I get by with a little help from my friends

Dorian

Emilio

Chong

Susan

Fridger

Henry and Mitch

Brie

Kymm

Will

Shawn, Emilio, Josh

Beer

Thanks but no thanks

Thomas is a local guy who lives on the streets and does odd jobs for people in the neighborhood. At one time he was the doorman for the Comme Des Garcons guerrilla shop on 4th street. Decked out in Comme and the latest Nike's he was the chicest looking homeless man you've ever seen. Sounds weird, I know. A few nights ago Thomas came by the new space saying that he had a friend near by who was selling a great new mini-frig and microwave for $20 and did we wanna go take a look. We needed a break and were a bit curious so we decided to take a walk to see what's what. Emilio, Stephen Hill, Thomas, and I walked over to a big parking lot on Los Angeles St and 2nd St. Thomas began leading us toward the back of the lot where we could see a make shift tent surrounded by various junk in the far corner. As we got closer Thomas began yelling "Ronnie! Hey Ronnie!" and very soon a disheveled man in spectacles came crawling out of the tent. Thomas introduced us and Ronnie crawled back into the tent then pushed the refrigerator out. He told us that he had cleaned it up and plugged it in and that it worked just fine. We looked at it and were seriously considering buying it until we opened it and a funky aroma poured out. He said we could just put a box of baking soda in it and it would be great. We ended up declining but I have to say we really liked Ronnie. Even living in his adverse conditions he was friendly, smart, funny, and honest. As we walked back through the parking lot Emilio announced excitedly "I'm gonna take my shirt off!" Just as I lifted my camera to take a picture Stephen reached back and punched Emilio in the balls. I love my neighborhood!

Happiness is......a new pooper!

Some Random

Home depot parking lot. The douche mobile or the asshole wagon?

They always have "Skin" stickers don't they?

The wife

Shawn is one of our bad ass painters. He's a really rad dude and has played drums for some legendary LA punk bands like The Controllers, The Skulls, The Gears, and The U.S. Bombs.

Ballad of an unwanted commode

In it's original home

Uprooted and sitting in the studio

Out on the sidewalk where I figured someone would pick it up but instead within 20 minutes someone took the tank lid and the seat and someone actually peed in it. I love my neighborhood!

Scenes from the mess

Robert the plumber brought the whole crew homemade tamales

Emilio my foreman extraordinaire/friend in the old shower/new kitchenette

Richard the sort of handyman who replaced all the glass in the windows used the old flooring tiles from the bathroom as his safety anchor.

Abdul-Malick is Will the electrician's best friend and has come in to help finish the job. No matter what is happening, 5 times a day he unrolls this prayer rug and faces east.

I am a monk magnet

On our gajillionth Home Depot run I spotted these two Japanese Zen monks.
Random?
Kind'a!
I was so excited that I forgot to sneak a peak into their cart to see what they were buying.

Sorry bro but....

It always sucks to have to fire someone. To be honest I'm not very good at it and always feel bad, even if they deserve it. Thank god I've got Emilio as he doesn't stand for slacking or crappy work.





Jodi and Emilio enjoying street eats


my favorite graf on the front of the building

Gnarly suprise

At some point someone covered two sets of windows with wooden flats. We theory that it was a film crew as the flats were the typical kind you see on sets. We knew that there were broken windows behind them but weren't really prepared for what else we found. Enjoy.

Day 3, Good luck sign

As we were walking downstairs on our millionth Home Depot run a group of Sri Lanken monks from Santa Clarita were walking into the building to buy sunglasses at the sunglass retailer on the first floor. I took this as a very good sign.
The wood for the floors arrived this morning and we hired Cedric to carry it upstairs. He's the most ripped homeless guy I've ever seen.
The cast and crew and characters that are showing up on this endeavor have been straight comedy. I've been trying to keep all the hires local which seems to mean your missing your front teeth.

Day 2, wall demo and the dirt brotherhood

We decided to get rid of the closet in order to expand the store room. When we tore the plaster and dry wall we got to see how walls were built in the 1890's.