R+D+Glow+Me

One word. Amalfi.
Trying to get from the Palisades to Santa Monica and want to avoid PCH/Ocean Drive. It's all about Amalfi to Entrada to 7th. And, damn, them's some houses on that road.

Had dinner with sporting chums at R+D Kitchen, recently opened in Santa Monica. There's a red plastic elephant and good burgers. And the restrooms? Four individual stalls -- Man, Woman, Man, Woman -- pitch black like a camp loo, and three communal sinks all askew. Mad weird. But all the women in line for the ladies were very friendly and talkative. One woman congenially complained about the communal sinks making it impossible to apply her zit medication. Sharing is caring, I guess.

Then took my leave of good friends and walked down to--


Trudged through the whole thing, the part on Ocean, took the bridge over PCH to the beach (which scared the crap out of my height-phobic knees), walked far in the sand (great exercise) in my bare feet from the funny light installations to the north of the pier,

to the pier itself.
At the base, children played on what I think is a time capsule.

Then I walked up and down the pier, saw famous actors without makeup on, and then to the south side of the pier, where there were colored glow sticks in the sand and blinking blue butterflies,

and a structure with lights dancing on it to music,

and on my way back, this, which wasn't part of the craziness, I don't think,

and then back to Ocean, past a parade of people with lanterns (that may or may not have had fish on them)

and back to California and 7th, a million miles away, where I was parked.

The installations weren't all that awe-inspiring to those of us who have ever been to Disney World or the Tate Modern, but the sheer volume of people, from those who wore neon, light-flashing apparel for the hell of it, to the homeless, to the guy dressed all in black running fast somewhere, to the guards protecting the Kohler porta-potties from who knows, to the guy who loudly suggested that the people lined up for free Starbucks samples were there to be "deloused," to the guy who drunkenly grabbed at my crotch as I was walking towards the Promenade, it was THE PEOPLE were what made Glow kind of awesome.