trains and knives and keys

Gabe asked if i wanted to see audioslave play on hollywood blvd in front of the el capitan theater. I could give a shit about audioslave, but the idea of seeing hollywood blvd. shut down for a show was intriguing, so i said ok. Gabe followed me home and we dropped off my car at my new apartment because parking would be a bitch in hollywood and i could just take the metro home. This was exciting because it would be my first time taking the train to my new place. One reason I moved where I did was because its a block away from a metro station.

The gig was a taping for jimmy kimmel's show on abc, and it sucked. I dont like watching tv that much, but watching carmen electra giggle on a jumbo tron in the middle of a crowd of would-be concert goers? unbearable. Mind you, I was standing the whole time. And now the band comes on. Now I'm pretty easy to please in a live band situation, even though I consider audioslave to be symptomatic of all that is wrong with music, popular culture, and the world as we know it, i expected to have a good time in spite of myself. Nothing breaks down my inner critic like large crowds and big amplifiers. Thing is, the stage was set up facing the opposite side of the street, rather than facing up the street like an intelligent person would have done. Consequently, the vast majority of the crowd was not anywhere near the front of the stage, To cap it off, the p.a. was clearly not an outdoor p.a. Hell, it was barely an indoor p.a. Since I wasn't overwhelmed with sound, i had ample time to actually listen to the music and find that it was pretty uninspired. Within a pretty well structured pop-song format, chris cornel shouts and wails ineffectual melodies, and then tom morello plays a guitar solo that is exactly the same shit he's been doing since "bombtrack". Then they do it again. I heard later that they played "spoonman" and "killing in the name", which would have been interesting to see since i have a good deal of respect for the bands audioslave sprang from, but I had left long before they played those songs. chris cornell was probably soulfully yelling "Fuck you I won't you tell me!" while I was concerning myself with the guy on the red line who was waving a knife around. Yeah. Im all excited about taking the trains for the first time, and there is some homeboy showing off the tattoos on his chest, the rosaries on his neck, and the blade in his hand. The car isn't exactly empty either, which is weird. If you were gonna wave your knife around in public, you'd think it would be around a small group of friends and family or something. Not this guy. 10 feet away there is some business man reading the paper. Surreal. Nobody gave a fuck, like they all had knives of their own or something. He got off at the next stop, which i thought was nice. I think I'm going to enjoy using public transportation

So I get to my stop and hit the supermarket on my way home. Butter, orange juice, beer, vodka, and cup o' noodles. Get to my door and my keys are gone. I put down my groceries and empty my pockets on to the floor. Gone. Keys are gone. My keys. The keys to my new home and my old jeep are on some train shuttling around los angeles. My cool little bottle opener too. Where am i going to sleep? Its 11 o clock and ive got work in the morning. What am i going to do with this butter? My neighbor comes home and lets me put my perishables in her refridgerator. Very nice of her, i thought. I grab a beer and go outside to inspect possible break-in points. i live on the second floor. I managed to get onto the roof of the building next door and jump across the gap to my window which i had luckily left wide open. One problem solved, but i still need to get replacement keys. I go downstairs and get my butter back, mix up a screwdriver and leave the keys to tomorrow. Turns out they were in Gabe's car. Finding those was one of the most victorious feelings of my entire life.