Things have been very busy.

We decided to force an escape from the current pressures and obligations to explore our immediate surroundings.

Coco’s Variety is a small bikeshop/convienence store/neighborhood emporium in Silverlake.

The store serves a variety of needs to a local clientele that would have to travel further away to find the same items.

From their site: “Coco’s Variety sells flyswatters, glass 5 gallon water bottles, headache remedies, oil cloth by the yard, used bicycles, California souvenir tablecloths, Kit-Cat Klocks, gumballs, Mexican Cokes in glass bottles, squirt guns, tote bags adorned with hula girls, Lodge cast iron frying pans, old American-made tools, baskets for your bicycle, wood matches, reverse osmosis purified drinking water by the gallon and fancy Jadeite cake plates for fancy cakes on fancy occasions.”

It’s a great place to find a used bike or get your ride fixed up.

Once you get all squared away, you can hop onto the L.A. River bike path which is very close by.

A mix of urban and natural phenomenon keeps the ride interesting.

Clear your head and do a few throw ups.

This section of the river, known as the Glendale Narrows, is the only part that is not completely lined with concrete.

The southern part of the path is undergoing a slow renovation and is a bit hard to navigate, but that’s where you’ll find some of the best views

This is home to many bird species, including Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, American Coot, Black-necked Stilt and Muscovy Duck. It is also surrounded by a chain link fence.

From there we took a ride through Frogtown, a neighborhood that was isolated from the larger community when the 5 freeway was built.

It’s a quiet place where many artists have taken root.

I even spotted Shepard Fairey’s car parked on the street.

If you can do it, get away from the computer, the TV, the treadmill, the Apple tablet, the Multiplex, the Kindle, the 3D, the satellite navigation system, the Facebook, the Twitter, the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation 3, the Pinkberry or the Blackberry and try instead to get some true variety in your day.

When I was a teenager, instead of playing sports or studying or getting wasted after school, I got on a train, or into a friend’s car and came here.

My mom had no idea I was spending all my time at the Brooklyn Banks, a famous skateboard spot and cultural landmark in lower Manhattan.

The space is a park, of sorts, that lies in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. A depressing folly of city planning that was occupied only by the homeless until skateboarders made the discovery in the 1980’s. It quickly became a meeting spot for skaters, graffiti artists, photographers, filmmakers, musicians and whoever else happened to know about it.

On a good day at the banks you might see Larry Clark casting his film Kids, Ari Marcopolis shooting photos with a Polaroid Land camera, or Lady Miss Kier from Deee-Lite walking her poodle.

Pro skaters from all over the world came here to skate. Here’s a photo of Lance Mountain doing a road sign-to-boneless in 1985, when Stacy Peralta brought the Bones Brigade here to film the New York segment for the Future Primitive video. Photo by C.R. Stecyk

The wall, which is now unskatable, was a dangerous set-up where if you made the trick, you then had to worry about being hit by taxi cabs flying down the BQE offramp.

That didn’t stop anyone. Here’s Jeff Pang going over the wall on the cover of Thrasher from 1993.

The banks are set to close until 2014 for painting of the bridge and renovation of the park, so I went down to pay my respects.

Although local skaters have been fighting to make sure skateboarding has a place in the new park, many are doubtful.

One thing I know is that this place, that to a large degree made me, and more than a few times broke me, will never be the same. Always remember the banks!

Metroplitan Ad shot by Ari Marcopolis. Scans swiped from the Chrome Ball Incident and my personal stash.