H.E.R.M.O.S.A.

A beach town located just south of LAX airport, Hermosa Beach is renowned for its former surf/skate culture, punk culture and was a seminal town in the Jazz music era. A club called the Lighthouse is still there to this day and the last time it was on film was in "La La Land" with John Legend as a cameo. Just across the street used to house a bar that you could literally strip right out of a Tarantino movie, a place called the "The Mermaid." Some days I would just park my car there and watch the roller girls, talk to skateboard shapers who bragged about their easy life as a quasi doorman and play my guitar as the sun would set day by day. The owner of the establishment "Boots" by that time was dead but his picture and his old 1950's register was still under the spirits shelf. Stories of him walking down the beach allies with a pistol while he was alive is a story that is often told. This piece was shot on the lot years back and now futurized. May the Mermaid's legend never die.