Urban Camping in Los Angeles
By Ryan - Tuesday May 22nd 2007 |
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We have, in this urban wilderness we call Los Angeles, several campgrounds where the price is night. People craft makeshift lean-tos right on the sidewalk, building temporary safehavens against the wild and the biting cold with the materials they have at their disposal.
As with many national parks some locations are preferred over others, and availability is strictly on a first-come, first-serve basis. Such is the case here at the corner of Fairfax and Beverly. 2007 is the alleged last run of Bob Barker, after all, and the outlying campgrounds are bursting at the seams, night after neverending night. Today we’ll take a closer look at two specific campgrounds adjacent to the Columbia Broadcasting System, or ‘The Eye’ to the layman…
Campground One:WaMu Creek. North of Beverly, east of Fairfax at Fairfax. Year-round availability. No running water. No electricity. No RVs. No boats. No septic. Tents and boxes only. Metro shelter subject to availability. No reservations.
Campground Two: CBS Flats. South of Beverly, east of Fairfax at Fairfax.
Barker-dependent availability. No running water. No electricity. No RVs. No boats. No septic. Tents and boxes only. Metro shelter subject to availability. No reservations. Queue strictly enforced by peer system.
Night after night both campgrounds spill over, unable to accommodate the deluge of hopefuls. But just who are these campers? What are they like? What are their hobbies? What are their dreams? Let us take a moment to side-by-side the traits and characteristics of a typical inhabitant of each of the two campgrounds. One waits for a game show taping; one waits for a drink and a lucky break. At the end of the day, maybe they’re not so different. We are, after all, only human and when night falls, we all commune with mother nature in similar fashion…
| South of Beverly: CBS Flats: The Seasonal Camper, or ‘Snowbird’ |
North of Beverly: WaMu Creek: The Year-Round Camper |
| Plays cards | Smokes |
| Plays Scrabble | Drinks |
| Plays Yahtzee | Smokes. Then drinks. |
| Stares at passers-by with longing, hopeful eyes | Stares at passers-by with longing, hopeful eyes |
| Wears sweatshirt adorned with glitter | Wears sweatshirt adorned with glitter, topped with grime |
| Has not had shower today. Hopes to remedy situation in hotel soon. | Has not had shower today. Does not hope to remedy any situation. What situation. |
| Leaves campground with flashlight and takes nature trail back to hotel to pee. | Stands up to pee. |
| Unable to stop mumbling about ‘Bob’ | Unable to stop mumbling about ‘Bob’ |
| Considers practicality of buying one of the ‘Make Your Own TPIR Tshirt’ kits from bagel shop on Fairfax. Said kit is comprised of one Hanes Beefy-T and three felt markers. | Would consider buying quart of beer, if had any goddam money today |
| Knows exact price of one case of Kal Kan™ cat food | Knows exact price of one case of Kal Kan™ cat food |
CBS Flats, 1am, 5/21/2007
I have a suggestion i.e. Light load Towels three packs are the only towel that is also a tool for the outdoors. Use it as a fire starter coffee filter, water filter, first aid supplement, wind scarf, sweat band and much more. Waterproof packaging covers each piece; that always ensures that the user will have a clean dry cloth.
ultralighttowels(dot)com
Yes, don’t forget to bring a towel.
yes the lightload Towels are the coolest towels.
It’s official – and my contract stipulates CBS must move the show to Memphis.
Went to see Bill Maher’s dress rehearsal at the CBS Studios (well, we THOUGHT we were seeing a real taping but clearly there was some miscommunication somewhere) and found it hilarious that they funnel in folks coming out of the Price is Right to go in to listen to Bill Maher tell the same super lefty joke in 4-5 different ways. I don’t think most of the people we saw coming out of Price is Right knew that Bill Maher done hates the president a LOT. Not a lot of laughter from that audience and it wasn’t Bill’s fault!
[...] Bob Barker’s alleged last year as host of The Price Is Right. How does this affect [...]