list no.2 things I saw on my walk home from the factory

1. A dead black poodle puppy in a basket

2. A fox-like creature that was so decomposed that it was basically a jawbone and a fox shaped pile of fur that had mixed with the litter and discarded syringes from Alameda

3. The body of a French Bulldog wearing a collar with a small bell (like a kitten might wear) around its obviously broken neck

4. A paperback, meant for pre-teen girls, entitled What's your Guy-Q?

5. This is mostly a list of dead dogs :(

list no.1 splitting up

1. Downtown

-Bar 107, La Cita, Pete’s Café, Banquette-mine

-L.A. Café, The Down n’ Out, Bermuda Café-yours

-Stuart’s apartment first floor and balcony-mine

-Stuart’s apartment second and third floor-yours

-Brooke’s apartment-split

-The Smell-mine

-Five Star Bar-yours

-Warung café- split

-Main St. between 4^th and 7^th-mine

-Main St. between 7^th and Olympic-yours

-Spring St.-split

-MOCA Grand Ave-mine

-Museum of Neon Art-yours

-Geffen Contemporary-split

-Pershing Square during summer and spring-yours

-Pershing Square during ice skating season-mine

-Little Tokyo-mine

-Arts District-yours

-China Town-split (except for Hop Louie-mine)

2. Echo Park

-Little Joy-mine

-Short Stop-yours

-Gold Room-mine

-El Prado-split

-The Park for jogging-mine

-The Lake for paddle boating-yours (this was a tough concession)

3. Silverlake

-mostly mine

-Intelligentsia on Sunset-mine!!!

-Flore-mine

-Vegan House-yours

-Farmer’s Market on Lucille-yours

-Sunset Junction Festival-mine

4. The West Side

-Santa Monica, you can have it-yours

-The Marina-mine

-Abbot’s Habit Coffee Shop-yours

-Intelligentsia on Abbot Kinney-split

-The Brig-yours

-The Other Room-yours

-Rooster Fish-split

-Westminster between Abbot Kinney and Main-yours

-Westminster between Main and the beach-mine

5. Trader Joe’s

-Silverlake-mine

-Culver City-yours

-South Pasadena-split (we may need to go there someday)

6. Whole Foods

-On Santa Monica-yours

-On Fairfax-mine

-On Lincoln-split

Author's Disclaimer: This list is but a joke. I love you very much and I hope you are doing splendidly. If it was up to me we would co-habitate harmoniously in all of our favorite spots across the city and the world. Infinite Xs and Os.

Compton Baby

I find a lot of good shit. I remember the night I found this prison letter. It was Summer and Greg's friends were gathering at an ancient Downtown watering hole which had recently been made new again by promises of continued yuppie influx and expertly trained mixologists, fluent in the language of nostalgic libations and spirits of yester-year.

We gathered to see Greg off to La Ciudad de Mexico. I was nervous. Steffi would surely be amongst the well-wishers. I brought gifts. A billfold of crocodile leather for the nearly departed and for Steffi I arranged a bottle of French perfume and a book of poetry that was very uniquely American.

I found the letter, which originated in prison and was bound for an outsider, on a strip of Los Angeles Street that transforms nightly to a sort of hobo encampment. I picked up the still-sealed envelope and slipped it into a designer bag which, much like the letter, I had no business carrying.

It wasn't until weeks later that I opened the letter to an audience of 2 on the Intelligentsia patio.

The letter was authored by an incarcerated individual who referred to himself as Compton Baby.
Compton Baby wrote, with much tenderness, to a man he called New Orleans

Black people really love to refer to each other by the names of cities that they may be associated with.

Black people love to call me Red. I know this and I do not try to discourage it. Sometimes people call me Ginger. I don't really mind this either. I don't mind what you call me as long as it's not Late for Supper


Below I've included images of the actual letter along with a transcription. Please see my translation notes in red.

What’s up New Orleans: (This should be a comma but who’s counting?)

Well hom’me (homie?)

When you get this letter it fine (find?) you & your family in the best of God(‘s) Care.

So

How did you like the program? It(‘)s better then(than) jail anyday as you know

I’m getting ready for trail(unless his jailers are preparing him for a forced cattle drive through the barren West, I think he means trial) anyday now
Say(,) David man it’s time for something new cause the game down there is over with

It’s time to think on bigger thing(s) hom’me life is to(o) good when you give it a chance

Man I

Been down here 9mo fighting this dope case with no dope or no mark(ed?) money ,(.) I see them trying them giving people program with dope & mark(ed?) money I cant get a good lawyer to push it for me

Out come but that’s(oh, NOW he embraces the rules of the contraction) how the ball go(I think this is a mangled metaphor of some sort) but one thing us meeting I kept it real with you when you left me (WARNING: this where the letter veers tragically gay!!!) I made sure you had yours ( I bet, Pal)

That’s what real brothers do by keeping it real you don’t find to(o) many like me ! That’s why I’m a “Soldier” Wooole(I think this word is a an antyempt at using a artifact of Southern vernacular. They use this word similarly to the way we may use “dude”)

Brother When I get out of here hopefully soon we have to really kick it on some real brother shit Compton & New Orleans you know?

Well baby Boy I gotta look over some of my paperwork (what he’s crunched for time? Too much paper work? Is he a fuckin’ Tax attorney now?)hoping to get my lawyer to really help me

Your Real Homm’me(Homie),

Compton

NO x STOP x DON'T

i'm not sad

The shaman at The Million Dollar Pharmacy explained that my best bet would be to put a hex on you so that you become fat. Concerned about your health, I inquired, "Exactly how fat?".

"very, very fat", he explained. I had already paid the $60 and I had decided that this was no time to worry about small details like cardio vascular health.

I chuckled when I realized that the monatary cost for casting the Santaria spell was almost the exact amount in US Dollars that you will soon spend daily at KFC.

There are paralells everywhere if you are open to recognizing them.

XO,

V.O.C.

(no, stop, don't)

This trick you do

You have this trick

where you make everyone around you bat-shit crazy


While you stay perfectly sane...



It's a fucked up trick

journal entry

06/03/09

I rode to work today. Because I haven’t touched my bicycle in so long it had begun to atrophy, its muscles were tired and it’s tires low.

Maria was sleeping in the other room.

As I pumped, a repetitive thumping pulsated from the hallowed wood floor, filling the apartment. It sounded like an oak-limbed pirate splurging his scurvy in rhythm, his one non-patched eye rolling back in his skull.

Once the pirate had cum and my tires had firmed I rode away.

The pre-storm California air felt good on my skin. The hills propelled me west and Melrose hugged my left side.


You were on my mind. A week ago we had arrived in Paradise, my paranoia had begun to subside and my calf-skin loafers had begun to fill up with sand as white and squeaky as lab mice. Your normally pin-straight hair splayed down your back, curving from the humidity. Your nose was shiny and your eyes were clay-red and speckled as ever.

I thought about your colors. My cogs spun and La Cienega fast approached.

burgers n' shit

The miniature pink flowers that fall onto the patio at the Intelligentsia





on Abbott Kinney


are the exact same tiny flowers that live inside of brand-new crack pipes.





on 7th and Main...




This is so





they may be sold, by donut shops and burger stands, as cylindrical, glass tiny flower casings.

Z O R A N I A