THORELIE: No Bueno

I've made some fatal event decisions within the past two weekends. Glow, a free event held by the city of Santa Monica had art installations displayed around the pier, in the streets of Santa Monica and the Palisades. It was held from 7pm to 7am and we wanted to make it by 12am to view the orchestra on the ferris wheel play a song. We should have known better when it took nearly an hour to get from the exit ramp off the free way to the parking structure, another hour to walk with the crowd to hit the pier and the furthest we reached was Bubba Gumps. To be quite honest we don't even know if the orchestra ever played. We surely were unable hear it. The art exhibits were small in presence compared to the vast amount of people attending. Literally all of Southern California was there. It was estimated well over 200,000 people attended. Highlights of the night were watching a bike meet, from which a long lost friend was found to be a part of, and viewing what seemed like a homeless man's own exhibit made out of candles, paper bags and rants. Low points: watching ONE goldfish in a lowly fish tank being projected outside a restaurant's several small television screens. This event should have been warned with bringing your own mood altering substances.

This past Sunday was American Apparel's 2nd annual flea market. Despite all the flashing warnings all around us, Team Thorelie decided to attend. We had to see for ourselves how devastating it would be. The early entry started at 12pm for an entry fee of $12 and regular admission was for $5 at 2pm. We g0t there no later than 1:30pm and the factory parking lot was full. There was an indescribable line that wrapped around 3 times over. Standing in line, we realized what a great business venture AA launched. In one day alone they made well over $25000 in just entry fees alone. Selling clothes for $1, $5, $10 didn't hurt their revenues at all. After waiting for about 3 hours, thinking we were so close to the finish line we noticed another section of lines 3 loops around, but this time around it was 5 times more condensed. We knew we reached the quitting mark after seeing that spectacle. It wasn't an entire lost cause. Got some good pictures for freelance work, v-neck t-shirt burns, feet strap tans, and had a few laughs, mostly at all of the "fans of high school musical" getting decked out in their best gear.