Snapshots L.A.

MUCH LOVED CAFE CLOSES

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:28:00 -0700

It’s to close on June 23.

Unprepossessing from the outside. Loved on the inside. Maria’s has been a neighborhood gathering place for eighteen years. Set next to a bowling alley and on top of a skating rink, it more than held its own.

Huge menu. Comfort food and Mexican. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seven days a week. Hot Turkey sandwiches, liver and onions, burritos, incredible meatloaf. I don’t need to go on. Just look at the side choices in the photo above. I never walked out unsatisfied.

But it was Maria Barojas and her wonderful family that made the place special. Everyone was welcome and treated like a friend. A cliche, but there you have it. Just to to walk in and be greeted by her or her daughters was to immediately relax. Her husband Jose ran the kitchen. No small task.

Here’s what I’m talking about. Maria helping a friend who’s a little stiff get on her feet. Every bit of warmth sincere.

All Photography Copyright John Fritzlen

PARKING LOT HEART

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 10:27:34 -0700

Crenshaw District

Photography Copyright John Fritzlen

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD MEMORIAL DAY 2013

Mon, 27 May 2013 22:21:00 -0700

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All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

Leaving Life In The Shadows

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:06:00 -0700

I was sorry all day yesterday that I was going to miss photographing the May Day demonstrations. I had an afternoon Tai Chi Class in Alhambra. But, when I stepped off the bus at Union Station I heard a celebration going on at La Placita Olvera. The first group of people I encountered is immediately below.

I was struck by the happiness and exuberance of everyone I saw. I wanted to record that.

There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. It is a life in the shadows. Try imagining it.

To be young, gifted, and undocumented. Our country is losing a lot when we ignore this issue.

One of the concerns with immigration deportations is that families are being separated. Apart from resolving the current situation, we might ask ourselves as a people the following question. “Really, why did we look the other way when millions of people were pouring into the country and performing cheap labor?”

And finally there is the irony of the following image. Please look at the founding date of the church and then remember a little California history.

All Photography Copyright John Fritzlen

METRO BUS 78 TOWARDS ALHAMBRA

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:54:00 -0700

I am often struck by the rich variety of interior worlds that appear in the bus window. I remind myself that I have no idea what those worlds actually are other than what immediately arise as my own projections. And, of course, much depends on the surrounding light and colors, as well as other triggers.

All Photography Copyright John Fritzlen

CHINATOWN - BROADWAY

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:43:00 -0700

A new building goes up directly across from the Chinese Senior Center and just inside the Golden Dragons entrance. Beautiful Spring day. Late afternoon. Behind me, women were doing Qigong in the Center courtyard.

METRO BUS 78 TOWARDS ALHAMBRA

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:54:00 -0700

Continuing to take photographs from the Bus. The light changes. People change, reconfigure, cause wonder.

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METRO BUS 78 TOWARDS ALHAMBRA

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:05:00 -0700

I go out to Alhambra three times a week for a Tai Chi Class. It’s a great class with a superb teacher. Here’s a link if you are interested in taking it up.

www.tai-ji.net/

I began by driving, but then took a big breath when gas went above $4.40 a gallon. Freeway traffic also does a real twist on my general frame of mind. So I looked up the bus schedules.

Discovered. No time lost.Someone else does the driving. Lots of money saved for something else.

I read. Practice. People watch. Take pictures.

These photos were taken last week as rain and evening approached. The trip was as good as the class.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

LITTLE ARMENIA NORMANDIE AVE.

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:14:46 -0800

BROADWAY AND 5TH, RAIN

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:01:00 -0800

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

Broadway Early Afternoon

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:34:00 -0800

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

THE ONGOINGNESS OF MADNESS

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:18:00 -0800

After the insanity and sorrow of last week’s massacre in Connecticut, my neighborhood got it’s own call with a twisted mind. Someone phoned police headquarters four times during the early morning Tuesday Dec.18 claiming there was a bomb planted in the police car parked in front of the local elementary school - a block and a half down from my place. The car had been there for several days as an indication of police presence. The school is directly across from a hotel catering to Korean guests. Packed as usual.

The police car is parked on the right against the curb. Dogs, Robots, Firemen, Ambulances, Police, Trucks of all kinds. Streets sealed off. Buses rerouted. Traffic nuts. People frightened. Not much information given out. People standing in front of their houses behind the yellow tape. One thing - you got a chance to meet the neighbors you hadn’t met previously.

The smaller machine on the left is a robot that will go to the car, smash a window, stick a camera inside, then break open the trunk and check that out. Force the hood, look at the engine. The big truck is empty at this point. Someone inside a van somewhere was running the little guy.

This picture was taken from the roof of my building after all of the neighborhood was kept inside (yup, the police told you to go back in if you came out). The school was empty. The hotel guests and workers moved to the back of the top floor. The robot is moving up to do its job. An armored dump truck has been moved in close to the car.

Bomb squad member checks again after the robot - and the truck has lifted the car. No bomb.

