Photo by Shawn Nee/ discarted
Seeing that 30 Rock premiered last night, it seemed appropriate to post this photo. However, it would’ve been better if I posted it yesterday—I was not thinking yesterday though.
Anyway, frames like this are just one of the perks when you shoot street in Hollywood.
Photo by Shawn Nee / discarted
I sit in the driver’s seat of William’s truck as rush hour traffic collects just below us on the 101 freeway. It’s August and sweat collects on the back of my neck and arms as the first significant heat wave brings triple digits to Los Angeles. It’s so hot out that if you look at the pavement long enough, you can see the shadows of invisible nuclear vapors slithering across the sidewalk.
I’m bored and even more depressed, but can’t stop myself from coming here. I think about all of the things I’ve fucked up in my life. I think about my family that I’ve been away from for almost a decade. I think about my ex-girlfriend. I think about leaving L.A., so I can see my family and ex-girlfriend. I think about this prostitute I wanna photograph.
And then a cockroach pokes its body out from in between the bent pages of an 18 magazine that’s been dumped on the dashboard. It’s female and carrying eggs. I think about crushing it with my hand, but it zigzags across a collection of odd items and junk and then crawls into an empty Shasta can before I can make a decision. Growing up people would often say that a cockroach could survive the aftermath of an atomic bomb, but in Los Angeles, when you wake up in morning you can find dozens of them dead on the sidewalk.
I sit in the driver’s seat of William’s truck watching them, waiting for something to happen.
Me: That doesn’t hurt?
William: Fifteen yars locked up, whadda you think?
CLICK.
Joe: Ooh there he go again with that camera…sneakin’ mutha fucka takin’ my picture! Right when I’m takin’ a drink too! You a sneakin’ MUTHA FUCKA!
Williams shitty plastic razor scrapes across his neck. A drop of blood pokes through his skin.
Joe: WILLIAM! How come you don’t ever let me sit in the truck, but you let h-i-m?
Joe takes another big drink, consuming what’s left of his 211. He looks at me.
Joe: You still my boy.
Joe raises a tightened fist and pushes his arm through the driver’s window. I reciprocate and press my knuckles against a collection of open sores and wonder what diseases he might have.
The thought passes and the day drags on.
Bill Bowersock and Shawn Nee’s “Thank You For Your Call” documentary video on KNBC’s “The Filter With Fred Roggin.”
Photo by Shawn Nee
The local LA politics show “The Filter With Fred Roggin” is doing a segment on social security equality, interviewing Bill Bowersock and using Shawn Nee’s documentary video. The issue has gained a bit of traction over the past week, from an initial post on LAist.com, to The Atlantic, Dan Savage and The New Yorker. Not bad for a little-discussed civil rights issue.
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, be sure to tune in Wednesday night, July 28, at 7:30 pm on KNBC’s digital channel (Charter 304, Cox 804, Time Warner 225, Verizon FIOS 460 and on Channel 4 Sunday nights at 11:30 pm). If you’re not, you can watch the segment here after 10 p.m.
In 1935, the Social Security Act was created to help ensure the economic safety of America’s elderly.
As of July 2010, the United States Social Security Administration does not recognize same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships as valid relationships.
Consequently, thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender seniors are denied Social Security benefits every year.
Ineligible for Social Security surivors benefits, and faced with undue economic burdens, many LGBT seniors are often forced to give up their homes after losing their partner.
To learn more about this issue please visit rockforequality.org
Video by Shawn Nee / discarted
I see something that I’ve never seen before. I bend down in the middle of the street as cars, attempting to avoid the bumper to bumper orgy on Western Avenue take a hard right down La Mirada Ave., and speed past behind me—their hot exhaust fumes graze my back. I’m invincible holding this camera.
Me: Is it loaded?
William (watching a movie): Boy, you ask some stupid questions.
I move my camera and crouch lower. My right knee cracks, and then the shutter as a Beamer lays on its horn and keeps going.
William: I got an M-16 too, but that’s buried in the back.
Tracy (high and inebriated): Mistah, you shouldn’t be down there. The cops are gonna come.
No response.
Tracy: Hey pal, get outta there…you’re gonna get killed!
Man (infuriated): WHY DO YOU THINK I’M DOWN HERE!!!
Tracy: Sir, you shouldn’t try to kill yourself.
Man (high on meth): I know.
Photos by Shawn Nee/discarted
Photo by Shawn Nee/discarted
Yesterday within a span of 30 minutes a deadly shooting and three vehicular injuries occurred all within a one block radius from one another.
Near the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and St. Andrews Place, an unidentified 20-year old man was shot to death by an unknown assailant who fled on foot. As two LAPD officers responded to the call, they were stuck by another vehicle, sending the officers to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Then, a short while later, a bicyclist traveling north on Western Boulevard and only one block east of where the shooting took place, was struck by a vehicle as he crossed Virginia Avenue. The unknown cyclist sustained a head injury, a large laceration to his knee, and was transported to an area hospital by the Los Angeles Fire Department. The driver of the vehicle remained on scene, and according to one man who witnessed the accident, the cyclist was at fault. And finally, as I made my way home to process the photos and get them to my editor, I saw a man wielding a tire iron chase another man down the street. I love this neighborhood.
According to a Los Angeles Times article regarding yesterday’s fatal shooting, there has been at least 63 homicides in my neighborhood since 2007.
For more photos of the accident and a write up by Zach Behrens check out LAist.
boywithgrenade.org 