The Venice Art Crawl Turns 7!

The Venice Art Crawl turned 7 years old last night with a party at Canal Club to celebrate! The back room was jam packed with artists and the people who love them and their work. The entire mission of the VAC is to keep ART alive in Venice, and these are the folks that are making sure of that.

The VAC was the vision of Danny Samakow, Edizen Stowell, and Mike Newhouse, who came together to ensure that Venice as an art destination would remain so. They, along with tireless board member, Sunny Bak, were honored last night with a well-deserved certificate from the Venice Chamber of Commerce, and a big old 7th birthday chocolate cake.

A raffle was held all night, with winners claiming art by local artists, among other great loot prizes. Danny Samakow was sporting the bright pink VAC shirt from when the event was a monthly deal, and shared with me how happy he was to see how far it's all come.

Fun and familiar faces of Venice enjoyed themselves all night (and do be sure to check out the watermelon margarita across the street at James Beach while it's in season - delish!), and all looked forward to the next installment of the VAC in September for the Venice Afterburn - always a highlight of the year!

Happiest Birthday to the Venice Art Crawl, and endless thanks for all of your hard work to keep the art world in Venice not just alive, but thriving! Much, much love!

Next Venice Art Crawl - September 21st! 

 

The 2015 Abbot Kinney Festival - A Locals Reunion

When the sun rose yesterday morning, you just knew it was going to be a great day for the 31st Abbot Kinney Festival. It was HOT, it was bright, and everyone was all the way ready for it. I live right around the corner from Abbot Kinney, so you could feel the anticipation (and hear the tent poles clanking) all night long leading up to the big day.

Booths lined the boulevard from Venice Boulevard to Main Street, where you could purchase or learn about pretty much everything under the sun. I have a friend who saves her jewelry budget all year to get new things at the Festival, and this year probably gave her a huge haul, as there were so many great artisans selling their original pieces. You could buy art, soap, clothes, chimes, hot sauce, or even get a massage ... the only problem is having enough time to see and do everything - which I never do.

The Abbot Kinney Festival is great because it ends up being a big reunion of your favorite Venice locals, many of whom now totally avoid Abbot Kinney these days, due to its influx of chain stores and scenesters. We again had an advantage this year to meeting up with our locals by having the "Locals" stage located at Andalusia.

With the School Of Rock kids kicking it off, then Kim Michaelowski, then our Venice Symphony Orchestra, it definitely was the place to find your favorite people. In fact, the line-up was so good that it actually made it hard to leave and see any of the rest of the Festival! A good problem to have. We had the pleasure of watching our dear Lacey Cowden make a whole slew of new fans, while accomplishing the major feat of getting a festival crowd to be stone silent while they listened to Cowden weave her musical spells. It was awesome.

The Spirit Of Venice Awards were appropriately given out at the Locals stage, and I was so happy to see my friend, Edizen Stowell of Venice Paparazzi, receive her richly deserved honor.

WIth a break in the music, it was time for a quick lap to see what and who else we could see. The kids area down at Westminster was very popular for families, though the Ferris wheel looked a little rickety for my taste. Also on Westminster was an area for the chalk artists, a Gary Palmer spearheaded project that hopes to become its own fun festival soon.

Kids were taking part in a big colorful chalk mandala, exactly the kind of participation and color you want to see during your neighborhood festival.

After a quick spin through the Roosterfish, and stopping every few feet to greet a new old friend, we made it back to Andalusia to see Matt Ellis and his band blaze through their set.  Ellis organized the Locals stage, so it was beautifully curated with all our talented friends playing. His own set was a true highlight of the day, as our gang all congregated and danced around. Ellis and his wife/bandmate Vavine arrived in Venice ten years ago exactly, and the Festival was their welcome to town, so it was extra special to have them playing at it.

With all the hoopla of the day, I have to envy a kid who can sleep this soundly through it all. Beckett wins! I bet he had awesome dreams.

The great National Anthem played next, a fun and purely rocking set. My friend Quinn's reaction was not a good review of the band, it just got loud.

I kept running into long, lost faces, and to me, that is the very best part of the Abbot Kinney Festival. We always call it "Venice Thanksgiving", and this year was no different. People will avoid AKB all year, but they'll come back for the Festival. And they'll have a blast.

It's great to live right around the corner now, so we can have a headquarters. A place to take a break, use the bathroom, get out of the sun, take a nap, make road drinks ... I did none of that myself, but it was nice to know I could. There was too much to do to hang out at home!

