Venice
Uploaded by xanekomotion
The first person I met when Meg and I arrived in Los Angeles in 2005 was a friend of a friend named Raul Sanchez Ortego. "El Moro" to his amigos. The bizarre and wonderful thing was that we were introduced via cybernectic means by Luisma Lavin Peredo a great friend of mine from España. Luisma knew that both Raul and I were moving to L.A. at about the same time. More than that - he knew that we'd get along and become good friends. What he didn't know was that Raul would also turn out to be born and raised in a working class neighbourhood of Madrid called Vallecas. The very same neighbourhood that Meg's family is from and where Meg and I lived while in Madrid. Small world indeed. They're both Vallecanos! Que chulo!
Raul sent me this movie recently. It's a little remembrance of Venice Beach, California where we both chose to live while in L.A. As you can see Raul is a talented visual effects artist. For me it is the sense of a gritty urban feel & performance art that fits my scratchy memories of surfbaords quietly gliding through the streets and alleys of Venice as I headed off to work. Soldiers in a never ending battle against the tide of conservative life. Somehow, amidst all the air conditioned apartments, cars and office towers of Los Angeles, Venice stands virtually alone as a visceral, earthy & connected "people's place" by the sea. No where else that I saw in L.A. where people so in tune with what a neighbourhood by the sea could be. Long live the hippie freaks!
Uploaded by xanekomotion
The first person I met when Meg and I arrived in Los Angeles in 2005 was a friend of a friend named Raul Sanchez Ortego. "El Moro" to his amigos. The bizarre and wonderful thing was that we were introduced via cybernectic means by Luisma Lavin Peredo a great friend of mine from España. Luisma knew that both Raul and I were moving to L.A. at about the same time. More than that - he knew that we'd get along and become good friends. What he didn't know was that Raul would also turn out to be born and raised in a working class neighbourhood of Madrid called Vallecas. The very same neighbourhood that Meg's family is from and where Meg and I lived while in Madrid. Small world indeed. They're both Vallecanos! Que chulo!
Raul sent me this movie recently. It's a little remembrance of Venice Beach, California where we both chose to live while in L.A. As you can see Raul is a talented visual effects artist. For me it is the sense of a gritty urban feel & performance art that fits my scratchy memories of surfbaords quietly gliding through the streets and alleys of Venice as I headed off to work. Soldiers in a never ending battle against the tide of conservative life. Somehow, amidst all the air conditioned apartments, cars and office towers of Los Angeles, Venice stands virtually alone as a visceral, earthy & connected "people's place" by the sea. No where else that I saw in L.A. where people so in tune with what a neighbourhood by the sea could be. Long live the hippie freaks!
