the verticality of shield wall mountains
micro-level verticality in the form of towering swaying palm trees and Mediterranean Cypress
a point on this plane that I traverse
Glide Reflection- adding more mirrors
will not add more possibilities
The mirror- sprawled flat between the mountains, the star-scape inverted
in the form of urban lights across the Valley floor
above- heaven is empty
From this angle are the aspirations poking above the canopy of trees- the Urban Forest
with its concrete blood vessels
with its mechanical solo-box machinations so cellular and singular
but a collectively crossing
like a single pebble in a pile of sand.
and here and there the odd ones- the tall ones-
more than 5 or 6 stories tall and they are an instant anomaly
more than 25 stories- a single lone monolith among friends
21-25: a trio of glass-mirror wall sentinels near the southwest pass
water is life
life is possible
centrifugal in every direction
a maelstrom
a whirlpool
the ever shifting map
ant on a string
point on a plane
Great Plain
Nested Group Construction
needed- rotate around the fixed point
Somewhere in the middle- if one is needed
if divided roughly into quadrants along an "x-y" axis
NW, NE
SW, SE
The 405 runs north south
Roscoe runs east west
Budweiser Brewery, train tracks, massive assemblage of car dealerships
Denny's, Holiday Inn Express
the Great Yawning Void at the "Center"
24 hour Tommy's chili cheese burger
just off toward the EAST:
strip clubs, weed store, ethnic eateries, Botanicas, Productos Religiosos, Tyler Texas BBQ
Just WEST: German Deli, trucks, sushi, toy company
Just NORTH: Orion, Langdon
such pretty names for such tragical tenements
Just SOUTH: great dam and wildlife refuge
LA River runs semi-wild
But wait
a tilt
another Euclidean Plane crashes into this one- two entangled at odd angles
Here lies the adobe
the arches
the historical
the oldest house, surrounded by mobile home manor
Here lies the straws, candy canes- smokestacks of the power plant
and what of the unifiers?
the assemblage of uniformity that lends to a micro-level placelessness or macro?
the taquerias
"L" and "U" shaped clusters of dreams and delights
and what of the singularities, the exquisite?
the very beings in structure form who lend themselves to diversify the sprawlscape along this Euclidean Plane?
Spiritual:
Islamic School of Sufism on Sherman Way, that great holy Palm-lined corridor
Valley Hindu Temple on Roscoe,
Wat Thai, the Therevada Thai Buddhist temple
in Southeast Valley
amid valley suburbia houses
Unitarian Universalist church
an onion of wood and psychadelica
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feculent_fugue/5230091234/lightbox/
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Commercial:
European Fairy Tale on Tampa and Roscoe
near taco shack and Persian cuisine
the Victorian at Corbin
salvaged from classical beauties
saved and erected next to San Fernando Valley Vietnamese Association and paisa club
Cadillac shaped building on Ventura
what can be said?
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Residential:
Karate Kid
South Seas Apartments
Pacoima Projects (San Fernando Gardens), mural from a new generation nearby
Blythe Street and Willis and Van Nuys Boulevard, no parking and a curfew zone
Bryant Street at Tampa, decaying since the late 1960s
Canoga Park Alabama, the ripples outward of the original farm worker's colonia settlement
porn houses in Chatsworth and elsewhere
Garnier House and Vicente de la Ossa Adobe,
Van Nuys HPOZ
Chemosphere
Balboa Highlands Eichler tract of mid-century modernism
dingbat apartments everywhere
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lives, art, friends
folk sculptures wrestle for eternity
near the college farm
millions of lives played out, spawned and spent
but my city is a body
and still my favorite is the Santa Susana Pass trail, I can still hear the whispers of First Peoples
