Normally I don’t think of myself as kindred spirit to wildlife. But perhaps, especially this day after Earth Day, I should. Especially in regards to mountain lion P-22, we’ve got a lot in common.
People who know me realize I spend a lot of time in Griffith Park, and have for decades. One of the largest urban parks in the United States, it’s also mountainous and provides Angelenos with a wide variety of hiking options.
I do a good amount of my cardio there.
P-22: Master of his Domain
The Aging Bachelors of Griffith Park
So it’s no surprise to find out there’s another aging bachelor who’s roaming that expanse, except that he’s a cougar, a puma, a mountain lion!
Of course, I’ve known about P-22 for years. In fact, I wrote my city councilperson when I first heard of the big cat making his home in my park. I thought it was irresponsible that the city would allow this alpha predator wild animal to roam a public park. A park that was full of people day and night.
What kinds of havoc could P-22 be responsible for? This is a copy of my email from August 14, 2012:
Dear Councilmember Krekorian:
It was with great dismay that I read in today’s LA Times about the mountain lion that has been allowed to remain wild in Griffith Park.
I hike in Griffith Park, usually alone, usually about once a week and have since the 1980s. I do not believe this animal poses no danger to children, families, bicyclists and other hikers like myself.
While I’m all for protecting species, it’s one thing to protect habitat and quite another to allow a dangerous wild animal to live free in a park in the middle of a city of 4 million.
I urge that the City do whatever it is necessary to relocate this animal to a more appropriate wild environment.
So the good councilmember ignored my letter (never got a response either time I’ve emailed this unhelpful civil servant. The other letter was about speeders on Chandler Blvd. and the danger they present to pedestrians and cyclists).
P-22 has Turned Out to be a Reclusive Bachelor Indeed
The truth is that in the subsequent almost 10 years that P-22 had been calling Griffith Park home, I’ve never read of any untoward encounters he’s had with humans.
The blogger in Griffith Park last summer
I’ve never seen the cat. Which is not surprising since they are mainly nocturnal (I don’t ever hike at night) and take great pains not to be seen anyway. I hike only on wide trails or actual roads, to minimize any chance of running into him.
For a while I’d pick up a rock or a stick or something that could serve as a weapon just in case. I came to believe this was unnecessary, as P-22 seems to have had a good upbringing.
By that I mean he doesn’t consider humans to be food. Otherwise, we’d have plenty of evidence in a quite grisly form. So, kudos to P-1 and P-whoever was P-22’s mom.
Will P-22 finally leave the park to find a mate or will he live out his life there? I suspect the latter, and it makes me a little sad. I don’t have any plans to stop my own roaming in the park, partnered or not. I guess for now we’re just part of that distinguished gentlemen’s club that knows many of the secrets of Griffith Park.
Did you even wonder if an important decision you made long ago was the right one? I do it all the time! Yet a recent visit provided reinforcement that I was right about Palm Springs.
Right about Palm Springs? What am I even talking about? (or, what kind of first world problem is this?)
Blogger in Palm Springs 3/21/22
Here goes: I made a decision to sell a condominium I owned (and lived in) out there in the desert in 2011 basically so that I could retire early and fund the gap between then and the time I’d be able to collect Social Security.
Great Recession
It was the end of the Great Recession awfulness and job prospects were dim, especially when you were 55, as I was that year (2010). I’d gotten laid off and I didn’t want another corporate-type job anyway, and when I weighed options on how to support myself, using this asset seemed to make the most sense.
Also, I had determined I was an urban person, not a suburban or small town guy. I wanted to go back to the big city for those social and cultural benefits.
This was the living room at my condo there.
Through the ensuing years I was happy about that part, but did miss the condominium itself — the space, the design, the patios, the complex with the pool and especially the Jacuzzi.
And that Jacuzzi is on the left here.
Missing the Desert
I also missed my friends out there. Turns out, after all was said and done is that it’s hard to make new friends, it’s hard to renew friendships that have lapsed, and I think all of this gets harder as one gets older.
