Venice Beach, California USA
 

I had a free day last Sunday in Los Angeles. After I dropped a coworker off at LAX, I drove up the coast and ended up in Venice Beach. After lunch, I went on the promenade to do some shopping for gifts to take home.

After a while I was going to take a picture of the sunset. I noticed a small group of people on the beach and the sound of drumming. It turns out there is a regular Sunday drum circle on the beach at sunset.

I bought a blanket and went out to take pictures. It was a pretty diverse group of people. Everything from people who almost looked homeless to aging hippies.

So I took photos of the drum circle, the sunset, and various characters. Enjoy.

I spent a summer on that beach. Wild place. That's Wild with a capital W.

Is the chain saw juggler still there?

I got our names on grains of rice as a gift for Marci and the kids. No decals or computers - I watched he write on each grain with a small pen.

Drum circle panorama. The gentleman in the middle wearing black appeared to be leading, as much as anyone was. He was waving a flag and doing a sort of shaman dance. I have some video clips with sound, but I don't have anyplace to host it.

After dark, the promenade empties quickly.

Various characters.

Guitar guy and my version of X-Files.

There was a juggler there, but he was just sitting around when I got there. There was a (father-son?) acrobat team.

I've seen that guitar guy around.......was it on tour? maybe on tv? Maybe when i was at VB? looks like he upgraded his skates. fancy

White Men Can't Jump, I think...

that sounds about right.

reminds me of the patch guy.

Holy Cow! Guitar guy is still there!? He was there when I was there back in '88.

I was watching guitar guy while standing in front of a house and someone told me that guitar guy was Condi Rice's cousin. My disbelief must have show because he insisted it was true.

Two more pics - me on the beach and two serious dudes waiting to drum.