Buddhas In Candlelight

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Sometimes Chaos Can Be A Beautiful Thing

Jesus Saves

Bench In East Los Angeles

Franklin Canyon

This weekend I paid $72 to have my cat groomed. My plan to "Go Vegan" for 7 days lasted for three hours. I really enjoy the political columns by Glenn Greenwald.

Happy Birthday, Matt.

Last week I wrote about my letter to the editor of Harpers Week in Review. This week, they printed it. I'm listening to "Emotional Rescue" by the Rolling Stones from 1978, perhaps their last great album.

Echo Park

Under The Boardwalk

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It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City

1.) Dear Harpers magazine:

This is an unedited excerpt from your latest Week In Review:

".....Brazilian football star Ronaldo picked up and was blackmailed by three
transvestite prostitutes, and an eight-year-old boy in Arizona died after a goal
post fell on him during a soccer game.  An Illinois newspaper carrier rescued
an elderly woman whose leg had been pinned for four days under the dead
body of her obese 77-year-old husband."

How is an eight year old getting killed even remotely
appropriate to these other two items?

(I wrote you an e-mail harpers-weekly@harpers.org but
you still haven't responded.)

2.) California's having an election next month which
means prepare to be scammed by the propositions that
are not what they appear to be.  Example: Proposition 98
appears to be about eminent domain  but it will also
phase out rent-controlled apartments.  Vote "No"

3.) Brown rice sushi is a bad idea.

Chair (near Lafayette Park)

At My Desk With Coffee (#16)

Sick. All Week.

Dark Night At The Market

Happy Earth Day

Bryson (And Royale)

East Of West L.A.

Sunrise (Blind Man Selling Candy)

L.A. River

Musicians (Boyle Hts.)

Broken Madonna

St. Jude Of The Junkyard

Midnight Madonna

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Wedding Chapel

Prayer Wall (Downtown L.A.)

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Wall Madonna

Virgin of Guadalupe (East LA)

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The Day Before Easter

God Bless Our Barrio (Echo Park)

Virgin of Guadalupe (Boyle Hts.)

You Might Not Want To Read This

"...They started talking to this man and at first he was talking “I’m just a taxicab driver, I did nothing.” He claims he’d never try to hurt US soldiers that he picked up the wrong people. Then he stopped talking. They turned the lights out and slammed the door and left him there while they went down to cell #4. This man had been so fucked that when they grabbed his foot through the cell bars he began screaming and crying. After praying to Allah he moans a constant short Ah, Ah every few seconds for the rest of the night. I don’t know what they did to this guy. The first one remained handcuffed for maybe 1 ½-2 hours until he started yelling for Allah. So they went back in and handcuffed him to the top bunk on either side of the bed while he stood on the side. He was there for a little over an hour when he started yelling again for Allah. Not many people know this shit goes on. The only reason I want to be there is to get the pictures and prove that the US is not what they think. But I don’t know if I can take it mentally. What if that was me in their shoes. These people will be our future terrorist. Kelly, its awful and you know how fucked I am in the head. Both sides of me think its wrong. I thought I could handle anything. I was wrong."

-Sabrina Harman
an M.P.at Abu Ghraib
(New Yorker March 23, 2008)

Nighttime In The Switching Yard

Plant A Seed

Now's the time to buy some Sugar Snap Peas (with edible pods!), let them germinate for a couple of days and then put them an inch under ground. Believe it or not, within a week, signs of green life will shortly burst forth.

Shrine

Night of the Three Don'ts:

1. Don't let the fan vents on your computer get clogged with pet hair;
2. Don't forget the wheatgrass juice;
3. Don't presume that mysterious charges won't appear on your cell phone bill.

Quote of the Night:

"Is is. Isn't isn't."

Lonely Pony

Street Art (Not Mine)

More Jake, More Nina

Jake Giving Thanks For Money & Cigarettes

I wish there was a way I could mash up this picture of Jake with this song by Nina Simone. To my mind, they kind of go together.

A Message From My Neighbor

Last night I came home to find the above message from Evelyn, my eighty-five year old neighbor advising me as to her daughter's current medical condition. Together they share a small apartment in my building with Evelyn the live-in nurse. It may seem cruel to post a message like this but for the past several years I've been listening to her melodramatic updates ("The doctor says she won't make it to Christmas") as to the seriousness of her daughter's many ailments and lately I've grown skeptical. Like other people here, I've run errands for them, lent them small sums of money and offered countless, if meaningless, words of encouragement.

But I've also begun to see more erratic behavior from the daughter as she shuffles through the courtyard in her flannel nightgown with her ever-present flyswatter and smoking her cigarillos ("doctors orders"). Lately she's begun to stand totally still on the landing lost in what I'm guessing is an opiated haze.

