Another beautiful day for Ciclavia. This one was downtown, South Park to Chinatown, and Echo Park to Mariachi Plaza over the 6th St Bridge. Stephen and I went in the late morning, and covered the whole route. It was joyful.

Near the end, my back started to struggle, but, one of the techniques from my physio does help: namely that when that one muscle in my back begins to twinge, I flex my abs and my glutes to pull pressure away from it. So I managed the 12 mile ride without incident.

With public transit still being free on account of the new K Line opening, I decided to take transit up to the Greek Theater to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with Chase and his friends. It is rather difficult to get to the Greek on transit, but, I managed to make it work: Expo Line to the Red Line to the OB Shuttle. I wish the experience of travelling on Metro was more satisfying: I'm trying my best to pretend that this stupid town could be a London or a Paris, but, the general level of filth on the light rail makes it difficult to pretend. The problem is the homeless, of course, but we're not supposed to say that out loud. There is a large overlap between the people with no homes and the people that leave trash and food on the subway. Of the four trips I took, each one had some mysterious liquid spilled on the floor: water or beer or pee. And each one had food scraps.

BMRC was really good. It was one of the shows where you really felt that the band was excited to be there. I could feel the transfer of energy between the audience and the musicians.

In between bands, I talked travel plans. I forget how different Chase is from my travel friends like Dave. With Dave the conversation would be something like...

"What do you think about Tokyo in April?"

"Sounds good. I'm in."

With Chase, I asked him and he replied that I sould send him the details and he'd think about it.. What details? The details are Tokyo in April, hehe. Do you need more? Well I suppose for most normal people they would need more.

The Cult was the headliner, but, I had little interest. They sounded good for the half-dozen songs I listened to before I bailed. I cheated and had Chase drive me down the hill back to Sunset/Vermont, because I didn't have confidence in the OB Shuttle, and it would have been a 40 minute walk otherwise. Then back onto the Red Line and Expo Line, with the homeless, the garbage, and the floor sticky with mysterious fluids.