An Open Letter to No One in Particular…
by Jonathan Slowik
April 10, 2008. It’s been 612 days since I last sat on this beach at night. I wrote a letter that night too, but to a different recipient. Much has transpired in the meantime—not all of it entirely surprising, but I certainly didn’t think that at this point in my life, I would still be trekking to the beach at night, alone.
The Ferris wheel has undergone a makeover since that spring night. Instead of flashing your garden variety carnival lights, it now screams a long, intricate, and positively psychedelic light show from the pier. Amusing, I have to admit. But I’ve always preferred the view to the north—brake lights snaking along the PCH, stretching to the twinkling lights of Malibu, where the Santa Monica Mountains meet a confused sky.
The Los Angeles stratosphere can never really decide what color it wants to be at night, but usually ends up settling on some shade of barely visible pink. In Santa Monica, where Ocean Avenue resorts meet the black nothingness of the Pacific, all bets are off. Pink, black, gray—it’s all of these things and none of them. With diminished competition from sodium vapor lamps, dozens of stars meekly peer from behind the fabric, unsure if they’re invited.
The beach, at night, always seems like a good place to get some questions answered. I think the solitude, the calming, rhythmic crashing of the waves, and the crisp ocean air facilitate the kind of free associations we don’t normally make. Sounds like just the elixir for a night like this, since our minds don’t seem to wander as much as they used to.
Tonight’s ocean, however, is not fielding questions. Rather than that rhythmic crashing I so often find, the scene I encounter is decidedly unfriendly—a constant barrage of waves crest far from the shore and then spit foam for as long as the rising sand will allow. Bathed in moonlight, the menacing water is quite haunting, like something from a spooky scene in a children’s movie. I begin to wonder if a younger me would be frightened or delighted, and realize I’m making some free associations after all.
After a time, an oldish man approaches and stands facing the water, gazing longingly at the waves. It appears to be a good time to call it a night. He seems like he has some questions for the ocean, and perhaps he will find it more receptive than me. I’m content to trudge back across the cold sand, blanket in hand, no conclusions made—except that, improbably, it’s a beautiful night, and we should do this again sometime.
photo originally published here
A Note from Siria, Welcome to a New Year…
Many of you may see this as belated, but I personally feel that well wishes for the new year can be communicated throughout the whole month of January (I feel quite the opposite however, when it comes to Christmas lights remaining present past the first or second week of a new year). I actually have a tradition of sending out Happy New Year’s cards as opposed to Holiday cards to those I don’t get to see on a regular basis and they rarely go out before the second week of January.
With that said, “Happy New Year, the game done changed!”
That was a statement that stuck with me ever since I coverd the Feel Mode 2 DVD release last summer.
A lot has changed, this is true. However, in the end it doesn’t necessarily mean the rules have completely changed.
As I have listened to some of my friends and colleagues sharing their goals for the new year, I hope that in this next year follow-through will be more constant (including with myself). I don’t generally make New Year’s resolutions, but if I did they would primarily include making more time to spend with friends and loved ones as those who know me personally know I get pulled in various directions constantly and making time is usually my hardest challenge. (more…)
SIRIA’S FAVORITE TRAffIK POSTS OF 2009…
The following were some of my favorite posts (in reality all of our contributors pieces are my favorites) from some of the regular contributors on this site in the past year, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did:
(Not in any particular order, click on links to read the full column entry)
Contributor: Amanda Jones
Column: Young and Reckless: Stories From a Girl With No Hesitation, As Eyes See It: Tales From the City, Make a List Baby!
“Buy the Ticket, Take The Ride”
Hunter was what I refer to as the last of the great dinosaurs that roamed the earth. Beautiful and frightening. A ferocious beast, in the best way possible. He lived a life that couldn’t be replicated if you tried. That’s a good thing, could you imagine the United States chock full of little HS Thompson’s? It would be mayhem and chaos in the streets. I might enjoy it myself but I think the average everyday citizen would be a little frightened, locked tight behind their blockaded front doors.
