Saturday, July 14th dawned sunny and warm in Los Angeles and for some reason I woke up kinda early. Just in time to answer my cell phone… my friend Charlie Pepper was calling from West Virginia. Or rather, he lives in West Virginia. At that time he and his loved ones were in Pennsylvania, where they had journeyed to see Zhenya play at a festival. It was great to hear from him, and to hear that Zhenya was playing a festival in Pennsylvania. I can’t even remember if I went back to sleep or not after that but it was another lovely day in L.A., anyway.
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I got up, threw some clothes on and went to the beach. Which is to say I went outside and made the ankle-sucking trip across the very very soft sand (so soft and deep it seems to suck your ankles in, making it a bit difficult to walk through), which seems like it will never end, to where the tide was coming in… or going out… Even though I grew up in Florida about twenty minutes from a beach I’ve never been able to tell which direction it was going, just that it does come in and go out. So I spent a happy couple of hours walking along Venice Beach and maybe a little into Santa Monica toward the Pier. My intention was to walk all the way to the Pier but I got tired of walking after a while and decided to sit down and stare at the ocean. I called my friend Rebecca, because of course I had my purse and cell phone at the beach (it is L.A., after all!) and left a voicemail. She called me back while I was writing cryptic messages in the sand with one finger so we talked awhile. Then I got into picking up tiny shells with cool colors on them while sitting there and also while walking slowly back toward Venice Beach and the vicinity of my hotel. I even saw a little crab scurrying along on the sand. It seemed scared of my camera… or of me… probably both.
A little live crab on genuine Venice Beach sand!
Eventually I made it back to where I could see my hotel in the distance, so I set off across the sand. When I’d started this beach venture it had been 10:00am and wasn’t too hot yet, but now it was close to noon and the soft sand was burning my feet! Ow, ow, ow…just…make…it…to…that…concrete…pier-like…thing, the thing sticking out by the palm trees. It was quite a workout! I walked along the Venice Beach boardwalk and stopped to admire some art, getting into a conversation with the Hungarian artist that turned out be deeper than I expected. Art can stir up the emotions…and lead to talking about where in one’s house to hang a work of art and the fact that it’s now my house and I now live in it alone since my mother passed away in March… and there I was leaking tears in front of a stranger. But she was very nice and lent me a needed friendly ear. I bought a painting from her, a small one with a mat, not a framed one, of pretty flowers. One of these days I’ll get around to hanging it someplace in my house.
After that I treated myself to one of those $18 lunches common, as I understand it, on Venice Beach, which consisted of a nice salad and a beer. This was done at a patio table while people watching and listening to some street musicians (whom I later tipped) play some danceable jazz and other tunes. So I had a very nice morning and then went back to the hotel to shower again and rest before a friend from the Valley visited.
So that was my day, in a nutshell, but I know what you really want to hear about is my night, so I’ll get on with it (about time! - you say – I can just hear it now…okay, okay!).
My friend, and also Igor and Oleg’s friend, Beverly, who first introduced me to them so long ago, was coming to the Rusty’s show with her brother Ken, who I hadn’t seen in a really long time. So she and I discussed on the phone what approximate time we would each try to get to Rusty’s. I was planning to leave around 8:20 or so but around 8:15 I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to charge my rechargeable camera batteries! Damn, I always forget that! I shoved the batteries into the charger and told them to hurry up. I know talking to batteries does absolutely no good but I talk to just about everything so I did it anyway. I spent the next twenty minutes putting on makeup and wishing the batteries would finish charging. Finally they did and I was ready to go! It was about 8:35pm.
I knew it was summer and I remember that back when I lived in L.A. the Santa Monica Pier would sometimes get crowded in the summer and get blocked off so no more cars could drive onto it. In the past that had been done with an orange cone or two and a smallish sign reading “Pier closed…” – sometimes one could drive around that and still get on the Pier, or circle for a little while and come back to find the cones and sign moved out of the way. Well, now the sign is much larger and the whole blocking effect is, well, impossible to get around in a car. I got there and sure enough, the sign claimed the Pier parking was full. Drat! I hate going to the lower parking on the beach by the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) because I can never remember how exactly to get down there to the entrance. And this time was no exception; I drove down there but ended up on the PCH heading the wrong way, away from the Pier. And it was a good long stretch before the opportunity to turn around. And there was a TON of traffic. Yes, and was I annoyed half out of my mind? That also would be a yes.
I finally got turned around, heading back toward the Pier, but when I got to the entrance from that direction it was also blocked off! Now I was really annoyed! Wtf was going on? Was everyone in So Cal going to the Pier that night? I drove back up onto Ocean Avenue and went to the Pier again, only to find the barricade still up. Argh. While driving around the block I suddenly remembered that one can park at Santa Monica Place mall for only $3.00 and that’s not too terribly far away, although it is a hike of roughly two blocks and then there’s half the Pier itself to trudge across and down to Rusty’s. But that seemed to be the best option at the time, so off I went to Santa Monica Place. There was a line there but I got in, paid my $3.00 and started looking for a space.