The low point occurred earlier this week when the daughter collapsed outside their door. Not surprisingly, Evelyn screamed bloody murder. I dragged her daughter inside but although she was trying to talk, for the most part she seemed merely oblivious to her situation. Later I tried to talk with Evelyn about the possibility that painkillers are a big part of her daughter's problem but she wasn't listening.

In other words, I wish them the best but I've begun to detach myself from their lives.

Truck

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Truck And Fourth St. Bridge

Spider!

Recipe of the Night:
Avocado Cream Soup with Shrimp
1 box Trader Joe's Vegetable Broth (32 oz.)
1 box Trader Joe's Number Guacamole (16 oz.)
1 bottle TJ’s Heavy Cream (16 oz.)
¼C Pale Dry Sherry (optional)
1t Salt; ½t Pepper
1 bag Trader Joe's Cooked Salad Shrimp (16 oz.), thawed

1) In a saucepan, bring the broth to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and when the stock is simmering, stir in the guacamole & heavy cream. Add the sherry (optional), salt, pepper.
2) To serve the soup hot, add the shrimp & cook until shrimp are heated through.
3) To serve the soup cold, refrigerate the soup and then add the thawed shrimp just before serving.
4) Garnish with a dollop of sour cream

Quote of the Night:
Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Henry Miller

Video of the Night:

Lightning Hopkins

WGA Strike *Is* Over

"...'If they get paid, we get paid.' This contract makes that a reality. It's the best deal this Guild has bargained for in 30 years after the most successful strike this Guild has waged in 35 years. It was arguably the most successful strike in the American labor movement in a decade..."

Patric Verone
President of WGA

Rusted Paint

If you'd like to do me a favor, please go here and vote for my "Mother Father" photo. Thanks.

Election Day (L.A. City Hall)

"Anyone who thinks the Democrats are a lock to win in November has somehow forgotten about Karl Rove, the right-wing radio network, the hanging chads of 2000, the Swift boat debacle, the intimidation of black voters in Florida, the long lines of Democratic voters standing forlornly in Ohio, and so on."

Bob Herbert
New York Times
February 2, 2008

Man On A Dark Street

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Bill

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you lose your leg?"
"Car Crash. Gangrene."

Pablo From Rosemead

In The Park

No Photos Today

This time last night I was in Chinatown. If you're outside of L.A. you might not know that unlike San Francisco and New York, LA's Chinatown is pretty much a dead zone in the evening. I turned up a especially dark street that feeds into Alameda and came across a man lying face down in the middle of the street.

Right or wrong, I briefly considered taking a couple of photos ('cause that's what I do) but if this guy was just drunk and not dead it was only a matter of time until a car comes up over him.

As I asked him "You need help?" I was instantly making eye contact with a fully conscious man nodding his head vigorously. I hauled him up and half-dragged him to the sidewalk. He was a very old Asian man bleeding from either the mouth or nose. He didn't want help, he didn't even want me to make a phone call. Without saying too much more he shuffled off. I followed him for another two or three blocks and then saw him wobble and fall again.

This time he was relatively unhurt but we were still in a dark part of town. Phillippes Restaurant was just a block or two away; that became my goal. Some of my questions he wouldn't answer but he did say his name was Mr. Wong and he needed to take the bus to Alhambra and even told me the name of the assisted living center that he stayed at. A police car drove past and I waved for them to come over but they kept on going. At this point he is just doggedly shuffling down the street which I took to mean "I'll be all right if I can just get to the bus that will take me home."

I'm not sure what to do. Mr. Wong is clear that he doesn't want any medical attention which at this point would mean endless hours at County General - on a Friday night no less. So I just keep on walking with him to the bus stop, hoping the worst had past.

We get to the bus stop. It's surprisingly crowded but the benches are empty. He goes to sit on the bench but again topples over, this time hard and fast. Every available cell phone comes out and, thankfully, a VA nurse steps up as Mr. Wong is bleeding badly from the mouth.

Eventually an ambulance showed and they took Mr. Wong away. Today I called the assisted living center in Alhambra and he indeed was a resident there and they had been contacted by County General where he is still being held.

At this point I'm thinking I should have called 911 when I first found him. On the other hand, if he had walked off while I waited for the ambulance he would have been completely out of eyesight at the point of his second fall.

Acme Warehouse (East L.A.)

Tattooed Hands

Painted Mattress On An Echo Park Dumpster

"Fearless" (In An Empty Showroom)

Smiling Woman (One Hand Missing)

Night in L.A.