Like a berd on a wire...

Something happened today that put a stupid grin on my face all fucking day long.

Allow me to backtrack a moment... A local guerrilla artist started putting up painted wooden birds that he calls "berds" all over the city, hanging them from the center of power lines. I'm talking all over the place, all different colors, but all the same type of bird. Nobody knows who the artist is or what these mysterious berds represent. What I've been able to gather from some hard-hitting investigative Googling is that they started off as realistic looking sparrows, that they're done by an artist who lives in the Arts District, and that they've been seen as far north as San Francisco. And that they've been making me smile since last summer. Upon glancing at that first glorious budgie so many moons ago, it has been my ultimate goal to acquire one of these birds and make it my very own.

It was rather windy last night, and when I got into my car this morning to go to work I was atypically parked northbound instead of southbound, and consequently found myself at the stoplight at Glendale and Silver Lake above which one of those birds just happened to be hanging. However, this morning it was noticeably absent from its perch below the powerline. My heart started pounding as I realized that it was entirely conceivable that the fallen bird was laying in the road somewhere very nearby. Lo and behold, I spy the bird in the middle of the crosswalk! As I was in the left-turn lane, I wrangle a fairly dangerous maneuver and get into the far-right lane, coming to a screeching halt along the curb. I race out of my car and anxiously await the little green man telling me it is OK to rescue my precious berd, all the while cars are driving over the poor little guy. Amazingly making it unscathed, I manage to snatch it up and prance giddily back to my car as an onlooker (a man in a black leather jacket, sipping a coffee and smoking) tries to pretend not to notice what I've just accomplished.

Picture 1: similar berd hanging from power line


Picture 2: Linda with her new prized possession


Picture 3: Berd proudly displayed on me wall