She Was Tweaked But She Was Not There

I have often said that if you are a writer you need to ride public transit.  You will never lack for ideas.

Daisy got on the bus. She had no purse. She had no wallet and very few coins.

She was clean but kept holding on to herself and rubbing her skin as if ants were on it.

"I'm trying to get to downtown."

Metro buses pass through a number of cities with downtown areas.

"Where do you want to go?" the drive asked.

"The Valley."

The Valley is not downtown.
She fake fumbles for looking for change as she puts one or two coins in the box.

The driver, seeing this type of behavior before has to make some quick decisions.

He could throw her off the bus.
He could let her beg for a fare donation.
He could tell her to sit down.

He tells her to sit down.

Daisy goes to sit down but she doesn't stay down for long.

Three stops later, asked the driver how to get to 6th and Broadway.

The driver says he doesn't know.
Cuz, there are more than one.
It is that city thing.

Daisy gets upset with him.

"How do you not know? You are a bus driver. Why don't you know all of the routes of Metro?"

For those of you that drive, do you know each and every street in Los Angeles County?
What is on each street? How many Broadways there are in which city?

The driver asked again, "Where do you want to go?"

"6th and Broadway but I don't see why you don't know how to get there! That is ridiculous."

He opens the doors and she exits the bus to a city street that is not near 6th and Broadway or the Valley.

Still holding herself.
Still scratching.
Still lost.

When In Doubt or Fear Take A Deep Breath

It is the stories that we tell each other. Our life experiences and those of our kind. This is a short story about perception, fear and riding the rails. The Los Angeles Sheriff Department (LASD) patrols the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles. They also have jurisdiction over the jail system and provide security services for our mass transit system.

You need to know something about the Sheriff deputies. The deputies do go through a training system similar to the LAPD. These are law enforcement officers.

There is a difference. The LAPD offices work with the general public. They are trained to work with different kinds of people. They observe the day to day activities of Angelenos. They can perceive the difference between non-criminal people and those up to no-good. They ain't perfect. There are issues but you have a 60/40 chance of having a civil conversation with them.

The Sheriff deputies are assigned to the jail system as one of their primary duty bases. It is service to a specialized population that requires a different set of skills.

So when the Sheriff deputies get promoted, transferred or bounced from the Twin Towers they are placed in contact with the general public.

Stew on that for a bit. Ex-jailers going into day to day contact with regular citizens.

In our local media there are plenty of stories about the LASD. The bottom line is that you don't want to make unnecessary contact with them if possible. You can be hurt. You can be dead. And, the LASD is truly an equal opportunity organization. There is no privileged with these folks.

There was one deputy in Pasadena that use to inspect the buses. You could tell he hated the job. Hated the passengers on sight. His shirt was so tight I bet he stitched it himself in just to contain his wrath.

Sooo...

Yesterday I was on the train. I had charged up my TAP card. I had my receipt. I hit the tap portal that proves you paid the fare. You want to make sure you do this because there is a $250 fine and 48 hours community service. You would get to spend more time with the deputies. Not something to aspire to on a weekend.

I'm grooving on the train, the A/C is on and it is a mellow ride. Soon, there was a change in the force. Two deputies get on board to inspect for fare compliance.

You can see the body language of folks stiffen up. Those few that hadn't paid their fare were trying to ease on down to the next care to get off. Some didn't make it.

I'm looking and not looking. The deputy comes up to me and ask for my card. He has a smile on his face.

"It is a beautiful day today, isn't it?" He takes my card and runs it through the scanner.
"Why, yes it certainly is" as I try to bite down the fear and look him in the eye.

If he is willing to be nice I'm willing to try to be polite.

There is a problem.

"I can see you added fare at the Fillmore station but it is not showing that you tapped at the terminal."

"I'm sure that I tapped my card." I'm trying to stay cool because $250 is a lot less to loose than getting bashed in the head.

"No problem, those are older terminals. Just make sure you hold it for a longer period of time."

That was it. Brain is trying to remind me to exhale. I would have too except his partner was writing out fare evasion tickets like white on rice.

And breathe, and did I tap or think that I tapped? I usually tap. This could have gone so wrong. What if I didn't tap? I was rattled so I honestly don't know if I did or didn't.

Still, in my years of riding I have rarely seen a deputy smile or be willing to be friendly.

It was a good day. 

Jaming It In Anyway I Can for Day 13

Today is Sunday. A day of rest. Trying to catch up on my videos and it it almost but not quiet a lost cause. This is a video of me looking out at trouble from the Metro Pico Station. We are suppost to have our Santa Ana winds that cause warm air to lovinging caress the body.

