pedestrian saga

Ayer mi jefa se mud her home and business to a new apartment, and when I showed up for work, she asked me to translate for her and the day laborers she had hired at the truck rental center. I discovered that all those drowsy evenings and long Saturday mornings I spent languishing in expensive university extension classes, trudging through the same old boring grammar course, were a monumental waste of time - and definitely a waste of money - when it comes to the real deal. There is a huge gap between my classroom experience and real world application. Ayer volv a casa y estudi algunas palabras que had tripped me up. And I resolved never to take a Spanish class again through UCLA Extortion - instead I’ll be saving my moola for un mes en M xico!

stillineho

That crazy Lloyd got my horoscope just right this week!

Leo: (July 23 Aug. 22)
It turns out that "different" may be followed by "than" as long as the word introduces a clause, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it.

So I missed what would’ve been my second River Ride the past weekend, but I did make it to my second Congress of Neighborhoods as a delegate for the fledgling East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. My neighbors and I dragged ourselves out of the house by 8:00 on Saturday morning and carpooled to the convention center downtown. After some serious queuing outside the parking complex (should’ve taken the Red Line to the Blue Line!) we checked in to the Congress, grabbed some Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks coffee, and split up for the morning session. I wasn’t feeling motivated enough to join a workshop 30 minutes late, so I wandered the city department exhibits, chatting up the Los Angeles World Airports rep, the city police officers, the housing department staff, and declaring myself a "big fan" to the folks at the 311 booth (One Call to City Hall). I also met Lois of the Los Angeles Eco-Village, a fascinating community tucked into two city blocks between my neighborhood and Wilshire Boulevard. And right across from Lois I met Susan Kent, the city librarian, at the LAPL booth! I nervously told her that I’m curious about entering the profession.

All the while I was greedily collecting tickets for the afternoon raffle contest. I tell ya, there’s nothing like Krispy Kreme donuts and raffle prizes to get me civically engaged! They were offering Dodgers tickets, a visit to the LAX control tower, dinner at a fire station, cruises on city boats in Santa Monica Bay and LA Harbor, but I put all my tickets in the drawings for the behind-the-scenes trip through Central Library and the Board of Public Works‘ sewer tour! And would you believe it - I won both of them! I was so visibly excited as I claimed my prizes at the podium, because I never win drawings, no matter how hard I cross my fingers and will it to happen. Despite being a little, not-yet-certified Neighborhood Council, EHo sure won big that day - our main man Elson walked away with the 4 Dodgers tix!

Overall this Congress wasn’t quite as vivacious as last year’s. Mayor Jim Hahn showed up this year and spoke to us about the tough budget, but I kinda zoned out and became mesmerized by the sign language translators working just below the stage (I think I figured out the sign for NC by the end of that speech). His sister Janice was a livelier speaker last year, though I don’t remember what she said really (typical political spectator! absorb the form but not the content…) I missed last year’s energetic roll caller from South LA, but I enjoyed Don Garza’s Town Crier (whom we originally mistook for a pirate! Oops.)

I chose to attend the Neighborhood Improvement Projects workshop in the afternoon, since they’re what attracted me to this NC business in the first place (I just wanted to pick up trash and otherwise beautify). It was mostly geared toward certified NCs, but I got some contact information for Operation Clean Sweep and a booklet with pretty color photos of successful projects citywide. (Look for my own gallery of neighborhood murals - forthcoming.)

And look for field trip reports from this book-worm/sewer-rat!

Congratulations to Kelly for riding 25 miles on Sunday in the First Annual Wooly Bike Rally in Branch County, Michigan! Her cycling raised dough for the local bike association and gave her such rewarding exercise that I think she’ll be looking for more this summer - ride on, velo queen!

Meanwhile, I hang my head for shame and confess that I missed the 4th Annual Los Angeles River Ride that very day. Not even the ‘whoops, I totally forgot’ kind of missed, but the guilty ‘I’m too lazy and cheap to go and register for it this year’ kind. And an exquisite opportunity for cross-continental bicycle bonding with my bud went to waste.

Kelly, may you inspire me to dust off my pretty Specialized soon and end my long, sad no-cycling streak. Either that, or I’ll continue to find ways to be an armchair cyclist, living vicariously through others (or maybe revisiting le fabuleux Triplettes de Belleville.)

Salon’s comics this week have been dead on - today’s Tom the Dancing Bug frightens me with its insight into our presidential contest.

Also interesting to discover that Waylay is born in my neck of the woods (well, there aren’t so many trees as all that). An affectionate tribute to Silver Lake.

In a fit of post-tax-paying dementia, I marched up the street, flopped into one of the big chairs at the salon and had my hair whacked off to shoulder length. I even dared to try some crazy layers. Reflecting on the results of this spontaneous act, I came to embrace my new do as rather Aragorn-esque, tough yet elegant and ever ready for heroic adventure! You know, waves dramatically in the wind before battle, clumps well in the rain, twirls about the face nicely during swordplay… What do you think?

OK, can’t resist a footnote about the above film still - it’s from that Aragorn-in-his-skivvies scene that makes me as giddy as a schoolgirl. I know it’s an important moment ‘n’ all - Elrond presenting him with "Andúril - Flame of the West, forged from the shards of Narsil" - but I am all heart palpitations and shortness of breath by the fact that Aragorn’s just wearing jammies. Jammies that flutter gorgeously in that burst of wind after Elrond suggests, "There are those who dwell in the mountain"…shiver me timbers!

