WANDERING SANTA MONICA AND VENICE

Walking through beach towns in the City of Angels

I’ve been spending time in Los Angeles working on a number of projects, studying the habits of the locals. I’m not far from the site of the devastating fires earlier this year but, in a city so spread out, my friends out here no longer feel impacted for it, having put the memory of the smoke and paranoia in their rear view memory — for now.

Santa Monica and Venice are prosperous towns — pricy enclaves in a sprawling city — but the public beach access (unlike Malibu) means it gets people out of their cars and attracts working class families on the weekends. The Santa Monica Pier is a special attraction and the atmosphere reminds me of Coney Island back in Brooklyn. On nights after work I’ll occassionally walk on the pier, looking for the buzz of pedestrian life that is often absent in LA. Plus I have an sentimental attachment to the place, since the night in 1992 when CB4 was green lit I played air hockey at the arcade.

During the pandemic my wife and I lived in Silverlake and would drive out to Venice, rent a bike and travel from Marina Del Rey to Malibu and back. Friends told me about the Venice Electric Ride, a wonderful collective of bikes lit with lights that bring music and joy every Sunday night at sundown. I happily stumbled upon them this past weekend and vowed to rejoin that moving party.

I’ll be posting a lot of Follow the Sound videos in the coming weeks as Los Angeles is filled with the ghosts of studios, clubs and offices that I visited back in the hey day of the music business, site that shaped American music and gave this sunny city the snap and crackle of hustle and creativity. I’ll be engaging with the spectre spirits gone and sound of now distant melodies. Lots more to come.