Monday Night Football

I was highly anticipating the game between the Vikings and Jets. There was all kinds of drama added to this matchup recently. From Brett Favre's return to New York amidst the controversy surrounding him involving alleged misconduct to Randy Moss's return to the Vikings. So I headed over to Barney's Beanery in Old Town Pasadena. I had five pints of Arrogant Bastard over the three hours I spent watching the football game. I closed my tab and headed out at around 9:30pm. I walked over to the Metro Gold Line Memorial Park Station and waited to take it to Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. From there I would take the Metro Red Line to the Hollywood/Vine Station or so I thought. Well... When I woke up I was in East Los Angeles! The train was not moving, but it was headed back to Union Station. Okay.. I thought. The train left and I got off at Union Station. From there I went down to the Metro Red Line subway to head home. I got on the train and it proceeded to go home. I dozed off again!.. I woke up and I was at the Civic Center stop. What?!.. Aw fuck!.. It was going towards Union Station!.. I fell asleep and the train went from Downtown Los Angeles to North Hollywood and back!.. I couldn't believe it! I missed my stop twice!.. I thought to myself "No problem! I'll just wait for the next one".. Only to look up at the blank screen with no departing times. Shit!.. Now I really couldn't believe what had just happened. As I made my way through Union Station I observed the scene. People waiting for trains with their luggage next to them as they napped, people reading or talking to one another. The place was dimly lit as Union Station was quietly sleeping itself. I made my way through the streets surrounding Union Station while thinking about my stupidity and about how thirsty I was. I walked around trying to find a gas station or convenience store to purchase a bottle of water. How dry I am?... Anyways I decided to walk past Chinatown on my way to Figueroa St right in front of Evans Community Adult School in order to take either the Metro Line 2 or 4 to Hollywood. I waited and waited.. There it was! The 4! I got on and it was pretty crowded. It cruised all along Sunset Blvd through Echo Park and Silver Lake on it's way to Hollywood. I got off at my stop and walked a few blocks to get home. I forgot my keys! But it's okay, I was one phone call away and I was in. Finally I'm home! I drank a shitload of water and went to bed. It was now 2:30am.

Protesting the Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks were back in town on Memorial Day for the first of a three game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers. I found out about the protest through a friend of mine. Hmm.. I thought about how tired I was to see all the messed up stuff that people of color have to put up with in general.. And now things have gotten worse in Arizona with the passing of SB 1070. I decided that I needed to become more involved. I thought to myself about how I could no longer stand by while ignorant, misguided people pass draconian laws. I met up with a few colleagues and made my way over.. The meeting place was at Elysian Park Ave & Sunset Blvd just underneath the "THIS IS MY TOWN" Dodgers billboard. As we arrived there were a handful of people with signs and banners. By the time we made our way to the top of the hill in front of the Dodgers main entrance it was great to see everyone chanting, dancing and playing music. We rounded the four corners as the fans were making their way in and made ourselves heard. The police presence started out small but eventually grew considerably. Me and my friends were holding a banner which read "STOP SB 1070". As the energy of the protesters picked up, so did mine. While I really appreciate the people who stood by us by taking our flyers, cheering us on and honking their horns.. There were a few ugly incidents. My friend who was handing out flyers to the cars passing by was almost hit by a careless driver who then proceeded to make comments hurled at the protesters. The protesters got together and made their presence felt in front of that car! They circled the car and made them quite uncomfortable. There was also another incident where the drivers were getting frustrated by the traffic and started honking their horns like crazy. So... I took advantage of it and started screaming "Yeah! That's right!" followed by "Boycott Arizona!". The guy was soooo mad he flipped me off. Hahaha! I was loving it! All in all, it was simply beautiful.

"The Cruise"

After not having seen a film in so long... I caught Bennett Miller's "The Cruise". This 1998 documentary film centers on Timothy "Speed" Levitch who is a bus tour guide in New York City. While watching it I couldn't help but think about Terence Davies's excellent 2008 film "Of Time and the City" which was centered in Liverpool. I recently watched it and felt like it was still lingering in my head. They both helped me understand the feeling of time and place with such vast knowledge of their individual cities while philosophically exploring so much about it's culture and people.