I was heading down Wilshire on my motor-scooter to a show of art and artifacts from the eastern European avant-garde art movement of the early 20th century and I was zooming along because I was meeting this super-foxy girl named Jessica which gave my mission a delightful urgency. Perhaps I was travelling too fast? In any case I was behind a large flatbed truck and was about to switch into the right lane and glanced to see that it was clear and when I turned my head back the truck was right there and I slammed into it. I hit the back corner of the truck in such a way that the wheels kicked out sideways the bike laid down and I found myself running along the road at 20 miles an hour with my arms pinwheeling around looking I’m sure like a deranged person who had somehow forgotten his car. It reminded me of this vision my super-cool friend Matt had of the 405 freeway during rush-hour only all the people were sitting in the air, denuded of vehicles. Well that was in retrospect, at the time I was more reminded of the unforgiving nature of a concrete road surface. But I managed to stay on my feet and the bike didn’t suffer any permanent damage except that the brake handle is bent into a crazy U shape. And I was completely and totally unhurt, and the truck just kept driving. It’s possible that he didn’t even notice me bouncing off his truck edge like a rubbery imbecile. And when I got to the museum Jessica was there and she looked beautiful and there was a jazz quartet and wine and the show was really great, and later on we went to a Chinese dumpling shop.
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