Venice Pride Preparation - Get Ready For Gaywatch 2017!

Venice Pride is rapidly approaching, and now in its second year, will have no problem topping the inaugural celebration last year. With events planned all weekend June 1-3, this year's Pride celebration will most certainly be memorable.

I sat down recently with Pride organizer, Grant Turck, to hear about what's in store for our LBGTQ friends this year, and was happy to hear about how much the whole thing has grown even in just one year. The main fundraiser for the Pride events is the sale of the colored light bulbs that will make up the rainbow Venice sign. Bulbs can be adopted through the Venice Pride site for $100 each (you get to pick color and placement), and you keep the bulb after the festivities. Gratitude to the individuals and local businesses who have already taken part, especially the L.A. Rams, who sprang for all of the blue bulbs in the letter "C"! Way to support your Community, Football! - And they're new to town, so it would be nice to see longtime local businesses helping out as well. Or maybe those entities who are trying to take over our Community might like some decent p.r. while trying to un-do some damage? Just a thought ... These community events don't happen for free, and the sale of the bulbs is more important than ever to pull off this year's special events. 

Events like the dedication of the Bill Rosendahl Memorial Beach on June 1st, which will be the stretch of sand from Park to Breeze Avenue. The lifeguard tower at Brooks Avenue will be painted in rainbow colors marking the sand destination for the gay Westside. The beach is a beautiful way to recognize and remember Rosendahl, the first openly gay person elected to the City Council, and a true champion of Venice. A permanent plaque indicating the site as "Bill Beach" will be installed later this Summer.  I think Rosendahl would have loved to know that there will be a permanently inclusive beach named in his honor. How cool.

Friday, June 2nd will be the lighting of the Venice sign in its rainbow colors for Pride month. The street party there on Windward will begin at 5 p.m. until the sign is lit (by a special guest!) at 9 p.m. There will be booths and exhibitors, food trucks, music (by DJ Victor Rodriguez) and dancing in the streets the entire time. This year there are two official after-parties: "Gaywatch" will be held at The Birdcage (upstairs at The Victorian on Main Street) and go from 11:30 to 2 a.m., and "Queer As Funk" featuring the Puscie Jones Revue will be happening at The Townhouse/Del Monte Speakeasy from 9:30-2 a.m. for even more dancing and celebration. Gay, straight, whatever you are, this street party is always a blast for the entire community. A Community that needs dancing in the streets now more than ever. And support and solidarity.

For those revelers that manage to get up in time there will be a big beach clean up on Saturday morning, June 3rd, named "Beach, Please!" I love it, and I love that there is an element of giving back to the community in the mix. Everyone needs to do their part in keeping Venice beautiful, and not just by being good looking partiers (thank you in advance!). The beach clean up will be followed by a "Status Is Sexy Pride Extravaganza" at a stage at Muscle Beach, with performers and fun until 5 p.m.

With a little less than a month to go before Venice Pride arrives, now is the time to chip in where you can to help make all of this fun happen. There are still 51 rainbow bulbs available (as of this typing) for adoption, as well as the sale of Venice Pride shirts that will both help, and look great when you wear it to the sign lighting. There are also volunteer and sponsorship opportunities available, both of which may be signed up for at the website as well.

These are the times to be looking out for each other. I'm not gay, but I can sure understand the importance of inclusion and acceptance of all people, no matter what their sexual preference. Seriously, who cares? Whatever makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else is cool in my book. And those things should be not only supported, but celebrated. That's why we're talking about this today ... so that there is still time to make this the best party our LBGTQ will attend all year.

Let's "Light up the night for Equality!" together. Let's show the whole world that there is a whole lot of Pride on the Westside! Thank you for your ongoing support of our wonderful Venice Community - one and all.

A Venice Greatest Hits Weekend - From Art To Motorcycles!

This past weekend in Venice was full of the greatest hits of all sorts of fun stuff happening around town, and it was non-stop. I had to miss the Art Crawl on Thursday to attend the supremely awesome Prophets Of Rage show at the Forum, but was happy to hear that they had left up all the Venice Afterburn installations down at the beach for everyone to enjoy for another day. This worked out great because it was all just straight up Windward Avenue from where the Venice sign was about to be lit up in the blue and gold colors of the new Los Angeles Rams. There was a pep rally held in the street on Windward, and I raced back from work to get there in time to see my friend Lacey Kay Cowden regale the sporting fans with her gorgeous songs.

I did not get there in time to hear those gorgeous songs, but I did get there in time to party with everyone. Some (gigantic) Rams were there, the Ram mascot was there, and some Rams cheerleaders too. There was a big inflatable Rams slide for the kids, and blue and gold merch for sale. There was a good crowd there, but it felt more like they were there for the fun of it all more so than that anyone was that hardcore of a Rams fan. It also felt a bit more corporate and advertising like than the emphasis placed on the COMMUNITY at other sign lightings that are for holidays, not billion dollar sports teams. There was the usual oohs and aahs for the lightbulbs changing color and you can now cruise by and see the team spirit for L.A.

Having seen that, we went down to the beach to see the immersive art pieces that had just recently returned from Burning Man. There was all kinds of lit-up attractions, and the most popular seemed to once again be the big Unicorn Trojan horse full of dancers.

I liked a big electric bird the best, especially as it was back-lit by the actual sunset and all the people walking around with glow sticks and groovy outfits.

There was a whole bunch of stuff to see, and a whole bunch of people out seeing it. This was one of those nights that it was perfect to have visitors come down, as there was a spectacle to see in all directions. Venice was really showing off, and everyone was in rare fun form. It was a blast.

Such a blast that it resulted in a later start than planned on Saturday, but once up and about, it was time to start the fun all over again. The Venice Vintage Motorcycle Club was holding its rally in the Venice Boulevard Farmer's Market parking lots again this year, and by the time we got there it was all the way jam packed. Motorcycles of all kinds (from Euro to "Rattiest"!) were lined up to check out, and the roar of bike engines could be heard throughout Venice all day long.

The bands started early and played all day, keeping the fun going. Most bikers and biker friends were squeezed into the beer garden, and it was so fun to see all the Venice faces and do some catching up.
The highlight of the rally is always the Venice Vintage Pin-Up Girl contest and this year was no different. I saw all the beautiful retro-dressed gals walking around, but alas, we had to go before I found out who won. My money was on the burlesque dancer in red ... she was not shy.

I could have stayed at the always very fun rally all day, but had to race off, because then it was time for the annual showing of Grease on the Venice High Football Field. The event seems to get bigger every year, and it's so fun to see everyone's Rydell (Venice) High school spirit. Girls were in Pink Lady jackets and poodle skirts, guys were in greased hair and leather, and they even had a vintage car show on the side of the field with one entry looking a lot like the Greased Lightning car. The whole audience sang along to the words on the screen, and it was good old fashioned family fun in the original drive-in movie kind of setting. All under a spectacular full moon! I love it.

After having big shows and things to attend every night last week, it was actually acceptable for Sunday to come up gloomy and grey. This meant that everyone could kick back and take it easy, which we didn't really do because all the Vikings in Venice got together to see our Minnesota team debut the new Vikings stadium - and WIN! I'm quite sure the team could hear us all the way back in Minneapolis when the clock ran out and they played "Let's Go Crazy"!

A great weekend in Venice, California, to be sure, and I hope yours was excellent too, wherever you may have spent it. But you should have been here.