7 Days in NoHo: Diary of a Homeless Person

By Richard Del Connor, Buddha Zhen, Buddha Z

When I moved to Los Angeles in 2013 to make my movie, Kung Fu Cowboy: Rock & Roll Movie 1, I had a new black card table, four chairs, my Fender Stratocaster and Marshall amp in the back shell of my 1996 Toyota Tacoma truck. I was a mobile office and ready to perform as a solo artist whenever possible in nightclubs or rehearsal rooms. I figured I’d be a movie producer-actor and in less than a year I’d upgrade to a Winnebago or an apartment in L.A. making my movie.

I wrote a memoir that year and published it in the NoHo Park Library. Supersoul 13 was the story of trying to make my movie… that I thought I was going to make.

I am always writing songs and decided to release an album of songs I had written in 2013 and 2014 for the soundtrack of my movie. I recorded most of the album inside my truck which I referred to as, “Tacoma Studios.” I released the album on July 4, 2014 and couldn’t sell more than a dozen records which could be downloaded for free at https://americanzen.bandcamp.com/album/end-of-the-line with hope people would pay for it… but they didn’t.

The Freemasons I had joined in 2007 were not the brotherhood I had read of them to be in books in novels. They called me, “A drain on the Lodge,” as I begged for a free dinner at each week’s meeting which everyone else paid $10 for. They suggested I quit freemasonry. So I resigned in 2015.

Then I published a paperback book from the NoHo Park Library, Masonic Kung Fu, about a pair of teenagers in China as the Japanese invaded to begin WWII. It’s based on a true story and rather exciting. I couldn’t get the Freemasons to buy my books or take my Kung Fu classes the book was based upon.

In 2016, I was losing my faith and my co-writer / co-producer had given up to take a day job. I put the card table and chairs in storage, pawned my amplifier and realized I was abandoned by my dream to make a movie.

I was teaching Shaolin Kung Fu classes in the park and studying comedy books to become a stand-up comedian because it seemed like the cheapest way to fame and stardom. One of my students wanted to be my manager and was excitedly telling people how he was going to spend his 15% commission making me famous. I’m glad he believed in me, but he was from El Salvador and had no connections and couldn’t afford to pay our 2-drink minimum in the comedy clubs I performed in.

I tried to throw a Push Hands Tournament in the park and pursued volunteers and Trustees for my nonprofit organization I founded in 1996, Tai Chi Youth. Non of these 65 people I interviewed would volunteer for my nonprofit or work for less than $75,000 which I had never made during any year of my entire life.

My dreams were being shot, pummeled, beat up and stomped on. I was trying to be hopeful and started teaching Yoga lessons… but homelessness was like a web inside a trash can—and I couldn’t climb out.

I was in denial that I was a homeless person, but decided that maybe, just maybe… if I tell this story… I could sell enough books to escape Homeless life.

So here it is: 7 Days in NoHo - Diary of a Homeless Person.