The Light Of Venice

We were recently shooting down on the Boardwalk for our documentary, 90291: VENICE UNZIPPED, when I finally really got down and looked at the wonderful tiles embedded in the benches all along Ocean Front Walk. Each depicts a classic time and place in Venice, and show what has always made our Community special and unique.

I know many of us feel that is all being threatened these days on several fronts, and that we often feel helpless to create positive change and reject the negative ... but we're not. We all have a voice, and you can exercise yours this weekend during the Venice Neighborhood Council elections by showing up to vote for the people that deeply care about the spirit of Venice, and wish to preserve it - not merely profit from it.

I can't be there for everything happening in Venice this weekend, as I'm in Minnesota taking care of things for my ailing Mother, so I extra get that feeling of helplessness ... but I can at least tell you what I think. There have been nefarious forces at work for some time on both the VNC and the Venice Chamber of Commerce, and I really think it's time to clean house in both of those organizations. You may recall the stories about the Chamber not letting Venice Pride use the Venice Sign for the annual sign lighting and party over strictly personal beefs and shady accounting. Well, now they've gone ahead and lit the sign rainbow ahead of Pride - not allowing them to have the countdown or anything - and the "scheduled maintenance" they said they were doing on the sign for the month of June appears to be another lie. Venice Pride had to go ahead and order their own sign as a backup plan, so now there will be a double rainbow during tomorrow's Pride celebration! Pride will never go down without the FUN.

The Chamber also scheduled their "Flower Fest" for the exact same day as Pride, and got the Art Crawl to join them. The Chamber/Flower Fest situation is what started all of the issues with Venice Pride, as the Chamber didn't have enough money in their budget to make it happen last year, so resorted to ever shadier tactics (which they wrongly accused Venice Pride of, hypocritically - and there's plenty of documentation to prove it) to throw the event - that pretty much no one attended. I don't have time to get into all of it here and now, as I'm dealing with pressing family things here, but I will tell you that you can trust me on the fact that I wouldn't cast a single vote for anyone who endorses the Venice Chamber hijinks. Or anyone that values property value or development over Community, creativity, and empathy. Who I WOULD vote for are who the people who share my deep desire to preserve that special light of Venice are voting for:

Community Officer: Jim Robb/Brian Averill
Outreach: Joselyn Williams
Chair of Land Use and Planning Committee: Alix Gucovsky
Vice President: Grant Turck (!!!!!!)
President: Ira Koslow

There are more categories to vote for, and I don't have time to get all the way into it now ... but for those I would definitely err on the side of the longer they have lived in Venice, the more chance they get my vote. Because they simply care more and GET IT more. There is a an all day (10-6) BBQ on Sunday at 1301 Main Street hosted by Robb, Averill, and Gucovsky that you can hit up before or after you vote - or both. Get to know the people that love and care about Venice and want to be stewards of what our late great poet, Philomene Long called "the light of Venice" ...

That the light of Venice

not be extinguished

Nor diminished

nor simply maintained.

But that that light burn, burn, burn

into a boundless luminosity!  

I look forward to hearing that the right people were elected, and that Pride was the best ever this year! Cheers, fun, and LOVE to all Venetians!!! 

*And do check out the marvelous benches, as well as the book about them - Art Tiles At Venice Beach!

Venice Says Vote!

It's November 6th. Voting Day. The Midterm Elections. Time to stand up and use your right to vote, your voice, your citizenship, your HEAD - and GO VOTE! It's shocking to me how many people don't use this one weapon we have against tyranny and oppression and sit on their hands and whine later. I have no time for it. I was out walking around town this morning, and was encouraged to see so many people with "I Voted" stickers on, and reminders for everyone to go vote everywhere you looked.

I'm also nervous that when everyone DOES go vote, that it won't count. One friend in Venice told me that they had no BALLOTS (!?!??!?!?!?!) at his polling place, and there no volunteers to even do anything about it. Then I saw a video of a polling place in Georgia where a gigantic line was waiting to vote ... but they didn't have any power cords to plug in the machines!!! This, in the year 2018, with so much technology you can call people from a watch phone ... but they can't get it together to run power to a machine. Or even have the ballots to vote on. Shocking. Disturbing. Disappointing. Criminal, actually, when these fools have known it was going to be Voting Day today for a good year. Inexcusable. A sign in the Canals to go VOTE made me feel a little better - but not much.

