Venice Garden Tour, Derby Day & Pow WOW!

What a delightful, deluxe weekend!

This past Saturday was The Venice Garden and Home Tour to benefit the Las Doradas Children's Center who do great work with low-income, at-risk kids right here in Venice. The day was sheer perfection for such an outing, as the sun was shining bright in a cloudless sky, with just a hint of breeze to keep you refreshed. It's an annual tradition for my gang of gals to put on bright frocks and look at all the beauty the gardens of our town contain. This day almost always begins in the Queen's Box (like at the Ascot Races) of my friend Jenny's place. As it is also Kentucky Derby Day each year, you'll usually find us enjoying champagne to start the day in a celebratory fashion.


With bubbles still dissipating on our tongues, we all grabbed our bikes and headed off to the Children's Center to get our wristbands. (The one slight blemish to our stellar day - the ladies working the check-in table - and the phones prior to the event - really need to brush up on their social graces ... utterly charmless. Oh, and no water bottle gift bags this year - stinge.) Biking is the way to go on this day (and every day, of course. NO MORE OIL! ... but I digress ...), as homes are spread out around the neighborhood, and you want to just zoom about freely.


There is so much to see and talk about that you should really go yourselves next year, but I'll give you a glimpse into it all. One main observation I had was that the color palette was pretty drab and modernist for the most part, which make the colorful gardens LEAP to my mind now as the highlights.


A lot of the gravel and bamboo yards got kinda old to look at after a while, for me, anyway. Whatever you like, the day was IDEAL to contemplate your own garden daydreams.


The gardens that actually GREW something in them, be it flowers or produce, were by far my favorites. The yellow and red chards were so bright they looked fake ...


... and were so tempting they made Lari curl up next to them, Vamp style.


The little googly eyed cartoon vegetable markers at one of our favorites were darling, and so were the welcoming owners.


There were even cool little chickens living at one place, and the white one with a punk hair-do was clearly the star of that backyard.


One house had a couple girls on the steps saying, "Don't miss the 19th Century Opium Den", which we did not miss.


That same house had a back house with a balcony that recalled the Garden District of New Orleans. Beautiful, and transporting. My dear friend Mike's house was on the Tour this year, which elated me as I've always bragged about his backyard, "Bali". We took a little break next to his Hot Tub (Time Machine).


I had a bounty offered for whomever found me the best Hibiscus to wear in my hair, and Lari won herself a pie with a giant red one. (And a bonus ala mode for the yellow one!).



After doing one chunk of the walking map, it was time to take our customary lunch/Derby/Mint Julep break at Hal's. It felt a bit lame to be inside on such a stunner of a day, but the "Most exciting two minutes in Sports" was enjoyed by all ... but especially by us and the Bobby Brown party (No, not The World's Greatest Wino, Bobby Brown. The Singer one.). He looks healthy and great, by the way. What a turnaround. Cool, funny, nice guy, as were his lady friend and baby. (Whitney might be the troublemaker after all). Our horses didn't win, but who cares, we did - just by having such a glorious day already. And all for a great cause!


After the race, we dashed around to try to see as much as we could before the Tour homes closed.


There's never enough time to see it all - especially the way Hal's pours the Juleps.


A quick zip home to change into warmer togs and climb back onto the bikes to head down to Dockweiler Beach for a Birthday/Bon Voyage Pow Wow for my pal, Nathan. We arrived just in time to catch a shimmering golden sunset, enjoyed around the bonfire as our friends played music ... and applied war paint.


As we waited for the Green Flash (nope), I looked around and once again realized what in life is most important - Friends. Music. Good Food. Fun. Nature. Beauty. Love. Yeah, Man.


The sun set, and the indigo evening turned chilly, but as we pedaled back to Venice, we were entirely warm ... from the inside out.


Gratitude.


*Photos by Jennifer Everhart, Paulgronner.com, Lari Lang and Me.

The Undisputed World's Greatest Wino!

Bobby Brown ("No, not like the singer, he's like ME!") is better known as The World's Greatest Wino on Venice Beach. I sat down to talk with him this morning ("Let's sit on a bench in the sunshine."), and can assure you that he lives up to his title. Except that he's sober, and has been for 12 years.

Bobby was born in Georgia, lived in Florida and New York, until making his way to the West Coast in 1978 to get away from a crazy ex-wife (among a few). That's also when he began drinking himself into oblivion - to forget about the bad marriage. He has children (two sons) and grandchildren, but he doesn't keep in touch with them anymore, as there were a lot of rough years, and when his Mother died, the link to the rest of the family died with her.

The World's Greatest Wino routine began when he lost the title of World's Greatest "Flatfooted Panhandler" in a contest with THE Greatest Panhandler, in New Orleans. He still hates that he lost. His beat used to be walking the sidewalks between The Hollywood Athletic Club and The Cat and The Fiddle, yelling, "Support your local Wino!" It occurred to him then that whatever you're going to be, you should be the best at it - hence The World's Greatest Wino was born in 1993.

He brought his bit to the Boardwalk, with all its foot traffic, and kept up the heavy drinking until a little stint in jail for "being a pharmacist." An excellent Parole Officer (named Aaron Davis, "my Eskimo", who Bobby wanted a shout-out to) was physically responsible for getting him sober and into AA meetings. Bobby had been drinking until he was sick - throwing up blood sick - and that was that. It dawned on him that if a sign and a cup (to collect his tips) could keep him drunk, it could help him do a lot of other things.

He said, "I've drank up 747's, and now I fly in them." He saves up his collections and travels now instead of spending it on the sauce. He's been all over Europe ("Though I never got to Istanbul. My fantasy was to sit in the Casbah and smoke hash."), South America, and more recently, The Philippines and Thailand - where he has a 22 year old young lady (He showed me a photo. He's heading back over the holidays. Yep.) currently "driving me nuts, emailing me all the time." For the record, Bobby is 72. And he's replaced his drinking vice with the ladies, or as he put it, "I'm a Sucker. Ladies IS my problem now." Yeah, but they likely help keep him young and at it, working the Boardwalk, bellowing his trademark song, "Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Help me get drunk!" That's exactly what he's singing right here:

And he IS going to get drunk - just not until the year 2209. That's a date he chose to sit on the hill by the Skatepark and finally drink his favorite - Remy Martin - out of a brandy snifter in the sunshine, because "You don't know" - you don't know how long you're going to live, and all he can think about is TODAY, for not getting drunk. But you always have to have something to look forward to. Asked if he's false advertising a bit, he answered, "I hate a liar more than anything. I'm not lying, I'm asking for the MEANS to go to the liquor store - but the liquor store sells a lot of things." He gave me his business card, and I said, "This is a fresh card." He gave me a sly look, and said, "I AM fresh!" Again, he does not lie.

He alternates his signs (his favorite: "Dr. Kind Love, S.O. {Sex-Ologist} - Sex Counselor and Happiness Dispenser") and hats (his current one is an Oktoberfest one, "for October"), and has a million songs and jokes to entertain the crowds with. Like this one ...

"I was in Hollywood and saw this giant guy with a little tiny head. I asked him how he was so huge, and had such a tiny head, all out of proportion. The guy told me that he had woken up in a hotel room and a Leprechaun was there, with a Fairy Princess. The Leprechaun said the Fairy Princess would give him anything he wanted, and the Guy said, "How about a little head?"

We shared a laugh and a firm handshake, and Bobby Brown, World's Greatest Wino, carried on down The Boardwalk, dispensing his own special brand of happiness.