El Chato - is this performance art?

This morning I stepped out to my scion to find a hawk tearing apart a pigeon on my car roof. Was this an omen? Was I the hawk and this is a favorable sign of the strength of my house and line? Or rather am I the hapless prey whose feather and guts had to be hosed off from my roof? Or maybe it is not an omen at all, but rather a reminder about the violent, random temporal nature of life.

Personally I find more meaning in my quest for sublime pastor. Leaving Chicago and returning to my beloved Southern California has been a mixed bag of emotions, but certainly the knowledge that superior Mexican food awaited me at every corner assuaged in part the sense of loss for that left behind. El Chato food truck (corner of Olympic and La Brea) has served late-night mid-city denizens for years, but with the recent blossoming of food truck culture with LA as its epicenter, even the humblest of roach coaches has developed an online following.

After an evening supporting the performing arts, Aphorism King and I needed instant pastor gratification, his earlier well seasoned steaks already a distant, digested memory. At $1 a piece, these small handfuls of grease and spice served their purpose.

Korean dudes next to baller, late-model German automobiles; banda members in matching performance outfits walking from one of the nearby Hispanic night clubs; a hipster with aggro calf tattoos riding a precariously high, self-made bicycle: It would be an interested first-year photography student project to document the eclectic clientèle that steps up to El Chato's 2'x 2' ordering window. I realized that I was much further from Lincoln Park's Mid West white frat culture than geographical distance implied. Bittersweet, like the pineapple finish to Big Star's pastor tacos.

< Aphorism King attempting to reenact his wide-eyed wonder at the bicycle guy mounting a seat that was a full 5 feet above street-level.

I took an operations class in business school, and even though I hated it, I couldn't help but recall several process flow concepts as I watched the efficient cooks quickly dispose of our order.