Around Town - Saturday Night Glow In Santa Monica

Well the fog off of the ocean has disappeared and summer it seems has finally arrived in Los Angeles with clear blue skies, hot sunny days and warm evenings.
Last night was the perfect temperature for Glow and a walk on the Santa Monica beach.
What is glow, you ask?

Glow is an all-night cultural experience featuring original commissions by artists that re-imagine Santa Monica Beach as a playground for thoughtful and participatory temporary artworks.

Glow is a production of the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Foundation. 

Having not seen Glow before I was expecting something like this

Well the crowds on the beach scenario was about right, but sadly the the temporary art wasn't exactly this interesting.

Instead, I saw this

Which was a film of a pitbull training class, filmed from the dog's eye view, projected on a wall.  So unimpressive that I didn't even bother to take a photograph.

I admit that I was way too unsophisticated to appreciate the artistic relevance of this and the other art installations that I saw at Glow. 

But there was a huge crowd on the pier and on the boardwalk with everything from young hipsters to street people mixing it up.  And other than the crowds of people that make me bristle, I was happy to enjoy a warm evening stroll and a stop at the bar at the Casa Del Mar for a margarita and a plate of sashimi (channelling the warm nights from my trip to Cabo San Lucas a month ago)

and from the quiet of my table an amazing view of the pier and the rather hypnotizing light show on the ferris wheel.

Note:  Even though Glow was a late night event from 7:00pm-3:00am, Santa Monica restaurants were on their usual time schedule with the kitchens closing at 10:00pm. I would have thought that they would have stayed open until at least 10:30pm (yes Fig and Fraiche, I'm talking about you)  to accommodate the people who had been at Glow.