PoprocksDotCom, the blog of Jess Barron

December 17, 2009

3 Unique Christmas Traditions in Los Angeles

Christmastime in Santa Monica: Shopping Cart Christmas Tree

Some people might think that it wouldn't feel like Christmas living in Los Angeles (especially for someone who was born and raised in New England), but I'm here to tell you that LA, particularly the West Side, has its own unique and fun holiday traditions.

Last week, Chris and I rode our bikes to Santa Monica to see the Christmas tree made out of shopping carts. It's called "The Bright Side." and it's been put together by artist Anthony Schmitt at the Edgemar shopping area on Main Street for the past 14 years. It's a great piece of public art because of its multiple meanings; it not only makes you consider excessive holiday consumerism, it makes you think about homelessness at the holidays. Check out my photoset of the Shopping Cart Tree.

This was our third Christmas living in Marina del Rey, and our third year heading to Fisherman's Village to check out the Marina's holiday boat parade. The parade has been happening for 47 years, since 1963 before the marina itself was actually completed.

We went to view the Marina del Rey Boat Parade with Devora and Ethan, who had been living in a houseboat on the Marina for the month of December.

This year the boat parade theme was "Holiday in paradise," and the best boat was definitely the "Cheeseburger in Paradise." It played the Jimmy Buffet song, and the burger actually opened up and then the bottle of ketchup poured in. It was hysterical.

Check out the full photoset from this year's Marina del Rey Boat Parade, and then see my photos from the Marina del Rey Boat Parade 2008.

Just one day after the Marina del Rey Holiday boat parade, Chris and I biked to the Venice Canals Holiday Boat parade and met Roshanna there. The Venice Canals boat parade has been going on since the late 1970s or early 1980s.

This year, our favorite boats included the Venice trolley, the castle ship, and the viking ship.

There were also numerous Santas throwing candy from their canoes and paddle boats.

Check out the full photoset from this year's Venice Canals Boat Parade and then, see our photos from the Venice Canal Boat Parade last year.

Labels: christmas, holidays, la, losangeles, venice

posted by Jess Barron @ 6:55 AM

December 15, 2008

Venice Canals Holiday Boat Parade 2008

Chris and I rode our bikes over to the canals to see the holiday boat parade. (Along with the Marina del Rey boat parade, it's one of the annual Westside traditions.)

We locked our bikes on Washington, and we saw this gal carrying a large cardboard train and rushing down toward the canals.

"Is that where it starts?" she asked us, pointing to a bunch of people underneath one of the bridges. We told her that we thought it was, and she rushed along the pathway. We followed her, and when she arrived a whole floating vessel of 20 or so people began cheering.

Island of Misfit Toys, Venice Canals Boat Parade, 2008

They were the "Island of Misfit Toys," and they needed their choo-choo train, and she was the train. She put the cardboard train around her body and hopped aboard.

Other memorable boats:
*'Jaws' boat, complete with (remote control?) shark that followed them around
*S.S. Minnow with the entire cast of Gilligan's Island aboard. It really looked like it was sinking.

Also, check out this set that Chris took with his digital Leica -- they're way more beautiful!

Labels: holidays, la, losangeles, venice

posted by Jess Barron @ 10:40 AM

Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade 2008

Along with the Venice Canals boat parade,the Marina del Rey Boat Parade is an annual holiday tradition in our 'hood. Chris, Paula, Thoryn, and I headed over to Fisherman's Village to grab drinks at the original El Torito and watch the Marina del Rey Holiday boat parade. Our favorite boat this year was the Venice Boat. The videos came out a lot better than the photos for me this year. Here's a video I posted to Vimeo of us greeting one of the many Santa Clauses. (We wondered how the parents of Marina del Rey explained this to their kids -- the proliferation of boat-borne Santas converging on the Marina...

Was it a nautical North Pole cloning disaster?) And here's some video of our fave, the Venice Boat passing by.

The entries this year weren't quite as elaborate as they were in 2007. A sign of the economy, perhaps, and also I should point out that last year's grand prize was an all-expense paid trip to Tokyo, Japan and this year the grand prize was a Southwest Airlines round-trip ticket to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Also, check out this set that Chris took with his digital Leica -- they're way better.

Labels: holidays, la, losangeles, venice

posted by Jess Barron @ 9:45 AM

August 25, 2006

We're Going to Burning Man!

Chris and I bought our Burning Man tickets last night off of Craigslist from a random guy in Venice who sold 'em to us for more than face value, so that he could "pay his rent."

