Los Angeles (cont) : City of the Night

The excitement of the day had my heart racing like an Indy car.  I quickly hit the pavement of the Boulevard and headed toward the café lined streets of the Santa Monica Promenade for a bite to eat.  I found a little pizza place about two blocks up and bought a slice of pizza.  I thought back to other times in my life when things were bad and when I was angry at the world, due to circumstance and I became grateful.  No sooner did I finish my pizza did the phone ring once again it was “Standing Room Only”, the girl on the phone asked is I was available to be an audience member again tomorrow.  I said “Sure” and asked her for details.  She told me that it was for a TV game show called “Bingo America” starring Richard Karn, from HOME IMPROVEMENT, as the host.  Ecstatic I said “Yes” and I was to report by 9 AM in The San Fernando Valley.  Feeling like I had just hit the game winning homerun I gathered my things and wandered towards the Pier to meet the boys and watch the Music On The Pier.

 As I walked away I noticed a man on the side of the road in nothing but shorts and chains.  His body was black with a grime which resembled soot and he was bound from head to toe with giant chains.  He reached his bound hands to the sky and shook his chains, looking up and cursing God.  I watched for a while as chills went down my spine as this man cried out to the Heavens in what appeared to be utter turmoil.  A couple walked by and handed him his doggy bag left over from their dinner, without even acknowledging them he stopped and disappeared into a doorway with his supper.  I wondered to myself what made this man so angry?  Why did he stand there in filth moaning and shaking his hands and cursing God?  He was so busy being miserable that he did not even notice, that it was the Earth which was feeding him. I scurried away and couldn’t help but remember a time, when that man in chains was I.

They call them “Twilight Concerts” and once a week in the summer all of the beach residents ride their bikes and their skateboards and bring their picnic baskets and dogs and set out on the Beach on the South side of the Pier to enjoy some free music and enjoy each other’s company.   As the sun sets the beach is littered with paper lunch bags with candles in their belly’s and music fills the air.  I instantly found my spot when I saw Apache and his orange BMX gathered around a small crowd. As the night went on some of the friends I had made so far arrived and we laughed made friends with tourists and partied down on the beach.

After a time, the music stopped and off on the little boardwalk I could see some people gathering, someone was setting up a microphone and speakers.  Instantly I realized who it was setting up on the beach, it was the crew I had seen playing by the volleyball courts the other night, it was John Rushton and his friends, “ContentLife”.  Within minutes Maricio began pounding the bongo and Cowboy the tambourine as John spit out the lyrics of what would later become my L.A. anthem “City of the Night”.  The music lasted into the wee hours of the night with people dancing like they were at  the Grateful Dead in '72.  A 15 ft man danced around the crowd (he was on stilts) and the night aged under the full moon.  As the evening progressed into morning the crowd dispersed and only a few of us were left and a few ones arrived.   A beautiful young girl began playing a giant accordion looking thing and chanting. 

There were spirits in the air that night.  I sat down on the beach mesmerized at the young lady making music.  I looked around me and there was fire, there were muses and mimes basking under the moons headlight shining through the fog.  A woman tapped on my shoulder, she had no face or not one that I could see, she opened up her bag and pointed inside “These are my cards she said” as she selected a deck from many.   “These are yours” and she began to shuffle a deck of playing cards with pictures of Marilyn Monroe on them.  She asked me to select some cards without looking and she flipped my cards out onto the sand.  “Never before has someone drawn all face cards in this particular order” she said and she delivered me my fortune.  Moments later the chants faded away and I was on the beach alone, “charisma” was the last thing I heard the wind whisper as I strolled to my hotel on the sand, my lifeguard tower.  Off in the distance I saw Sam and Carlos, Sam was playing his guitar while 3 girls sat on and admired.   In the words of Ice Cube “Today was a good day.”

Thanks for reading about my Adventures!  Please enjoy the links scattered throughout the story which lead to actual events, music and history.  I hope you come back often and that you are enjoying my saga.

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