The Wong San Wheels Chronicle #15: "Oh my god, being carless in LA is like having your legs cut off!"

My friend Marc Norberg took these pictures of me in Minneapolis before I left in May.

Last Friday I did a performance... an homage to one year of being broken up with car ownership. I held a picture of Harold up to the crowd and like a jilted ex-girlfriend choked through fake tears about how much I tried to make it work with him, but he was such an old mess (at 27) he just let me down time and time again. He was also a money pit and a girl like me deserves better than having to give so much of my hard earned money to a useless piece of shit. I want to fall in love with a car again (maybe a nice Japanese model, from a good factory) but am scared of getting hurt.

This Friday I do another performance with slides on an old Kodak carousel where I'll tell more stories of well intended green living that blew up (literally!) in my face.

There's one thing the carless thing has really been showing me about this city-- it's really big and really spread out and there's a whole lotta stuff in it. This morning, I caught a ride (via Facebook update) to an audition with the editor of my concert film, Tina. I caught a ride back with this guy from Craigslist (nah, don't worry, I sussed it out, it was safe) who I bought a new laptop from. I'm enjoying these free rides about town which come as fast as texting "Need a ride from Silverlake to Weho, call me if you're going that way") on my phone. Finally, I put my 1400+ Facebook friends to use as a private car service!

What I'm really seeing is a glimpse of people's lives. On their routes of life, I am a fly on the wall (or passenger in their car).

I finally got to meet my friend Rena's two daughters when she beckoned my facebook call and drove me to the beach. she put down the back seat of her SUV up for me and I sat behind her kids. I'm thinking now, that the friends I always say I want to catch up with, I may only be able to catch up with IN TRANSIT!