an environment as where I work, but as you can see, the morning sky is just as blue. It's going to be summer-like today--over 100 Fahrenheit.
Have a great Wednesday.
Love,
Pops
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