Venice 1 BR Dump $2500 MO

I was out and about one recent night when we came upon this absolute steal of a pad in Venice ... !

I mean, it's still a bit steep compared to the good old days in Venice, but WOW! I've got to put an offer in asap before some techie Bird rider beats me to it! These deals don't come along every day! I usually like more windows, but you have to take what you can get around here. Oh, MAN - if all goes well, look forward to a huge blowout of a housewarming, friends and neighbors! Wish me luck!


... Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! (I'll be over here trying to get my tongue out of my cheek).

Paint The Bushes!

Deviating a little from my usual route this morning, I saw something that I think is kind of great on Main Street and Westminster. The floral-painted building on the corner that houses a production company (Concrete Images/Durable Goods), went out and painted their hedge to match!

I'm not sure how great this is for the foliage, I'm not a botanist, but I can tell you that it is awesome and fun, and sort of makes you feel like in Alice In Wonderland when they all go out and paint the roses, just for fun. It also reminded me of a quote from that book/movie that fits for the parts and people that I love the most in Venice ... "You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

Thank you for this entirely bonkers bush, folks. It made my day.

A Venice Mural By Francisco Letelier

"A 10' x 10' cloth mural, stretched on plumbing pipe, featuring the Venice Ballerina Clown with tattoos on his arms representing homeless victims of violence this summer in Venice, homeless people at the top background, people taking selfies near a sign that says "STOP calling it Silicon Beach," drawings by evicted Venice artist William Attaway in the lower right corner and an artist working on a chalk mandala, which was also happening at the Abbot Kinney Festival" ... so read the description of the new mural by Francisco Letelier on his Facebook page. I went to go meet this mural yesterday, and instantly loved it, of course.

In a tribute to the Venice ballerina clown on Main Street by artist Jonathan Borofsky, Letelier created this miracle for this year's Abbot Kinney Festival, and it now lives on Broadway between Electric and Abbot Kinney. In describing his inspiration for the piece, Letelier wrote, "He escaped off the building at Rose and Main. Found him in my backyard smoking and drinking with possums, squirrels and emaciated racoons. He smelled like coyote and history. He never stopped smiling sadly. I told him I thought he was dead. " I never died" said he, "I never died." Just cause my tutu is a bit crooked and the man is selling like he always been selling. I am in the sidewalk cracks, I am in the mortar. I will always rise again, so take a picture man cause I got things to do and places I gotta be."

Us too, Ballerina Clown. Us too. 

Letelier is one of my favorite Venice artists and people, both making beautiful work and well taken points in all his work and activism, my favorite kind of art - art with a purpose.

Make a visit of your own to the "Payaso Veniztlan" with its tutu fluttering in the breeze ... and get it.

Kevin Ancell: Nos Vemos En Venecia!

There was a great art opening in Venice last night, and you could tell it was great before you even stepped inside. The overflow crowd spilled out into the street, where an impromptu street party just naturally happened. It was a celebration for the art of Kevin Ancell, another Dogtown legend.

Upon squeezing into the great space on Main Street, I thought it was a group show at first, so diverse were the styles and materials used. But nope, it was all Ancell, and it was all fantastic.

Right inside the door was a memorial to the old P.O.P., complete with burning candles illuminating the painted surfboard that probably surfed that pier.

I was especially taken by the oils that could fit right into the Sistine Chapel, but upon closer examination it was guys with surfboards, when Jesus Heals The Kooks (2014). Classic.

From traditional oils to a whole different medium, with shelves of ceramic busts of a woman who nearly turned Ancell into dust (per the book accompanying the show) in his Love Is A Dog From Hell (2015). Deep.

Ancell himself accepted congratulations as he milled through the crowd dressed in all white, with a Hawai'ian ti leaf lei around his neck as the man being honored. The accolades were well-deserved, of course, as one piece was cooler than the next.

Like Porn (2015), a depiction of Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, with the image created out of the word "Porn" written over and over with graphite on paper. Creative and cutting and patient and wow.

There was a great oil painting of a homeless man pushing his cart down Abbot Kinney from the past to the future, in Moses Seeking Pharaoh (2015), a strong commentary on what has happened to the former West Washington Boulevard. It's powerful stuff.

Carrying on with powerful, there was a replica of an atom bomb, Kaboom: Nobody Ride For Free (2015), that one could actually ride up and down, in Ancell's homage to Dr. Strangelove. This proved to be a very popular attraction, as partiers took turns climbing aboard the bomb. Kaboom!

A chandelier of female busts lit the proceedings, and let you know that Ancell is one of those artists that sees the art in everything, and refuses to be limited by any one style or material. I dig that.

There was so much going on in the masterful Madonna (2013) that I'm probably going to go back and look at it some more when there isn't such a big crowd trying to see it. Featuring the homeless, gang members, graffiti and the cops all being watched over by glowing angels and the Madonna, it really is something to behold.

It was stiflingly hot in the gallery, so we inched our way back to the door where it was rumored that House beer was on ice. I never found that, but instead found that the party outside had grown even bigger, food trucks had arrived, as had a lot more revelers. Party without a permit!

A big old Dogtown reunion was in full effect ... legendary skaters, surfers, and artists of that legendary era all joined together again for a photo to celebrate one of their own. People were tearing it up on the roof and in the street, all the way into the fact that things were as they should be in Venice.

As C.R. Stecyk III wrote for the show's book, "The area has always been an entrepot for alternative culture, a haven for eccentrics, outcasts, outlaws and geniuses who if they weren't truly mad, they were at least excited." Truth. And last night, everyone was excited.

Kevin Ancell: Nos Vemos En Venecia runs now through October 15th at 1320 Main Street, Venice.

Nos Vemos En Venicia! See you in Venice!