In early August, we went up to Santa Monica to visit my brother and his colleagues as they returned to Florida from Wikimania 2007 in Taipei… with a 10-hour layover at LAX.

We carpooled with my parents, and arrived while the group was still stuck in customs. So we wandered around the Santa Monica Promenade and pier for a bit. Not surprisingly, there were some strange things about, like this turtle-themed drinking fountain.

Turtle and drinking fountain

Then there was this sign, on the Johannes van Tilburg Building, which I couldn’t quite decide how to take. “Free Will?” “Free Willy?”

Frey Wille

The most disturbing was probably this mash-up of two movies on one of the many theaters on the promenade:

Marquee: Knocked Up, Bratz

Is the American public ready for that film?

There are topiaries sculpted into the forms of dinosaurs scattered along the promenade. This stegosaurus came out the best:

Stegosaurus topiary

As I mentioned, we did wander out to the Santa Monica Pier after a bit. Nothing terribly odd, just a couple of photos to set the scene:

The pier viewed from the cliffs

Santa Monica beach and cliffs, seen from the end of the pier

6 thoughts on “Santa Monic-odd

  1. 😀 Wow, who knew? I remembered you worked at a theater somewhere in the LA area, but I don’t know Santa Monica very well, and I don’t remember whether you’ve ever mentioned which theater it is on your blog.

    We were there on a Monday afternoon, August 6. Just after 4:15, going by the tag on the photo.

  2. No, I was very careful not to say where I was actually working so as to not get in trouble with some of the things I used to post about. But then I took it all down anyways.

    And then after this weekend, I get to go crazy with stuff I’ve wanted to say for 7 years. 🙂

    (And I wasn’t there that Monday)

  3. Love those photos. I recently got a digital slr camera and am looking forward to bringing my photography game up to somewhere near your level.

    I hope.

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