Aw, You Read Me. Heart.

To the handful of readers who continue to keep up with my work and writing here at NSILA, a big Thank You!! I continue this blog through wordpress, and recommend you keep reading there - more photos and narrative await you - www.nosaintsinla.wordpress.com.

WordPress

I decided to switch to Wordpress, but I'm having trouble deciding. So, readers (all three of you), let me know if you like the new format, found here:

NO SAINTS IN L.A.

Trader Joe's

A late night run for two-buck Chuck finally got me to Trader Joe's new location off Sunset. Three parking garage floors down is the entry way to the store. I expected cheap grocery store goods, not a rehash of Rock n' Roll motifs. However, this store's novel location may have called for a new spin on things.

First, the elevator from the parking garage...


The walls of Trader Joe's


This is unusual for Trader Joe's, whose normal in-store decor themes ebb around the Islands. An oasis in the city if you will.

Anonymous

Today is a sad day for the antipathetic group Anonymous, who in 2008, chose to attack Scientology and its followers through an onslaught focused on their communications, exacting the shut down of their website and a flood of black faxes to their headquarters. Dmitriy Guzner, age 19, was charged with unauthorized impairment of a protected computer and faces 12 to 18 months. There's no word on how he was caught, but he pleaded guilty to the charge and is the first member of the Anonymous group to be prosecuted.

In 2008, Anonymous members organized multiple protests outside Scientology's offices and religious centers around the world; a series of foreboding and creepy YouTube videos were released by the group to make their case known. Counter attacks ensued, but the Scientology church denied that they were the source of retaliation. A movement I traced through the pages of Radar and documented. Members of Anonymous are most widely recognized for their use of the Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta, an effort meant to protect themselves from personal attacks by the Church.


Teen Pleads Guilty to Scientology Web Attacks - Wired.com

Wiki/Anonymous Group

YouTube Anonymous Channel

Fly Away Home

The Little Things

My Days were spent under a less sunny canopy

Almost...



Denver Museum of Nature & Science: An important part of a Coloradoan's childhood
Indigenous Crystal


Denver! Music plays at their feet

See the rain?! Like California, this can be a rare treat
Final Twilight Drive

Last Stop! 8pm

Home

I went home. Home is Boulder, Colorado. About four years ago I left this place for Miami, then Miami for Los Angeles, and homesickness has plagued me the entire time. The bond I've felt with home did not materialize this time around. I didn't feel completely satisfied touching the ground and I don't want to stay. I might not love Los Angeles, but I don't hate it either - something I've heard plenty of times from Angelenos. It's like a family dog, troublesome but lovable.

In trying to look for a once favorite quote of mine, which goes something like, I'm a foreigner in my homeland, I found this one "Homesickness is...absolutely nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time...You don't really long for another country. You long for something in yourself that you don't have, or haven't been able to find," said by John Cheever. This statement carries more weight than the former. When I come home, it's to find relics of my past, the familiar toys, memories and people. These things comfort me and remind me of who I was, because new places make me feel lost. The danger of the unknown.

Los Angeles is as much a home to me as much as I want it to be. An obvious point and late realization, but I was never a child of the world. Stepping into that unknown. As John Le Carre said "we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen," and, there is so much more to see.

Smash Labs

Smash Labs is located at 1714 Albion street, a very isolated strip of industrial downtown Los Angeles. Tonight I'm here to check out several garage bands and a make-shift artist's gallery.

Think your loser boyfriend's fledging rock band - corner table stocked with vodka, beer and wine with amateur bartender shuffling $2 dollar drinks and a crowd touting conspiracy theories, chief among them that Facebook is owned by the CIA.

So here I am...

The Bands Start to Play

You Can Imagine...

14 Stations of the cross..

It's Starting to Get Weird..

Outside on the patio..

The Smoker's Backyard...

Leaving Las Vegas..

Home Depot...Look It Up

You know what else you can find at Home Depot?


Day laborers. A phenomenon I hadn't encountered until I moved here.

Pooch Cruise

There must be a skating dog in every city across America. Well, here's ours.....3rd St., Santa Monica.



p.s. That is not my giggle in the background.

On The Equator

Back in Santa Monica...we visit the Equator Bookstore off of Abbot Kinney Boulevard. If there was a street you'd describe as 'tucked away' this would be it. A small strip of boutiques, with nary a Starbucks in sight, a childrens international school nearby and enough beach town vibe to want to make you hop on a bike in a bikini. Here's where I meet for a book swap.

What's important about this particular bookstore is that it sells rare and collectible tomes, signed pieces, artwork and vinyls (if you remember what those are). Autographed books can vary on cost and value, but when you find your favorite book, signed by your favorite author, it can be very sweet. The only objection I have to this experience is the artwork sold in the store. $150 to $300 for a piece of paper that says 'Bestsellher' is asking a little too much.

Rick Owens Slaps L.A.

L.A. is great at making sitcoms. So L.A. fashion week is really just another turn on The Hills.

Thank you Mr. Rick Owens

Though he used to be based in LA, he finds designers there "arrogant and demanding."

LA is great at making sitcoms. Paris isn't as good as LA is at making sitcoms; every place has their specialty. And then they do LA Fashion Week, which is incredibly arrogant and demanding. I mean, these editors have been all over the globe for a couple of weeks [for Fashion Month] and then LA is saying 'Okay, now you have to come here.' Please, I mean, get off your ass and go to Europe. I mean, that's what I did and you just have to go where you have to go. They just don't have the tradition, and they do other things really good, so why do they have to be a fashion capital? They're the movie capital of the world and they've always been that, can't they just be satisfied with that?

There's something wrong when even Andre Leon Talley is bored with fashion.

L.A. fashion week 2008

A Slow News Week

Cats On Newspapers

No one ever comes to L.A. and thinks that the Subway is a choice for public transportation. However, with plans for expansion in the years to come, it's becoming a more viable option. Alas, the L.A. Metro does not stop at all cities, such as Santa Monica, but it can get you downtown and to the airport. For my purposes, it's an easy $1.50 novelty ride from Hollywood to Little Tokyo. Just don't get on after 6pm, the muttering homeless and generally sketchy characters seem to gather on the platforms after this hour.

Union Station, the Main Portal

Train tracks to my Left

Finally, the Light


Ah! The most unexpected offering of the day. Low lights, cool atmosphere

Sweet Bean Paste Fried in Little Cakes

Local Japanese News...LA, LA, LA..

Mochi, a strange exotic dessert with interesting texture of smooth ice cream wrapped in rice cake.

A View of the Town