I was travelling from tokyo to vancouver solo and had a 1 night pit stop in LA. When I got settled in to the hostel it was like 10pm and almost everything was closed so i went to get in-n-out. Afterwards I wandered over to the pier and end up talking to a bunch of old heads who'd just left the closing bar. Friendly dudes, I end up smoking weed w them and playing chess and listening to jazz with this one dude who does street chess hustling (he's wearing all white and plays on abbot kinney boulevard iykyk) until like 4am, at which point he tells me usually just finds a couch to sleep on. Being the totally naive and no self preservation having person I am, I realize I have the hostel room with 2 beds (I am exhausted from travelling and wanted a non-dorm night) and tell him that of course he can crash on the other bed. I tell myself if he wanted to assault me or take my money or any number of nasty things he would have done it already. Anyway, he doesn't murder me in my sleep and take all my belongings, and we both go about our lives. If/when I go back to LA I'm gonna try find him again.
Related Recs
👯
Last year, I made a new acquaintance at a house show & learned that she DJ'd on the side! She invited me to a party that she was DJ'ing a few weeks (?) later, so I drove to the address. Apparently it was a random warehouse space in downtown Orlando. There was a huge skateboard ramp in there and t-shirt printing supplies in the back, I think? Watching her play was really fun. At one point she even hooked up a Nintendo D.S. and made a beat on one of the games!!
The parking situation downtown is confusing, so I ended up parking my car in front of the church next door while their nighttime service was going on. The parking lot was full of other cars and there was no signage for towing, so I figured it was fine. There was also a fence around the parking lot, but I didn't notice the gate until I came out of the party and found my car sitting alone there, locked inside. I called the church and the nice guy on the other end said I could pick it up in the morning, so I Uber'd home. The next day, I came to pick up my car and had to wait about half an hour for the church man to get there.
As I was standing there, wearing an outfit that was hardly goth at all, this random guy on the street told me: "I just gotta say, I love your gothic style. I ain't gonna lie, baby, you're gorgeous. I'm sure you got a girlfriend though, right? Okay, well, remember me!" Somehow he clocked me as queer and hit on me at the same time. I decided to wait indoors after that. Eventually I did get my car back, but everything that happened in those 12 hours felt so random.
Mar 25, 2025
🌴
A big shoutout to the very kind hearted and colorful man I met at the laundromat outside Joshua Tree. All the locals seemed to know him and had sat through his tangents many times. We shared my cigs as he told me about him and his brother trying to blow a tunnel in the mountains with dynamite in the 90s, which ended with military helicopters and only the beginnings of a tunnel. He told me that he was descended from the hired guards of Vlad the Impaler. “When you impale that many people, you need guards.” He said dementor-like hooded figures do strange rituals at night in the mountains there. “Harry Potter is real.” He said Biden was the antichrist and Trump could save us, though he acknowledged his faults and said he personally loved everyone. I believe him. I don’t think he was mentally well, but he had found a way to survive and be a well-liked member of his community. His eyes were brilliant and he was generous with his cheap whiskey. I think of him often and hope he is happy
Feb 23, 2025
👯
when I was 17, I let this girl I met at a party move in with me because she told me she was in-between foster homes. she ended up stealing so many of my prized possessions, but we enjoyed a month of deep friendship and exciting adventure together before 4 cops showed up at my door with a wanted poster of her face.
now I'm only allowed to bring home small mammals and the occasional injured pigeon but that girl was pretty cool.
Feb 7, 2024
Top Recs from @billboh
🌌
Meeting people in large group settings definitely helps, i find theres a very natural pull feeling to people that are similar to me and its wayyy more noticeable when im not hanging out with people who ive known forever.
Turns out almost everything i thought was unique to me could be distilled into a list of 💫symptoms💫.
Ive alway seen myself as a drifter/chameleon type, i think my brain just resents ever being able to be defined or labelled or categorized.
That was disjointed but hope that helps, maybe that made sense to you and you are a little more understood now :))
Jul 18, 2024
