3/27/20

RICK CASTRO: DIARY 3/26/2020

So This Is How The World Will End: by Rick Castro 3/26/2020

I slept in Al & Bee’s bedroom for the first time.
 It was odd to inherit in the intimate place your parents inhabited for 45 plus years. They musta had sex here at least once? It's uncomfortable to sleep in the exact spot where your know your parents doodled. The room hadn't been used for 10 years so it was very dusty. 
I cleaned the best I could, without a vacuum, and washed all the sheets, blankets and pillow shams, then closed the door and set NOUR, (name chosen infrared heater sent to me by friend Iris Parker) to 75 degrees. Within an hour I was a piece of toast. Very cozy. Bee’s blankets are so warm and reassuring.  I’m surrounded with nostalgia. 
I remember and recognize every little chotchkie in this place. Not trying to be mean, 
but Bee’s taste was a little on the tacky side.. 

Very sweet and quaint, but tacky, and dated in the best way. Everything in the bedroom is brightly colored, so I decided to bring anything with garish color into the bedroom. 
I mean I’m gay, so of course i’m gonna re-decorate. I remember this chair!
 its mine! I painted and reupholstered when I was about 11-12… 1970ish.. It’s garish bright orange with a yellow vinyl cushion. Look, at the time it was hip.. I was being, groovy
I remember, my bedroom in 1970 was green, (as in Kelly) walls, florescent orange furniture and spider plants.


The rain is coming up from the  Southeast, lower desert. It usually comes down from the Northwest mountains. Like a natural screening room of a natural movie. 
The clouds move fast, the darkness comes quickly and then it showers.. It’s beautiful. Nature is perfect. Humans are so…..  imperfect, if they followed nature they would be in sync. 

Today I feel calmer… I’m acclimating to my new environment. Understand what a drastic life change this is for me. I did spend my childhood weekends here, yes, but for all my adult life i’ve lived in very urban settings. I've lived all over Hollywood, West Hollywood,  Echo Park, and for the last twenty years, East Hollywood. In the early 80s I even lived in NYC. 14th st & 11th. Across the street from the Vault; The S&M dungeon of the Meatpacking District. When there was actually meat. My single apartment was butt ugly. 
 One side wall of the apartment was brick they had varnished! I had shiny brick walls!. 
 The owner was sorta post-hippy so he made his own Murphy bed from 2x4s. When you would lift it up the thick wooden legs would hang like a dead woodman. I always keep the bed down. My rent was $700, which for me was allot. To put in perspective I was renting a house in West Hollywood, two bedrooms and a patio for $500. In NYC the cheapest place 
I could find was a single, with glaring brick walls, with a fortune teller on the ground floor, (which I liked), transsexual hookers , (which I liked) in-front of a steakhouse next door, the NYC Bondage Club across the street, (which I really liked) and a Murphy bed that looked like Geppetto hung Pinocchio, for $700 dollars! 
I think where my apartment used be is now an Apple store.

It’s snowing! My first snow! It looks like volcanic ash.. with the way things are going in the harsh 21st century, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a light layer of snow that will burn off tomorrow. When it snows, it becomes warmer. The snow blankets everything. I’m so cozy, 
I have the right clothing, (leather) and the fireplace, (still worried about back smoke) me little pot belly, (stove, not me stomach) and Nour my infrared heater. I am set for the night.

So this is how the world ends.

copyright 3/2020

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