this year i celebrated the extra day by rollerskating from Redondo Beach to Santa Monica Pier. it was supposed to be a summer-like day but the morning started off gray and cool. i waited for the sun until late in the morning before driving to and dropping off Chris' car at hotel. from there i walked down to the beach around Avenue I (not me) to start my journey to the north. my first stop was the restroom near the dog park. for some reason the light fixture in the restroom intrigued me and so it is was used at the beginning of the above video ... just in case you were wondering what that was at the beginning of the video. mostly i took photos until i arrived at the canals at Venice Beach. many photos can be found on my webpage. it is the "more moments" in the "links" section to the right.
i saw the blues singer on the pier about two years ago when i was at the pier for their thursday night Twilight Concert Series. i think the cheerleaders were from Arizona but not sure why they were there. the cute singer/dancer/entertainer
is only 10 years old. she has so much energy. i saw her last summer at the same place...making a lot of money. as for the pianist, i think i saw him a few years ago on the Santa Monica Pier playing a keyboard (as opposed to the piano/synthesizer thing). my favorite but not the crowd favorite was the Italian musician who sang in Italian, English and Spanish. i can't remember his name although i did drop a dollar in his guitar case and made sure he was not Eros Ramazzotti. coincidently Eros was one of the many singers i was listening to on my iPod during my skating trip. and speaking of Eros, here he is in a duet with...
here is the official list of musicians listened to while skating:
Nightnoise, Colin Hay, Stephen Bishop, James Taylor, Jerry Douglas, Tozy, Coldplay, The Flaming Lips, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Umberto Tozzi, Aimee Mann, Joshua Radin, Paul Brady,Rosie Thomas, Supertramp, Herbie Hancock, Jon & Randy, Five for Fighting, Jeff Buckley, Ron Sexsmith, John Mcdermott, Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy, Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, Kim Mclean, The Fray, Ryukyu Underground, m-flo, Kathleen Edwards, North Sea Gas, The Blue Nile, David Sylvian, Yumi Matsutoya, Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, Sean Na'auao, Chris Bathgate, Moby, Tom Waits, The Coral, Annoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale, Dean Owens, Simply Red, Tuck & Patti, Yoshida Brothers, Jennifer Warrens, Alan Pasqua, Brian Bromberg, Nina Simone, Duke Special, Josh Ritter, Oka, Jake Shimabukuro and Eros & Cher.