| | Both yesterday and today as I was walking up the steps to my bureaucrat's office, crossing the modern patio before going in the side doors, I looked up to the sky and watched a low-flying jetlinerz carry its passengers directly over my building in downtown L.A. Probably bound for a place I'd like to visit. It is unnerving to see the exact same type of plane in the exact same place at the exact same time, two days in a row. like being struck by lightning twice, or groundhog day with Bill Murray.
While I was talking with my boss in a meeting about hate crime victims, four helicopters, in formation, flew across the large panoramic window in his office. We're on the crest of a hill, on the 11th floor, so they were just about eye level.
There's a subway stop behind my office--civic center station on the red line if you want to visit--on the platform it has audio of birds chirping in a way that gives the illusion of flight. When you look up to see the birds, instead there are 5 or 6 mannequins, stretched out in human flight, shoeless in jeans and colorful t-shirts. It is some permanent art exhibit for the Los Angeles transportation authority.
Anyway, because of the aforementioned hill, and maybe the fault divided earth, the subway platform is rather deep beneath the surface streets. The stop has the largest escalator I have ever seen, easily six stories straight down into the ground. I didn't want to miss the 5:37 train that could hear, breaks screeching, underground wind blowing, into the civic center stop, so I ran down the escalator, across the mezzanine, down the other escalator (this time a standard single story) and threw my arms and bag between the closing door of the subway. And the doors slammed closed on my arms; shuddered and opened again allowing me to enter. An old man with a shabby suit jacket standing right in front of me said "you're lucky" and the rest of the crowded subway welcomed me with amused smiles.
As I was standing on the open air platform waiting for the 5:50 express gold line train home at Union Station, The Goodyear Blimp drifted across my horizon. The train was already in the station, and all the passengers were qeued up to board. One by one, heads began to turn, to follow the notorious blimp with its large flashing sign and two smaller airplanes circling round about like angels. As I and my fellow passengers looked up at the blimp, the train departed empty, with no one inside. The doors had never opened.
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| | Posted 2/11/2007 2:31 PM - 2 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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