2009-07-05 17:02:42 -Straight Outta Compton. #187
Originally uploaded by b dubbs

Slept in a bit, kinda. I woke up early to watch the tour. After a bit I just went back to bed. When I got up I watched it on my DVR. Stage 2 was a sprint stage and those are usually good for an exciting finish. This one was not a let down by any means. Good Tour day.

I figured since today was day #187 of the year I would tour from Long Beach through Compton and into Watts to see the Watts Towers and to shoot photos. I set off around 3 wearing my NWA Straight Outta Compton shirt, with Straight Outta Compton on loop coming out the speakers and decided to skip the highways and take back roads. I cruised up PCH to Alameda and made my way in. I grabbed a Welcome to Compton sign photo, cruised by the High School (see above) and the Civic Center to take a photo of the iconic MLK Jr. Memorial Sculpture. On my way to the civic center I had a few cops blow past me at high speeds with the sirens blaring. I grabbed a quick picture of that. The Civic center is a pretty rad spot. I rode it last year with Jeff Z and Adam Taylor. A civic local loved my shirt.

I set off to cruise into Watts to check out the Watts Towers. If you saw the towers you would instantly know them from any South Central LA based movie. When I turned into the neighborhood back road to cruise by the towers, I will admit I was pretty quickly shook. Crazy locals in hoopties blowing through stop signs, not really giving a fuck. I found the towers circled them and didn’t really spend any quality time checking them out. I pretty much just shot some pics and bounced.

On the way out I stayed on the main roads and eventually hit Long Beach Blvd. and cruised that back towards home. The scene on LB Blvd is what you would expect to see for the area, ratty hood. Part way through is where I ran into the cops I passed earlier. There were tons of cops, tons of caution tape and a huge area of neighborhoods blocked off. I grabbed some photos of that scene as well.

The whole adventure was only a few hours. I came home chilled and uploaded my photos from the day. A bit later Ryan let me know he had fired up the grill and some dudes were coming over. i made some food and watched a movie in my room, while doing some laundry.

Full week coming up and I want to be fresh for it. I really hope my knee is feeling better for Fantasy Factory filming on Thursday. Should be a good time. Lots of photos on the Flickr.

bdubblevision was here.

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