Welcome to Hollywood….
There are so many things that I see in Hollywood that it’s almost become the norm for me and today reminded me to do this.
I was driving to work. It’s was around 8:45 in the morning. There was a man approx.30 to 35 years old in running shorts and a wife beater and running shoes with a back pack on, he just looked like an everyday jogger. Now any normal person would think that he was out trying to loose weight or training for a marathon, maybe weights in the backpack. Uhhh…no. I was sitting at a stop light as he jogged by and he suddenly broke into pirouettes. He was singing rather loudly and taking bows at any given moment. He then started talking to someone that, well, just wasn’t there. Since this is Hollywood and I was stuck in traffic he was moving faster than I was. He continued to do this for 2 entire blocks. Spinning…twirling….stopping to talk to his ummm “friend” that no one else could see but him.
No he is not the first of the “dancing in the streets”. A couple of months ago I was, again, on my way to work and there was a woman on the corner. Just dancing away, singing, almost screaming. She was just having a grand old time. I had to yell out a “Whoo Hoo” to her. Shit she was dancing around on the street and my ass had to go to work! I’ve seen her twice since. She’s still really happy and dancing away…
I know it’s not this city that makes you want to dance….I am very positive it is the intense drug cloud that looms over this town from broken dreams and tragic lives. Some people come here and die, some stay, become homeless or leave. There are also the few that things just didn’t work out for them and they decided to choose the high life. I don’t blame um. It’s a hard road here. Why not choose to be happy at least most of the time even if it is drug induced. Hell, they looked really fucking happy to me.
When I think about all the things I’ve seen here it’s pretty amazing.
When I first moved here I went home for lunch and the police were standing outside my house with guns drawn. Someone had robbed the bar next door and they thought the guy was in our front yard. Long story
Me and a friend of mine were at a stop light and a homeless man pulled out his….um…you get it…and started peeing on my bumper.
The neighborhood that I lived in when I first moved here was a prominent gay area. We didn’t know that. We figured it out when we walked out the night we moved in and saw men in pink too-toos. We had moved into the central of the “Gay Pride Festival”. Not that I cared but the parking SUCKED.
We also helped a prostitute (cross gender, I think) that was beaten up by a client that didn’t know he was a man.
After I moved from there I went to the “burbs”. That’s when I encountered gangs. Chola gangs. I still remember one night that I was on the phone with my mom and a car came down the street shooting. Major rapid gunfire. My mom could hear it. She screamed “Hit the floor!” Heh. She’s funny.
It’s crazy everywhere and I know this. I just think that Hollywood is a little more animated. Whether it be drug use or the fact that this is a drama ridden town.
I’ve always said I didn’t want to live and die in Texas that’s why I moved here.
To tell you the honest truth, Texas is more terrifying than LA is. Closed minds are worse than open ones. One of my most traumatic experiences happened in TX. A friend of mine got stabbed at a bar and I was there. Someone grabbed my hand and said “Put pressure on it while I call the 911.” I’ve never felt another person’s blood flow over my hands. Yes he lived….for a few more years. His name was “Snake”. He was killed a few years later. I do have a fabulous “Burger King” story about him. I have to tell that one later….ok really quick, cause it’s a good one…
It had sleeted one night. He came to the bar with his girlfriend, they got really drunk and left just in time to catch Burger King before it closed. He pulled into the parking lot they went in and got their food to go. They got in the car and he put it into drive and hit the gas. He said he didn’t know if he hit the pedal so hard because he thought he was on ice or just drunk. Never the less he drove his HUGE Buick right into the kitchen of BK. He saw the bricks on his hood, the cooks standing there staring in amazment and he said “My only thought was REVERSE”. I saw the BK and his car. He was telling the truth. He got away with the shit too. They never found him.
So I guess my point of all this babble is…..just that…babble…There is good and evil everywhere we look.
But life is an adventure right?