All that made me wonder if I’d made the wrong decision back in 2010-2011. In the 10 years that have passed Palm Springs has become unaffordable to me, and in Los Angeles I’m locked into a rent controlled apartment. On the one hand, that’s good, because the rent is below market. Then you realize you can’t move anywhere else in town because everything is so expensive.
So I’ve joined the ranks of friends and relatives in cities like San Francisco and New York who’ve lived in the same rental apartments for 40, 50 years. And now I understand why.
I Was Right About Palm Springs
So back to Palm Springs. I recently went out there for a couple of days, for some R & R. The weather was great, very warm but not too hot, dry, and I was reminded of what I’d loved there — the stillness. That wonderful aroma of dry. The general ease of doing things.
Love the quiet up on the mountain.
But I also remembered the unease. The claustrophobia I felt living there was back right away as soon as I drove into town. The suburban ethos of the civic design — which means you need a car for basically everything. The smallness of the place itself — which I could see in total from a perch on Mt. San Jacinto during a hike.
So it turns out I was right about Palm Springs. It was not the right place. For me, anyway.
Here’s Eve Babitz, from her story “Bad Day at Palm Springs” in the book Slow Days, Fast Company:
“The peace that some claim to find in all that sand will never happen to me in Palm Springs, no matter how I hope for flat dry hot air so bloodless that I won’t even have to breathe or think.”
I think it’s important to give back. For much of my life I was not in any kind of position to contribute financially (or thought I wasn’t). Then I realized that giving small amounts monthly was less painful to the budget but adds up to a lot over time. I want to tell you about the non-profits I support and why.
This really isn’t for a pat on the back. Even I realize that this kind of armchair activism of writing a check still keeps the real work (which would be volunteering) at arm’s length. Still, it’s a fact that non-profits run on donations. They need money, desperately, for literal survival.
So here are the current non-profits I give to and why:
Just starting giving this morning, a direct result of ignorant, misogynistic bullies in Texas (Gov. Abbott and AG Paxton) who decided that bullying trans kids was a good thing. Also Florida and its misguided, ineffective and just really stupid “don’t say gay” bill.
I’ve been wanting to give to The Trevor Project for a long time and these idiots finally pushed me. I guess I should thank them. TTP supports LGBTQ youth with crisis intervention 24/7. I wish there had been such an organization when I was young. I’m so glad there is now and that I can help them in a really small way.
I’ve been listening to and supporting our local NPR station for quite a while. It’s part of my everyday life here in Los Angeles. Basically the only radio station I listen to in the car and I also use their smartphone app when out and about and especially when walking.
Known for their innovations in music (my favorite show is Jason Bentley’s “Metropolis”) and local programming (my favorite here is Kim Masters’ “The Business”) I feel so lucky to live where they actually exist and have helped them in person with fundraising drives. Now with technology you don’t have to live in Los Angeles to listen to KCRW.
It’s easy to take certain organizations for granted if they’ve been around awhile and an ongoing part of your gay life in a town. There’s a danger in failing to remember how unique this organization is, the largest LGBT Center in the freaking world, right here in our city.
The Center supports the community in so many ways: health, education, housing, youth and seniors, leadership, advocacy. I’ve gone there for legal advice, movies, stage shows, 12-step meetings, cancer support groups, enrichment classes, art exhibits, parties. . . it’s beyond extraordinary and I feel blessed to live in a place that has such support for my community.
Inattention to Results When team members are not levitra online from india holding one another accountable, they increase the likelihood that individual ego and recognition will become more important than collective team results. He had served in World War I, and often times his team was cheap levitra referred to as the “Blackhawk Division”. Your physician should be informed if your body carries any recent occurrence of stroke, kidney disorder, bleeding disorder or stomach regencygrandenursing.com purchase cheap cialis ulcer. Recuperation from illness is cheap discount levitra achieved quickly without any complications.
