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| Melon Shark. |
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| Shark hazard in the bushes. |
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| Bicycle rack outside Laguna Beach Library. |
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| Ron Reyes w/ Black Flag. |
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| Jessica Hernandez. |
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| The Muffs. |
WTF? Glancing blow of
bird shit across the bridge of my nose! Easily dealt with and much better than
a direct hit or having it in the hair.
It kind of pinged me and kept on going.
What remained wiped right off. Not much.
Nobody even noticed. Close call!
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| Red, White, & Brown. |
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| Ink N Iron, 2013. |
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| Selfie with hat. |
Guy who the cops pulled out of the library is here at the bus stop. Really rowdy group on a nice warm summer night.
Guy mentions not making it in to shelter tonight and having to get a room.
Guy who got kicked out engages him, "What is it with you bums always having rooms everywhere? You're always talking about going to a room. Regular people earn $15/hour and $2 of it goes to people who don't work so they can have a meth party in a room".
He recognized me sitting
at the stop reading and commented, "Who would read a book in the most
beautiful city in the world? You would."
Correct.
Good God - The drunks
and mentally ill transients who hang around the Laguna Beach bus stop at night. Guy in a sports jersey is yelling into his cell
phone. I could hear him clearly half a block away: "I'm a muff diver! I'm a muff
diver!!!"
Under Albert's influence,
I purchased a Federline hat at Nordstrom.
He says he will get one too if he finds a cheaper one.
We ate at the Japanese place in ISC. When the waiter first approached, Albert told him, "I want a beer."
The waiter responded, "We have
Sapporo and Asahi."
Albert: "I want a beer.
Good food, but a bit over-priced.
Next day: Shit - I missed the bus.
It was a little early. I am usually at the stop early just in case, but I was
too busy admiring my hat this morning.
Bus driver said,
"That's a nice hat."
Coming home, we have a
couple of real lively homeless guys discussing music:
"The Black Crows
were originally called the Four Horsemen."
"NOooo - The Four
Horsemen was a MOVIE!"
The one who is the
drunker of the two is really loud and friendly.
Keeps referencing his age, "I was 29 when I first saw the Black
Crowes. Great band. I'd never heard of them
until my brother told me about them when I was 29. Great band.
Great great band. I first saw
them when I was 29".
He also says Aerosmith's
singer is "Gene Tyler". He saw them when he was 36.
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| Pyramid of Force. |
DUI on April 12. Oh God, is it all over? I don't know. What was I thinking?
Court date May 10. DMV hearing May 15. Fuck.
I've hired Law Offices of
Virginia Landry, the "DUI Queen". To help me with this. Car has
$12,000 in damages, so somebody's insurance is going up. Though the police have my license, driving
privileges are not formally revoked until the court date. VL suggested going to
DMV and applying for duplicate license, which I did. I was actually up for renewal soon so I had a
pop-quiz which I passed without studying. I wonder if it would help to mention
that during my court hearing: that I know and respect the rules of the road and
this was obviously out of character. Got a new picture on my DL which I wanted
for a long time, but I look like a psychopath. Anyway, the
license renewal lady commented I lost a lot of weight since last time. Another lucky thing: It started raining while
I was in DMV, but stopped by the time I got out. Lucky me.
In addition to drinking,
I think I was also texting while driving.
Sandra received a text that said, "Waa" right about the time I
looked up and saw that car in front of me.
Not gonna mention that part though. I think drinking is bad enough.
In playing the online bird watching game - much like in life, my intentional aim is a little off, but sometimes my
error proneness compensates for it, putting me right on target.
I got off work early at
3:00 then shot straight out to L.A., avoiding the Friday
rush hour traffic. This is where my lucky streak started. Next, I found a
parking spot near Meltdown Comics that still had 2 hours credit in it plus my
comics were half price! I was seeking out old underground comics in Meltdown,
which they didn't have; but I found an awesome collection of Spain Rodriguez
autobiographical stories about being a juvenile delinquent in the 1950s. Also
grabbed a Hate anthology so I can see what that series is all about. Both of these were half off! Last day of the sale. Grabbed an old copy of
SIN comics as well. Which appeared on somebody's list of favorite underground
comics on the Internet. It was so-so.
The Spain book was awesome. Haven't read Hate yet.
Next, I drove to the
show venue, parked across the street then walked over to a coney dog place
where I figured I could kill an hour until the doors opened. I ordered a coney and a "detroit style" hamburger (grilled onions and cold pickles -
pretty tasty) and a beer. Needing to kill more time, I ordered another beer,
then walked back to the venue where I learned they mis-announced the door time,
so everybody had to stand around for another hour. It was an all ages show and I love seeing the
young kids dressed in hardcore gear. One girl had a badass jean jacket with a
Black Flag "Everything Went Black" shrubbery shears panel on the back
and a DK patch in front, split in half to accommodate the zipper. There were
also a lot of older skinheads there plus the general population of hipsters and
whatever. I should practice small
talking at times like this instead of just standing around.
Recollections:
Girl behind me talking to
her friend was in the same situation I was:
From Orange County, bought the LA Cro-Mags tickets out of excitement,
then a week or so later they announced a Santa Ana show which would have been
much closer to home.
Little kid hanging out
with the older skin heads. The skinheads all got way drunk later, when they
asked what he was drinking, he would cross his arms like an X to signify he was straight edge. He was
probably 13 or 14 years old.
Guys in front of me
talking shit.
The opening bands were
ok. The guy in one of the bands was good
naturedly mocking the other bands:
"This next song is
called Meth Mule."
"Def
Leppard!!!????"
"Meth Mule!"
"I LOVE Def
Leppard!!"
Strife was awesome, I got
so excited I pushed over one of those speaker monitor things in front of the
stage and was pulled out by security, but of course I returned through the
front entrance. He noticed me in the crowd later and glared at me.
Cro-Mags were
great!!! It was actually just John
Joseph, but if a true reunion is impossible, this is the iteration I would most
like to see. He was awesome and intense.
I loved the show, though lost my cell phone trying to take a picture of
him when the crowd surged. One highlight: Toward the end when people were
climbing up on stage and diving off, a security guard was on each end of the
stage trying to prevent people from climbing up. Somebody got up on one side of
the stage, barreled across to the other side, and slammed into the security
guard (the same one who threw me out earlier), knocking him off the stage and
into the crowd. Pretty awesome, even
John Joseph cracked a smile. Great show.
I had to work the next
day, and about halfway through my shift, I could tell a bad cold was kicking
in. I felt pretty lousy by the time I got home and was sick well into the next
week, so I did not check out the Santa Ana show on Sunday.
My office Christmas ornament, holiday season 2012.
I think I kept it up into the following summer, if not later.
I broke down and weeded this "Home Haircutting Techniques" (VHS, 1992) from my library's collection.
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| Girl stage diving during T.S.O.L. |
