Observations on a couple of LA people I see

I've now lived in LA for a little over 5 months now. Given that I live, work and shop in the same area, certain passersby have become common sightings as I go about my daily routines:

1. Insipid Children's Musician: Every day I take lunch at Hancock Park/La Brea Tar Pits. Most days there are school groups visiting the Tar Pits and Page Natural History/Pre History Museum. Every day without fail there's an older man armed with a banjo or an acoustic guitar plucking away at his instrument singing saggy whimsical children's songs that easily get on my nerves. Mostly the children ignore him, though there are occasions in which the teachers/chaperones force the children to sit before the musician and listen to his music. Fortunately, I'm armed with my ipod and can shut out his music. But the times I've heard him bring back memories of this horrible ad I used to hear on the Classical Music station in San Francisco. This musician was hawking tapes of children's music in which each tape would be personalized for each child whose parent buys a tape. To the accompaniement of an acoustic guitar and a cheap casio keyboard, the man would whine "A is for Apple, B is for Brittany (that's you, heh, heh, heh)". All I can imagine was that there was a child molestor lurking on the airwaves. The man in the park has the same vocal style. Fortunately (I think) this vocal approach to performing children's song is hardly unique so I don't think it's the same guy.

Chet Baker: Over the past couple of months I've observed an older man, very lean, with a head of thinning blonde hair and a highly wrinkled yet high and finely chiseled cheekboned face walking on Wilshire between Dunsmuir and Hauser. He generally wears a pair of pressed blue jeans and either a white or black turtleneck accessorized with a matching belt. On saturday, he was on my downtown 20 Wilshire Bus ride. The man seems ill or strung out or on methadone. Perhaps I make that observation because he so eerily resembles Chet Baker in the last years of his life and Chet was certainly strung out or getting my on methadone during attempts at sobriety. I love Chet Baker's music, but what a harrowing life he led. I think the man on the street has a similar life story. His face certainly tells a sad story.

A little good news--my co worker informed me that if the guild brings me on permanently I would be relocated to another desk so I can sit next to the woman who trains Membership Assistants. The desk is at the other end of the office!