Not these rain clouds.



What rest?

I have cleaned the bathroom, Uploaded 15 videos to the Vlomo Gallery, throwing out trash, trying to finish a blog post and start another and did I mention the kitchen is a wreck?

There is laundry. There is purging of things I haven't used or read in 15 years.

No. I am not complaining. I am stating facts. The fact is this is a good day. Well, except for damn near choking myself because I took too strong of a sniff of PineSol.

Ventilation should never be compromised. 

Seeing and Not Seeing the Sign

Trying to work out a few thoughts. A few weeks back I was in downtown Los Angeles. Mass transit is so much better than it was when I got here. There was a transit infrastructure until the late 1950s when the push for freeways and selling cars became to great to ignore.

By the 1960s the trolleys were gone and bus service was an oxymoron. You had to be a broke or a moron to ride the system. In the 1980s I caught the tail end of that era when some of the drivers really hated the passengers and didn't care all that much more for the RTD.

Not kidding about the hate part. There was this one drive that had an elaborate sign system rigged on the fare box. It went something to the effect that I am the driver, not customer service. The fare is fifty cents, a transfer is 25 cents, step behind the white line and do not talk to the driver.

He meant it. You didn't ask him for nothing.


Time passes, court ordered mast transit reform begins a new phase. There are new non-polluting buses, underground trains and express routes. This is a good thing but looking at that sign makes me queasy.

The water damage is apparent. The concrete has a rust seam and the tiles have seen better days. I try to forget that I'm underground but I notice details like this all of the time. It looks solid but there are fissures.

The train stations are ok. They are kept well for the number of people that flow through it.

It is just that I remember that I put up a mighty verbal fight about stepping foot on an L.A. subway. I got over it because I needed to go some place quick that involved getting money.

I find money is an excellent motivator for me. I do map out the escape doors and pathways so I know I can get out and back up to the street if I have too. I ride the train looking at the pipes and the hidden doors. In case of trouble I'm not staying underground for nothing.

People are talking more and more about escape routes. The number of people blessing me is on the uptick. Normally this is not a problem cuz I need all the help I can get. However, I get the impression there is some kind of quota system in effect.

Something like how many of the heathens can be converted by May 21st, October 21st or an as yet undetermined day in 2012?

I have Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents on my mind and it is kinda like looking and not looking at that sign. Good people will do bad things and worse people will raise them double or nothing.

Then again, I fully expect just another day. Except for the cracks and fissures.

I Wish I Was There But I'm Glad I'm Here - Inauguration Memory

I'm wanted to make sure that some of my friends in other countries that can't view U.S. Video hosting sites could see the day as it happens. I'm sure international television and CNN International has got this covered but I wanted to make sure no viewer was left behind. I had originally had a link for Ustream TV.



You might also be able to still check out C-Span's coverage for a non-yackety yack version and Hulu is sharing FoxNews Feed. You might want to keep the sound down until the oath if you have to go that way.

VloMo08 - Day 15 How To Ride A Metro Bus

Jeepers, running out of time and have to pack up for the Salt Mine. This is a brief bit of advice for all the snow bunny transplants riding L.A. Metro for the first time.

You will sit at a bus stop. The bus will pass you by. You say WTF? This explains how to prevent such annoyances.

VloMo08 - Day 14 Not 15 to 45

Just a brief word or two about my experience visiting a dating site. Oh, by the way the guys who want to date a 23 year old?

50ish and over. And they look it.

To see more International Videoblogging Month/VloMo08 videos you can:

* Search Blip.TV with the keyword VloMo or VlogMo08
* Visit Vimeo VloMo Group at http://vimeo.com/groups/vlomo or
* Dig everybody at the VloMo08 Mefedia Channel http://mefeedia.com/channels/vlomo08

Rhythm Nation on the Finally Friday Freakout

It happens when you take artists and performer for granted. You forget that these folks are not flashes in the pan. They have a body of work and they evolve and develop their craft. Janet Jackson is certainly in that group.

The year was 1989 and the video is Rhythm Nation.

The memory of the week happened while I was on the bus. The bus was late. It was packed. The seats up front are for senior citizens. There was this middle aged woman sitting in one of those seats, lets call her Bertha who was with her friend chatting.

An older woman was standing who had trouble doing so. One older gentleman asked the middle aged woman to get up so the older woman could sit down.

Bertha looked at him like he was dirt. She looked at him, ignored him and kept talking with her friend.

