tags: NELA

2001

August

2001 Aug 8

Some Bizarre Amalgamation

I dreamt of an apartment, or a house, that was some bizarre amalgamation of my current apartment and of Joce's apartment. It was in the middle of nowhere, like, even less civilized than where I actually am right now. Or at least that was the first impression I got. It was actually similar to the neighborhood I dreamt about once, that was kind of like Glassell Park, except it was more ritzy, and Division St. was actually a major thoroughfare, but that's another dream which I only remember snatches from. (There was a church, like St. Dominic's, except darker, and the priests wore brown habits, looking a little like Jedi Knights.) Anyway, the golf course was still there, but there was also a little road where cars were parked. I think it might have adjoined an abandoned swimming pool…. As I write this, all these memories of other dreams are flooding into my mind. Wasn't the pool near the coast, where Santa Monica is supposed to be? Is this the same world I dreamt of, where I drove down the Pasadena Freeway to get to the beach, but instead of Santa Monica, it reminded me more of Moro Bay….?

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2009

February

2009 Feb 19

the geography of los angeles

Now, I haven't actually lived in L.A. since 1999, but I go there as often as twice-a-month to visit my parents and my sibs. In the time I've been elsewhere, certainly a lot has happened. When I left for college, Echo Park and Silver Lake were still kind of sketchy areas (Echo Park is, after all, part of the demesne of the infamous Rampart Division that had its infamous special anti-gang unit) and I felt like a lot of Angelenos had no idea that Eagle Rock was in the state of California, much less part of L.A. But as R can attest, the hipster population in Echo Park and Silver Lake have certainly increased, and I continue to be astounded at how much Colorado Blvd. and Eagle Rock Blvd. have gentrified. I knew it was a beginning of a new era when a Starbucks finally opened on the corner of those aforementioned streets.

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