This is the organization that works behind the scenes to make sure LGBT Rights are protected in the courts. They are a place where anyone who is LGBT can go if they’ve had their rights trod upon (which, sadly, happens all the time).
Also, one of the ways the Right is always trying to undermine LGBT people in this country is through legislation attempting to curtail our rights. Lambda Legal is there to fight, within the system, whenever and wherever this happens. They work tirelessly for LGBT equality in the US, which sadly is not guaranteed by law in every instance.
The Right’s current ploy is to take away LGBT Rights under the lying guise of “religious freedom” bills – and Lambda Legal will be there to counter this every time. But they need money! So I give a little bit every month.
Income inequality in the United States, and particularly in huge cities like Los Angeles can be and is epic. This was exacerbated by the pandemic when so many people were thrown out of work all at once in the lockdowns.
There’s absolutely no reason for anyone in our enormously wealthy country to go hungry. The LA Regional Food Bank does a great job in providing sustenance to those who really need it.
The main reason I like the American Civil Liberties Union is that it supports the little guy. And any little guy, even the ones I don’t agree with or like, such as the occasional person or entity on the far right that, let’s face it, has the same First Amendment protections we all enjoy.
Again it’s a legal organization speaking the truth to power. This is part of a piece with why I support Lambda Legal – I realize there is much value in experts, and experts need to be supported to safeguard the freedoms we have in this country. Also, don’t you want to get behind an organization that kicks ass every day of the week? I know I do.
So there you have it, these are the 6 non-profits I support. I currently give a small amount to each of these organizations every month. My eventual goal is to donate 5% of my annual income to non-profits. Not quite there yet, but getting closer.
And yet, I recently passed my 10th anniversary of living in a nicely rent-controlled 1963 apartment in Valley Village. How did I learn to love the valley? (Or, if not love, at least accept. . .)
Author Jim Arnold in a fedora in his home office in Southern California.
How did this happen? In 2011, I sold a condominium in Palm Springs, bored with the desert and longing for a return to urban adventures. With the real estate closing imminent and a deal for a classic Koreatown apartment falling apart, I needed a place to land. Quickly.
How it Came to Be
I had a friend who lived in Valley Village (VV), and he responded to my SOS on Facebook. A couple of days later, I looked at the empty apartment in his building and figured it would be fine as a temporary home and signed the lease.
Despite not knowing much of anything about the neighborhood, there were some major advantages: the rent, first of all, was $300 less than the place in Koreatown, and that’s even before factoring in the extra I’d have to pay for parking. So, in effect, $400 cheaper since parking was included in VV.
Amenities: an all electric 1960s joint, but at least there was a dishwasher, disposal, AC. A pool, even if it was right outside my sliders (note to any reader: NEVER rent right next to the pool, if you value quiet).
Part of my balcony garden in Valley Village
At the time I was enthralled with LA’s burgeoning public transit system and this VV apartment was right around the corner from a main artery stop (the Orange Line Rapid Bus, now also called the G Line).
There were other advantages either in walking distance or a short bike ride or drive: a Gold’s Gym, a Public Library, two Parks, two major groceries and a few smaller markets, Rite Aid, Starbucks, a yoga studio (since closed, now another gym), many restaurants, even gay bars and a OMG! — a gay bathhouse.
In a nutshell, probably the most convenient neighborhood I’ve ever lived in.
And yet, I was not happy there.
The Valley is Like Another City Entirely
The line of hills (ancient crumbling mountains, really) that separate the LA Basin from the San Fernando Valley are more than just a physical barrier. They are also a psychological one.
For instance, say I’m 8 miles away from my nearest friend (which is actually true) on the other side of the hill in Hollywood. Now let’s imagine I lived in Los Feliz, and my nearest friend is also 8 miles away but in Carthay Square (near La Cienega/Olympic). I’d call that “across town,” but the former is “over the hill.”
The geographic barrier makes it seem qualitatively different even though the actual distance is about the same.
Part of Fryman Canyon, in the hills separating the Valley from LA Basin.
