Ramblings, mutterings, distractions, silent desperations,
empty drams of whisky, books unread, cigars left to die.


 
“Encouragement, perhaps.”- Taken in the men’s room at a West Hollywood eatery, March 2011 (Click to enlarge)

“Encouragement, perhaps.”
- Taken in the men’s room at a West Hollywood eatery, March 2011
(Click to enlarge)

“Books on a blustery day, offering culinary solace on the patio of Spice Station.”- Taken in Silver Lake, March 2011

“Books on a blustery day, offering culinary solace on the patio of Spice Station.”
- Taken in Silver Lake, March 2011

“Hope, or Desperation, or Resignation.”- Taken in Hollywood, August 2010

“Hope, or Desperation, or Resignation.”
- Taken in Hollywood, August 2010

“Oreo the local Apartment Cat, having a perfectly satisfactory afternoon.”- Taken in Silver Lake, August 2010

“Oreo the local Apartment Cat, having a perfectly satisfactory afternoon.”
- Taken in Silver Lake, August 2010

Barbering

Some few places provide me an instant, smiling serenity when I walk into them. A reputable cigar shop with a well-maintained humidor. A certain unpretentious local Sicilian restaurant with Americanized red sauce and a scent of childhood. A thumping, uninhibited goth-industrial dancefloor. Hidden alcoves in Los Angeles where black silhouettes of palm trees are attractively marred by power lines.

Among this list is a barber shop I now visit when my skull gets too fuzzy. It is a ritual I don’t need per se, for I can get myself a Wahl balding clipper and render my head shorn at will. Yet I come here, for the barber shop is one of those decidedly masculine endeavors.

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Tropical Los Angeles

A warm morning swells upward from sleep, blinking and sticky.

Thinking itself in the monsoon season, it rains, sideways, for a handful of minutes.

It stops, confused.

Birds take up a cautious song.

The dryer upstairs snaps and clanks in its busy way.

“Kitty not entirely unlike a kitty we once knew named Tigger, on Chair.”- Taken in Downtown Los Angeles, July 2008

“Kitty not entirely unlike a kitty we once knew named Tigger, on Chair.”
- Taken in Downtown Los Angeles, July 2008