Not Far from the Ocean

Following a tour of duty in Vietnam and a year of backpacking through Latin America, Sam Benveniste returns to Los Angles in the midst of the hippie counterculture revolution of the late 1960s. To support himself he takes a series of jobs, first as a representative for the telephone company working in one of the City's poorest Negro ghettos and then as a post office letter carrier in upscale Santa Monica. Following these he runs the Merry-Go-Round on the Santa Monica Pier and after moving to the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, becomes a freelance writer for a wildly popular underground newspaper and a fan magazine covering the hottest rock bands of the day. In each of these jobs he has exciting, insightful experiences while discovering how our beliefs keep us from seeing the world that lays just beyond.

"Happiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well lived."