...“When it’s time to change, you’ve got to rearrange,”Peter Brady used to sing. For passengers of a Big Blue Bus last week, it may have seemed like pennies from heaven, with copper likenesses of the bearded presidential dude ricocheting off the windows intermittently, but in the end, Buzz discerned it was just pennies from Rockport. Buzz spied a a true giver taking the one-cent pieces he’d earnestly collected out of a soiled Starbucks cup and kicking them one by one into the air and across Broadway at Third Street. Maybe the nearby street performer, with an acoustic guitar and look of chagrin, wasn’t feeling my man’s charitable effort. Maybe penny punter just wanted the thoughts of the bus passengers. Maybe Buzz should get a hobby...... There was a complex situation developing on Arizona Avenue on Halloween, when the Buzzman spotted some serious French kissing, on bicycles no less. Dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie Antoinette, and garbed-out guy and girl pedaled about the streets, stopping for a smooch at the red lights. Buzz was left to wonder if Bonaparte got the green light back at the rent-controlled palace, or had to take a cold Waterloo. Party on, parlez vous peeps...... Taking the Sting out of another long work week were the throngs of in-line skaters making the rounds at the Chevron gas station on Friday night. It was “CHiPs” flashback moment for Sir Buzz, even after an eye rub and head shake. There they were, skating about town with a boom box in tow, grooving to the Police’s “Walking on the Moon.” Some may say they were wishing their days away... no way! A younger, leaner and more effeminate Buzz would have been right out there with them. May as well play...... In a Bourgeois Buzz moment, a couple was actually spotted sitting outside of Juliano’s Raw on Sunday. Good for them, coming out of their shells like that...... But life isn’t all fun, games and Cocoa Puffs for Buzz, who ducked into the City Council forum at the YMCA on Thursday, turning a bleary gaze to the candidates and those who support them. As the hopefuls were sent about squirming, Councilman Bobby Shriver was spotted in the audience leaning precariously over the shoulder of a Daily Press reporter, obviously to gauge if she was using a (RED) pen and not sweating what notes were being taken from the 10-candidate lovefest taking place at the dais. No tellin’ if the Bono’s buddy found what he was looking for...... The political color du jour on Main Street on Sunday was a decidedly un-red yellow, with council candidate Jenna Linnekens and her supporters sporting nifty T-shirts in and around the Farmers’ Market. Of course, those shoppers might have waited to buy the new T-shirts on Wednesday. Buzz is still stylin’ with the deal he got on that World Series Champion Detroit Tigers sweatshirt. Guess if they have too many “Vote for Jenna” shirts in stock, they could just give ’em out to all the homeless cats...
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 6, 2006. Read the original PDF.