We encourage everyone to vote, but we can't guarantee that they'll be able to once they get to their janky, out of date polls - or that if they do get to successfully vote, that they won't count. That they'll be mysteriously thrown out. That they'll be switched in the machine for someone you'd never vote for. Whatever shady shenanigans the powers that be try to pull. We were talking yesterday about being fed up with it all and leaving the country ... but to where? At least here we still have the guise of freedom, the will of the People, and the American spirit that we were founded on - whether or not we've ever truly lived up to it (Our experiment in Democracy can really only be counted since everyone has had the right to vote, so the whole real deal is only like maybe 50 years old), or whether or not we'll ever truly get there.

But we still have the right to vote. And the freedom of speech to rat on the villains that would try to take that right away. And that superpower - the Power of the People. Use it today, and every day. And one more time ... VOTE!

 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

- The New Colossus

Robbie Conal's Cabinet Of Horrors

The country is in bad shape, with the worst administration ever, and Robbie Conal isn't having it. And neither should we. There are new political posters up near the French Market from Mr. Conal, featuring the distorted, sad faces of the people in the Cabinet who are currently ruining our country.

Robbie Conal's Cabinet of Horrors is his new show launching on October 13, 2018 at Track 16 in downtown L.A., where it will be on view until December 8, 2018, with a special artist talk between Conal and my friend, Shana Nys Dambrot on October 25th.

Someone wrote over one of the posters on Abbot Kinney, saying something like "Why make art ugly? It's demoralizing to us." I ask, how can you NOT make these people ugly? Their rotten souls come through and can only be depicted as one views them. Thank goodness for artists who use their work and voices to mark these times in history ... lest we forget.

The timing for these Conal works is great ... please remember these faces when you go to vote next month in the midterm elections. And VOTE THEM ALL OUT.

Thanks.

Fahrenheit 11/9 - A Must See For ALL Americans

Holy smokes. I just saw Fahrenheit 11/9 last night, and I can't get it out of my head. And neither will you. Because you simply MUST see it. There's so much in it that hasn't been in the news, that you don't know about ... I honestly am still having a hard time shutting my jaw.

You might have a bias against Michael Moore, because you think he's slanted or bombastic or whatever, and he certainly can be (like when Trump's voice comes out of Hitler's mouth- but the point is made). But this one is equally critical about both sides of our government - and it SHOULD be. One talking head makes the point that we're still TRYING to be a Democracy, as how can you say we've been a Democracy when not everyone has even had the right to vote for very long. We're still working TOWARD a Democracy. And Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans sometimes.

I left this film with a whole different feeling toward Obama too. Did you know that he went to Flint, Michigan (Moore's hometown - it's personal), and they all thought he was coming to save the day and call their poisoned water a national disaster (with the funding that goes along with that), and he came to town and asked for a glass of water to drink to show that it was o.k (when it is literally killing people and making their babies' hair fall out from lead poisoning!)?! While sitting next to the absolute EVIL villain Michigan Governor Snyder?! Did you further know that after all they've suffered through, Flint citizens awoke one night to being BOMBED by our own U.S. Army - using their abandoned buildings as target practice - without telling anyone it was going to happen?!?! It looked like an Iraq style bombing. OUTRGEOUS. And the people of Flint are imprisoned there, because who's going to buy their homes so they can move? No one. It's enough to make you defect. But to WHERE? The whole world feels corrupt.