We waited a long time before buying 'em because we weren't sure Chris was going to get the time off from work so that we could go.

This is the 8th year I'll be going to Burning Man, and it's the 20th anniversary of the event. This year's ticket is gorgeously-designed, like last year's (photographed while driving through the desert to the event as a passenger in Derek's car).

The first year I went to Burning Man was 1999, and that year the tickets looked like any other normal Ticketmaster concert ticket. It also cost $65, while this year's tickets began at about $185. Here's what I wrote in my online journal on August 16, 1999 before I attended the event. And here's the diary I wrote about my experiences at Burning Man in 1999.

It's interesting to read what I was thinking about seven years ago, and to see photos of my friends and myself looking so much younger. I couldn't have imagined this future that I live in right now. In 1999 when I attended the event, I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I worked at a now non-existent company, Wildweb.com. Going to Burning Man in 1999 changed my life in so many ways. I decided to move to the West Coast a few weeks after returning to Boston and I left for good one month later. I met Owen at Burning Man in 1999, and we both ended up moving to San Francisco. I met Esther and Jason at Burning Man in 2001.

Owen, Esther, Jason, Andy, Jeff and Mindy won't be going to Burning Man this year due to work, school, world travel, and oher reasons. I'll miss them so much, but I'm still glad to be going to the desert. And I'm very glad that Chris has decided he wants to go. (He's never been before.) It'll be an adventure. We're doing an art project, similar to the one my friends, August, and I built last year (the psychiatric help booth). This year, we'd like to do something very similar (because a *lot* of people in Black Rock City seemed to want someone to talk to about their lives and problems and it was good to be able to help out), but we're thinking of calling it "Help with your past, present, and FUTURE" to fit the future theme.

There's an art installation this year called "Future You Post" by Betsy McCall and her description of the project is:

It looks like an everyday mailbox, with paper, envelopes, and pens available. But the intention here is that you write yourself a letter and it is delivered to you five years from now. The intention is for participants to write their hopes and fears, only to be surprised by them in the future. Especially for people whose off-playa lives are very different from their on-playa lives, the experience of receiving this letter from themselves in 2011 could prove extremely powerful.
I'm not sure what I will write to myself, but it will probably begin "Dear Jessica, I'm not sure how or where this letter will find you, but I hope you are still around and healthy in 2011, and I hope you are still enjoying life as much as you were in 2006. (But maybe not working quite as hard.) I hope your loved ones are still around you, and I can not imagine what you will have accomplished five years from now."

What do YOU think about the future? If you could write yourself a letter that you would receive five years from now, what would it say?

Labels: burningman, future, sanfrancisco, venice

posted by Jess Barron @ 6:13 AM

March 3, 2006

Who Crashed This Ferrari Enzo on the PCH at 162 mph?

Since I've moved to Los Angeles (Venice, actually) 5 months ago, I've seen a lot of crazy things, but this might take the cake.

On February 21, someone crashed this rare (only 400 made, valued at $1 million) Ferrari Enzo on the PCH up in Malibu driving at 162 miles per hour(!) And the guy who owned the car walked away from the crash with just a bloody lip.

It's a huge mystery that the LA Times has been investigating and people have been searching for photos and info for over the past few days on Yahoo!

Labels: crash, ferrari, la, malibu, speed, venice

posted by Jess Barron @ 6:54 AM

November 12, 2005

Sake Bombs Over Beverly Hills

Andy is in town visiting from SF, and he met me and the Santa Monica Yahoo! crew at Ariake in Beverly Hills for

sushi dinner and many, many bottles of sake, including sake bombs with gold flakes in them (to keep hangovers away!)

You really need to look at Chris' flickr photoset to understand just how the Yahoo! Santa Monica posse rolls. We can't even eat sushi without going completely cray-cray. I put my bright red lipstick on Peter and Yun, everyone wore my cream leather coat, and Andy declared that it was all very different than the Yahoo! get-togethers up in Sunnyvale.

Afterward, around midnight when we all got back to my house in Venice. Kim and Mary Jo brought 30 people over dressed in wigs and flamboyant clothes for a Dance Dance Revolution / Karoke Revolution party. They were their friends, and my Venice-area neighbors who had been drinking all night at The Whaler. This went on until 6a.m. when the beer (and everyone's energy) ran out. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Chris' camera's battery died around when the party started, though there is this one random pic.

Labels: andy, chris, ddr, karaoke, la, party, sake, santamonica, sushi, venice

posted by Jess Barron @ 1:55 PM