Unfinished Sympathy: Revisited

Just for fun, Rob and I decided to go to the Pico-Union neighborhood—where they shot the video for Massive Attack’s classic “Unfinished Sympathy”—to see how the area looks twenty-odd years later. The clip (directed by Baillie Walsh) is done in one continuous take, with a Steadicam following Shara Nelson as she walks down three blocks of Pico Boulevard amid a stream of locals.

We couldn’t replicate the moody lighting—late-afternoon sunlight in summer being a wholly different thing from late-afternoon sunlight in winter, which it appears to be in the video—but it was interesting to see what had and hadn’t changed from 1990/1991. This is roughly around 0:25, where we first see Shara from across the street, walking along New Hampshire Avenue right before she turns onto Pico itself.

A lot of storefronts are completely different now, but here at about 1:46, right near the corner, you can see at least some places still have their stuff out on the sidewalk.

Then at 2:14, no biker extras in sight after crossing Berendo Street, but the tower of the Korean Evangelical Nah Sung Church is still recognizable.

2:34: The projecting eave of one store is unchanged, and right behind it, you can see the front edge of that barbershop between my ears.

Jumping ahead to 3:58, we’ve now crossed Catalina Street, the one time in the video we can actually see a street name. The signage is different but the carnicería is still there, the big concrete bus bench has been replaced by a smaller metal one, and have I mentioned that there aren’t nearly as many payphones as there used to be?

Also intact: the neighborhood grocery Shara passes at 4:17, where those women are inexplicably using the store’s inventory to stage a food fight. What a waste of perfectly good produce that was!

And then finally at 5:14, Shara rounds the corner here on Dewey Avenue, disappearing from sight, ending the video, and embarking on a solo career shortly thereafter. As you do.

One last thing: As far as I could tell, there aren’t any pet stores visible in “Unfinished Sympathy,” but we saw one now—look, baby bunnies! The black one’s hidden behind the white one, but trust me, there were two, only a few weeks old and just beginning to see the world around them.

Welcome, little guys. You might end up staying here in Central L.A., you might not, but may your eyes always be open to both the changes and the constants around you your entire lives.

And don’t waste your lettuce the way humans do.