KISS THE WALL Pt 3

"Do not go where the path may lead.Go instead where there is no path and make a trail."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

hola,  
1960s L.A.
Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI  changed my life.
the Manson murders changed L.A. while Black Panther assaults helped introduce SWAT teams to U$ policing.
. the RFK muder changed U$ politics
.i attended ALTAMONT  which changed the flavor or rock n roll and ended the lives of two men.(yes 2, one was a faT NAKED mEXICAN WHO STUMBLED OVER hELLS aNGELS BIKES BUT HE WAS NOT CAUGHT ON FILM ALTHO I WITNESSED IT). 

1970s frisco

"The City" (sic) was on edge. 

The Zodiac was killing white people and the long forgotten Zebra Killers were killing white people. the SFPD cops were,as usual, still killing black people...i recall reading, my first week in frisco, about an unarmed black teenagers (sound famliar?) being slain on Ocean Beach on some humbug charge..

meanwhile i was living my life,working 55 hours a week, paying off a student debt to some BS L.A. business school and going to film. now Geary Blvd is a major east-west arterial which gave access to a half dozen cmemas along it's route to the Pacific Ocean.. the Clay Theatre was a fading art house on Filmore, which runs north south from middle class whites to poor blacks to uber rich Pacific Heights.

"The Filmore" had been mostly Japanese until WWII internment camps then poor blacks from the South had moved in for fuel the shipbuilding industries.Point being that The Filmore was mostly black even tho i was allowed....tyo live elsewwhere in other crime ridden slums. so The Clay was running a 7 nite festival of chambara films (Samurai swordplay) most never before shown in the U$ and even tho i was working at least 55 hours a week i was SO there!

no problemo right?

so the first night i get off the busy #38 Geary bus at Geary and Filmore and find myself confronted by a half dozen edgy frisco cops who demand to know my business there as they frisk me.now there is nothing worse than an edgy scared cop....so i patiently explained that i was going to a nearby sushi store then the chambara fest up the street, they all found it hard to digest my interest so i explained it again and again as it was a double feature and i wanted to catch both films.

now i should explain that the Zebra kILLERS WERE IN THE HABIT OF COMING UP TO WHITE PEOPLE ON THE STREET OR AT BUS STOPS AND SHOOTING THEM TO DEATH, THEY WERE DESCRIBED AS SHORT, WITH SHAVED HEADS OR VERY SHORT HAIR AND BEING WELL DRESSED.(dmanit Caps Lock amok again,where was i?) 

so anyway i was over six feet tall with a moderate Afro at 250lbs and casually dressed in jeans and jacket, i did not fit the bill.    but they were afraid of me nonetheless and eyeballed me into the sushi store and the three blocks up Filmore to The Clay and i told them i would back again all week and i was but they were still scared..later i would deal with the SPD often when i worked various hotels and convention centers, like most humans some were exemplary and others were complete assholes.kORAKTHE kILLER FAILED THE PSYCH EVAL AT 3 DIFF COP AGENCIES BUT THE aLAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFFS WANTED HIM...

there is more but my eyeballs are losing focus as i listen to blessed heavy rains outside..

namaste 

mega...