in need of the immense ocean and its breeze to clear some of the cobwebs away. water and wind to sooth. on the beach, i find berna. we walk arm in arm, pleasantly talking about everything and nothing. the sun light is turning all soft and golden before it calls it a day. from the beach we reach the boardwalk, which is closed, empty, desolate. there is something about an old and desolate luna park that invokes other realities. i’m especially reminded of the luna park in decay in Tbilisi were i hung out more than 10 years ago, as the beautiful young people we were with deployed it as a metaphor for the communist regime. there’s something about the frozen grins of clowns and other figures that, without the life and laughter of kids around them, all of a sudden seem quite mean and nasty. the decor connects with silent gutfeelings and before we know it, we’re all excited about the film that is spun out before our eyes: the place fills up with vampires and we see a horror-movie at the Santa Cruz boardwalk in the making. under the gallery of the casino, the sound-track plays:
Mirrors on the ceiling
Pink champagne on ice
And she said
We are all just prisoners here
Of our own device
And in the master’s chambers
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can’t kill the beast
Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
Relax said the nightman
We are programed to recieve
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely Place
Such a lovely face
They’re livin’ it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise
Bring your alibies
When i get home i google a little bit, and find that – of course! – Santa Cruz has starred in horror-movies. Notably in the vampire classic The Lost Boys which was set in a fictional small Californian coastal town (“Santa Carla”) nick-named as “The Murder Capital of the World”. I find out that this used to be Santa Cruz’ name because at some point in the 1970s or 80s there were two active serial killers and one mass murderer in town (of 50.000 inhabitants). All we need now is a camera…