ON THE HOOF

It being Presidents’ Day a couple of days back, I took a short, unadventurous walk in the neighborhood; that would be East Hollywood  Of course I reckon I know the area pretty well by now, but only a fool thinks he knows everything, and of course every neighborhood changes from moment to moment.  The burned out apartment house in the picture above, was new to me, though it could have been burned out for a good long time.

And I’m pretty sure that’s a new sign on the fence of the local school, although I’d think that a kid who brings a gun to school probably isn’t all that worried about getting expelled.

In any case I wanted to take a closer look at the Monastery of the Angels, the home of a cloistered order of Dominion nuns, well within sight of the Hollywood Freeway.  And no, I don’t know why it’s not called a convent.  Everyone goes on about how wonderful their pumpkin bread is, but I couldn’t see where to buy it, and you know, a non-believer such as myself is reluctant to intrude on a closed order, but I did get near enough to take a picture of this fellow.

I don’t know who that is.  I’m guessing it’s not Jesus, and the wings make me think it must be an angel.  And the sword obviously suggests it’s a martial angel, so I wonder if it’s Gabriel, though isn’t Gabriel the horn blower rather than the sword wielder?  I wonder if it might be St. Dominic but I can’t find any images of him with a sword either.

Right around the corner from the monastery you get can a view of the Hollywood sign, and also, on this day, a view of a large, abandoned flat screen TV.  Oh, America!

Eventually my walk took me down Beachwood Canyon a place I walk pretty often, and there was this car.

I’m a sucker for old cars, the more beat up the better, though this isn’t “my period” and I can’t identify it any more than I could identify the statue with the sword.  Is it a Buick?  Actually I can’t help thinking there was something just a little too artful about this one. The line of blue duct tape down the windscreen was a nice touch, though I don’t know how it would go down with the cops.  But I thought that a copy On the Road placed very conspicuously on the dashboard was trying just a little too hard.