The Soloist

"Points West" by Steve Lopez.

A construction foreman in Griffith Park

heard the crash.

Hey!

He saw a cyclist cartwheel off his bike

and slam face-first into the unforgiving

asphalt of Riverside Drive.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

As we begin our descent

into Los Angeles,

we ask that you please be sure

that your seatbelts are fastened...

A 911 call brought out the troops

from Fire Station 76.

- What happened?

- You had an accident.

- Do you know what happened?

- No sh*t, I had an accident. What?

I don't remember any of this,

nor do I recall the cause of the spill.

- Our batteries are off.

- I've been in here six hours now, and...

Listen to me. Wait a minute.

We're ready to go...

Hypochondriac.

OR 2.

County-USC was

the closest emergency room,

and I quickly realized

that if you find yourself there

with nothing more than

a bump on the head,

you are one lucky Angeleno.

Wow.

Ready.

I'm not entirely comfortable with this.

Thank you.

You have no new messages.

You have no new messages.

Okay.

Really?

Doctors told me to expect

up to four weeks of disorientation.

Christ. All right.

I'm not asking for sympathy.

I just want you to know, I just...

I'm not asking for sympathy.

I just want you to understand

what's going on

if I start writing about

what a bang-up job

Governor Schwarzenegger's doing.

S-C-H-W-A-R-Z... Scratch that.

Pass. Lacks context.

Right. So the question is...

Hey, Tommy.

Theoretically could I,

seeing as how the Governor has retired

his position at the muscle magazine,

could I interview him?

Right. And will my non-Teutonic lineage

be an issue?

See, no, that's... That's...

It gets to be funny. It's just an article.

Do I need to have been on steroids

for a long time to even apply?

Good.

Gail, I like

the "attention must be paid" reference.

I might move it down a paragraph,

though.

Thanks. I'm getting you a new desk.

Good morning, gentlemen.

- Thanks.

- Hey, guys. Check it out.

I got a study here that says

the number of Americans under 35

who read a newspaper

is now down to 40%.

- Forty?

- Forty.

And the group we're losing mostly

are college-educated women.

- Pull my finger.

- Jesus Christ.

Hey, honey.

"Welcome back, Steve."

That would have been nice.

Thank you. You know, when Lopez

and I started out together...

You had to walk 20 miles to school

in the snow with no shoes?

...people cared about

what went on in the world.

- Am I right, Steve? I mean, Christ.

- Back when people cared.

We're at war, and the only thing

that sells papers

is a Lindsay Lohan cooch shot.

Jesus, did someone

actually run that in print?

- I thought that was just on the Web.

- All right, all right.

- All I am saying is...

- I didn't see that.

...that if you run an excellent,

if I do say so myself,

front-page piece about how corporate

America is profiting from this war,

and the only reader response you get

is on two hands...

- Meanwhile...

- That was a good piece, by the way.

- Fine. Thanks. You read it?

- I read that.

- Did you really?

- I didn't read it, but I loved it, Curt.

Meanwhile, Lopez here

scrapes his forehead,

and gets, what,

I'm guessing about 75 e-mails

from readers worried about his safety?

- I chased this piece.

- Then I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

There is something

very wrong in this world.

Newsflash, something wrong

with the world.

Yeah.

Your face hurts my feelings, Steve.

That's harassment.

- Mary?

- An environmental group studying...

- Please.

...chemical contaminants

- in people's bodies.

- I literally... No.

- Give some blood and write about it.

- Let me check my e-mails.

I think it would be a good idea for you.

I'm glad you feel that way. I just did that.

What do you think?

The thought in my mind is,

"No, thank you."

It was funny.

People love it when you bleed.

- Readers.

- Busted.

What is that? What do you call that,

what you just did?

- Transference.

- Freud.

Freud. Thank you. No.

Sorry about the face.

- I hate needles.

- So use it.

Originally used as a camp by settlers

outside of what was then

the village of Los Angeles,

it was called La Plaza Abaja,

or the Lower Plaza.

Stevie Wonder fan?

My Cherie Amour is the song of my life.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

But you really shouldn't write

on a violin like that

because you have to treat a violin

like a child, you have to protect it.

You only got two strings.

All I want to do is play music,

and here's the problem

that I'm having right here.

This one's gone, this one's gone,

this little one's out of commission.

But you get that in

Cleveland public schools.

A lot of military statues in Cleveland.

- A very military-oriented city.

- Is that where you're from?

You're not gonna get musicians

on parade there.

You got Severance Hall there.

You have The Music Settlement.

Ohio State University.

Whereas in Los Angeles, you have

Los Angeles PD, you have LA Times,

you have Los Angeles Lakers.

Those are armies, too.

Military regimentation, experimentation,

Roman gable, Roman Catholicism,

Colonel Sanders,

- but this guy right here is...

- Colonel Sanders.

...the quarterback with the orchestra.

Now the cello could back this guy

with the same moves,

but the cello can't be concert master.

No. He leads out, this was

Itzhak Perlman, Jascha Heifetz.

You can't play music

in the winter in Cleveland

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