Spring 2002

In this post I was thinking of developing a kind of long post about my first semester at Los Angeles City College in 2002 when I was 21. I've decided instead to give a light picture of those times.

Spring Semester 2002 at LACC, that was a very cool time in my life, one of my favorite times. I took 4 different courses that first semester, Sociology with Mr. Rodriguez, Philosophy with Mr. Critelli,  Asian Philosophy with Mr. Torres and Astronomy with Mr. Duluk: but it's not so much about which courses I took, this post and any other of my posts about this will be about my experience of that time and place, being 21 as I was back then, my mentality and interests and life experience. Man, when I think about how much better I could've lived my life after spring 2002, but spring 2002 itself was almost flawless, what I could've done better later is a different matter.

Before I continue, I want to explain that I've lived close to the LACC campus since I was a boy, and LACC is much closer to my home than my high school or junior high were. Also, I set my eyes on and used to go on the campus of LACC before I ever set my eyes on my junior high or high school. And since my mom also went to LACC (so did my dad for a few courses), LACC was a part of my life before my junior high or high school were. I live in East Hollywood less than 10 blocks away from the LACC campus, LACC is on the same latitude as my home and less than 10 blocks to the east of me in longitude.

I used to often walk to LACC from home in spring 2002, taking Lemon Grove Ave to the tunnel under the 101 freeway and onto North Ardmore Avenue then onto Romaine street then crossing Normandie Avenue and walking along Romaine street to Alexandria Avenue, then on Alexandria to Lily Crest or Monroe street, then onto the campus. That was the most common route, another route I think I took was Lemon Grove Ave to Kingsley Drive to Marathon street to North Ardmore Ave to Melrose Ave, and along Melrose to LACC: but I'm not 100% sure if I ever took that route, or some other combination besides the first route I described. After class, I would usually walk to the bus stop on the north side of Melrose Ave between Vermont Ave and New Hampshire Ave and wait for the number 10 bus, and I'd get off the 10 at Hobart Blvd or Western Ave. A few times though, or maybe even several times, I think I did walk home after class.

I decided to take Sociology, Philosophy, Asian philosophy and Astronomy 1: in retrospect, I wouldn't have taken astronomy, I would've taken a drawing class instead for my first semester. Philosophy, Asian Philosophy, and Astronomy 1 were all early in the day, and my latest class Sociology was from 3:25 pm to 6:35 PM (wow, in retrospect that was a very long class). It was only on Monday in Jefferson Hall. I still have the textbook, an essay that I wrote (typed up) for that class, and maybe some additional papers.

To be continued. Till then here are some details:

Spring 2002 Semester at Los Angeles City College in East Hollywood
Philosophy with Mr. Critelli in Frankin Hall Monday and Wednesday 9:35 AM to 11:00 AM
Sociology with Mr. Rodriguez in Jefferson Hall Monday 3:25 PM to 6:35 PM
Asian Philosophy with Mr. Torres in Holmes Hall Tuesday and Thursday 11:10 AM to 12:35 PM
Astronomy 1 with Mr. Duluk in Franklin Hall Tuesday and Thursday 12:45 PM to 2:10 PM

The Cool Breeze Kickin'

The cool breeze and winds started kicking in and coming through a few days ago, but the coolness really kicked in today, the day that I've been waiting for since the last heat wave started: now that these cool breezes have kicked in, I can say that as long as these breezes are blowing, the heat wave has abated. I went out today through my part of Los Angeles (East Hollywood and Wilshire Center) and took loads of photos. Almost all of them are great, even though there are no wide shots or camera quality zooms, because I used only my mobile phone camera today, it's a Samsung Android phone camera which does have a zoom feature, but pictures taken with high zoom tend to show blurriness rather than highlighting in crisp detail the aspects that I was zooming on. So I don't use the zoom much.

The cool breeze is kickin', and I was out there to enjoy it. It really was a pleasant day out there today, I'm glad I waited till today. I could've went yesterday but today was better.

I still wish it was 1987, but hey I make do with 2012.

 

I'm glad the cool breezes came back through Los Angeles so I can get back to my activities and studies out there, until the next summer heatwave comes and it again gets too hot to comfortably walk these streets for a length of time.

This post is under construction

(under construction)

My neighborhood

My neighborhood, my part of L.A. is a little-publicized, fascinating old school part of Los Angeles which hasn't changed much from how it was in the 1980s and 1990s.  South East Hollywood, East Hollywood and Wilshire Center. When I walk these streets I'm reminded of the great paintings of the modern and post-modern era, Picasso and Basquiat, Ernst and Miro, De Kooning, I'm reminded of Garbage Pail Kids, Bukowski comes to mind, my childhood and boyhood and teenage years come to mind, I grew up here.


I walk these streets at different times of the day---morning, noon, afternoon and early evening---often taking photographs with my Canon camera or the camera on my Samsung Android mobile phone, at my side usually a small plastic grocery bag with one or two plastic bottles of water in there. Only when the weather is too hot do I hold back from these city blocks. I walk and go through these streets like Spider-Man swang through New York City in the 1980s Marvel Comics, snapping photographs and looking for action---not looking to get into trouble, but if some trouble pops off I am sometimes there to see it, see part of it, or see the aftermath. More often I just see the helicopters circling blocks away and the responding units on their way.

There are really few if any persons who do this in my part of the city. I've seen hardly any, if any, other persons doing this. These streets can be dangerous, often when you least expect it. But most activities can be or are dangerous. Driving is dangerous. Eating a sandwich can be dangerous. I've had few problems on these streets. I've found a lot of what I was looking for on these streets. On many of these streets I can imagine it's 1989 or 1992, and hardly another person in sight many times even in broad daylight on some of these streets.

These several photos that I've posted here are a sample and a glimpse of my part of Los Angeles and of my photography style. In these pics though, you can get an idea and a clear accurate look into my neighborhood as it actually is.