Light in La Jolla, La Jolla Light

Sunset off Windansea Beach, La Jolla, San Diego photo by Dan Grossman

I thought I’d post something quick as I sit in the Flowerpot Cafe drinking a latte, a bourgeois activity to be sure. The cafe is located in La Jolla, more specifically La Jolla Village; one of the ritzier neighborhoods in San Diego, California. I’m living here indefinitely to help my dad take care of my mom.

As I was helping him prepare dinner last night, an influencer named Jamosa, a singer who divides her time between Tokyo and San Diego, was posing outside as her photographer instructed her movements, right on Belvedere Street. The sun was near the horizon and from where they stood, they had a bead’s eye to Windansea Beach, with some of California’s best surfing. Their view was lined with palm trees, of course.

I wonder who else has ever walked past my parents’ house, towards Windansea.

Did Eddie Vedder, a former San Diego resident, ever surf here? It’s a question I actually wrote a short story about titled “Even Better than Eddie Vedder” forthcoming in The Waiting Room, Volume #2, published by Nervous Ghost Press out of Los Angeles. Since Eddie Vedder claims that he wrote some of his best-known songs during one surf session in San Diego — “Alive”, “Once”, and Footsteps”— I’ve tried to find out which particular beach by scouring the internet. No luck so far.

Anyway, aside from the surfing, I should talk more here about what else is in La Jolla. Well, I could talk about the Cove just about a mile away where the sea lions hang out: I could talk about some very cool bars and bookstores. What’s not to like? Well, there’s the high prices for everything for one. The way people drive here, for another. Some people who live here think everything wrong with the neighborhood is because they are still part of the city of San Diego. There is actually a group promoting this idea, and they recently cleared a major hurdle, having 25% of registered La Jolla voters sign it clearing the way for a financial feasibility study.

My dad thinks it’s a questionable idea for everybody, even for the residents who live along the beach, because it might 1) sever many city services, and (2 make it easier for developers to build high rises in La Jolla. I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds on this, but I did write a poem where I put forth my point of view on the matter. It’s part of my collection American Panoramas Beyond 360°: Poems Prose and Photography that is for sale now—the first offering of my brand-new Indy Correspondent Press. (More about this later.) The book has three or four poems based in La Jolla specifically, but other parts of the city closer to the border get more ink in the book—both in terms of my writing and my panoramic photography, which you can see above, (pics taken from the La Jolla tide pools). Below, without further ado, is my poem:

La Jolla Light

Not the evening glow off Windansea
but the free weekly newspaper
where local trifles trump national issues—
the unlicensed vendors selling Tijuana
dogs and elotes in Scripps Park, for example.

But the biggest issue of the past year
was the push towards secession
from San Diego
hotly debated in the best bars and cafes.

Walking along Prospect Street
I see a new cafe taking its name
from the British artist Banksy
who just stenciled a botoxed blonde
on a sea walls meant to keep
the neighborhood from slipping into the Pacific.

At the Children’s Pool
the seals are basking in the sunlight
while the seagulls feast themselves
on their shit. (Surely there’s a metaphor
here for how the secessionists view San Diego.)

I circle back to Windansea Beach
in time to see the surfers
in the sunset glow.

I’m wondering how many
will ride it out when the big one comes.
Maybe that’s the way to go.

Sunset off La Jolla tide pools —photo by Dan Grossman