trash porn, pt 13

shattered dream not yet worth putting in the trash.  it may still have life.  but for who?

trash porn, pt 12

doesn't anyone ever think of how the train fences feel?  i mean, here they are separating a danger zone from the public, anyone-might-wander-in spaces and what appreciation do they get?  it gets blazing hot in summer and, even here in sunny southern california, cold overnight lows during winter.

luckily for this particular fence, someone was so kind as to put a hat they no longer needed on it.  there, all better now.  should keep from getting pneumonia today.  and don't forget to take your medication.  the pill bottle's right there.  yeah, i know the beer can's mostly empty, but you can have the rest.

trash porn, pt 11

not sure why it took me so long to realize this was here, but we got a whole bunch of smashed up cop cars in this here lot.

perhaps these were vehicles involved in the roughly 1250 accidents officers have been involved in in the last three years.  i hope not, as any evidence that might be needed is open to the elements.  or perhaps all the investigations are over and now the lapd's mechanics just pick parts from these.

of course, this puny lot pales in comparison to one i used to see from the metrolink near the burbank airport.  i can't seem to turn up any photos of that one, so perhaps i'll begin shades of being a real journalist and hoof out there and take my own someday.  if anyone reading knows where i'm talking about and has pictures, do share.

trash porn, pt 10

so, i found this sign strewn by one of the silver line stops.  i'm guessing this was one of the non-living casualties of this unfortunate incident.

if you're too lazy to follow the link, a guy going 80mph went into a bus-only lane.  when the bus stopped to pick-up/drop-off, the driver swerved to avoid the bus, jumped the curb to where all the passengers were waiting and critically injured 5 people.  he failed a sobriety test.

yeah, taking care of that situation is definitely more important than cleaning up debris, but it's been a month now.  hopefully, they don't need to keep the sign as evidence.  i think many a homeless person has tamper(tinkl)ed with it.

trash porn, pt 9

decapitated.

trash porn, pt 8

i don't usually wait until i'm at the bus stop to decide whether or not i need to wear pants.  what a diverse world we live in.

trash porn, pt 7

some people may recognize the house below as "where strawberry lives."  some may ask "who's strawberry?"  strawberry was a vietnam veteran.  strawberry was a cool uncle who threw cool parties.  but most notably, strawberry was a fictional character in cheech & chong's first movie "up in smoke," who had a distracting birthmark and flashbacks while operating a motorcycle with cheech in the sidecar.

these pictures feature in trash porn because for many reasons, this house should be worth a fair amount and, by extension, well kept.  it's centrally located, close to a train station, in an historic zone, on a corner lot, has very unique features (sculptures and a frickin turret with frickin cannons*) and is a symbol of the pride the neighborhood takes in having been featured in a groundbreaking, seminal movie that still influences how people dress, talk and, well, not be sober.  as you can see though, the yard and the sidewalk around it mostly collect trash.

it should be noted that the view in the second picture is usually obscured by parked cars so i had to wait til street-sweeping day to get a clear picture.  naturally, much of the trash got swept away.

* -- well, things made to look like cannons anyway

trash porn, pt 6

gotten rid of a car lately or, well, ever?  according to the u.s. dot, cars last an average of 13 years.  that sounds high to me, but given my family's fleet of three averages 24, maybe it shouldn't.  if the car you got rid of was not sold, but scrapped, it probably goes through a process of separation so all the stuff that can be re-used or recycled does.  some of the higher value parts, however, go to a place like this.

this is a junkyard.  mechanics (maybe even one you've used when you last needed body work done) and enterprising diy'ers visit places like these in hopes of finding that replacement part that's either no longer made or much more expensive to buy new.  i'm not sure exactly how lucrative a business auto wrecking is.  but if this were boston, you can bet housing and retail would have taken over a spot less than a block from a station such as this (though maybe not, it's been awhile since i've been back to boston).  interestingly enough, here's another one right across the street.

or maybe it's the same shop.  it looks like this side has the parts under the hood and the top photo has the body parts.

alien invasion (or trash porn, pt 5)

i always knew the flats of lincoln heights housed some failed experiments of hill folk on mt washington.  i always knew their aspirations for leaving the mount were thwarted and they discarded all reminders of such things with the only people they felt safe with.  but i'm on to them now.  i know their plans for reaching another galaxy never materialized and they thought the flatlanders were too stupid to ever realize what they had their hands on.  but it's clear now.  just look.

the people on the hill may be in the background there in the upper right, but their discarded ship is not forgotten.  it's right in the lower left corner, stuck in a junkyard they didn't think anyone would see.  no wonder they opposed the gold line.  we blamed it on nimbyism then, but it's obvious now they just didn't want their space ship exposed for the world to see.  too late!

or it's just another piece of junked artwork.  alien conspiracy or junked art.  i'm not really sure which, but one of them made me take this picture and share it with you.

trash porn, pt. 4

i think this place is supposed to be a recycling center specializing in dumpsters and other large steel containers.  i say "i think" because i'm not sure any of those steel containers has moved for several months.  perhaps i'll take another photo in a couple of weeks and compare them to find out for sure.

no one ever talks about dumpster heaven, a place they go after a life of service comes to an end.  that's probably because dumpsters can't talk; and yet i can't think of another object i'd be more interested in asking questions.  indeed, investigative work of all sorts would become easier if this were the case.  if i ever get to open one of my own dumpster heavens, i'll be sure to make asking the dumpsters about their days of service a top priority.

(if you're new to lamtadiary, but love pictures of trash, see trash porn pt 3, trash porn pt 2 and grab yer shappin cart)

trash porn, pt 3

thrown anything away today?  check back in a couple weeks time to see if it made its way into this pile.  you could also check out the trash track project, which tagged some trash to see where in the country it ended up. 

i know "globalization" sounds like a neat idea.  if done right, i suppose it might even yield some good results.  when we take the bad with the good, however, it just means that rather than this pile growing to the point where l.a. is forced to confront its own resource usage, thousands of invisible piles all around the globe keep growing instead.

well, i need some toothpaste.  off to the big-box store with me.

trash porn, pt 2

in a previous post, i took a few pictures of what seemed like not-such-lucrative use of land smack in the middle of los angeles.  well, there are many such scenes to photograph from a train.  nimbys won't let light rail through their oh-so-delectable piece of the american dream and budgets rarely allow for acquisition of such in any case.  so, here we go, some more trash porn for those that think huge piles of discarded objects are fascinating (like me!).

oh, and there's some pretty cool graffiti work too.

grab yer shappin cart

it's finally upon us.  the last day to buy gifts for "loved" ones (y'know, because that's what love is).  hustle out there, folks.  be like sinbad and my outgoing governor in that one movie i haven't seen where they're fighting over toys.  spend, spend, spend.  the economy needs you now more than ever.  and, if you need a shopping cart for everything you're acquiring, go here:

this picture was taken from a moving blue line train between the 103rd st station and the rosa parks station.  it's hard to tell from the train how deep the stack goes, but i'd venture to guess at least three, possibly five.  here's the other end of the stack, down to a single layer of carts, about a block later:

though this pile o' carts may not be as dramatic as the photos currently on display at 7th/metro or edward burtynsky's work, it's smack in the middle of los angeles, where you'd think real estate would be at a premium.