There are images and statements from the current Despot/President that make your skin actually crawl, and look for barf bags. Then, just as you're fully nauseous from that pig's face, you have to admit that it was the Democrats that put him in the White House. Some of us already knew that, because we tried with all we had to elect Bernie Sanders - who a thousand percent would have won. To watch the delegates (while people who previously thought their votes counted watched and sobbed) LIE and give Hillary Clinton the nomination from states that Sanders 100% won, was to watch corruption at the highest level - and the death of Democracy (that we barely even had yet). No wonder so many people didn't bother to vote - they were made to feel like their votes didn't matter anyway. I personally lost good friends over being for Sanders over Hillary (absurd), but now I feel like maybe I should have been the one to dump them over it. The Democrats blatantly CHEATED - and now we're all paying for it. On that note - we simply MUST abolish the Electoral College. It's outdated, and was created for slave states. The popular vote being allowed its victory would never have placed us in this situation ... going back at least to Gore.

People (including myself) were yelling at the screen. Laughing out loud. Crying out loud. Hissing. Booing. Clapping. Mortified. Inspired. Inspired because the PEOPLE really DO have the power, as demonstrated by the West Virginia Teachers' strike earlier this year, that had tears running down my face at how dedicated and in solidarity they all were. THAT is what it takes. And the marches. And the activists. And the young people getting involved. And the individuals that take a stand against all of this ... what a wonderful montage that one is. I wish Moore would have ended on that (it ends on a sad, but powerful note), so that we could keep the momentum of the PEOPLE in our hearts as we left the theater ... but you still can. I can't beg you hard enough to PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE. And then PLEASE take whatever action you can personally, because that is what it is going to take. VOTE - that's the very least you can do. DEMAND the end to the Electoral College. SUPPORT new candidates that REALLY want to improve this country - and it's obvious who they are. Only then will we be able to rightfully claim that this big experimental country really IS a Democracy. Because it sure ain't right now. It's in our hands, and history will not be a kind judge if everyone just keeps looking at their phones and thinking they can't make a difference anyway. YOU. CAN.

PLEASE go see this outrageous (in the truest sense) film as soon as you can. Even if just so I can talk to you about it.

Fahrenheit 11/9 opens everywhere tomorrow.

Robin Rudisill for City Council - Vote Today!

The City Council election TODAY is a no brainer for me. The Snapchat protest last week showed the true colors of what I think was an accurate microcosm of Venice - and these candidates - as a whole. Robin Rudisill was out there on behalf of, and on the same side as, the true People of Venice. She spoke out saying Venice is a community, not a corporate campus. Amen. Awomen. She is also the only one who reached out to be connected on Facebook. A long time ago. That showed me she wanted to be involved on things in our community that matter to people like me. Like us. People who truly love the Venice Community - not just the opportunity to make a buck. Robin it is.

Mark Ryavec dropped by to say he liked Snapchat in Venice. Uh, no. You know who he'll be siding with going forward. And Mike Bonin was a complete no-show. I presume because it would be too sticky for him to have a vocal position on it there. Not very heroic. So, there you have it. Easy choice. Robin Rudisill for City Council if you truly care about the Venice we all know and love. Of course, you have to go vote period if you care about Venice at all, so get out there! It's important.

*Also, as I've been asked:

NO on S (it's smoke and mirrors and no bueno. Backed by huge Trump supporter. Nope.)
YES on M
NO on N

These are all decisions made after much discussion with the people that know best about them. I'd get more into it, but I have to go vote! Good luck, Robin!!!

Legalize It, California! VOTE TODAY!

Imagine if Peter Tosh were alive today ...



He might see California become the first state to legalize marajuana in the United States! As Jim Morrison says in The Doors movie, "We're trying to change the world out here in California!"

Sure, it will be a big mess to figure out, and Mexico will go nuts with their drug trade and border stuff, and federal government is gonna get its mitts in there, and Monsanto is in on it, and Evil Empire stuff rages all about ... but at least you're not gonna keep having young men (mostly) thrown in prison for having a little weed on them.

This is historic stuff. I hope so much that it passes, for all the benefits it can offer, and for Peter Tosh and Bob Marley and anyone who has ever listened to them and felt irie.

Today is an absolutely beautiful day in Venice - I saw a Rainbow Wave this morning! - and the sand looks like gold dust. I have a lot more to say about a lot more things (Happy Dia de Los Muertos too!) but I have to get outside, for goodness sakes! We are lucky people.

Let's hope the rest of the country can feel the same, and SUPPORT our President, not battle him. Duh.

Now ... crank up that reggae!