Out of the car at last, I joined the heaving horde of people walking toward the Pier. When I got back to Ocean Avenue on foot guess what I saw? That’s right, the barricade had been moved and now cars could drive onto the Pier! Argh! That always happens! Nice to know, I suppose, that some things never change, even after you move away from L.A. So I briefly considered going to get the car and attempting to make it onto the Pier before someone put the barricade back, but decided that since I had already walked that far it might be best to just keep going and retrieve the car later. So I kept walking, and yes, I finally made it to Rusty’s. It was by then probably around 9:15pm, I don’t remember exactly. And it was definitely worth all the parking trouble, believe me!
At the door Oleg came over and got me in, and I thanked him and walked through the place, which hadn’t changed since I’d been there last (New Year’s Eve), except for the obvious and appropriate lack of New Year’s decorations. I went out onto the back patio and saw Beverly and her brother sitting at a table with Adam, Igor and Elena. I was wearing my new snakeskin-print dress, which is shades of brown and black, with black sandals.
“I don’t see any red in that dress,” said Beverly. I laughed and informed everyone at the table, and whoever else cared to listen, that I had on red guitar-shaped earrings.
“And my underwear is red too, if you have to know,” I added. Everyone laughed.
“I don’t believe you,” Igor joked. As if I would show him, or anyone there. They’d just have to take it on faith, but it was true. I had to wear some little bits of red, even if it wouldn’t show. They could see the earrings, at least.
This was the Rusty’s I remembered and loved… great friends, great music, great beer… And really good calamari that I split with Alex, who came in a few minutes after I did and related the same parking woe story – he also had to park at Santa Monica Place mall so at least I didn’t feel like the only one who hiked from there. I could’ve used some more of that calamari…next time I’m getting my own order!
So after most of them finished eating the band members had to go do their sound check and get ready for the show. My friends and I sat and talked (and ate calamari). It was good to be there again and good to see Bev, Ken and Alex. After a while we could sense that the show was about to start (you get a feel for these things…), so I went inside to get in front of the stage. Jamie was selling merchandise that night so I had the night off, which was very nice, as Borat would say.
There was a good crowd there but maybe because it was summertime and a lot of people were on vacation, or had been swept out to sea (why else would they miss a perfectly good Red Elvises show, huh?!), it wasn’t as packed as some Rusty’s shows in the past. Which meant there was plenty of room to maneuver and dance. My purse and camera bag went under the front of the stage and I was ready, beer in one hand, camera in the other, to rokenrol. The show began, again with “Drinking with Jesus” and it was rather similar to the previous night’s set although I didn’t write down the songs this time so I’m not sure of all they played.
It was glorious and thrilling and fun as only a Rusty’s Red Elvises show can be…many of you have read my glowing descriptions of shows there before. This one was just as fun as any of the 40 or so others I’ve seen at that venue. And they had a couple of special guest artists join them onstage: Leo Chelyopov who is a great sax player, and, a little later, Gorshok, who is a very famous Russian punk artist and plays for the very famous Russian punk band Karol i Shut. He sang a song in English, using a paper with the English words at first, with Red Elvises playing the music and it was a lot of fun. I’m not sure which songs Leo played on but he added a lot to the show too. Both guest artists were really terrific and the crowd seemed to really enjoy seeing and hearing them. That’s the thing about a Rusty’s show; you never know what, or who, to expect and it’s always a treat!
 Elena and Leo |
 Leo onstage with Igor |
 Gorshok! |
 Gorshok and Igor |
The band did all their usual delightful antics including the group drum solo and the newest bit, the Oleg sandwich with Beth and Elena on either side of him during “Strip Joint is Closed.” I’m pretty sure that’s the song they do that on, anyway…as many times as I’ve seen it I should know, of course, but the spectacle of it is always so entertaining that my mind just flips and refuses to remember anything! Oleg outdid himself this time with his dramatic acting during that bit, calling out “My nipples are hard now!” and getting a laugh from the crowd.
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They played the usual two sets with a nice long break in between. It was a really really great Rusty’s show and they of course practically blew the roof off the place, which goes without saying. It seemed just slightly more “mellow” – although that word can hardly be used when describing a Red Elvises show – than some of their shows there in the past. It was an awesome show, anyway. Fun without being frantic, incredibly great sounding music and extremely enjoyable stage antics - just what a soul needs on a hot summer night in Santa Monica.
I missed the last song and part of the next-to-last song, or possibly the last two songs, because I hurried off to Santa Monica Place to get my rental car and bring it down to the Pier, which by then was starting to empty out. I knew I’d have some merchandise to take home for stock so I wanted the car, and my huge duffel bag I’d brought for the occasion, handy. I hurried back as fast as I could get there and went back in. They were starting to pack up the gear by then. I stocked up on merchandise and enjoyed talking to people. After a while it was time to leave; Oleg brought the van up from the lower level parking and they started loading it. They were heading to San Francisco the next day for the Russian Festival so it wouldn’t be a partying night. I couldn’t go to the Russian Festival because I had to fly home the next night, but I’d had a great time anyway. My plans for the next day were only slightly less exciting than driving to San Francisco; I was going to check out of my hotel, have lunch with friends and then head for the airport.
It was time to hug everyone goodnight and say sayonara, until the next time, which will be in October. It’ll be a long stretch for me but will be worth the wait, I know. By the way, look for a new Red Elvises CD out in the foreseeable future (hint, hint!), because there’s a rumor going ‘round that some recording is happening… But you’ll have to wait for details of that. All in all, it was a great trip to California. Don’t know when I’ll make it back there again but I sure had a good time. And so did Oleg’s nipples, I hear!