#158

highland park is a neighborhood in los angeles that is like williamsburg and park slope and oaxaca all mashed together with the hipsters and yuppie homebuyers and mexican families all mashed together and everybody looking at each other a little suspiciously unsure of what the other guys want with their neighborhood and the fact is that the hipsters are only here because some maven set upon the wind a rumor that all the cool kids were moving east to highland park where everybody is mashed together and the snowflake homeowners heard that they didnt have to go all the way out to glendale anymore to get a good deal on a three bedroom two bath starter home because the hipsters had started to move in and gentrify the once scary neighborhood and the mexicans and salvadoreans looked at each other and said why are these chingadores moving into the arroyo seco and driving up our rents and opening their own shops and restaurants and where are we going to go now further east fuck that puta we are just gonna stay right here and let the british come and ten years down the road when our sons and daughters have children with the crackers we will sell our houses for a million bucks so fuck em

#157

the mysticism of athletics is a concept with which i have some experience like the exaltation after a great goal or a michael jordan buzzer beater or a diving hail mary catch in the division finals or simply in the way my legs stretch out as i sprint alongside the arroyo seco parkway or channeling that blinding energy into the last push up or the long womblike glide of a good stroke in the swimming pool or the way my body changes in the mirror from day to day depending on what i do physically and what i eat transforming the holy body from one shape to another like i am both the clay and the god and my willpower is my god power because i can be as strong as i will and i can look however i will and i can feel however i will and with great concentration i can transcend with an unlikely shot or a blistering sprint or an adrenal yank of the pull up bar and the memory of transcendence will stick in my muscles and hurt for days as punishment for reaching beyond my abilities and i enjoy the pain because it just feels so goddam good