So much of what is currently going on in the world mystifies me, we live in a nation of post 9/11 fear . It’s just the way it is, as times and politics change. Unless you choose to say, “Fuck the rules, fuck the status quo – I’ll make my own rules ” and Mr Thompson did indeed do that.
(more…)
Good-bye Summer…Hi Fall, How are you?
Now that Summer is officially over and done with (and to clarify we mean the season, not Eric) and Fall is upon us we have decided to take a look back at our summer (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and have asked some friends to do the same. We will see September off with some End of Summer interviews over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Kicking that series of interviews off is our Q&A with local band Robotanists. We first came across Robotanists in early 2008 and quickly became fans of their music and asked them to participate in our Childhood Observed: Toys for Tots Benefit (alongside Automatique, Automatic Music Explosion, Beatmo, Maggie Malyn, Voices Voices, The White and the Writing, and You Me and Iowa) that has yet to reach fruition but you can watch a teaser video of here. They spent a day with TRAffIK photographer Jessy Plume and video producer Byron Turk at the LA Zoo getting kicked off of Merry-go-Rounds and being embraced by the Pinwheel Palace. Check out their feature here.
Speaking of Jessy and Byron…
Our “Photographist” Jessy Plume managed to remain cooler than most of us will ever be, while managing to juggle a multitude of projects. We’ll soon be collaborating to bring you some more fun photos. Who knows what our Creative Pow-Wows will bring you. In the meantime please enjoy her photography of bands that participated in our Childhood Observed themed photo shoots that we’ll be bringing you in next couple of weeks. Also her photo of L.A. band Voices Voices for this same project is currently included in the latest issue of Filter Magazine.
Byron is currently in the swamp lands of Louisiana bonding with the ‘gators and all of the other inhabitants of these murky waters working on a top secret film project. The new season of his show Storm Chasers will air on Discovery Channel Oct.18. In the meantime you can read about their storm chasing adventures here.
I’ll bring you some of my Summer Adventures w/ Lady Di very soon. Maybe we can even convince Brandy (”BB” – pictured left with TRAffIK Stopper Heather Ellis) to share some of her own. We’ve got a lot of great fashion and style content as well as features lined up for you in coming weeks including one on Super-girl Espree Devora.
Last of all in the coming months you will see a few changes hit the TRAffIK site. We’ll be adding some fantastic new writers, new columns, and we have also been working on making the site a little easier to navigate. Stay tuned.
We hope you all had a great adventurous season of fun in the sun.
xoxo
Siria and the TRAffIK Team
The Art of Finding Your Parked Car…
How many times have you found yourself wandering a parking lot? Circling it, once…twice, blood pressure rising, sweat beads forming, all the while muttering “I swear my car was parked here, I left it right here.” Only to discover anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour later that there is a whole other section/floor/level that looks identical to this parking area differentiated only by a letter/number. When you finally discover this and see your car there (usually the last car remaining in that section) parked, waiting patiently and innocently as if tauntingly greeting you with “Why are you so upset? I’ve been here the whole time, right where you left me!”
In the time between a traumatizing similar scenario in the Disneyland parking lot during a family vacation as a child (where not only was the car lost, but so was I after wandering off on my own to locate the lost car…even then I thought I could do everything myself) and present day, I’ve had a few of those “bad endings to a great day/night” moments. The last noteworthy one being at Angel’s Stadium a few years ago.
It seemed no matter what methods I employed to avoid this scenario from occuring the attempts seemed futile and the end result was the same (and let me just say that the shoes I normally wear are not usually appropriate footwear for an impromptu Aids/Autism/Breast Cancer 5K walk/run marathon training session).
Some of those methods I was sure would work have included (but aren’t limited to):
Counting on my Photographic Memory – Really, it’s astounding how well this serves me most of the time. “We are parked in the purple section with the yellow trim in Section 3G” It turns out parking lots are immune to this special overly developed skill of mine.
