Faithful bloggers,
Just want to say again I appreciate the support and interest everyone is showing in my venture. Updating the blog and keeping everyone informed definitely helps push me forward and document the adventures I'm on for all to experience. In short, it forces me to be interesting. I appreciate all the feedback and technical difficulties pointed out on the website. Keep your comments and suggestions flowing. Click here to email me with further input. Instead of painstakingly updating the links to different days on all the pages I have created a central blog navigation page which is accessible by clicking on the makeshift table below. 

This will be at the bottom of every blog page and will take you to the central navigation point which accesses all the blog updates from past endeavors. I will still put the current blogress report on the blog homepage so your favorites won't be affected. Please check back often as I feel the best is yet to come

sincerely,

VSO

Blog On

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Saturday - 3/18/06 
9:39 pm
Santa Monica, CA
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The 
Santa Monica 
Promenade & Pier 

   In case you were wondering, the location of my 
present temporary dwelling is pictured below. 

It is the circled red star, and as you can see it's pretty close to the beach

woo-hoo!!

Today started out with a series of naps still attempting to catch up on sleep and adjust to the 3 hour time difference. After I got up for the third time I proceeded to try and fix the plexiglas logo's on my VSO rig. 

They seem to be the only things that took any 
major damage during the long trip cross country

All my tech's back home will be happy to know 
that I won't need to ship anything back for repairs.

(yet)

I made sure to put the rack on my multi-use and 
adored VSO blanket to make sure not to scratch the floor 

The VSO wants to leave an impression 
on your ears and mind but not your floor.

I pulled the wires out of the back but 
truthfully I didn't feel inspired for the project

So I proceeded to go through their things again

Not really but I did take a picture of the sand-written proposal 
acceptance photo taken at the beach where Gary proposed to Teresa

I think this is incredibly cute

no seriously

I think this is incredibly cute

After milling around in the morning I went for a bike ride down to 
the Promenade to check out the street performers there 
(Saturday being a big day for performers)

I rode down Pico Blvd toward the Promenade and Pier area

It really is a nice city. A melting pot of 
cultures and architectural styles

Then I got to the Promenade.

It was a little chilly today, only 60 degrees at best but there 
place was still very busy with shoppers and all sorts of people

The first street performer I saw was a paint bucket drummer

I'm not sure if this is the famous paint 
bucket drummer or just a knockoff/splatter

He was good whatever the case

There were a couple guitarist / vocalists who were really good

This guy was taking requests

 He even played a bit of "Stairway to heaven" which I requested as he 
was ranting on people requesting Free Bird (He did that too)
He was funny too, stirring up the crowd with some off-the-cuff jokes

There was an incredible Sax player who was doing 
solos over pre-recorded backing smooth jazz

At the time I took the picture he was holding one note 
for about 2 minutes in a beautiful wavering timbre. he was really good

Then I saw what looked like a small band setup 
with P.A. speakers/mixer and batteries for power.

This is what I was looking for. Proof that a small self-contained system with P.A. speakers was acceptable. Later on they were playing and it was plenty loud so I'm sure my VSO setup will be alright.

I then left the promenade to go down 
to the nearby Santa Monica pier

I wanted to check out the street performing 
on the pier as it was allowed there too

The Birds hovered, poised motionless 
in the strong breeze coming off the ocean

There wasn't anyone on the pier performing that aren't 
mentionable solely in the yellow rant section except for this guy

He was an artist who did finger painting on small mirrors. 

He informed me he had been doing it for 10 years 
and was a self proclaimed preacher in the evenings on the pier. 

Not that I'm going to join his faith by numbers cult 
but he did have some good things to say about faith. 

I watched him paint and talk about his views while the sun set.

