Haircut Adventure

 Los Angeles is a chaotic place. One of the ways this manifests is that everything one needs or wants is only blocks away, especially in my West LA neighborhood, and yet the simplest of excursions can sometimes take up a lot of time, be very complicated, and involve all sorts of weird and unplanned aspects. Spoon available last night for a haircut, I decided to go to the chain, Floyd's Barbershop, which I had spotted a couple weeks ago. It's down at Santa Monica and Butler, not even a mile away. 

But, in typical fashion, once I got there, it was at least an hour wait. I decided to put my name in and just walk around for an hour. And what one often finds in a lot of cities, as well as here, is that there is a whole new cultural zone within walking distance. In this case, down Sawtelle, to Japantown. This is a small cluster of restaurants and shops almost entirely focused on Japanese food and culture. Not Japanese American, so much. Traditional Japanese. I used to hang over there back in the early oughts and get the best noodles, sushi, etc. I'll have to pop over there, a mere five blocks from here, soon. 

Wandering around with a camera to try to capture not just what's noticeable but some aspect of the mundane, one of my favorite pastimes. 

So much empty real estate everywhere. 

Shops and restaurants along Sawtelle

Must return when it's open

Catastrophe and obscene wealth

? will see if this gallery is open sometime

Starbucks, Olympic and Sawtelle

Beloved Strelitzia, always love seeing it

The story of why some old buildings have not been razed interests me

I had no idea there was a golden age of hand painted movie posters in Ghana

bossy

blazing white flowers

not very nice

you know you're in a big city when there are veterinary specialists

always that warm and inviting architecture

I walked back to Floyd's and a barber gave me a pretty good haircut $50 (with a 50% tip; I'm tipping service people like mad these days), and we talked at length about the ins and outs of city life. He was that type of city guy who is always looking for a bargain, an angle, a way to *work* the city. It does get to be like a huge RPG, and one does start to think about all the ways to get the best of everything. It's a fascinating part of city culture. The best rent, the best rent control, the best routes to take to get from A to B at the best times, the best restaurants, the ones that are overpriced but used to be great, etc. The more complex a city is, the more avid people get about all of these strategies. All of these stories about this or that incredible deal, or weird situation that saved a lot of money, or ways neighborhoods have gone downhill (it's almost always that they have changed for the worse). 

I had left at 7:30 and didn't get home until 9. In spite of everything being close, sometimes it takes a ton of time to get something done. I think this contributes to the whole spoon issue. 

But a haircut was accomplished. And a reminder of the endless portals and surprises of the city was given. And more reminders of how much things will improve here when the city finally comes back to life for real, and the pandemic recedes, someday. 

Meanwhile, I do wonder how I survive, living in such close quarters with an abuser. I ought to just leave. But no matter where I go, there I am.