I was driving to work. It’s was around 8:45 in the morning. There was a man approx.30 to 35 years old in running shorts and a wife beater and running shoes with a back pack on, he just looked like an everyday jogger. Now any normal person would think that he was out trying to loose weight or training for a marathon, maybe weights in the backpack. Uhhh…no. I was sitting at a stop light as he jogged by and he suddenly broke into pirouettes. He was singing rather loudly and taking bows at any given moment. He then started talking to someone that, well, just wasn’t there. Since this is Hollywood and I was stuck in traffic he was moving faster than I was. He continued to do this for 2 entire blocks. Spinning…twirling….stopping to talk to his ummm “friend” that no one else could see but him.
No he is not the first of the “dancing in the streets”. A couple of months ago I was, again, on my way to work and there was a woman on the corner. Just dancing away, singing, almost screaming. She was just having a grand old time. I had to yell out a “Whoo Hoo” to her. Shit she was dancing around on the street and my ass had to go to work! I’ve seen her twice since. She’s still really happy and dancing away…
I know it’s not this city that makes you want to dance….I am very positive it is the intense drug cloud that looms over this town from broken dreams and tragic lives. Some people come here and die, some stay, become homeless or leave. There are also the few that things just didn’t work out for them and they decided to choose the high life. I don’t blame um. It’s a hard road here. Why not choose to be happy at least most of the time even if it is drug induced. Hell, they looked really fucking happy to me.
When I think about all the things I’ve seen here it’s pretty amazing.
When I first moved here I went home for lunch and the police were standing outside my house with guns drawn. Someone had robbed the bar next door and they thought the guy was in our front yard. Long story
Me and a friend of mine were at a stop light and a homeless man pulled out his….um…you get it…and started peeing on my bumper.
The neighborhood that I lived in when I first moved here was a prominent gay area. We didn’t know that. We figured it out when we walked out the night we moved in and saw men in pink too-toos. We had moved into the central of the “Gay Pride Festival”. Not that I cared but the parking SUCKED.
We also helped a prostitute (cross gender, I think) that was beaten up by a client that didn’t know he was a man.
After I moved from there I went to the “burbs”. That’s when I encountered gangs. Chola gangs. I still remember one night that I was on the phone with my mom and a car came down the street shooting. Major rapid gunfire. My mom could hear it. She screamed “Hit the floor!” Heh. She’s funny.
It’s crazy everywhere and I know this. I just think that Hollywood is a little more animated. Whether it be drug use or the fact that this is a drama ridden town.
I’ve always said I didn’t want to live and die in Texas that’s why I moved here.
To tell you the honest truth, Texas is more terrifying than LA is. Closed minds are worse than open ones. One of my most traumatic experiences happened in TX. A friend of mine got stabbed at a bar and I was there. Someone grabbed my hand and said “Put pressure on it while I call the 911.” I’ve never felt another person’s blood flow over my hands. Yes he lived….for a few more years. His name was “Snake”. He was killed a few years later. I do have a fabulous “Burger King” story about him. I have to tell that one later….ok really quick, cause it’s a good one…
It had sleeted one night. He came to the bar with his girlfriend, they got really drunk and left just in time to catch Burger King before it closed. He pulled into the parking lot they went in and got their food to go. They got in the car and he put it into drive and hit the gas. He said he didn’t know if he hit the pedal so hard because he thought he was on ice or just drunk. Never the less he drove his HUGE Buick right into the kitchen of BK. He saw the bricks on his hood, the cooks standing there staring in amazment and he said “My only thought was REVERSE”. I saw the BK and his car. He was telling the truth. He got away with the shit too. They never found him.
So I guess my point of all this babble is…..just that…babble…There is good and evil everywhere we look.
But life is an adventure right?
posted by iamfallingfromgrace at 10:40 PM
2 Comments:
my first week in l.a., i was helping my downstairs neighbor's mother clean up her daughter's apartment (she was in rehab for herion) and here i was, far from texas, cleaning herion spoons and throwing away needles.. ugh.
i''ve got to write a brief post about this...
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