california wildlife
Saturday, April 3rd, 2004 | otherStuff
***so for a few days last week i found myself ryding my byke about 3 or 4 miles, from glendale to sunset & vermont, [the closest metro subway station], at 4:30am, to take the train to various locations in depressed downtown l.a. …i’m working security for a gazillion $$ car commercial, biggest production i’ve ever personally been involved with, huge crew, tons & tons of gear, complicated logistix out the yinyang, & what am i impressed with? …what did i think was cool about that particular gig? …the fact that i OWNED those early morning streets …the city was silent, for the most part …cool, dark & beautiful AND…
…one morning i passed a skunk on the road, missed him w/my byke by about a foot …didn’t get sprayed tho, we shared the road most amicably
…are you hip to robinson jeffers?, a personal favorite of mine …a californian poet who’s worx span the mid-20s to the early 60s …bukowski cynically described him as the ‘guy who turned big sur into a tourist trap’, but more kindly i’d say he wrote a lot about seeing the face & hand of god in nature’s beauty …anyway he’s gotta great poem called; ’skunks’ …its about skunks, yes, but also about ruthless political figures in history; about how the “victor’s vengeance…softens into romance” w/the “distance”of passing time …but the point i wanted to make was his about skunks, how their;
“loathsome poison-gas…smelled far off -have you noticed?…is surprisingly pleasant. it is like the breath of ferns and wet earth”
…the next morning, ryding the same route before dawn, i passed griffith park in l.a., [which is, as you may or may not know, the biggest park in any metropolitan area in the country], & peeking around a bush near the sidewalk was a coyote …about a foot & 1/2 tall at the shoulder …he flashed me a shy canine smile & disappeared as i coasted by***
…we interrupt this letter excerpt for a blatant plug:
…to see a poem about ryding my byke to work in the early morning, go to:
humanpoweredtransport.typepad.com
…its my friend ‘the fish’s’ cool website re: bykes ‘n’ stuff
…& now back to the letter:
***…once, several months ago, on another film-shoot set security job, i spent the nite in one of the more remote areas of griffith park …there was no cell phone reception in the high hills, & i was left alone, on foot all nite, to guard some equipment that had to be left there to be picked up the next day …there was no real danger of anyone stealing the stuff, as it was all huge & cumbersome, & the park is closed to the public at sundown, but the film companies cant get their gear insured unless they provide 24hr human protection for it, so there i was
…there was a full moon that was brite enuff to cast sharp shadows on the ground …i was surrounded by tall cliffs & the majority of the equipment had been stowed in a cave,
[the same cave that the 'bat-mobile' roared out of in the opening sequences of the 1960s 'batman' TV program ...i kid you not ...they also shot a lot of alien planet exterior scenes for the original 'star trek' TV show at this location which is called 'the branson caves', but i digress]
…around midnite, over a ridge, there was a scuffling commotion in the brush …just down the hill, it seemed in that dark nite, no more than 30 or 40ft away, came the growling, snarling & yipping laughter of several coyotes …i have no idea how many, as i never saw any of them, but it sounded like quite a few …they had apparently gotten hold of something that excited them no end & they were ripping it to shreds from the sound of it
…i was, as i said, entirely alone, on foot, w/no means to summon help from anyone if i needed it, & my city-kid sense was that i was gonna need it soon …if those coyotes came over the ridge line, licking fresh blood off their chops, whose to say they might not think of me as desert? …if i tripped & fell while running away from them would they tear me apart like what ever it was they were sharing down the hill there? …it was a tense nite for me for the next 6hrs till sun-up, i dont mind telling you …pretty fukkin spooky
…a few days after the car commercial gig, i was in beverly hills pulling yet another all-nite equipment & set watch …this time for the a major cable channel’s golden globe award coverage at the hilton hotel …it was another HUGE production, live satellite broadcasts on the award ceremony nite, all that crap …extremely well-to-do international guests at the hotel, ferraris & high-end BMWs & benzs engaged in stand-offs at the intersection of santa monica & wilshire, arguing about whose car was the most expensive & therefore had the right-of-way at the stoplite
…& what was i most impressed w/the 3 nites i worked in that posh suburb? …on the 2nd nite i was looking across the street when i noticed an enormous bird w/what looked like at least a 3&1/2ft wing-span swoop out of nowhere & land in the very top of a tree …’what the hell kind of bird is that?’, i asked my colleague, ‘its fukkin huge!’ …’oh that?’, he answered non-chalantly, ‘that’s an owl’ …he focused the beam of his high-powered flashlite on it & sure enough i could see its squared & tufted head in silhouette before he took off after some prey we could not perceive …an owl, hunting at nite in beverly hills …i had never seen one before anywhere that wasn’t stuffed***
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