the years of the locust

it will storm here and storm there- funny how youtube takes you back to a hill overlooking Chavez Ravine on one side and the city on the other- the days of Nathaniel West-circa 1974

 i lived in this apt. building in 1974 in Echo Park atop Sargent Court overlooking Dodger Stadium. It was so beautiful - the most beautiful place i ever lived - next door was a big long hair smoky gray cat who left me dead birds on my doormat and slinked into my apt. whenever I opened my door. She hid under my bed. She was sweet. I worked as a file clerk near MacArthur Park near downtown L.A. Later I tried working for Yellow Cab as a driver. Those old cabs were beautiful antiques but very hard to drive with manual steering and manual brakes. I wouldn't be strong enuf to drive one now. My studio apt. window looked out into a ravine that seemed totally wild- a forest in the city, but it was just one of the hillside environs of L.A. a city of hills and mudslides.  A beautiful interlude. 1974.