Thursday - January 4, 2006 - Dark Beach

Santa Monica, Thursday, January 4 - and who imagined the place could seem a scene of alienation? Below, a street down to the beach, as Edward Hopper might have seen it, had he not been a New Yorker.

Hopper had his famous Nighthawks place. Here's the California equivalent on Ocean Avenue, Chez Jay, right next to the Rand Corporation, the think-tank that plans our wars for us.

Trivia from Bob Patterson - "Chez Jay has another claim to fame.  The bar offers peanuts in a shell.  The floor is usually littered with the old shells.  One unbroken shell is insured for $1 million and is in a bank vault.  Neil Armstrong took that particular example to the moon and brought it back and gave it to the owner of Chez Jay's.  (The steaks are great at that place.)"

Even the pier looks a bit like something from Hopper. But the only famous Hopper in these parts is the actor Dennis Hooper, who lives a few miles south in Venice Beach.

It's not all Hopper alienation. It's sometimes just mildly surreal - the bronze surfer with the briefcase at the Lowe's hotel, across from Chez Jay.

Ah, the kids still play at the beach, in the long winter light at noon.

But all is not well here, at least on Lincoln Boulevard.

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These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.

Last updated Saturday, March 10, 2007, 10:30 pm Pacific Time

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 - Alan M. Pavlik