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Continuing my trend of starting new Bus Bench series and then never adding a second or third entry, allow me to present Random Metro Rider Profile ... Number One! In this set of posts I will provide a profile of or interview with a random person I talked to on a bus or train, along with some details about my trip.
Today's entry Justin.
After the last three, or four, or however many days of the last weekend of the Summer, what better than a lost bottle of Skid Row After Shave upon which to stumble when returning those unread copies of War and Peace and The Trial to the library what is best known for a two-DUI mayor and a gubernatorial goober who is not fluent in the language printed on posters promoting hizzoner?
-BusTard
For all the blather about protection that Metro promises via the white-shirted, dim-witted deputies and the occasional sheriff, one would do well to wonder why such a situation as recorded below exists. (I mean, really! As a minor teenager I secured the flight line of a nuclear first-strike air base and I cannot help but be repulsed by the incompetent behaviour of said "deputies" whose exclusive purpose is revenue.)
I can be awakened by gunshots and divine almost immediately the proximity as well as the calibre of the firearm discharged, but in this situation I guarantee that even large bore rifles would not require a can to suppress the noise of multiple shots.
-BusTard
However the tale may have ended, I am nevertheless confident that it ended well for the person who was called twice. (I did not record the first station announcement, as it prompted my attention to record what follows.)
To the Metro personnel responsible, I offer my gratitude.
-BusTard
My side car drink
So we’re at Weiland in downtown (one of the benefits of not having a car is drinking until your liver runs away from home,) the one underground on Grand and Flower and let me just share: This place sucks ass. Rarely do I frequent yuppie drinking rooms, but being Labor Day weekend Busty and I decided to try something middle aged.
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Continue reading "Naked Transportation Briefs....Bar Life" »
McCain chose a woman, Sarah Palin for his running mate.
Totally didn't expect that. And I'm good. I predicted McCain's Republican party nomination and my father thought I was crazy. This does make sense in retrospect (McCain picking Palin.) Old dude wants to win.
Dude has heart I have to give him that.
She is a pro-life, NRA member, pro-capital punishment woman, but it's a woman.
This election is the most exciting election I have ever had the privilege of witnessing, just when I was getting bored.
Browne Molyneux
There are plenty of posts on Obama and acknowledgment of the King's "I Have a Dream" speech, but I have a dream too. Here it is:
Entitled-I Have a Public Transit Dream aka Wake me up from this public transit nightmare!!!!
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A MTA 204 passenger's injuries were called slight by the LAPD. A bullet coming near you and glass shattering and hitting you is only a slight inconvenience.
If we're going to use the LAPD's definition of levels of injuries, being hit with a butt of a knife twice is practically no injuries. I think a criminal almost causing no injuries is probably not that dangerous. Not dangerous enough to risk the life of the passengers on the 204.
Would officers had fired into a school yard or a parking lot with personal vehicles?
A photo taken by BusTard outside the Children's Hospital (in the vicinity the shooting took place) two hours before the shooting. Every parents' nightmare combined in one shot. Your teenage daughter having sex and your little sick kid getting shot.
MORE AFTER THE TRANSFER
Continue reading "The LA I know and love and hate is coming back!!!" »
As I was walking up 5th Street by the library in downtown with BusTard a car tried to kill us.
“Watch well you're going pal!!” yelled BusTard with his fist in the air.
When I first stopped being part of the problem of congestion by getting rid of my car I often used to get annoyed at BusTard's aggressiveness towards drivers.
“Can't you say it nicer?” me raised by nuns on a sheltered hill.
But the last three or four years of walking and having to hesitate in crossing the street, because some asshole thinks it's perfectly fine to do a rolling stop to a person I'm beginning to get a little annoyed.
The Missing Persons of the infamous Walking in LA song
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A pedestrian. The lovely Jean Seberg. People were mean so she went away.
Lots more photos like this at: If Charlie Parker was a gunslinger there would be a whole lot of dead copy cats.
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News from around the earth centric view of the world.
The safety of stuff is more valuable than the safety of you if you ride the bus in Los Feliz.
LA Times/ August 28
Studies say congestion pricing won’t hurt the poor. And studies never lie. The Bell Curve that was right on. I don't even know how I'm writing right now.
LA Times/ August 26
Did you go to the Heya/SiteLA party last Friday it was covered in a marketing magazine: “It gives us a better idea of how to communicate with young people," said Geralyn Yoza, national manager, brand strategy for Toyota. "The goal is to build HEYA up as a vibrant community."
Brandweek/ August 27
We can keep trees alive while we use them as tools for our amusement.
Ecogeek/August 27
Trashy alternative fuels.
Ecogeek/ August 27
Complied and edited by Browne Molyneux
The Bus Bench’s roots are in Social Ecology.
The Bus Bench takes a satirical and editorial approach to dealing with the issue of mobility in Los Angeles. The emphasis of The Bus Bench is public transportation, but we also discuss class, race, gender and Downtown Los Angeles.
In commenting on The Bus Bench we do not mind if your opinion differs than that of an opinion of a writer on a particular post. We welcome discourse. We only ask that you be respectful. Do not be violent with your words.
Contact us at: browne@shametrainla.com
The Bus Bench is doing an art project on January 10th in collaboration with The Loft Gallery's Post-Post Apocalypse exhibit in San Pedro and we need a car to murder.
Are you ready to release yourself from the chain of car ownership? Do you want it documented?
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RANDALL (BusTard) FLEMING has spent two decades working in most every facet of publishing. A former magazine publisher (Angry Thoreauan, 1987-2001), he has also contributed to a great many books, periodicals and newspapers in Los Angeles and New York: New York Post, Brooklyn Spectator, Discover Hollywood!, Ben Is Dead, Flipside, Los Feliz Ledger, Sabotage in The American Workplace (Pressure Drop Press), Notes From the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture (Verso), and several of the Unreinforced Masonry Studio books about Los Angeles.
Art Gonzo was raised in Los Angeles. He is a visual artist. He has seen a bus. When not at The Bus Bench he is a contributor at LA Eastside.
A Valley-born Los Angeleno, Simon Ganz only recently returned from the liberal enclaves of Northern California where he, to his surprise, found himself more than happy living without a car. Now back in his hometown with only a political science major to show for his journey, he is of course constantly unemployed and hoping to join/start/follow a movement to create better transit for everyone in Los Angeles.
Rogelio Gomez is a public transit rider and an avid cyclist. He blogs at My Daily Ride when he's not sharing his adventures on The Bus Bench.
Sirinya Tritipeskul is a graduate student studying to become a transportation planner at UCLA. She writes on The Bus Bench about living car-free on the Westside. Her own blog, The Valley Girl Planner (in training), is a tribute to her Valley Girl roots and her travels around the Los Angeles area.
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