Los Angeles has a great number of large attractions…. but it also has a million little things to see…
L.A. is just waaaay to big to take in during a short vacation stay….. go back to L.A. time and again…. each time you’ll find new wonders you passed in the first rush of excitement.
I’ve been up and down Melrose Avenue in LA many times… it’s a more ‘upscale’ and less ‘provocative’ version of Venice Beach. The stores are often high-end retail outlets…. but there is a huge amount of strangeness and excitement in some of the stores themselves…. Melrose has a large number of piercing and tattoo shops…. sometimes it seems as though almost everyone has ‘inked sleeves’. Some of the stores themselves deal with strangely unique subjects… the store ‘Necromance‘ for instance is filled chock-a-block with skeletons of animals… skulls of everything from beavers to rats, X-Rays of animals so you can see the skeletons… fully articulated snake skeletons… dried creatures…. skins.. etc. The people running the shop are similarly as unique as their merchandise…. people with lots of black make-up giving a cadaverous appearance….. it’s all quite interesting to a country boy with an interest in anthropology.
They say ‘if you want to make a living… you’ve got to put on a good show’.
I met a showman yesterday on Melrose… Richie the Barber has been cutting hair at a barbershop/tattoo parlor with the tattoo artist ‘Adam’ for some years now. Richie cuts quite a figure on Melrose where he stands out even amongst the regulars on the avenue. The bowler hat… the waxed mustache (I’ve got to try that one day), the clothes he wears.. reminiscent of a 1920′s silent film guy. I am sure he appears on film on occasion….. and he’s got a friendly, open and genuine way about him that makes him seem quite approachable and a regular decent guy.
I was ambling along Melrose visiting some of the trendy restaurants to see if any might be interested in our cactus when I passed him on the street. When he saw my long hair he perhaps thought he’d be able to cut it… but nooooo…. I haven’t been in a barber shop for over twenty five years… not even walked in! He was a bit put out about that…. as though he was offended… so I stepped into the darkly light shop… the walls festooned with photos of celebrities they’ve tattooed or cut the hair of. Artworks adorn the shop…. I think he must trade artwork for a haircut sometimes, there is so much interesting stuff to look at in that shop while he cuts your hair.
Okay now… after a quarter of a century I have once again set foot into a barbershop… but my hair is still on my head (what hasn’t fallen out naturally yet anyway)…. but I did get to see a showman at work.
If you are on Melrose and want to get a custom haircut by Richie, and a tattoo by Adam, you can find them at 7303 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood CA 90046. You can find their website at www.kiksnink.com
Richie the showman barber
‘Cherokee Fiddle’
~Michael Martin Murphy’
When the train pulled in to the station
He’d slick back his hair, rosin up his bow
Fiddled upside down, ‘Orange-Blossom Special’
If you want to make a living, you’ve got to put on a good show
And when he’d smell the smoke and the cinders
He rolled his up sleeves, and opened up his case
Played Cherokee Fiddle, he played it for the whiskey
Good whiskey never let him lose his place
He was always there, playing for the miners
‘Devil’s Dream’ was a song they understood
Then he’d go back to Oklahoma
And he’d wait ’till the trains were runnin’
and the weather was good
And when he’d smell the smoke and the cinders
He rolled up his sleeves, and opened up his case
Played Cherokee Fiddle, he played it for the whiskey
Good whiskey never let him lose his place
Now the Indians are dressin’ up like cowboys
And the cowboys are puttin’ leather and turquoise on
And the music is sold by the lawyers
And the fools who fiddled in the middle of the stations are gone
Some folks say they’ll never miss them
old fiddles squealed like the engine brakes
Cherokee Fiddle is gone forever
like the sound of the whistle that the old locomotives made
So when you smell the smoke and the cinders
Slick your hair back, and open up your case
Play Cherokee Fiddle, play it for the whiskey
Good whiskey never lets you lose your place
good whiskey never lets you lose your place