Using Landmarks – This really is a subcategory of the Photographic Memory trick. “We are parked in the purple section with the yellow trim, past the soda machine, but before the escalators, right by the speed bump, next to the black Honda Civic in Section 3G.”
Somehow, sometimes inexplicably all of these landmarks disappear. Just like Ninjas. Or worse an argument ensues. “We were by the bottled water machines and the elevators.” “No, it was the soda machines and the escalators, you idiot!” Unfortunately, since neither party will usually let it rest, both of these options have to be explored resulting in wasted time and bad moods.
Verbalizing/Saying the section out loud to your friend(s) – This one is great because from the get go you establish solidarity against the parking lot as well as a level playing field. You both have the info. So when it comes time to find the car you’re golden, right? One of you will remember the info right? Hopefully. However, two $50 Blue Margaritas and three $20 beers later paired with exiting on the opposite side of where you entered because that bathroom line had a shorter line and we all know how you get in lines (this isn’t about me, remember?!) and neither one of you may even recall who drove in the first place. However, you can always yell at them. “I gave you the info, why couldn’t you just remember?!!!” Pot, just leave the kettle alone. (more…)
Young and Reckless in LA – Stories of a Girl Without Hesitation: Who I’d Like to Punch in the Face…
Just the title of this makes me erupt with laughter. I guess you could call this my wish list of people that I’d like to punch in the face. Some of them are deserved – some of them are not – but it’s my list and I’ll do what I want.
I will admit that this idea was stolen from Facebook – the ever consuming and totally addictive Facebook. I don’t know how the hell we all got on with our lives before this amazing site? So you see Facebook has these lame ass quizzes on there all the time. What drink are you? What superhero are you? What kind of music are you? What the hell is up with all the dumb quizzes? They make me want to strangle myself. The only interesting quiz I’ve seen on there was the top five people you would like to punch in the face – brilliant idea! Of-course I didn’t take the quiz but I sure as hell gave a lot of thought about who I’d like to punch?
This week my top five are the following:
Spencer Pratt. I’d SO knock that douche bag out. I don’t care that he’s a boy. He should definitely be punched in the face. I am even going to go so far as to say that he’s probably on my list all year long. I just don’t get it? Why is he on my television? Maybe I should add that the people that put him on my TV should be punched in the face too! I mean they are responsible for allowing that jack hole to be a pseudo celebrity. Or whatever he is. I say a punch in the face for all people involved with him and his entourage of non-celebrity celebrities.
Jon and Kate plus 8….Ok, I don’t want to punch all ten of them in the face, just Kate!. She acts like a twat. Kate and that hair of hers deserves a punch in the face. Keep your cheating husband (whom I kind of don’t blame for cheating on her) and your assortment of children off of my TV. It’s not that I don’t like children – I just don’t like her. To be honest I’ve never really even seen a whole episode and I’m going to say it’s probably going to stay that way.
John Mayer gets punched in the face. No it’s not because he broke up with that Friend’s girl – it’s just because he’s kind of a schmuck. If he would just play guitar and never open that mouth of his he wouldn’t be getting punched in the face!
Dr. Michael Linden – the German Psychiatrist that just came up with “Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder”. The good Dr. is going around saying that bitterness is a mental illness!!! Am I the only one in the world that thinks this is horseshit? Bitterness – a mental illness? I suppose you can make a pill for that and fix it? Excellent. I know tons of people that are mentally ill – I’m going to have to let them know.
Dick Cheney – Do I really need to explain? The only reason I even put him on my list is because I just saw him on the news the other day and I thought, “I thought we got rid of you”. So if I see him – I’m going to punch him in the face just for the briefly vexed moment I had last week. He deserves it anyway.
Now don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of other people, non-celebrities, that I would really enjoy punching in the face. The problem is people are so touchy these days that I’m afraid a handful of folks I know would be extremely offended. I however would be inundated with fits of laughter. Anyway – if you know me – you probably know who I want to punch in the face…and that will stay our little secret.