7.01pm, June 12, Losanjealous, CA. DF careens through another tunnel, hopelessly lost in the city planning nightmare that is downtown LA. Desired destination: LA City Music Hall, and in particular, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, or REDCAT (get it? it’s an acronym) for the premiere of “Free Pegasus”, a film about skateboarding in Barcelona. It’s totally going to be like Dogtown & Z-Boys meets … um … Barcelona.
7.10pm. After countless trips through tunnels and down infuriatingly unhelpful one-way streets, an impromptu and unwelcome tour of Little Tokyo, and enough swearing to melt the tender hearts of a thousand Mormon babies, DF hangs a left, ascends a random upslant, and all of a sudden the music hall rises before him in the crepuscule, looming like an unthreatening alien spacecraft.
7.15pm. REDCAT is easy to find tonight; just follow the cortege of boarders along Grand Avenue and down Second Street. The crowd milling about is decked out in skater-casual. DF feels uneasy in his de rigeur tuxedo, and sidles up to the bar for a nerve-soothing beverage, whereupon he is informed that the drinks are on the house. No, bartender, there is no need to console me. These are tears of joy.