alright, for the girls

something sweet. a classic early nineties duet- not Bebe and Cece.

Bonnie and Clyde Theme:
[Ice Cube]
It's a man's world, but check the girl
With the Mac 11, 187
Hit the switch, front, back, side to side
Corner to corner, punk you a goner
Don't fuck around and get doled up
Cause we got the Westside sewed up

Ike and Tina, Marie and Donnie
Ashford and Simpson, Clyde and Bonnie
I don't know karate, but I know crazy
You'd better ask somebody

And when I do dirt, jerk
Nobody move, nobody get hurt

[Yo-Yo]
I'm the type of girl that's down for my nigga
I'll lie for my nigga, peel a cap for my nigga
See he don't mind me flirting, wearing tight skirts
Cause when it's all over it's curtains

What they don't know won't hurt
they searching on him, I got the gat in my skirt

Yeah, just clowning fools
And my dude's giving the girls blues
My gat is quite fat, don't you think so, ho?
But come out those clothes, my nigga can fit those

You ain't seen nothing til you seen us both jacking
Pulling on the side of fools, straight ratpacking

[Ice Cube]
Got me a down girl on my team

[Yo-Yo]
The Bonnie and Clyde theme, yeah
Got me a down-ass nigga on my team

[Ice Cube]
The Bonnie and Clyde theme

[Yo-Yo]
See every now and then my man had a plan
To hook me up with his closest friends
Take me to the bar, maybe mingle and kick it
Let him think he's getting over while I gank him for his riches

Robbing, stealing, killing at willin
Always on the go cause his shit was always loco
Giving up funky vibes to all you funky tribes
Stick together like us and hoo-rides

Like Bonnie and Clyde we gonna slide right on
Let my nigga take over, I'm taking my bank to the house
When we get to the house we straight celebrating
Giving up that gangsta ?triggeration?


[Ice Cube]
La la la, watch me par-lay
Hey, with the getaway car

Now here comes the Predator
I'm down with Yo Yo and everybody is scared of her
Hitting with the wicked shit
I'd like to dick a chick
But now I'm robbing quick and split

So give me that money, devil
One for the treble, the rhythm is the rebel

When you turn red
You get a hole in your head, a fucking hole in your head
Cause my freedom got an AK
Bonnie and Clyde equal homicide, yeah


[Yo-Yo]
Got me a down-ass nigga on my team

[Ice Cube]
The Bonnie and Clyde theme, yeah
Got me a down girl on my team

[Yo-Yo]
The Bonnie and Clyde theme

[Ice Cube]
Run run run from the ghetto bird
Cause I'm down and I got the third-
Five seven, pointed at your boys and hos
No one knows where the lead poison goes
Cause I'm in the ho checks
Yeah, come off the Rolex

If not, I'm a give Bonnie some
Film at 11 by Connie Chung
No regret, one man wet
Leaving the scene throwing up my set

Hit you up and then I'm out
Yeah, you're left with a dick in your mouth

[Yo-Yo]
See that gangsta mentality drove niggas to insanity
You wanna be down to kill a whole fucking family
You can lock us up if you want, don't matter
But give em a bail and we'll be right back at cha

Don't underestimate me when you date me
Got my clamp off safety, that'll make you hate me
Frankly, I don't give a damn, once again I slam
You'd better ask who I am

Riding all around town, everybody's looking round
Cause we're known and we throw down
Cause you know a nigga done got ganked for his mail or his dank
Yo Yo and Cube is in the house for 9-tre


[Ice Cube]
Got me a down girl on my team

[Yo-Yo]
The Bonnie and Clyde theme, yeah
Got me a down-ass nigga on my team

[Ice Cube]
The Bonnie and Clyde theme

Got me a down girl on my team
The Bonnie and Clyde theme, yeah

[Yo-Yo]
Yeah you trick motherfuckers, you thought I fell off
Stupid ass... (laughs)

happy valentine's day. embrace solitude.

but shit, don't just take my word for it... "we are ugly, but we have the music"...

here's an Irish drinking song, Courtin' in the Kitchen:

Come single belle and beau, unto me pay attention.
Don’t ever fall in love, it’s the devil’s own invention.
For once I fell in love with a maiden so bewitchin’
Miss Henrietta Bell out of Captain Kelly’s kitchen.

chorus:
With my toora-loora-lie, and my toora-loora-laddie;
With my toora-loora-lie, and my toora-loora-laddie.

