Glamour, fake and never ending sunshine

Los Angeles. Not our first time, but our...fifth? Usually we stay in a hotel in West-Hollywood (sounds more glamorous than it is), but cause we wanted to see a different part of this ridiculously large city we booked a room in Marina del Ray, south of Venice (yeah...where the 'muscle beach' is), a 5-10min drive from Santa Monica.
I tried to book us a show in the LA area, but it turned out to be almost impossible. 'Local bands only', '...has to guarantee 30 people' etc... even bluffing ('we know lots of people here') didn't help. So instead of playing we went to see other musicians. Well...musicians...let's say 'entertainers'. Or how would you call an old Asian guy with a tape recorder, mumbling words I could not understand and looking as if he despreately needs a bathroom? Or a man in his forties, dressed up like a kid in the 1980's, including knee protection in neon colours, 'rapping'?? Interesting. On Santa Monica Third Street Promenade there are performers every 50 meters or so and I bet they have to pay a lot of money for a permit. It made me sad to see all those people who craved for attention. The people passing by couldn't care less. Even a really good musician who played on a Chapman Stick (10 strings, just a wide neck, no body) couldn't bathe in applause. It's the most superficial area we've been to in the US so far, so maybe it's good we didn' play here :-)

The people who went to the Rotterdam Conservatory -like Jan and me- might remember Bjorn Fleuren, the blond, tall bassplayer. He lives and works (!) in LA for a couple of years now and it's always fun to talk about old times. Actually, he was the first bassplayer of 'Markowski', when we played together in that band caching class, 315 years ago. I'm gonna ask if he still remembers any songs...if he does, I should make a remix...