Artist Amy Lay works on "Plastic: The Real Monster" at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium during their  Ocean Appreciation Weekend on Sunday, August 22, 2010. The environmental art sculpture aimed at educating visitors about the dangers of single-use and common household plastics and the threat they pose to the marine environment.

Equal rights activists march along the Venice Boardwalk during the Third Annual National Go-Topless Day on Sunday, August 22, 2010. The Go-Topless Day rally was meant to proclaim women’s constitutional right to go bare-chested in public. Gotopless.org claims constitutional equality between men and women on being topless in public. Currently, women who dare to be topless in public in the US are repeatedly being arrested, fined, humiliated, criminalized. On Sunday August 22nd, 2010, topless women [will rally] in great numbers across the USA to protest this gross inequality in the law and [demand] that their fundamental right to be topless be acknowledged where men already enjoy that right according to the 14th amendment of the Constitution.

A Pacific angelshark (Squatina californica) eats her bi-weekly meal at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium on Friday, Aug. 20, 2010. She is latest resident of Santa Monica Pier Aquarium's Pier Habitat Exhibit. She is just under 2 feet long now, but will grow to about 4 to 5 feet in length. Angel sharks have flattened, sandy-colored bodies. They are ambush predator who conceal themselves on the sea floor buried in the sand and wait for approaching prey, primarily bony fishes and squid. The best time to observe this shark at the Aquarium is during feeding times on Tuesday and Friday afternoons; feeding of all the Aquarium animals begins at about 2:30 p.m.

The Santa Monica Plastic Bag Monster, Mary McNeil from the Surfrider Foundation, encourages people to call their senators and urge them to pass AB 1998 (Single Use Plastic Bag Ban) at the Santa Monica Boardwalk on Thursday, August 19, 2010. At 19 billion plastic bags a year, California is currently the biggest consumer of single-use plastic bags. AB 1998 will eliminate the distribution  plastic bags in California by prohibiting grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores and similar stores from distributing single-use plastic bags.  Plastic bags are a primary component of urban litter pollution and marine litter pollution.  Single-use plastic bags are a problem product because they are light, aerodynamic and are littered at a high rate.  Once littered, plastic bags travel through the environment, ultimately ending up in the ocean and joining giant "garbage patches" circulating in ocean vortices. 

The ever-soulful Bettye LaVette, 64, performs at the Santa Monica Pier during the 26th Annual Twilight Dance Series on Thursday, August 19, 2010. According to the New York Times, “Ms LaVette rivals Aretha Franklin as her generation’s most vital soul singer. She uses every scrape, shout and break in her raspy voice, with a predator’s sense of timing to seize the drama of a song.” Ms. LaVette has most recently made news in her nearly 50 year career with her May 2010 release of, “Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook,” which brings the British Invasion home to its American R & B roots and features LaVette’s raw emotional renderings of compositions by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. For those who missed LaVette’s powerfully memorable three night run at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this year, another opportunity presents itself to see this force of nature. Ms. LaVette’s show will include material spanning her entire career including the British Rock Songbook www.bettyelavette.com.

The Rizzoli Family, who hail from Bologna Italy, pose for a photo by the Route 66 sign at the Santa Monica Pier after completing their 15 day Mother Road trip on Thursday, August 19, 2010.

Photojournalist Fabian Lewkowicz poses for a portrait inside his own art work at Bloomingdale's of Santa Monica on Friday, Aug 13, 2010. The image is featured in Bloomie's elevator which is 8 feet tall by 15 feet wide and wraps around the inside of the cab.