Ah, Los Angeles 9
You think you’ve seen everything. You’ve been going to movies all your life. You go to “Twilight” just to see why it fills teenage girls with so much twitter. It’s an amiable enough film filled, as it is, with teenage angst.
Three of the target audience sit in front of you. Every time Robert Pattinson comes of the screen, which is most of the time since he’s the star, these girls take out BlackBerries and snap pictures of the screen and then watch the movie on the screens of their phones. Suddenly, the problems of the film industry become very obvious and real. These girls find watching the film on the big screen less interesting than watching it on their phones.
You would complain but the movie isn’t all that good and what they are doing simultaneously fills you with wonder and a feeling of being from some ancient or inferior species unable to comprehend what lay before you. You leave feeling less assured and, because technology was involved and you found yourself lost, less of a man.
Every once in a while, one must go into a inner city laundromat. It’s good for the soul. If the economy has you feeling down or impoverished, do a load of wash at a laundromat. You’ll see what a large percentage of the population is up to with their free time. The place is a wonderful ballet of people moving to an urban beat to find vacant machines and chairs and tables to sit at while washing machines wash and dryers dry.
Mothers and fathers labor with mountains of laundry and a trail of children who scream and laugh and run rampant until they are bored at which time they scream, cry and run rampant.
First, you buy yourself a cup of coffee because it’s going to be a long day. Next, you stare uncomprehendingly at the machine of your choice, which is actually the only machine not in use. The directions long ago wore off . There are a few buttons and a slot. Since you assume this place isn’t run on the honor system, you guess that the slot is the way to pay. You stare at the slot for a while. It doesn’t look like any credit card or paper money slot you’ve ever seen. Finally, you find someone who speaks the same language you do and ask.
That someone points in the direction of a machine on the wall that takes cash, only fives and singles, and dishes out a card that fits the machines. Where you get the fives and singles when you’ve come in with a pocketful of quarters is another story. You buy another cup of coffee because you set the first one down on a cafe table along with your laundry basket to hold the table and basket is there but the coffee is not. You never let go of the new cup again.
Once in possession of coffee and the plastic laundry card, you find a crowd standing around your machine, which you innocently filled with your stuff while you completed laundry 101 over at the plastic card machine. The crowd reminds you of the crowd outside Frankenstein’s castle before the storming with pitchforks and torches.
Because you carry a certain je ne sais quoi about you, which, in more sober moments, translates as bulk, the crowd disperses but not before a little darling kicks you in the ankle. You insert the card, press a few buttons, add detergent in the hole you hope is for detergent and sit back at your table with your coffee mostly intact.
The walls boast 6 flat screen televisions. You choose between the AFC championship game, a soccer game, and four spanish soap operas. Although the championship game is good, one of the soap operas is really good and you find your attention divided.
Your table is close to the vending machines and games. None of the games work save the prize factory machine with the fishing claw you use to snag stuffed animals. You can’t really understand the allure of a pink monkey until you’ve stared at it for a few hours.
The dryer is a repeat of the washer except you are now a pro and you unload and load again with aplomb and great economy of movement.
You drive away, empty coffee cup in hand, a new and accomplished man. Any task placed in your path will be cleared away with the swipe of your mighty arm. You’re a man. Hear you roar.
Tags: Los Angeles
February 11th, 2009 at 7:56 am
I love it Peter!!! Keep the writing coming!
Lisa
February 11th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I love these L.A. episodes. My favorite is #7. I can just picture you driving that van around town in all that crazy traffic.
Have a good one.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
John Fante would be proud. Soon, I too will be re-entering the world of laundromats, so I will feel your pain, brother.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Dude, and I thought the laundromats in Albuquerque were bad! It is a great way to get the true measure of the society you live in. That and the bus.
February 21st, 2009 at 10:33 am
I have always imagined laundromats to be a great place to meet chicks. Second only to, perhaps, a confessional line in a questionable part of town. But apparently not. fun stuff, Peter!!
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 am
don’t give up hope on laundromats. Maybe it’s just this one. Confessional lines. Now, that’s tried and true.
March 7th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Great Review of Watchmen. Thanx for saving me the pain of finding out for myself…the world needs a reviewer who really understands what makes a worthwhile film…
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
beautiiful blog merciiiiii