Brookswords

Goose-Stepping in Echo Park

OK Go's latest video was shot mere blocks away from where I live in Echo Park, at Echo Park Lake. And they gained a 5th, nonhuman, member in the process--a large, people-loving goose, well-known to those that hang out at the Lake (who have named her Maria).

Here's the video:

Missing Dignity

Saw this posted on a telephone pole here in Echo Park. Funny stuff. Click on the photo to read the text below the picture. (The Short Stop, Little Joy and The Gold Room are all Echo Park bars.) And here's a tune on the same subject.

12 Dignity (original version)

And Away We Go!

One of the buses I take in the morning is the 304, and I often feel like one of the bus riders in the movie Speed.  The 304 is a 'limited stops' line, and from where I board the bus, at Echo Park & Sunset, to Figueroa & Sunset, there are no stops.  The drivers on this line seem to be very intent on making that 1.2 mile stretch a straight shot, shooting through all the lights even if it means stretching out the concept of speeding up to make the yellow.  (Most of the time that's pretty easy, since they're speeding to begin with.)  One morning a driver miscalculated as he sped up to make the yellow--by the time it turned red, he was going too fast to to stop, so he just barreled on through.  Once we made it past the light, everyone broke out of their own little private Idahos & looked at each other in disbelief--and relief, since we made it through unscathed.  The Beach Boys sang 'She's real fine/my 409', and many mornings I think, 'I face death's door/on the 304'.  I wouldn't be surprised to see people crossing themselves before boarding this bus.

Oh, and I didn't mention that many times these speed demons are, at the same time, talking on their cell phones.  That, of course, always gives me pause--especially now after today's news that the recent crash involving New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine may have been caused by a text message on a Blackberry.  As recounted in today's Newsday:

A New Jersey police officer who was angrily e-mailing the state trooper driving Gov. Jon Corzine's SUV shortly before it crashed said he hoped the messages meant to confront the man having an affair with his wife didn't cause the wreck. State police investigators are trying to find out whether one of Det. Sgt. Michael Mathis' messages was seen by trooper Robert Rasinski just before the crash, possibly through the use of a BlackBerry, and whether it might have had an effect on Rasinski's state of mind.

Maybe the nickname for BlackBerry--CrackBerry--should be changed... to CrashBerry.

My Big Mouth

I went to get a haircut.  It's always a bit awkward, engaging with small talk (which I've never been too good at) with a stranger cutting your hair.  Here in Echo Park, there's usually no problem; the stylist usually doesn't speak English, so a peaceful silence pervades.

Unfortunately, yesterday I had a very friendly stylist; it was one of the most enjoyable sessions I've had while my hair was cut.  She laughed at all my jokes, I loved the tales she told, and I walked away in quite a good mood.

That lasted until I got home & looked in the mirror.   Our conversation was apparently so enjoyable to her that she kept cutting long past the point when she should have stopped.  I realized I talked to her way too much; in the words of the  immortal Ralph Kramden,   'I have a biiiiigg moooutthh!!'

I'm wearing a hat for the next month.

Echo Park

My neighborhood has been getting a lot of attention lately.  First, there was the film 'Quinceanera', an incisive look at gentrification and cross-cultural issues.   There are so many
picturesque shots of Echo Park in the film, it seems at times like a travelogue-- which might encourage even more gentrification!  D'ooh!

Then there was the news that Jennifer Lopez will be producing a new TV comedy called Echo Park--perhaps influenced by 'Quinceanera', it will focus on cross-cultural issues, but this time for laughs.

Finally, Michel Connelly's 'Echo Park' has just been released.  Connelly is my current fav among mystery writers--and he lives up to my expectations, at least in the following excerpt, where he describes Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, which my apartment overlooks:

“By day a walk down the main drag of Sunset Boulevard might require skills in five or more languages to read all of the storefronts. By night it was the only place in the city where the air could be split by the sound of gang gunfire, the cheer for a home-run ball, and the baying of the hillside coyotes — all in the same hour.”

The cheering sounds for home-run balls come from Dodger Stadium, within walking distance of my place.  My son saw a coyote here one night--and, just a few days ago, a raccoon on my porch scrambled away when I got home late.  It was as surprised & scared to see me as I was of it;  had we been able to communicate, I'm sure we'd have given each other heartfelt apologies.