He said he made enough money to live, about $800 a month

Not bad

Of course I didn't take pictures of the finished piece, 
but I am going back to buy one sometime, and to play down there

So I'm sure I'll see him again

I started on my way back to fix some dinner

Past the Ferris Wheel on the pier

The sunset was quite beautiful

As I rode back past the familiar palm trees I had another overwhelming feeling of joy
that I would soon be able to make a complete spectacle of myself in public

 -Welcome to Flog-town USA-

I got up for the fifth time and proceeded on my regular routine of feeding 
then petting the cat, getting a good dose of sneezing first thing, or in this case, 2pm.

As you can see the cat was rubbing 
the wall in anticipation of my arrival

Then I milled about for awhile and decided to take Gary's mountainbike for a ride down to check out the street performers at the Santa Monica Place promenade. Of course the tire was flat. I always forget that if you pump up an old tube too much it will pop, or lose air overnight. Which it did so I was forced to ride Teresa's bike to the bike shop to get a new tube. Luckily everything is in biking distance here, and not only that but three of any one vendor you may require are within biking distance. So I pumped up Teresa's tires a little short of the maximum pressure rating and was ready to go.

I know, it's a girls bike

Lest we forget- 

I DON'T CARE.

 I rode past Sony Music in all my girlishness

Then I got to the Promenade which is mostly described above

Except for a few exceptions which I left to rant on exclusively

There was this guy

A colored dude
though not in black
nor yellow hue
was he amused
a silver dude
with honking horn
he wanted money
that's for sure

He was a funny dude alright, he had bells, whistles and all sorts of noisemakers concealed on him. he was also relentless about seeking silver, gold, or what ever valuables lined yourself save the belly button lint. All I had was Visa and was shocked to learn a futuristic silver dude such has himself didn't have a cash machine built in so I moved on

but he followed me with his cup for donations cleverly concealing
his face so I couldn't get a good full-on picture of said dude unless I paid.

Moving on

"C'mon, man"

Honk, honk

Ah Sh*cks

I really didn't have any cash 
or change on me so I did move on

and he was pretty relentless.

I assured him I had no cash

and that I'd come back another day

After a full body cavity search I finally 
convinced him I didn't have any money

"Ah Sh*cks" he said and went to strip search another victim

Then I saw the most amazing thing...

Women caged in glass prisons doing extreme yoga

Was I in heaven? Or just an extreme version of hell separated from these
chicks by only a thin wall of glass with numerous security guards in the area.

They were stretching extreme positions 
in all their scantily-clad pantily expressiveness

The scenery was most invigorating...
...I thought I was back at the grand canyon

or canyons in this case

I wasn't going to pay that unruly honking silverado back 100 feet 
but I was fumbling with my wallet trying to shove these girls a dollar

There were no slots, tip jars, or G-strings 
around to cram said moula so I moved on

Moved on to get Thomas the train engine to bring this train of 
glass-shedded beauties right back home for a little VS-erenade. 

If only the cages were on wheels...

Ok moving on 

I saw some petrified books

and proceeded to sit down and 
read the statuesque scribblings

There was a sandwich too.

Which was a bit stale from the looks of my teethy remains

Then I saw a real live Vomitaurus

but the sign said do not feed so I moved on...

...moved on down to the nearby pier to 
check out the street performers there...

This act was somewhat boring, 

but I left it $100 nonetheless

There was a guy doing extreme balancing 
of some sort but I missed the performance

The only part I saw was him 
asking for money for 12 minutes. 

These street performers are relentless in their seeking of coinage, and I somewhat fear for my life with Mr. Silverpants, and all the acts, as they come after me in a bloody rage as VSO is sure to stir up some wallets and leave said-be ex-performers in the silver-dust. Isn't arrogance wonderful? I'll probably suck and get pushed into the pier by the transparent train of girlish-glee, or Silver-dude in an oxen rage. I hope to not suck as much as I have in the past for the upcoming street mayhem which is forthcoming at the Promenade.

I'd say VSO has a green light to play here

____________________________________________

Donations welcome
(coming soon)
(I hope)