Mmmm...Asparagus, Round Two

I took a break today from the seemingly endless and fruitless internet job searching and application filling which has become my daily routine. Brent was off, it was warm, so we loaded up the bike and longboard then promptly headed to Santa Monica. We stopped at Bergamot Station first to check out some art and visit the Copro Nason Gallery which Brent was interested in. I got out of the car and happily noticed a Space Invaders "tag." I'm not into graffiti like Brent but I really dig this guy's stuff.

We actually got to meet and talk with Nathan Spoor who was one of the artists showing their work at the Corpo Nason Gallery. He was a really nice guy that was more than willing to discuss intents and interpretations of his works. Really interesting stuff.

After art perusing, we parked near beach in Santa Monica and rode the ocean front walk (ironic) down to Venice to have lunch at the small but tasty Abbot's Pizza Company. During the course of waiting for our food at an outside table, we were approached by a very dirty, babbling homeless fellow who wanted "a buck for a Pepsi." I told him I would go buy him a drink (call me a skeptic but I never believe the many reasons I hear these folks giving for wanting an extra buck). As I waited inside the pizza place for the drink, Brent listened to the man ramble incoherently about Vietnam and passing tests with "flying colors." He was appreciative for the drink and I was glad he decided not to stick around and chat. I have a very low bum comfort level but I don't want to treat them as sub-human either (though most of the time I do).




So after our yummy pizza we headed back to the beach. On our way, we walked past some massive banana trees. I've seen them before but they were much smaller and never with buds or fruit on them. I was fascinated.

As we were nearing Venice Beach, we saw this odd building. I can deal with gargoyles but I don't know if I could sleep if I knew there was a skeleton, muscle man with arrows statue above my head.
Venice Beach was hopping with a skateboard demo. Even the skateboarding English bulldog was there! We watched for a while then headed back to Santa Monica for some beach
lounging.

No trip to SM would be complete without going to the promenade and visiting Kid Robot. So now there is one more toy/collectible/figure, I don't know, just some extra thing on the shelf to dust. But, it certainly makes Brent happy.

My chocolate craving lead me to the English shop for a Crunchie bar and in looking around I noticed they have pickled onion flavored Walker's Crisps(potato chips). Wow, that sounds disgusting so further investigation lead me to realize they have other fantastical flavors (besides the typical English favs): tomato ketchup, prawn cocktail, lamb mint, marmite(what the hell is that), roast chicken, smoky bacon (oh, bacon). How odd, yet I would probably try every one of them if they were offered to me. Well, that's the fascinating end to today's beach adventure. It had a strong start but petered out toward the end.
Definitely bedtime.