brianwood

hey cool site, man!

living in LA is really sort of the exact opposite of what you're doing though - it's very weird to think of this town in those terms... like, my local freeway? i'm local to my car, maybe... that's my "neighborhood" and most of my "neighbors" are assholes in SUV's...

even my apartment complex is a labyrinth of solitude, to evoke the great octavio paz, wherein people who can hear eachother through the walls only offer scant nods and "heys" in passing outside of the building, and weekends take on a nightmarish quality of otherness... two blocks in one direction are million dollar homes, two blocks in the other is a slowmotion never ending gun battle between tiny gangs you never heard of... english speakers and spanish speakers rarely if ever offer one-another greetings in the street, or even eye contact for that matter. I tell cats "hola" and it blows their minds like they didn't now i could see them or some shit, race and class having become such marginalized concepts that it is as if we now occupy the same physical space in LA but in different, never-connecting dimensions.

i've lived in this area for over a decade, in other words, but i still don't feel like a "local" -- nor could i claim to have a "hometown" anywhere else. it's a strange feeling.

Aw, man...I didn't know you'd be at the Oni booth. I was gonna sit there if I was able to come down! crap...

Ah well. Maybe we'll end up meeting sometime...I've been meaning to say that your books are awesome, but y'know...like, in person.