Maybe it’s due to social influence that I’ve grown up to be a teenage boy trapped inside a 18-34-year-old female. That’s got to be what’s happened to my Aunt M., who lives in a family of Weird-Al-and-Dr.-Demento-listening-Star-Wars-toys-collecting-Lord-of-the-Rings-obsessing-Magic-card-playing boys and who, as my faithful filter of the great TORN news, sent me the following juicy links a couple months back. I relish them still.

First is an extremely strange (yet so catchy!) ode (turn on your speakers) to one of my very favorite scenes in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy: Sam and Gollum debating the coney stew. I have no idea who did this, but the folks at TORN do.

Second is a sort of "Frodo’s song", lovingly composed and performed by the Moist Biscuits. They must like the coney stew scene too, for it won a line in their loony synopsis of Frodo’s quest.

Quiero recordar unos párrafos muy lindos en esta traducción de El hobbit antes que debo devolver el libro a la biblioteca pública. Leí la mayor parte del primo capítulo, “Una tertulia inesperada”.

Gandalf se puso a la cabecera [de la mesa], con los trece enanos alrededor, y Bilbo se sentó en un taburete¹ junto al fuego, mordisqueando² una galleta (había perdido el apetito) e intentando aparentar³ que todo era normal y de ningún modo una aventura.

¹un taburete = a stool; ²mordiscar = to nibble; ³aparentar = to feign, pretend

“Ahora un poco de música!” dijo Thorin. “Sacad los instrumentos!” Kili y Fili se apresuraron⁴a buscar las bolsas y trajeron unos pequeños violines; Dori, Nori y Ori sacaron unas flautas de algún bolsillo de los capotes; Bombur tamborile desde el vestíbulo; Bifur y Bofur salieron también, y volvieron con unos clarinetes que habían dejado entre los bastones. Dwalin y Balin dijeron, “Discupladme, dejé el mío en el porche!” Y Thorin dijo, “Trae el mío también!” Regresaron con unas violas tan grandes como ellos mismos, y con el arpa de Thorin envuelta en una tela verde. Era una hermosa arpa dorada, y cuando Thorin la rasgueó⁵, los otros enanos empezaron juntos a tocar una música, tan súbita y dulcemente que Bilbo olvidó todo lo demás, y fue transportado a unas tierras distantes y oscuras, bajo lunas extrañas, lejos de Delagua y muy lejos del agujero-hobbit bajo La Colina.

⁴apresurarse = to make haste; ⁵rasguear = to strum, pluck, stroke

Mientras cantaban, el hobbit sintió dentro de él el amor de las cosas hermosas hechas a mano con ingenio y magia; un amor fiero y celoso, el deseo de los corazones de los enanos. Entonces algo de los Tuk renació en él: deseó salir y ver las montañas enormes, y oír los pinos y las cascadas, y explorar las cavernas, y llevar una espada en vez de un bastón. Miró por la ventana. Las estrellas asomaban⁶ fuera en el cielo oscuro, sobre los árboles. Pensó en las joyas de los enanos que brillaban en las cavernas tenebrosas. De repente, en el bosque de más allá de Delagua se alzó un fuego -quizá alguien encendía una hoguera-, y pensó en dragones devastadores que invadían la pacífica Colina envolviendo todo en llamas. Se estremeció⁷; y en seguida volvió a ser el sencillo señor Bolsón, de Bolsón Cerrado, Sotomonte otra vez.

⁶asomar = to show, begin to appear; ⁷estremecerse = to tremble, shudder

En este domingo tranquilo y un poquito perezoso, yo deseo nanos-músicos que me transportaría a tierras distantes y misteriosas, “bajo lunas extrañas,” lejos de Los Angeles y muy lejos de mi agujero-hobbit, al menos por un rato.

Once in a previous life I attended a going-away office party for someone I’d never met. Now that’s awkward: "Hello, nice to meet you. Goodbye and best of luck in all your new endeavors." I had thought it would be a good break from the daily grind and followed several co-workers over to the studio lot where everyone gathered in one of the more swanky (swankier?) executive conference rooms. Five miserable minutes inside and I had already let the shame of my blatant opportunism get me down, so I skulked alone to one end of the room, uneasily balancing my drink and cake. I noticed some visual aids left behind from a marketing meeting - great! something to help me look engaged. There were three or four large poster boards pasted with the bright logos of popular television shows, movies and magazines, each poster depicting the typical tastes of a particular demographic category. Amused by the ad-people’s confident classification of just about everyone, I looked to see if they’d figured me out yet. I found my group, 18-34 and female, and attempted to identify with it. Let’s see, fashion and gossip glossies like Cosmopolitan and People, TV shows in the vein of Ally McBeal, Sex and the City, Alias, Oprah, American Idol and The OC (ok, so maybe the latter two weren’t out at that point, but they would’ve gone there), many examples of that beast they call the ‘romantic comedy’ featuring actors like Jennifer Lopez, Reese Witherspoon or Kate Hudson…wow - I hadn’t realized how completely out-of-step I am with my own social group! None of their entertainment options for 18-to-34-year-old women appealed to me. Where were the products I regularly consume? - the Fox TV network’s Sunday line-up, MAD magazine, comic book movies (which definitely aren’t my favorites, but I see them more impulsively and willingly than those romantic comedies) - ?? I found them all with the teenage boys!

Let this tale serve as a sort of disclaimer for some of the content I’m about to post.

Top, er, 6 reasons I admire Willie Nelson:

1. Great smile

2. Gorgeous hair any girl would love (to have!)

3. Even a living legend can be forgetful

4. Willie’s a dreamer and an idealist

5. Willie kicks ass

6. Willie reconciled a broken family