Driving with my windows down, passing the jail on Alameda —the jail that’s depicted on the cover of some editions of “City of Quartz”— and from some open window on that building comes the unmistakable sound of sneakers squeaking on an indoor basketball court.
Walking down Flower, a teen skateboards past me while videochatting with his friend. He stops and points the camera on his phone at the InterContinental and says to his friend, “See that? That’s the coolest building in the city.”
Driving through the alley behind my house with my bicycle on the roof rack of my car, the handlebars knock an orange off a neighbor’s tree, and as I look both ways before driving out of the alley and onto the street, the orange rolls down my windshield.
Hiking along Vista Del Valle (the best named street you’ve never heard of?) in Griffith Park, a group of teens in matching sweats, all bearing the logo of the same boxing gym, walks past me, each of them carrying an axe.
On another trail, an older man, dressed in some kind of traditional fashion, walks down a steep hillside, while an older woman, also dressed in some traditional fashion, films him with an iPhone 13 on a tripod.
Biking on Zoo Drive, just north of the zoo parking lot, a guy on the strip of grass there cracks a bullwhip while spinning and kicking acrobatically and films himself doing it.
Further along Zoo Drive, outside Traveltown, a guy dressed as an old timey train conductor films himself playing the harmonica, which he tells me is for his Instagram.
Riding north on the LA River bike path, just before Colorado, a golf ball, presumably hit from the golf course on the other side of the 5, bounces off the freeway, then over the fence and onto the bike path in front of me, then down the embankment until it splashes audibly into the river.
Riding south on Crystal Springs Drive, two hawks collide just two feet above my head, shrieking as they attack each other.
Sitting next to the LA River, outside of Spoke, a woman nearby tells her friend she wants to kayak down the river wearing “Topo Chico sunglasses.”