This woman stood beside a large muraled building on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.  Images of two headed turtles, two headed snakes and contortionists depicted in bright colors on the edifice.  Also, a two-headed turtle feebly exercising its legs in a plastic pan of water.  At the particular moment of this picture, a man with a southern accent used a microphone to invite the crowd through the question mark curtains.  ”We got it all folks, all kinds of freaks. And they’re all alive” the man said.  This woman drew a significant crowd, coaxing pedestrians through the curtains like a snake charmer.  Really, she struck me as  beautiful, not the least because she seemed to be unfazed by the ogling crowd and the massive snake around her neck.

For the audio version of the Venice Freak show click here.