GLOW: Night, July 19th

Posted by Nick on July 21st, 2008 filed in Blogged, Festival, Music / Concerts, Art Show

Info: Free. 7pm - 7am. www.glowsantamonica.com

Well, I’ve had time to think about this, because I couldn’t really tell how I felt about it. On paper, the idea was great, the execution, however, was not so much. It was ridiculously crowded, but that was to be expected. What I had hoped though, was that there would be more visual appeal to the event, like neon lights all over the pier and Ocean street and all over the beach so that it actually “glowed.” The pier looked exactly like it always does, many of the installations were small, moving from the pier to the beach was impossible, the pier deck was ridiculously crowded, the rotating orchestra was impossible to hear and getting food was a nightmare.

What it came down to was going down to the beach, because for the first time in a long time, people were at the beach hanging out at night, many of which brought their tents and beer. There was an awesome visualization with water spray and the grunion fish were flopping a Go Grunion! shore to fertilize their eggs. On the other side of the pier, if you crossed underneath the pier you could see what this event really was to most people, a free rave: Dancers in the dark with their glow sticks, and crowds of people chillin (ahem, ahem) and dancing to the music…. ah, if only I was about 6 yrs younger. When you actually got to sit and relax for a bit on the beach, it really wasn’t so bad, just wasn’t sure if the city of L.A. was mature enough to go with that kind of flow. Now, if this was Europe or Paris, which is where this event originated from, this event would make total sense. So on a scale of 1 to 5, I’d have to say 2.5. Hopefully it will be back next year with better organization, more visual appeal and better art installations.

GLOW: Part Deux,The Aftermath

So, there was all this hype about GLOW. GLOW this and GLOW that. Well, NTDLAers, when it came time to actually attend, I got into my car (after seeing Wall-E for the second time, cause it’s AMAZING!) and headed over to Santa Monica to find nothing but gridlocked traffic up the ying yang (can we say SUBWAY, please?) and what seemed like the entire population of Los Angeles crammed into 2 square miles. I mean, people were parking at 26th and Wilshire and walking down to the pier! That’s just nuts by L.A. standards. Anyway, after some debate and lots of frustration, I decided to go home and get up early and see the aftermath of such an event at 6 a.m. instead. Sounded like a good idea at the time…

So, 5:30 a.m. rolls around and I roll out of bed with some tea in hand and sleep in my eyes. There was a thick marine layer that settled in and a chill to the air. On the schedule there was to be the Ferris Wheel Orchestra at 5:30 a.m. followed by Viver Brasil at 6 a.m.. Faboo, right? Hmm. Well, I got there a little after 5:30 and low and behold, no orchestra, no nothing! Perhaps I missed it? Perhaps there was a change in schedule and I didn’t get the memo. Most of the installations were down except for the Moon Theater, EX-SE-08, Tread/Tide and The Migration of the Marine Tumbleweed. All of which were ok and neat to see, I guess. Oh, there was a drum circle thing going on, fully equipped with all the E’d out partiers and dreaded hippies it could hope for at 6 a.m..

The situation on the beach was disappointing and rather depressing to say the very least. Let’s just say that when all of Los Angeles shows up on the beach expecting an all-night hippie/rave/club-kid/mallrat/drunk-a-palooza fest, the sand and the waves and what little marine life we have left in the Santa Monica Bay, suffers from it. I don’t know that one piece of trash from that drunken mess actually made it to a trashcan, but it was a battle field and the irresponsible, drugged-out revelers won out. Sorry Mother Nature, maybe next time. I think that Nick is absolutely right. L.A. is clearly not ready to handle such an event. All night parties with free music and semi-neat art installations might have to wait till Angelenos get their shit together and stop acting like apathetic teenagers.