Crazy Venice Beach & neighboring Santa Monica, LA
Oooh la la 🙂 Time for some celebrity spotting? Maybe in Santa Monica but you won’t find any celebrities on Venice beach – just gawkers like me who are astonished and piqued by the scene.
There are several things not to miss on/near Venice Beach including Santa Monica Area.
Venice beach has beautiful sandy shores like all nice beaches. However, the boardwalk boasts a difference. The boardwalk is FULL of street performers – of the truly eccentric kind. You need to spend an afternoon on venice beach. However, note – if you are driving all the way from Sunset Blvd, where we were living, and IF you want to “dine out” (not just grab something to eat) then I would suggest you carry a change of clothing. Because Venice beach is a stone’s throw away from posh Santa Monica, where you might want to go later in the evening. Lets start with Venice beach though.
Venice Beach/Boardwalk: Have you heard of Angelyne? If you are not lucky enough to see her driving her pink corvette in LA area (I wasn’t), then you might see Madame Butterfly on Venice Boardwalk? She walks around, all 6 ft of her, with attached butterfly wings. Then there is the singing and guitar playing “Harry Perry” on roller skates?
Also, you must get your palm and/or handwriting read by those who offer these services !! Or get your portrait sketched. There are lots of posters/paintings on sale, lots of incense and sage, lots of crazy T-shirts. All intermingled with the performers. We saw a guy jump from chairs on broken glass, contortionists, etc. etc. a band of crazily dressed musicians(?) where there was a lot of charmingly cacophonous singing on a mike, singers were sitting/jumping on a sort of small float, and were follwed by an equally cacophonous band of drummers, clanging bells, and goodness knows what all kinds of instruments. I forget what they were singing exactly, but it was all in honor of New Orleans. They were planning to practice on venice beach, marching up and down the promenade, then at some point go down to New Orleans to perform. There were others individual singers/performers who were competing with these guys. And ofcourse!! There is also the Muscle Beach. Funny part is, muscle beach guys are not performers, but its an open air gym – where tourists like me get to see how these Muscular, probably wrestlers, go about their gym business. I think its impossible for them not to preen. And its impossible for the watchers not to find their preening facinating ! There are ocasional benches around the gym. Also, there is a tennis court next to the gym.
Santa Monica: Third Street Promenade is the place to be ! Its an open pedestrain area with lots of stores/restaurants and also street musicians. There was a guy sitting there with his synthesizer the size of a piano, playing and singing beautifully. Also, this promenade is where a lot of the celebrity spottings are. What can I say. I actually did not see any Hollywood stars. I wouldn’t recognize some unless they are really famous, simply because I am not a very TV/Movie person. However, imagine my surprise at looking over to my left at a take away food joint and realizing that the guy on the next table is a very famous Bollywood star ! Bollywood is the Indian movie industry. For those who know him, the guy was Kamal Hassan !! There were some embarrassed introductions – you don’t want to jump on a guy when he is having a late lunch. The first question to him was ofcourse a very unsophisticated – Excuse me, are you Kamal Hassan? When the guys says – Yes you are momentarily stunned as now you don’t know what to say next 🙂 Ofcourse, we asked him lame questions on movie shooting etc (read that as I don’t remember what we asked him) but overall, he was on vacation with his wife and daughter, and was wheeling his small suitcase around.
However, I am told that you might spot a lot of celebrities, if you spend some time there. That is ofcourse, if thats a thing you are interested in.
I forgot to mention – Hotel W is a good choice to stay in when in LA. It is expensive, but this is what my experience was –
1. There was a model hiding under the shade in the swimming pool area. As I said, I am not upto date with names, so can’t say who exactly. But its definitely a glam factor – you are in LA !! I spent the afternoon in the pool drinking fruity cocktails and then lunch in the cafe which is by the pool.
2. In the evening, we saw that a song was being filmed, by a hip-hop singer (forget the name). A stage had been created on the pool and beautiful girls where dancing in artificial rain on the stage. The whole area was crowded by technicians, camera men, make up artists, directors, models, etc etc. Like I said, glam factor.
3. The bar in general is a very happening place at night.
4. The whole atmosphere is funky.
Also, spend a night bar hopping on Sunset blvd. Remember though, there are some clubs/bars that require advance booking. This resource was useful to us in planning our evening.
http://www.seeing-stars.com/Streets/SunsetStrip.shtml
Viper Room was really great, owned by Jonny Depp. (difficult to spot, so be alert. We passed it several times and missed) There is some (sad) history behind it too, River Phoenix died there of drug overdose. Various groups who are looking to make it big perform at Viper, they are really good.
Ofcourse, you also have the Walk of Fame and Hollywood blvd to cover 🙂 On Hollywood blvd, don’t miss the Egyptian Theater. I think it also has some sort of open air gallery – We saw a truly exceptional display of work – of fours photographers. The display is free to visitors, I think.
So, all ready for your LA trip?
Tags: Beach, Beaches, California, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Travel, USA
Rupa