Sunday Walk

I took a walk through Silverlake this past weekend. Normally, I run around the reservoir, but I thought I'd be good and rest my legs a little more from that torturous LA Marathon. It was a mild, cool Sunday, so I took a stroll.

This is my favorite view in Silverlake and I've taken way better pics looking down this hill, but I can't walk past this spot without photographing it.

I've walked past this older house many times, but today it finally caught my attention. It looked inviting.

I've gone past this newly constructed building many times and each time I've wanted to deface it because it took away the view from the house behind it. Assholes. But admittedly, it looked kinda cool from this angle.

I hear the damn coyotes from my bedroom at night sometimes. It's creepy. They sound like crying human babies. I've never seen a sign up before. I wonder if their numbers are growing.

How cute. Future guacamole.

-H.

Five Things (POST 1)

Welcome to Five Things. Basically, I like to walk around a lot and just take snapshots of things I find interesting. There's no theme. But, I'll just post five things from the random pics I usually take. Below is the first in the series. It was taken in Silverlake on Riverside Drive towards Dodger Stadium a few Sundays back.

This is a sign that's been up for as long as I can remember in Silverlake. I don't think it's even a working business anymore. I love the texture of the background and the word itself.

There's this small plot of land surrounded by a chain-linked fence. The owner is probably like me and unable to throw anything away. I like this mannequin with the mustache.

Here's a the back of a signpost right outside the ever popular, hipster Cha-Cha Lounge. The first thing I noticed was the racist Asian face sticker, then the pale-faced Obama one with some kind of Russian/Polish type.

Oh, some clever artist put a phone booth in the middle of the sidewalk by the bank. Then they labeled it "Cell Phone." I'm still waiting to see someone try to be funny and make a call inside of it.

Lastly, this pic isn't reproducing well here on the web, but it's got such a great color combination. Don't think the building owner planned it, but over time the colors have faded into hues that I feel would make an interesting Nike sneaker.

- H.

LA has a river?

Why yes, LA does have a river. It's no Amazon or Nile, but it snakes 51 miles through LA from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. I found it accidentally as I did an urban hike through Silverlake.

I've gone past this river a zillion times, but always assumed it was just a sewage passageway or something. Nope, despite having a concrete bed, it's teeming with vegetation and wildlife. Who knew?

Since I normally drive past these gates, I always missed them.

It's not pretty, but if you close your eyes the flowing water is quite calming.

In certain parts there are thick areas of bushy trees and there are a ton of ducks and storks.

There are train tracks weaving alongside the river with the occasional, lonesome train zipping by.

As I was walking past, I saw this guy reeling in a fish. He proudly showed it off for me. He said it was his first fish he caught on the river. His uncle told him to come out to this spot because last week he caught 40 fish! I was astonished and disgusted at the same time. Once again, who the hell knew?

H.