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| Venice Acrobats by Eddie Crimmins via Flickr |
YOU CAN barely make it out—it’s cigarettes, covered by salty
wind, sweat, fried food, and what’s that? Yep, it’s from the Kush Doctor. A
woman in a red triangle bikini top and leopard printed G-string whizzes past you
as the man wearing headphones with gigantic padding thrusts his newly recorded
rap record before you as you walk in time with the crowd. Young boys run up and
down the basketball court showing off their tan and the middle-aged couple
wearing Velcro strapped sandals, khaki shorts that hover above their kneecaps,
Hawaiian shirts and visors snap their camera that only reflects their freshly
pink skin. Large men with engorging muscles squeezed into Speedos bench press
as vendors sell fried food and hotdogs.
T-shirts that read “I love ketchup” and “Hello Titties” are sold with
some more sensible accessories like margarita sunglasses. Early twenties coeds walk their dogs
and teenagers laugh at the shirtless, long haired dude holding the sign that
says “Need Money for Penis Reduction” written in think purple calligraphy and
toss him some leftover change. Certainly not quarters though, as they are a
parking necessity.
An island of misfit toys and forgotten dreams, the Venice
Boardwalk is a place where you can put all normality aside and become anyone
you want.
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| Venice Beach by Glen Scarborough via Flickr |
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Lawrence Lipton’s essay, “Slum by the Sea” gave one of the
most authentic descriptions of Venice through the people that inhabit this sea
slum, “the poets…and the painters…The clowns, the make-believers, the
self-deceivers—and the mad.”
Your imagination may come up with what you may think is
something of insanity, however I can guarantee that the gray-haired, man and
woman, half naked with skin wrinkled from endless amount of sun, rolling around
in the sand are currently seeing crazier things. Venice is being trapped in a dream
where you can fly. It is the only
place in the world where you can find a homeless man smiling. The characters
that inhabit this mile and half rainbow road certainly prove that Venice is
what you make of it.
You have two clear choices—either scoff in disgust or laugh
hysterically at the absurdity.
-- Elise Fornaca
