A music video which captures the essence of my homeless attorney. Filmed in a U.S. Vets homeless veterans shelter dorm room. Part of a series.
When I was homeless in Los Angeles, I adopted a cantankerous but feisty 72 year-old mumblecrust named Donald Steinberg who was living out of cars and raggedy RVs. I had met him when I was living in an RV which I had gotten permission to park behind an Arco gas station in Gardena. We had lots of Homeless On Wheels adventures. Lots of them: dumpsterdiving, soup kitchen cruising and busting his pit bull and german shepherd out of doggie jail.
Later, when I moved into a homeless veteran's shelter in Inglewood, Don would visit and pontificate on his favorite subject: Bush is the devil.
Since this was a shelter that housed only U.S. military veterans and veterans tend to lean to the right politically, Don's vitriolic tirades against our Commander In Chief weren't received happily, but they were received, because although Don was not an affiliate of our fraternity of warriors, he was a card-carrying member of our brotherhood of the street.
And so, Don was adopted by many of the 500 veterans housed at that shelter, which came in handy when he was arrested for having $26,000 in unpaid parking tickets and needed some help getting out of jail. We got him off with community service at the shelter, which consisted mostly of watching TV in our day room.
Later, when I moved into a homeless veteran's shelter in Inglewood, Don would visit and pontificate on his favorite subject: Bush is the devil.
Since this was a shelter that housed only U.S. military veterans and veterans tend to lean to the right politically, Don's vitriolic tirades against our Commander In Chief weren't received happily, but they were received, because although Don was not an affiliate of our fraternity of warriors, he was a card-carrying member of our brotherhood of the street.
And so, Don was adopted by many of the 500 veterans housed at that shelter, which came in handy when he was arrested for having $26,000 in unpaid parking tickets and needed some help getting out of jail. We got him off with community service at the shelter, which consisted mostly of watching TV in our day room.
I've been trying to find a way to capture the essence of this man I call 'my homeless attorney.' Don is a man full of rakish, mirthful life at the age of 72. His 'why suffer LITTLE problems when you can turn them in to holocausts' modus operandi exasperated me often but smelled tart and fruity and full of vitamin C compared to my old sneakers-reeking life.
I think I've captured the gypsy wunderkind of Don in the above video. Forget the lack of plot and bad editing in the little video. Can you smell the vitamin C?
Tags: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Veteran Affairs, U.S. Vets, Westside Residence Hall, homeless veterans shelter, homeless, homeless veteran, viral video, funny videos, social video, documentary video, vlogger, vlogging, vlog, Los Angeles, cantankerous, mumblecrust, living in a car, living in an RV, homeless on wheels, Bush is the devil, US military veterans, vitriolic tirades, Commander In Chief, fraternity of warriors, brotherhood of the street, Steinberg
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