West Indian Girl

West indian girl rehearses and writes and parties in down town Los Angeles…more or less in the heart of skid row. It’s pretty intense just trying to walk around our block without getting freaked out a bit. The first time you go down there it’s like a movie – like dawn of the dead in a weird way. Some people look like zombies just walking around, some people are high, some people are crazy but most people are just freezing their fucking asses off trying to sleep outside in the cold. The ironic part about this area of town is that it’s called the “toy district” because of all the import and export toy businesses that take up shop there. I also find that funny cos toys are gifts and gifts are what these people all need a bit more of.

How many of you really know what is like to be homeless? I sure as hell don’t and I really can’t begin to imagine – for me the closest thing to being homeless was just not having an apartment to live in when I was 21 but I still had a bunch of friends’ couches to sleep on. Yeah but that crap isn’t really being homeless and it’s nothing like the hard core shit that surrounds the west indian girl studio.

Anyway, my relationship with these dudes that sleep on the corner 2 blocks of our studio started one day when I parked my car outside. At first I never really said much to them but then after a while when u keep seeing the same few faces over and over again u just sort of develop a normal relationship with them. I would give them whatever change I had in exchange for me thinking they would watch my truck and keep it from getting broken into. (my truck is an 89 landcruiser with no alarm – any moron could break into it in about 5 minutes if they really wanted to) On some level I have some sort of a strange business relationship with them. — maybe that’s why one of the few times mark and chris parked their cars down there they got broken into (well mark got his window smashed and chris just got his scraped up) Needless to say after the break-ins my donations to the guys increased hahaha. Now I give them smokes, water, change, the paper, but mostly clothes. I have given them at least half of my entire closet by now. Seriously, I just don’t have any more clothes to give them. Everything ranging from sweaters to suits to shoes to hats to u name it. One time when I was at a Texaco station a few blocks away I saw the craziest looking woman outside. I mean she looked unreal – like she popped out of a grand theft auto video game –she was wearing almost nothing too – all her clothes were hanging off and she had no shoes. Anyway I gave crazy girl a whole outfit and she was stoked.

Where is all of this going? well I guess it goes to my friend Ronnie in the pics. He is my main man down there and I always try to hook him up first. Ronnie is just “real” and he always makes me laugh when I talk to him. If we have a party or guests to the studio I know he watches their cars and he knows I will bring him down beer. Im not sure he or any of them are the best guards but I think they have my back as much as can be expected. And I know for a fact Ronnie always makes sure that angela gets to and from her car safely if she happens to be walking alone. That’s cool. Those pictures are great aren’t they, he was so psyched to have those taken. Anyway, remember this, if you ever happen to be parking outside our studio when u come to one of our loft parties just bring something warm for the guys that are gonna be sleeping outside your car in the rain.

Your old blanket can make someone’s life warmer even if it is just for a few hours. At the very least it might make your jaded L.A. heart a bit warmer. (fyi, a few hours later Ronnie told me he gave away the suit I had just given him to his friend who loved it and needed it even more…that’s pretty classic) — F. Ten 5:30 am Oct 20, 2004