UNIVERSAL WORKS PARKAS & HOMELESS X-MEN

Images via MUTINY

I'm almost willing to leave LA and move to a place with actual weather just to have a reason to buy this Field Parka from Universal Works. Almost. As tempting as this ridiculously cool and extremely well-made piece of outerwear is, I'm not quite done with my Los Angeles experiment. My first day in this city, I saw a homeless man with the ability to control pigeons, standing by the freeway exit. He would call them from the power lines and down they would dutifully swoop to alight on his finger with the utmost grace. Then he would send them away, flying off in the direction of his choosing. After each demonstration of his avian authority, he would turn to the waiting cars and bow. Not a quick bow, mind you, but a deep, I-just-finished-a-symphony bow, as if to say "You saw that shit, right?". I've never seen that man again, despite the fact that I'm in that neighborhood pretty frequently. Maybe he's out there right now, training an army of loyalist pigeons in anticipation of the coming war between birds and mankind. Maybe he lives with a bunch of other hobos with superpowers, like some bedraggled, indigent version of the X-Men. Or maybe he stumbled into the street and got clipped by a leopard print PT Cruiser as it exited the 101. We may never know the real story -RB