At the age of seventeen, I was ’prenticed to a grocer
Not far from Stephen’s Green, where Miss Henry used to go, sir
He manners were sublime, she set me heart a-twitchin’
And she invited me to a hooley in the kitchen.

Next Sunday being the day, we were to have the flare up,
I dressed me self quite gay, and I frizzed and oiled my hair up
The captain had no wife, and he had gone a-fishin’
And we kicked up the high life, below the stairs in the kitchen.

Just as the clock struck six we sat down to the table,
She brought me tea and cakes; I ate what I was able.
I had cakes with punch and tay ’till me side had got a stitch in
And the time passed quick away with our courtin’ in the kitchen.

With her arms around my waist, she slyly hinted marriage,
When to the door in haste, came Captain Kelly’s carriage
Her eyes soon filled with hate and poison she was spittin’
She told me, "Go to hell, or somewhere from the kitchen."

She flew up off my knee, full five feet up or higher,
And over head and heels threw me slap into the fire.
My new Repealer’s coat that I bought from Mr. Mitchell
With a thirty shilling note went to blazes in the kitchen.

I grieved to see me duds all smeared with smoke and ashes,
When a tub of dirty suds right in me face she splashes.
As I lay upon the floor the water she kept a-pitchin’,
’Till a footman broke the door and came chargin’ in the kitchen.

When the captain came downstairs though he saw me situation,
In spite of all my prayers, I was marched off to the station
For me they’d take no bail, though to get home I was itchin’
But I had to tell the tale how I came into the kitchen.

I said she did invite me, but she gave a flat denial
For assault she did indict me, and I was sent for trial
She swore I robbed the house, in spite of all her screechin’
And I got six months hard for my courtin’ in the kitchen.

very few do it this well. here's Chelsea Hotel by Leonard Cohen

I remember you well in the Chelsea hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet.
Giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.

Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.


I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."


And then you got away, didn't you babe...


I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.

home again
"Get off this estate.

What for?

Because it is mine.

Where did you get it?

From my father.

Where did he get it?

From his father.

And where did he get it?

He fought for it.

Well, I’ll fight you for it."

excerpt from The People, Yes. Carl Sandburg.

I heart NY

I really do. not all of it, but staying in Brooklyn- far from Williamsburg- and taking the train every day does it for me. the people- all shades, ages- have a swagger there that I don't see here. There's a lot of fear in Los Angeles that, while understandable, is regrettable. A short stay among the sure-footed, quick-witted residents of New York re-sets me.

Doesn't hurt when it's like this outside:


and this inside:

incidental architecture, New York City

man plans, god laughs



this pitifully tagged Eucalyptus tree has evolved into something more spectacular than man or tree would have ever imagined. that doesn't happen much, but it does happen.

escape from the big shitty

very suddenly we've found ourselves living on this little hilltop, at the end of a dirt road we share with a few other characters. we've traded television and hot showers for the company of the roosters and coyotes who were evicted from Echo Park and Silverlake some years before us.

bountiful city


papayas in winter

Los Angelesis all
of these things.

incidental architecture, Los Angeles

pour a little out

a few words for an old wolf. a real Echo Park coyote, born and bred.



he lived it and he taught us much. and we look forward to seeing him again.

the color of mauve

LA has this way sometimes of staying mauve all night. some concoction of smog, thousands of street lights, millions of brake lights...
here we are.


perverse as it is, it can be wonderful mood lighting. perfect if you're headed to Dave's warehouse to see local boys, Spindrift:
or Portland boys, Red Fang:

and we all suffered through nicely.