Now let me back up here. I have seen people from Thugnation get up and offer a seat to an older person. Winos find a way to do it. It is a custom that people actually perform on L.A. buses. So for a person not to do it will draw the kind of attention you do not want. Back to our story.

Another rider not so politely suggested that she get up and let the lady sit. An older man siting next to Bertha got up and helped the original woman to his seat.

It was if somebody had lit a match and a verbal explosion of anger was being hurled at Bertha. Bertha did not care. Bertha announced that it didn't have anything to do with her and did not care if the woman had a seat or not.

At this point we had a multi-lingual cuss out; Farsi, Spanish, Tagalog and Armenian. There was some English too but it was more reportorial communication to the folks sitting in the middle and the back of the bus what was happening in the front of the bus.

Bertha's friend, who had a hell of a lot more good sense than Bertha, seem to understand that you do not piss off a bus load of tired people on a Friday afternoon. They were out numbered about 65 to 2.

Bertha's friend is trying to pull her to the exit. Bertha is busy giving the finger and dropping F-Bombs in two languages. She is jamming her finger up and down to show precisely the extent of her lack of civility. 

That was not the thing to do cuz that caused the middle section of the bus to start chanting "get the F - off the bus." The bus driver is telling her get off the bus. Bertha is half up with her knee on the seat so she can make sure she is visible to all those that didn’t see her give the finger before.

Bertha's friend has now got a body lock on Bertha and is pulling her out the front door. Defiant to the last, Bertha shares heart felt parting shots at what the whole bus can do with themselves.

Folks were still angry but they settled down as they watched Bertha still giving the finger outside of the bus. The original woman who needed at seat? Totally oblivious to the commotion. She sat quiet in her own world.

It is taking longer to type the story than the length of time that it happened. So I guess the lesson of the week is that courtesy is not just a social nicety. It can literally prevent wars.

To the extent possible, err on the side of courtesy and, if you ride L.A. Metro buses, let the little old ladies have a seat.

VloMo08 - Day 7, 8 and 9 When All Goes Wrong

I wasted a whole day trying to make incompatible things work. Sometimes no matter how hard you try things go wrong. I couldn't edit three videos. I didn't want to go four days because I knew I wouldn't be able to catch up.

I had a lot of very small victories but the failures were immense and just ate up my day. I really want to do 30 days but dang it is tough. The tough part is all in my head.

So I dug into the scrap file and maybe there is some meaning in just observing and letting it be.

CJA, ALA and Metro - What A Weekend

This past weekend I attended the Society of Processional Journalism's Citizen Journalism Academy and the American Library Association's convention in Anaheim, CA.

I have got stuff. Videos, photos and 15 pounds of paper. So over the next couple of weeks (yes, weeks!) I will be sharing and reflecting what I learned, didn't learn and how Metro aka MTA can affect where you can go and can't in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Yes, mass transit has an effect on personal enlightenment and professional development.

Well, that will take a bit of time to upload on account I have to return to the Salt Mine. Because I am my own generous sponsor. Thanks to SPJ, ALA, OCLC and the many kind folks that I have met this weekend and I promise I'll crank it out as fast as I can.

Oh, my Fourth of July weekend coming up.

Another Reason to Learn to Drive - Day 2

I'm on the bus. I'm always on the bus. Anyway this older lady gets on. She has a crumpled dollar. Crumpled dollars do not work well with modern fare collection boxes. It won't take. Sometimes in life you have a crumpled dollar and you got to work with what you have.

The driver is giving her a hard time. "You should not have crumpled it up. It should have been smooth before you got on the bus. You're making me late."

Cheeze...can you make her feel any worse about not getting the freaking dollar into the fare box?

Well, yeah he can. I can stand no more of his (non) encouragement. I look in my wallet, I have a smooth dollar. I trade dollars with her.

That should have been the end of it.

It wasn't. But it works out. I don't think she understood what he was saying anyway.

http://nablopomo.ning.com

Saturday In Pasadena - The Heat of the Moment

It was hot. It was 107 degrees hot. It was so hot I didn't want to go directly home so I was going across town to pick up a bus pass. If you don't latch on to a bus pass by Saturday afternoon you are SOL and you will be forking up $5 a day Metro pass.

I had gotten out of class early. I caught the bus in less than 10 minutes which was a blessing due to the heat. Made it to Lake and Colorado and that is when life got interesting.

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One of the most stressful jobs in Los Angeles is being a bus driver. The idiotic things people do with their cars and pedestrians will age you before your time. Things like a bike rider approaching from the left, getting off his bike and then expecting to board the bus.

