8763 Wonderland

We are totally digging LAist under the editorial hand of new chief Tony Pierce. The joint is looking less like a local bulletin board and more like a kick ass bit of L.A. anarchy. (Thank God that banal “20 Under 30″ series is about to come to an end).

This morning, LAist debuted a new ongoing series, “My First Time in L.A.”, featuring posts by folks recollecting their first take on the City of Angels. The debut posting is by a looker named Raymi and it’s a harrowing tale indeed:

hi my name is raymi and the first time i went to your city i went cuhrazy and i was thrown in a mental hospital at the UCLA Medical Center or some shit and they had to put me in four-point restraints and inject my left hip with something that knocked me out cos i was 100% hypo-manic, you know like the equivalent of doing a bunch of meth except i wasn’t on meth at all. they were worried i would give myself a heart attack, i had to blow into this little box breathalizer styles and continuously blow to see what my heartrate was anyway before the injection fully kicked in i managed to get one of the restraints unbuckled, i started on the second one but soon passed out. i woke up and was all WTF!?

i remember this one dude showed up in a yellow rain slicker and he was preaching about julia roberts ruining his life and she was stalking him and I BELIEVED IT!

Turns out Raymi, like yours truly, has bi-polar disorder. Read the whole adventure here.

And over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, Dennis Cozzalio links to “She’s Not Clean” as part of his weekend reading recommendations and writes:

Seriously, if you lack a taste and/or tolerance for graphic imagery, you might want to think twice about clicking on this link. But then think again three times, because Rodger is a really good writer and the story is agonizing, pretty damn funny, and full of the kind of observational nuance that can only be provided by somebody who’s been there and has the eyes and the ears to tell it the way it should be told.

Thanks, Dennis!