ode (or false praise) to Los Angeles...

I'm in Los Angeles today: it smells like an airport runway,
jet fuel stenches in the cabin and lights flickering at random.
I'm in Los Angeles today: garbage cans comprise the medians
of freeways always creeping, even when the population's sleeping.

And I can't see why you'd want to live here.

I'm in Los Angeles today: asked a gas station employee
if he ever had trouble breathing
he said "It varies from season to season, kid."

It's where our best are on display:
motion picture actor's houses maps are never ever current,
so save your film and fifteen dollars.

And I can't see why you'd want to live here.

Billboards reach past the tallest buildings
"We are not perfect, but we sure try"
As UV rays "degradate" our youth with time.

The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic state
in the belly of the beast that is Californ-i-a
I drank from a faucet and I kept my receipts
from when they weigh me on the way out (here nothing is free)

The Greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the streets
until the gutters overflow and Los Angeles thinks "I might explode someday soon."

It's a lovely summer's day and I can almost see the skyline
through a thickening shroud of egos. (is this the city of angels or demons?)

Here the names are what remain: stars encapsulate the gold lane
and they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating,


You can't swim in a town this shallow
Cause you will most assuridly drown tomorrow

Why You'd Want to Live Here
Death Cab for Cutie