I'm laying in bed now, slightly drunk, listening to Tom Waits. It was a night of Red Bull and Vodka's.

My friend Jakob and his girlfriend Marta are staying with me now. We're having a real good time. Jakob runs blumpy.org and we met "over the internet" because I watched one of the shorts he made and IM'ed one of the screen names featured in the short. He and I started talking via IM, then phone, and now he and Marta are staying with me for about a week.

Jakob and I are getting along very well. We were both a little freaked out about what the other person was going to be like.

His girlfriend Marta is really cool too. The first night that they were up Marta was really wiped out and had to go to sleep earlier then Jakob and I. So I ended up talking to Jakob all night. The second night they were up Jakob was tired, so that was my night to talk to Marta all night. It was nice to be able to get to know her that night. I really like her a lot.

We finally shot that damn doctor video. What we got was good, but we didn't get as much as we needed. We had everything scheduled down to the minute but too many people that we were interviewing on camera showed up late so we weren't able to get everything we needed for the day. I'm sure we're going to have to shoot more.

Marta has been telling Jakob that he needs a haircut. I'm sure that she would have been telling me the same thing but since she doesn't know what I normally look like she was unaware of how bad my hair was looking.

So the three of us were walking on Fairfax, next to Canters (my favorite deli in LA.) We saw a sign for a barber shop that said nine dollar haircuts. We decided to get haircuts. As we walked near to the barber shop we saw an older woman outside of the shop eating lunch. She asked us if we needed haircuts, we said yes.

We were all pretty thirsty so I suggested to Jakob that he and Marta go and buy some drinks while she starts my haircut. They did that.

I was really looking forward to the haircut. The place was like a real old barber shop. Usually I get my haircut at Supercuts or some chain like that. I liked this place because it seemed like a real barber shop, not like some chain or something. I really wanted the haircut to be good, or at least decent so I would want to come back.

The woman, Martha, started by telling me that the clippers that she was using on my head were no good, her good ones were broken.

It got worse from there.

The barber chair didn't really work, she couldn't really raise or lower it so she was standing on a stool the whole time. Just before she started to cut my hair she put on a face mask, the sort that a house painter would wear. She said that she needs it so she doesn't get sick.

When she began cutting my hair I noticed that she didn't wet my hair before cutting it. That seemed unusual to me.

After Martha began cutting my hair she told me that she is a stylist as well as a barber. She asked me what sort of cut I would prefer. I didn't really understand the difference but I told her that the barber cut was fine.

There was another barber in the shop. He looked to be a man in his mid-fifties. His sideburns were white but the hair on his head has been colored bright red. The sort of bright red that he probably thinks is a natural color, but everyone else knows is fake. Because I saw how awful his hair was I was very glad that it was Martha, not him cutting my hair. For the rest of this update I will refer to him as, "Red."

While Jakob and Marta were gone 2 more men came into the barber shop. They both appeared to be regular customers of Martha's. One of them them came in with his dog, and I was pretty sure that that has got to be some sort of health code violation.

When Jakob and Marta came back the fun began to start. Martha has a radio on her counter. The radio was in a white garbage bag. You can not see the radio at all, only hear it. She had classical music playing at a volume where you can just comfortably hear the music. It was not loud by any means.

Red started yelling at Martha to turn down her music. She turned it off for about five seconds, then returned it to the same volume. Red didn't like that and threatened to call someone. He went up to the payphone, put in 75 cents, dialed half a phone number and hung up.

So now there is Jakob and 2 other guys waiting for a haircut from Martha, and no one is getting a haircut from Red. Red starts getting really angry telling Martha that just because she sits outside of the entrance to the shop that not every walk in customer belongs to her. Martha says that she needs to make a living. It became clear that whenever Martha is in an argument and has nothing else to say her response is simply, "I have to make a living."

Jakob hasn't had a chance to sit yet. He walks over to the other side of the barber shop (the side Red is on) because all the seats on Martha's side have either have magazines or customers sitting on them. Martha stops cutting my hair in order to clean up a seat so Jakob will sit on her side. She demanded that he does not sit Reds side of the barber shop.

This really makes Red angry. He starts pacing back and forth in the shop. You can see him forming an argument in his head. He asks Jakob if he came into the store as a walk in, or to get a haircut from Martha. Martha doesn't really allow Jakob to finish. She just keeps cutting off Red from asking Jakob any more questions and she just says over and over that she is just trying to make a living.

Martha and Red fight for a few minutes while she's cutting my hair. I made sure not to get involved in the fight but it was weird to literally be sitting in between two people who are having a fight while one of them was holding scissors near my head.

The fight finally subsides by Martha donating Jakob to Red.

Martha finishes my hair (she did a really crappy job) and I pay her. Her next customer sits down. By the way the two of them talk he is clearly a repeat customer. He is telling Martha that he is going to a charity event that he goes to once a year and that it's really important to him. He just wants a little off the neck and the ears.

Martha begins cutting his hair. He reiterates how important it is to him that she does a good job. He tells her not to rush it. Martha tells him that she has customers waiting and that she needs to rush. She needs to make a living. He tells her that if she rushes that he'll just simply leave. Martha tells him that she needs to rush. He stays for the haircut but is clearly very angry.

I walk over to see what is going on with Jakob and Red.

Like Martha, Red did not wet Jakob's hair. He just simply started cutting his hair. As he is cutting Jakob's hair he is telling us what a great and complex haircut that Jakob is getting. Neither Marta nor I have been able to spot any of the intricacies that Red told us were part of Jakob's haircut. Just a bunch of spots of hair that are about a half in longer then others.

Finally Red finishes the haircut. He asks for 9 dollars. Jakob says he only has a 20. Red takes it and places it in his wallet. He asks Jakob how much he wants back. Jakob asks if 5 dollars is all right. Red says 5 dollars back is great and he gives Jakob 5 dollars back.

After that we left but we came back with a video camera to try to interview Martha about what happened yesterday. She talked our ear off but wouldn't let us videotape her. She was really nervous about that for some reason. She wouldn't even talk to us inside of the store because they have a video camera near the entrance. She would only talk to us outside, out of it's view.

Earlier that while we were walking around Melrose we say a guy who looked like Charles Crumb. He was in his mid fifties, wearing shorts, long socks pulled all the way up, and a green vest. The sort of vest you wear to keep warm, not to be fashionable. It was not cold out. He was drinking from the sort of cup you get at an amusement park when you pay 7 dollars for a drink. He looked liked he must be at least slightly retarded.

Marta and Jakob were walking ahead of me. I saw that as Marta walked passed the man he started really checking her out. Not just casually looking or anything but in a really creepy slack jawed way. He really freaked me out.

When we got out of earshot of him I told Marta and Jakob about him. The just sort of laughed it off.

Later that day we went to the farmers market. Just by chance we saw him again their. He took a seat at a table next to us. He positioned himself directly across from Marta. He was starring at her with his mouth open while he ate a sandwich. Marta was really getting grossed out by him. Jakob moved his chair very obviously so that it would obstruct his line of sight to Marta. Marta said she he looked really sad after that.