I Love DTLA. I Hate DTLA.

I love downtown.  It's young and vibrant and full of art and life and people and mess and passion.  I hate downtown.  It's lonely and full of piss and hipsters and young people and purpose and I'm not connected to any of it. I'm from another generation.  I'm beat.  And not in a cool hipster way, the way the original term was conceived.  Beat down, at the bottom of the pile.

I went for a walk through J Town yesterday evening.  It was cool.  The soft light of sunset sweeping 1st street.  Lots of 20 somethings hanging out at cool restaurants.  A group of dancers in kimonos at the Japanese American Cultural Center.  As with everything downtown, I get to see it, but not take part. This is not a town for old men, old dreamers, old souls.

Every time I step outside I feel invigorated.  Life is happening here.  It's full of people who are doing important stuff.  Almost everyday, there is something being filmed.  Parking lots full of trucks and equipment and people with radios on their belts, hurriedly going to and fro, setting up for hours for a shoot that will take place 6 hours from now.  I can't explain the excitement it creates.  It's palpable.  Something's happening.

Everywhere you look there are round pegs, not fitting into square holes.  So many of us just don't fit.  I saw a women today on Spring during rush hour, with no pants on, wiping herself.  LAPD was about 50 feet down the street.  Nothing.  Thank god.  I've seen her around, she's a resident.  They (we) are invisible.

As I walked back from J town last night, it stuck me how comfortable I was the closer I was to Skid Row.  Los Angeles street is the hard edge.  To the left is the Yin of capitalism.  To the right is the Yang.  For reasons I will never comprehend, the closer I am to the black, the more comfortable and interested I am.

I love DTLA.