[US] California，Venice Beach (Muscle Beach)

這一天，會來到威尼斯海灘是因為這兒有美國健美先生，健美小姐的比賽；聽說這兒也叫做肌肉海灘(Muscle Beach)。
This day, I drive to Venice Beach because there is a competition for Mr. & Ms. Muscle Beach. 

一抵達就看到許多人在使用這兒的健身器材，不知道因為是參賽選手正在熱身呢？還是看了比賽忍不住就想來動一動的人們？
When I arrived, maybe because the competition, there are many people doing exercise or maybe they are the contestants doing warm up. 

沒想到有這麼多人來參觀，我抵達的時候根本就無法入場了。
There are much more people than I expect, so I can't even get into the stage.

繞到後方的熱身區，還看到當地記者在採訪參賽選手，雖然我覺得他採訪的重點都是女性...
When I go to the back, there is a (local) journalist who is interviewing the contestants although I only can find him interview the girls...

我覺得這位也太...愛現了吧！
Not only compete the muscle, even the hair style is very important. Maybe only important for the audience to recognize.

我覺得，其實舞台後方的熱身區，反而更能接觸這些選手，舞台前方，最好的位子都留給裁判了，反而不如後方，雙方的距離更靠近；也因此觀察到，怎麼每個選手都那麼黑呀？尤其還有不少韓國人來參賽，韓國人不是也是「以白為美」的嗎？經同事解說，原來所有選手塗在身上的油，有染黑的效果，除了反光，染黑也可以讓肌肉更為立體，突出，讓裁判更容易觀察到選手訓練肌肉的成果，成果愈好，分數自然就愈高了！
The back yard is a better place for us to observe the contestants closely. I guess this is why many people are here. One thing really bothers me, why all the athletes are brown and shiny? Especially some of them are coming from Korea. As I know, the girls in Korea have the same idea in Taiwan, fair skin is beauty not brown. My colleague who also joined the competition answered my question, the oil they put on their skin not also make the skin shiny, but also make it brown which can help the judges to see the muscles more easily. When they can tell how well you trained the muscles, you can get the high scores.

之後就在威尼斯海灘走走，這兒的步道，讓我覺得有點像走在淡水街頭，一邊是藝術家，刺青或是畫肖像，一般則是餐廳或是特別的小店，像第二張照片就是個很奇特的地方，奇怪事物展示中心，在門口擺放了雙頭龜還算好玩，但還要收門票5美元，就沒進去了。
After the competition, I take a walk along the Venice Beach. It makes me think about Tamsui Old Street. There are artists, restaurants and some special little store on the sides of the street. It's really nice to take a walk like that. Here is more comfortable because it has less people. The 2nd photo above is an interesting place. It's called Freak Show and you need to pay 5 dollars to get in.

還有溜滑板的場地，也可在這兒看看年輕人的表演。
At the beach, there is also a place for practicing skateboard.

這張照片顯示了我喜歡的加州海灘，沒有人潮，隨意找個喜歡的地方，遮陽傘一插，就可以在這兒放鬆一整個下午，舒服極了～
This photo shows why I like the beach in California. No crowded people here and you can just take an umbrella to pick the spot you want. And just relax for the whole afternoon~