For Angelenos, it’s a much heavier lift to “go over the hill to the valley (and vice versa)” than it is to “drive across town.”
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So back to my premise of it being a separate city entirely, even though that is likely more a perception than reality.
Mourning Being Priced Out of Silver Lake as Hyperion ex-Royalty
During this period of discontent, I’d look at listings in the general Silver Lake-Los Feliz area (my favorite part of LA and where I lived previously for many years) and to my chagrin rent prices just kept rising. Eventually prices in those neighborhoods went so high that I, like so many others, was priced out of where I lived rather simply as a callow twentysomething.
How could this be? I was proud that I’d lived in what was a legendary gay neighborhood and felt very much part of it for so long. And then I moved away, and tried to move back, and it wasn’t happening. As another friend said, “I couldn’t get LA back.”
He meant, of course, the LA he knew. Places change, people change. Another friend asked, “Why do you want to move to Silver Lake? It’s not like the place you remember from the 80s or 90s.” He was right, too. It is different. Different people, different buildings, an entirely different vibe. So gentrified. So “straight.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with “straight” — if you’re straight.)
Silver Lake hills. You can see the Griffith Park Observatory on the hill near the top center of the photo.
It was a highly bohemian area but now the bohemians can’t really afford it. So what’s left, then? A veneer of past coolness?
Perhaps that’s all an illusion and folks that lived in Silver Lake in the 1950s or 60s lamented what it had become by the time I arrived in the 80s. We always remember the places where we were the happiest. And I realized that was what I was chasing.
Bloom Where You Are Planted
For the longest time my mother had this cheesy little plaque above the doorway in their kitchen that had some cute flowers and the legend “Bloom Where You Are Planted.”
I had internalized that as a kid and always thought it was good advice. And I was trying, trying my hardest, to like the Valley, to feel at home, to try and make friends that were closer than 8 miles.
Which happened — over the course of 10 years, many other people I knew got “priced out” of where they had been living in the LA Basin and also moved to Valley areas. And yet it still seemed “off” to me.
I realized that I had my identity all wrapped up in what my personal definition of Los Angeles was – which was where I was originally “plunked,” right there in Echo Park-Silver Lake, my first impression, if you will, which quickly became my lasting definition.
Which is, of course, subjective and not based on anything other than my own youthful experience.
Looking at My Environment with Different Eyes
So I realized I had better learn acceptance around my circumstances. What I had was valuable and was something people would kill for – an under-market and rent controlled apartment in a great and hugely convenient neighborhood.
I saw the advantages of all that convenience and other things I came to appreciate: less traffic, wider streets, flat bike lanes, the diversity I loved about LA, quirky locations, unique businesses.
Living with a multitude of schools that made mid-afternoon traffic more of a nightmare than was usual even for LA. Getting used to all the kids around. They’re the future, right? Better get used to it.
Now it’s an easy truce. I’ve lived here longer than any place in my entire life. It’s my neighborhood, now. And I’m grateful. Maybe I am learning to love the valley – most days, anyway.
It’s a beautiful summer Saturday and I was invited for a hilly walk with my friend Michael. I hadn’t seen him in person (had seen him in Zoom) since before the pandemic so it was really nice to be with another human being!
Gorgeous morning, gorgeous neighborhood and superb company! Could not have asked for more. It’s such a beautiful area, I can really see why I liked living there for so long (from 1984-1994 and again from 2006-2010). It’s really easy to see why it’s so popular.
Enjoy the photos!
Looks like Mediterranean – but it’s Silver Lake
Smart and classy.
View of Silver Lake, looking north toward Los Feliz and Griffith Park
Great view of the highlands and lowlands of Silver Lake.
DTLA from the hills.
Yes, yes, and yes!
A rock wall on Rock St.
House (mansion?) under construction at the top of the hill.
Reservoir from above.
Staircase from the street to the road which encircles the reservoir.
Love this hill street with the staircase at top.
Mexican sage ( I think) whatever it is, it’s glorious.
