12.10.2008

Life With Colin

I've once again relocated...this time within the state of California, down the road apiece from the formerness of the Palisades. My attempt with this particular blog is to keep the reader (you) abreast of my daily life as opposed to my cranial malfunctions as discussed in It's All French
To Me. Don't get me wrong, I've certainly been having my share of maladies and criminal thoughts alike but my capacity for getting in down on paper has been falling short.



So here I sit within the expanse of Los Angeles, specifically in the Venice Beach locale. I'm 1.5 miles from the boardwalk of Venice and all of its mischievious offerings...gay rollerbladers, roided musclemen and sidewalk performers with a penchant for the peculiar.



I have a roommate...he's an interesting fellow to say the least. As the title mentions, his name is Colin and he wears scarves in 65 degree weather. If you've been keeping up avec moi, you know this already. Scattered about our humble pad are pieces of art contributed by his dad, Steve. Steve works with wax, thus he's a huge proponent of the Karate Kid, Part I. I happen to glean some sort of inspiration from this art because he employs lots of birds...crows most typically from what I've seen. In my opinion, the crow is inexcusably underappreciated by mankind. It caws, for fuck's sake. Hasn't anyone read the Deep Thought by Jack Handey that goes "the bird is calling my name, thought Caw."? Incredible work there. By the way, what is the difference between a crow and a raven? Is there any?

So Colin is from Southern California...San Diego specifically. He says things like "gotta check out the gnarly surf today, bro. I hear Huntington has totally glassy shit, clean as fuck. Gnarbucklers, bro. Rad shit." I come back with something like, "Yeah, sounds uh, sounds good, man. I gotta see if I can find a bar with the C's game, so you enjoy your gnar...gnarbingers or whatever." His colloquialisms might cause me to spiral into a rash of Bostonianisms such as wicked, or pissah. I fear this...I think we all do.

Vcnice is a cool place, though. I've been in and around some of the little neighborhoods here via my jogging feet and it seems to me that it's predominantly rentals. We live almost directly behind Venice High, which scares me when I jog by it. Something about a derelict gang of high schoolers on skateboards chiding and yelling things about my black tube socks...I'm sure they're all nice kids, though. I'm just sure of it.

Much more to come of the intricacies of living in this portion of Los Angeles...I am reminded daily of how fucking big this city is. I do miss the ability to trapse across the entire expanse of a city in less than 2 hours. Here, you're looking at a minimum of maybe 20 hours and chances are you're going to be murdered at some point along the way. Bad neighborhoods and all...they got those here too...lots of them.

A bientot, mes amis.

2 comments:

  1. The difference between a crow and a raven, besides the spelling, is the size. I mean, c'mon, have you really looked at a raven, lately? These things are huge!

    Whilst on our travels, we happened to stop for a bite to eat at the Snack Bar at the Visitor's Center in Yosemite National Park. Since it was a beautiful day (what's new for CA?), we decided to have our lunch at an outside table, in the sunshine. Since there are NO BUGS in CA, we thought it would be an enjoyable time. WRONG!!! As soon as we sat down we were swarmed by a flock (or a squadron) of ravens. These birds are as brazen as crows, landing right on the table we sat at. And they don't leave! You can't scare them away, 'cause they don't scare easily. They know what they want and they will not leave until they get it, or it's gone.

    Up close, these birds have large, round eyes, one of which will stare at you as you eat! They also have much larger beaks than their cousins, the crows. When you finish your meal and they haven't gotten a bite, they walk around you as if they are trying to intimidate you into going in and getting more food, just for them.

    A crow wouldn't do that. Most crows I've seen will fly away as soon as you approach them. You can't seem to get any closer than about 25 to 30 feet from a crow before it takes off.

    Now you know the difference between crows and ravens.

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