Our friends and neighbors Nocona headlined the Locals stage, and have quickly become one of our favorite bands after complete throw down shows at block parties earlier this year. We love them.

I also love that their kids and their kids' friends all play instruments, and are gearing up to take on the Locals stage for years to come. This year it was enough for them to watch their parents rock.

The sun began to set on the 2015 Festival, but things only got more heated up. Crowds flocked to all the watering holes and beer gardens up and down the street, DJs took over for bands, and everyone either kept dancing, or stumbled off to watch the lunar eclipse go down (I did the former and totally forgot about the eclipse until it was too late - oh, well.).

The annual sweep down the street by the lights and sirens came along to clear out the people, and with it, the clanking of the tent poles dismantling for another year.

It was a completely beautiful day in every way, made most so by all the beautiful, wonderful people that came out to celebrate our home. I don't think of the Abbot Kinney Festival as a celebration of the boulevard, but as a celebration of the man, Abbot Kinney. As an all day opportunity to toast the cool dude who created the playground where we now dwell, and thank him for it.

On days like yesterday, you forget about any differences among us and our individual ideas and ideals for Venice, and just get down with your people. Gratefully.

Cheers to another year of the Abbot Kinney Festival, and to all of us - for being there, and for being Venice.

The Venice Art Crawl Turns 3!

The Venice Art Crawl turned three with a fun party to celebrate last Friday. Time flies, man. I remember the very first one well - three years ago already?! - as one of the most blast nights ever.  As was Friday, with Venizens showing up to party in the street, like the good old days.

Speedway and Dudley was the street party, with one half of the jamboree happening at The Cadillac Hotel and the other half across the street in the old Henry's Market (newly gone) at 9 Dudley. It was great to have art in the space again, as we spent many MANY a good time in the old Sponto Gallery located right next door. Sponto himself would have LOVED to see so many good Venice people out having a good time on a beautiful summer evening on Dudley.

Music blasted so loud you couldn't really talk that great, so you just smiled, hugged and looked at the art and the people who make and appreciate it.

Artists donated pieces to be hung/sold. Several local restaurants donated food and drink. Many volunteers donated their time and hard work. Organizers (Edizen! Nicole! Sunny! Danny S!) broke their backs securing all of the above, and it was well worth it, to judge by the grand old time people were having.

It's all about Venice, and all about the art that is created and shown off here. The next Art Crawl will be September 19, and there's a lot of good stuff in store. Mark your calendars to get out to it and see what all the fun is about as the Venice Art Crawl kicks off it's fourth year.

Happy Birthday, VAC!!! .... AND MANY MORE!!!!

Butterface

We've been talking about people caring here in in Venice, and yesterday I heard the most beautiful example of this. I was riding down the Boardwalk when I ran into Edizen Stowell from Venice Paparazzi. After the greetings and hugs among the gang, we started chatting and wound up getting into how we both strongly believe that there is a sense of community here that is palpable, and actually informs how we live our daily lives. It was then that she said, "Listen to this ..."

Everyone has seen Edizen cruising around on her longboard with her skateboarding Bulldog, Butterface, alongside her. They were true buddies, like on a human scale. Well, poor Butterface had cancer, and last weekend her husband, Alex, called her while she was up in Canada celebrating her Mom's birthday to tell her that things did not look good for Butterface. Edizen got on the next flight out, and while waiting out a layover in Phoenix, had a nap and dreamed of Butter's face, and saw his eyes close. She called her husband and he told her they were waiting for her, but in reality Butterface had died two minutes earlier ... right when she dreamed of his eyes closing.

Edizen finally got home, where Alex broke the news to her. She was upset and crying, and at about 1:00 a.m. Alex went outside and asked for Edizen to join him. This is what she saw:


An anonymous neighbor had gone out at night and created this wonderfully touching mural of Butterface right on the side of their building! In close up, you can see that it says "Venice loved U Butterface". While Edizen was telling me this, both our eyes were welling up that the people of our community feel and care about each other to lengths that you're not even aware of sometimes, until you really need it.


Through the next day and on until right now, people have come by and put out candles, notes, little toy skateboards, and even a stick of butter!! Man.

This gem of a story gives Dogtown a whole new meaning ... and I couldn't be more proud of the compassion and sweetness that continues to endure in our home by the beach.

(and to the Anonymous painter ... THANK YOU for your caring heart.)