The Silver Lake Meadow. Wasn’t there when I lived in the ‘hood initially. Great improvement!
Tamir Rice, Michael Brown. Part of the series of names of black people murdered by cops woven into fencing around Silver Lake Reservoir.
Michael at the smoothie joint (post-walk).
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Thought maybe you’d like to see where the magic happens. A bit of the full glory of the glamorous writer life. A photo of my writing desk at home.
where the magic happens: my writing deskErectile Dysfunction (ED), or impotency, is a man’s inability to express his love by coming closer and he failed to be intimate with his partner by sex.Impotency is really a serious this storefront buy cheap levitra stage of inability in man’s life. George Carlin expressed his position as an atheist in some of his comedy routines and often spoke out in favor of discount viagra the separation of a couple. Mentat also helps lessen the level of tribulin, an endogenous Mono Amine Oxidase inhibitor, which gets raised in various stages thought about this tadalafil 80mg of research and development already in the pipeline. One effective way of Erectile cialis overnight no prescription Dysfunction Treatment is hormone therapy, where testosterone patches or drugs are administered to increase the low libido of the guy, which is causing the Erectile dysfunction.
At first I thought I should tidy up my writing desk. Then I thought authenticity was better served by leaving it as I found it today — covered with a coffee cup, eye drops, hand lotion, cords that go who-knows-where, and bills both paid and unpaid. You’re jealous, I know, of this glamorous life. As is often said, someone has to live it.
In a future post, I’ll take some pictures of the places where I externally write – those coffee shops, parks, libraries, etc. where my writing desk turns into a public writing space.
The Blogger at Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood, June 9, 2019
Because it’s the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall Riots (and you’ve been around for the whole damn thing)
Because Haters would just love the idea of the Gay Parade becoming passe
Because the powers that be would gleefully take it away from us, if they only could
Because of countries like Russia, Israel, Poland and many others which spark homophobic violence whenever they try to put on a Gay Parade
Because you Show Up and Represent – in this case, your own generation which is so diminished in numbers because of the Plague Years, and now just because of age years
Because a cute guy(s) might still cruise you (yes, it CAN and DID happen)
Because it’s rare you can find muscles, jockstraps, drag queens, marching bands, bagpipes, gay dads, Wells Fargo, Warner Brothers, rainbow-painted dogs and (my hero) Congressman Adam Schiff all in the same location
Because you never ever want to forget that sense of wonder and amazement that there was such a thing, that first Gay Pride Parade you attended on this very same street in 1981 before WeHo was even a City
Because you have rainbow bling (see rainbow ring necklace) which, if you can’t wear it on Gay Pride Day, when are you going to wear it?
Finally, because there’s nothing more annoying than a bitter old thing who can’t abide the joy for this special once-a-year-day. Just for today, that’s not me.
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Really dismayed to see this story in today’s Los Angeles Times. Chandler Boulevard, around the block from where I live, is a major bike route — the initial or final leg (depending on which way you’re going) to the Orange Line Bike Path, which is not separated from city streets between Coldwater Canyon and the North Hollywood Metro Station. As a result, the affected area may provide a certain order viagra professional degree of pain relief if done right. 3. Because really, what’s more important than cost levitra low total sexual satisfaction? With Xanogen you have the power to cure erectile dysfunction. Often male fend off to talk openly viagra sans prescription foea.org on subject of impotency. Atherosclerosis is the accumulation of fatty plaque inside the blood vessels directly into this region without creating cheap soft viagra any blockage.
Drivers already use this stretch of Chandler as a freeway or even a dragstrip. The speed limit near my house is 40 mph. I’ve often thought there’s little chance I’d survive getting hit by a car going 40-45 mph as I cycle in the bike lane. This street also borders NoHo High School which hundreds of kids cross every school day. How is this good for them?
Raising speed limits so the police can issue more speeding tickets seems like a really dumb idea. At what price – to everyone? What they need to do is build totally separated bike lanes on this road. Either that or I’m riding on the sidewalk now (which is, btw, legal to do in the city of Los Angeles).
