Hooker Trash

Vermont Pl., near Vermont, E. Hollywood

This little-known side street, Vermont Place, is between Santa Monica and Lexington, and I thought it would be a good place to cut over to my apartment. Oddly enough it dead ends, which makes it an ideal location for prostitutes and creepy people who sit in their cars with the windows rolled up to hang out. I saw one prostitute hanging out on this street at 5:30 am a couple weeks ago, when I was on my way to the subway station. She quickly ducked around the corner when she saw me, and I pretended not to notice. Anyway, I found this gem of a pile yesterday and had to return with my camera. What does a prostitute do, you might ask, when she's not--well--doing what she gets paid to do? I'll tell you: she eats ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream. This particular prostitute took off her hose, panties (not pictured, but they were there yesterday), and heels, and dove face first into three giant containers of ice cream. I'm not sure when she ate the orange and the Nilla Wafers; I guess it's possible that she combined them all into one super dessert concoction, and then ran around the neighborhood for a few hours until the sugar wore off. Pretty unhealthy, but hey. Much healthier than smoking meth or drinking anti-freeze.

Bonin' Up

Lexington, near Vermont, E. Hollywood

Wow. So this hunk of off-colored flesh and bone was placed here by an incredibly compassionate person. Yes, it's rotting, complete with a few eager flies swarming around, but whoever put this here cares a lot about stray animals. You can't see this in the picture, but the bone is in one of several containers circling a telephone pole. In the other containers are piles and piles of brightly colored cat food and some fresh water. What I like best about the bone is that it is reflected in the bright, clean metal that it was placed in. It's like looking at two rotting bones at once.

Disappointing Offering

Virgil/Lexington, E. Hollywood

It's not really that gross, but I wanted to keep you all updated on what's been going on at the offering circle the past few days. The animals, birds, and gods seemed to have quickly consumed the fried food/tortilla meal from earlier this week, so this morning someone offered up a really big chocolate chip cookie. It wasn't soggy. It wasn't dirty. In fact, it looked pretty tasty. The chocolate chips were a bit melty from the sun. I'm disappointed that it's not more nauseating, but happy that the deity gets a nice clean dessert.

Now I Turn Inward

My house (Lexington/Lyman), E. Hollywood

My dog is shedding so much right now that there's a pile of fur in our trashcan that probably weighs a third of her body weight (she weighs 87 pounds or so). She loves to lie on the only rug in our house, and her black and white fur clumps up most disgustingly. Before we vacuum the rug we scrape it with our shoes to get some of the extra hair off. It's really gross. What you see above is the result of a small amount of shoe-scraping.

I See the World Through Pomade Colored Glass

Route 16 Bus, UCR to the Metrolink Station, Riverside

This picture is impressionist. Artsy. You like it, right? It's pleasant. You think, that's pretty. I could look at those bushes for awhile. Normally I would agree with you, if all I'd seen of this was the photograph. But I need to tell you that what you're looking at is not a photoshopped version of a nice Riverside landscape. No. If you look toward the top of the picture you'll see that the image is clear. What the blurry part is is someone's hair grease. Insane amounts of hair grease. Smudged all over the bus window. I tried not to stare at it, but it couldn't be helped. It was so gross, so thick. I would've missed my stop, too, staring at the greasy window, but luckily the woman behind me snapped me out of my reverie by asking me to untie the knot in her dollar store bag so that she wouldn't break her new nails.

The Secret Nachos

Lexington, near Vermont, E. Hollywood

There's a guy that walks up and down my street selling nachos. I was hoping he was the tamale cart guy, or even the corn-on-the-cob guy, but sadly he's just the nacho guy. These nachos have been intentionally placed under a bush to eat later in the evening, I imagine, when the purchaser returns to claim his midnight snack. Or that was the original intention. However, they've been under this bush for awhile, which is clear from the delicate mold spots dotting the nachos that remain out of the sun.

Menstrual Extraction? Zygotic Panda?

Sunset/Bates, Silverlake

Greasy onion and tomato smashed so they have a cute little tail, as most zygotes have. This was trailed by several more onion strands, soaking oil into the sidewalk. I wonder what people think of me, hunched over disgusting items on the sidewalk with my camera.