Many public workers - firemen, police, bomb squad - for four or five hours. Traffic snarled. This is not the first time our neighborhood is searched. A large luxury condo building at Western and Wilshire - -bomb search - bank buildings - the metro underground ….you get the idea.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

PLACITA OLVERA REMEMBERING

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:39:00 -0800

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

REMEMBERING

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:12:00 -0800

Obon is a traditional Japanese Buddhist observance which allows families to honor and feel closer to their loved ones who have died. It’s a time for sharing memories, prayers, rituals of food and drink, nourishment and generosity. Dia De Los Muertos is a traditional Mexican holiday with the same purpose. At the Hazy Moon Zen Center we have combined both in a way that is meaningful for us and our families and friends. The following photographs show the flow of our observance: creating the first altar, making a new one, rehearsing for the service of remembrance, and then the service itself.

The observance begins about the middle of October when we set up a traditional Mexican family altar where members place photographs of those who have left this particular life, including our lineage of buddhist teachers.

At the end of October the altar is then dismantled and a new one created in our zendo. This one is more traditionally Japanese - with food and drink offerings - but still contains photographs.

Rehearsal for the ceremony - Obon-Segaki

During the Obon-Segaki Service prayers are offered and the names of those who have died and being remembered are read aloud. The list is long.

Through the years the faces in the photographs and the read aloud names become familiar. It feels good to remember them.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

IMAGES COME TO MIND

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:52:00 -0800

A day away from the election. So many words. So many angles. So many promises. Images taken during the last year come to mind.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

JUST A REMINDER

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:51:00 -0700

About a year ago I took a series of photographs at Occupy LA. Now, there’s a week left before the presidential election is decided. The issues have not gone away, and we have a candidate, Romney, who got caught talking about his disinterest in 47% of our country’s citizens. In a number of polls, Romney appears to be leading. It’s interesting, isn’t it ? Or infuriating. Where are we going?

Photograph Copyright John Fritzlen

CESAR NUNEZ - HIS STUDIO

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:11:00 -0700

Cesar Nunez is a Mexican painter and sculptor. This is his painting studio. It is part of a home that he designed and built near Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico. His property includes a sculpture studio and his wife’s ceramic studio. When I visited the studio, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, as well as Bach Partitas played in the space. So as you look at these images, you may hear their sound. For a complete look at the work of this extraordinary artist go to cesarnunez.com.mx.

Cesar and his friend, neighbor, and fellow artist, Claudia Hosso Politi

Another Friend.

Cesar on the roof-terrace of his studio.

Cesar Nunez

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

A Trimmer's Death

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 15:00:00 -0700

I found this in Today’s L.A. Times.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/palm-tree-trimmer-killed.html

I don’t know whether it was this man or not. It disturbed me to read it so soon after my last post. The link at the bottom of the article is to another (from L.A. Times 2006) much longer, complete piece which is worth reading. It’s very revealing about a number of things. I think that article (2006) is what must have unconsciously stayed with me over the years and prompted the post.

TRIMMING PALMS

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:35:00 -0700

Every few years I seem to read about the death of a tree trimmer in the newspaper. It’s invariably about one who was trimming a palm tree. The trimmer suffocates as the palm fronds, dust, and lack of oxygen enclose him as he moves up into the hanging branches, close to the trunk. Most trimmers carry chain saws as well. I once spent several months using a chain saw, cutting trees and wood for the winter’s heat. It’s exhausting even when you’re young.

So every time I see a trimmer go up, it worries me. It also bugs me because I know how relatively little they get paid. Everybody wants a bargain and jobs are scarce. So the brave or foolhardy do it. Usually immigrants or first generation. The young smoke mota to steady themselves - the last thing I would do, but to each his own - I can’t look over the edge of a building without feeling queasy.

Here’s to Palm Trimmers. May they always come down safely. May they someday soon be paid what they’re worth…including health you know what. Yeah, I know. I’m a dreamer.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

Butoh

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:46:00 -0700

Let me begin by saying I don’t know anything about Butoh except what I looked up in Google and YouTube; it’s a performance art form that began in Japan during a time of artistic frustration and rebellion. Here’s what someone else said about it (found in Wikipedia).

Critic Mark Holborn has written that butoh is defined by its very evasion of definition.^[11] The Kyoto Journal variably categorizes butoh as dance, theater, “kitchen,” or “seditious act.”^[12] The San Francisco Examiner describes butoh as “unclassifiable”.^[13] Butoh frequently occurs in areas of extremes of the human condition, such as skid rows, or extreme physical environments, such as a cave with no audience, remote Japanese cemetery, or hanging by ropes from a skyscraper in front of the Washington Monument.^[15]

Here what I saw one night in downtown Los Angeles.

Some of the males passing by referred to the women as skanks and crack hoes. Others tried to touch or pretended to dry hump them when their backs were turned. Women, on the other hand, seemed unsettled, confused by the female apparitions.

One burly guy, football player build, simply said, “BUTOH,” and pushed on.