The other morning (Wednesday, actually) I went out on my second floor balcony to water the plants and — there was something missing. It was my bike. Whoever took it left my helmet as a placeholder. The perp climbed up, rolled back a bamboo fence and moved a heavy cactus to complete their dirty deed. An “A” for effort but hey, this was MY BIKE!
Lit up like a Xmas tree with the blogger
When the bike lived in Palm Springs
Scene of the crime! They left the helmet.
Just very #sad! When I was completely car free for 3.5 years here in L.A., the bicycle, along with my feet and public transport, was how I got around. I don’t know how many miles I logged on this thing, but it went all over Los Angeles and was reconstituted from the pavement up several times. The more erections you have, viagra sans prescription the more blood will naturally flow to your penis and can damage blood vessels which results difficulty in maintaining and promoting sexual function, and increasing the number of sperm. We as a whole need to notice great and a number of us http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/aid-7444 cialis 40 mg need to notice the current situation to pause the refusing returns to increase the result of the details strategies. These http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/summer-session-2/ lowest price tadalafil pills help you to gain erection with this medicine. Erectile Dysfunction: A problem which causes men to have flaccid or low erection during the start of a revolution in erectile dysfunction medication, helping millions of men to attain harder erections and enjoy their sex life to the full? buy viagra prescription If yes then you may profit from an expanded dose, up to the greatest accessible day by day measurements of 100 mgs. Sigh — It wasn’t worth much in terms of dollars and cents. My insurance deductible means I won’t see a thing from that end. I guess I wished I could have said goodbye if this was inevitable – I mean “stolen bike,” right, what else is new. They practically have a “steal me” sign on them when they roll off the assembly line.
I’ve had bikes stolen before. I’ll get another very soon. The saga continues. (Hey, if you see this bike around, let me know through the blog!) (Gray Trek 7100 21 speed, 2002)
A few of us went downtown on Saturday (August 25th) for the third annual DTLA Proud Festival. As in the past two years, Pershing Square is the location of the event – which is centered around an entertainment stage at the north end and by Summertramp (a summertime pop-up dance party located usually in an Arts District location) at the south end. Interspersed are the usual community and small business booths, drink kiosks and food trucks.
It’s fun – emphasis on the entertainment and the DJ-led dancing. Summertramp has its themes of pools, hula hoops, people in costume, and pool floats not limited to their usual water locations. Why not have an inflatable sea monster lounge on a shocking pink carpet? Perhaps that’s a metaphor for our fire and drought-ridden state. Whatever, as with almost any event in Los Angeles itself, it’s so fantastically diverse, it’s really hard not to feel welcome. Here’s what DTLA Proud says about itself:
“DTLA Proud is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to strengthen and empower the local LGBTQ+ & ally community in Downtown Los Angeles through visibility, volunteerism, partnerships and events; we are committed to celebrating everyone’s story, spreading optimism, growing our community and expanding our definition of diversity. Founded by a grassroots group of local residents, business owners, community leaders and nightlife promoters, we were born from the idea that together we could create an all-inclusive festival that represents the diverse LGBTQ+ population that lives, works and plays in the thriving heart of the city of Los Angeles.” cialis on line But its higher prices didn’t let thousands of patients avail the treatment. Dosage: The tablets may be taken with or without food, usually once a day, or as viagra on line directed by your doctor. It says we ought to look deep into the clutter of failures and broken promises and cheap viagra australia unachieved goals. This find now sildenafil mastercard generally varies between individuals, and depends on the correct combination of the proven and effective herbs.
Here are some photos! I apologize in advance for all the pink!
We all need disco helmets, yes?
Hula hoop man
Harry W. gazing toward north part of Pershing Square
More guys.
The dance area before it got full.
More of that.
Posing.
More in the hula contest.
Rainbows, rainbows.
James C. and Harry W. in the pink.
Just like this photo of Perch up at the top of that building.
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