Happy St. Patrick's Day From Venice!

The Windward Circle is all decked out in green for St. Patrick's Day! And the first person I saw today was Venice Irishman, Gary Palmer!

I think the greening was done by Jules Muck (who is never mad at green) and friends, and I think it's great. The Circle is such a centerpiece of town, and it's been dominated for far too long by the off-center dismembered Black Dahlia sculpture by the late (so he won't know it's gone) Robert Graham - that no one I've ever talked to even likes. Certainly not as a representation of Venice. That thing needs to be auctioned off, and the great circle be turned into a real town center. Maybe a little gazebo/band shell in the middle, that our Venice Symphony Orchestra could call home? Maybe a sweet fountain that looks like it has something to do with Venice? Maybe more graffiti walls? Rotating public art installations? I don't know, but it hasn't been used to its full potential yet for sure.

Until today. Today it gave us a bright spot of the spirit of fun that we've always been known for, that gave everyone passing by a smile and a touch of the Irish luck/blarney to start their day.

I'll take that over Lucky Charms or green beer anyday.

Have fun (and if you're going to Brennan's, get going. The line was down the block at 6 am)!

Driving Out The Snakes

This past weekend was mainly all about this. Me on a spit. 

It's been just crazy hot weather, as if we're skipping Spring altogether and jumping right into Summer. Like I jumped right into the ocean in March (earliest ever), without even flinching. It was that hot.

Which maybe contributed a bit to an overall feeling of lethargy and irritation, which was totally out of place in the bright sunshine, but still present, for some reason. I read a lot. I read a lot of disturbing things, but also a lot of good things. I was really disappointed in some people, and kind of fed up with the whole town (except for the beach). Flakes everywhere. Fakes everywhere. Users. Opportunists. Studio executives that say filthy things like, "Everyone understood because we all live in this weird thing together called Hollywood ... If we all actually were nice, it wouldn't work," and the idiots that buy into that very wrong way of thinking. Snakes, all of them.

Then you feel yourself starting to think negatively, kind of like, why bother being the nice guy if this is how people really are. Then you start seeing the world like that. Thought is very powerful. Thoughts become things. Thought manifests things, good and bad. Like walking home from the beach, this dang flower looked just like a snake.

Then going out again later and looking up to see a snake cloud.

That's when I put a halt to that fatalist way of thinking, because if you start in like that, the terrorists win. And terrorists are sometimes just terrible people that make you think terribly too. And I don't want that in my life. I want to see good things in the flowers, in the clouds, and in people. 

Re-set. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, all the snakes have been run out of the town in my head. Happy beautiful, gorgeous Monday!