The driver has the option of not allowing the passenger on the bus. Especially if you almost get yourself hit by pulling up in front of said bus. Rest assured you will not be allowed to board the bus if the driver told you to remove your bike from the rack.

But this isn't really about the bus and the bike. It is about men and women. Self determination. Fantasy thinking and when do you accept defeat honorably and go about your business? It was dang poetic.

I had to leave before the Metro (cough) police arrived. Actually the driver encouraged us to catch the next bus.

A brief explanation. Although the driver called the police the Los Angeles Sheriff department is the law enforcement agency for the L.A. Metro transit system. Pasadena police could not respond unless it is life threatening (don't hold me to that, that is just bus rider intuition.)

And although there is a sheriff station in Altadena there was no way of knowing where this particular sheriff would be coming from. It would be a long wait. Once the driver called for the sheriff she couldn't move.

For all I know they are still facing off. The music is by Ralph Wooden, the tune is Bent String Blues.

Poetry In Motion-Ellyn Maybe Poem on Being An Artist

I first heard Ellyn Maybe when she was doing a poetry reading on KPFK-FM many years ago. Roy of Hollywood was having her do a reading of her work. I wish he could play more poetry but the pull of Sounds True and TUC radio are hard to let go.

Wednesday is conspiracy night. Can't listen. I'd be a paranoid wreck.

Somewhere in this pack rat heaven I have an old copy of a poetry magazine with Ellen's face caricatured on the cover. I had never seen her in person until the day of the poetry ride. You never know who you will encounter on the road of life.



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Any poem that makes reference to that bastion of the born cheapskates, broke folks, the fiscally challenged and the cash deprived, also known as the 99 Cent Only Store (the real one, not those tacky and misleading knockoffs) is jakes with me. The 99COS kept me alive when all I had was a pile of bills and one measly (but glad to have it) unemployment check.

Anybody remember that two pound tuna (?) sandwich spread in the silver bag? Lasted two weeks and then some. And if that is not an creative skill, I don't know what to tell you. But your probably thinking of the high toned stuff call art and the upper realm of being “an artist”.

To me it is not so much an artist life but living a creative authentic life. It can be tough with the day to day survival skills you have to master but blessings to the folks that not only figure it out but are willing to share with other. Thanks, Ellyn.

I had a hard time coming up with web citations for Ellyn. I keep digging through until I found her at http://www.ellynmaybe.com

Special shout out to Frostyland's Viggo page http://www.frostyland.com/Viggo/viggo.index.shtml cuz that is where I found the link to Ellyn's web site.

In parting, if you really want to upset the powers that be, buy a poetry book, chapbook, audio book or attend a spoken word performance.

This World - How To Wean America Off Of Fossil Fuels

There are those of that know the world has a finite supply of dinosaur grease a.k.a. oil. After you drain Alaska, Africa, Antarctica, and the methane pool that is under Southern California there is not going to be enough of anything left to run a scooter.

It does not have to be that way. Now some folks promote wind, solar and nuclear power but I’m talking vegetable oil. This is a fuel source I understand! With the low carbohydrate craze raging on, it could not have come at a better time. Have to do something with all that unused grease.

Dig it, you can run cars on used (hopefully filtered) vegetable oil. I suppose you could also do it with rendered animal fat but I don’t want to complicate the issue. I need everybody on the same page and I strive to be inclusive.

The basic premise is that you modify a car to accept the used cooking oil. The technical term for this is Bio-Diesel. The State of California’s Energy Commission has a kid’s version explanation, which is perfect for an automotive impaired person like myself to understand - http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/biodiesel.html or to get an overall alternative fuel primer visit http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/index.html

This is not new fangled stuff. The technology has been around for 100+ years. The willingness to actively promote veggie oil or bio-diesel fuel is just kicking into consciousness in America.

The Biotta Family bought a $400 Dasher off of eBay. The car was converted into a veggie-mobile. They drove to Argentina in that car. You can read more about their trip - http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=15508

Even some companies are doing its part to promote alternative fuel transportation. Clif Bar – the makers of nature/healthy snack food is also doing its part to promote alternative fuels transportation. Two drivers are taking a tour of the east coast to promote natural energy mobility - http://www.clifbar.com/play/natural_energy_more.cfm?location=teamclif
The Veggie Van has made the commitment to convert Americans over to veggie-powered cars. Part of their mission is to help educate and motivate change. It is a non-profit organization that is supported by the sale of books and technology to show how easy it is to make the switch from petroleum. They will be busy moving up and down the California coastline, so be on the look out for the van - http://www.veggievan.org