Clogtown: Meet Walvis The Whale By Bartz Snow Sculptures!

Now that I've decided to embrace the Minnesota winter, the (literally) cool things to do in our most extreme season just keep popping up. If you're going to visit the Ice Castles in New Brighton, drive another mile or so and you can meet Walvis, the massive whale snow sculpture created by the Bartz Brothers of New Brighton!

This is the 9th snow creation made by Austin, Trevor, and Connor Bartz, with help from family and friends - and the super cool neighbors that don't seem to mind the constant crowds coming to see the latest sea creature made from snow and ice right there in the Bartz front yard.

As I'm usually not here in the winter (except for Christmas), this was the first time I've been able to see a Bartz snow sculpture in person. It's really impressive, and educational too!

There is a little roped off area for visitors to line up to take their photo with Walvis (which means "whale" in Niger, which will benefit along with Uganda from the donations given by Minnesotans who have come to behold the ice behemoth), and along the way they have placed trivia questions about whales, so you can learn a little something too. Like, did you know whale vomit is used as an ingredient in perfumes? Yep.

The adorable Bartz brothers just got the idea to make a sculpture one snow day in 2012, and the attraction has grown and grown in the years since. When they started to get so much attention, they decided to use their local fame in an effort to raise $50,000 to bring clean water to places around the world that don't have access to it. So not only are they super creative and talented, they're good guys (You can donate online also, and for a $25 donation, Walvis the Whale will blow steam out of his blowhole!). They even have merch for sale!

I talked to one of the bros outside their home (Austin?), and he said the city will come destroy the whale on February 4th, as it starts to look less awesome, and they have to stop the crowds from coming at some point - plus they can't really have jobs during the snow sculpture hoopla, so they have to get back to their own real lives too.

A giant snow whale is real cool, for sure, but even way way cooler to know that Walvis will melt ... and turn into real, drinkable water all the way across the globe. Walvis the Whale is Wonderful!

Meet Walvis now through February 4, 2020

2777 16th Street NW
New Brighton, MN 55112

A Mural For Standing Rock - The Art Of Lehi Thunder Voice Eagle Sanchez

Hi! There have been some technical, personal, and national difficulties that haven't allowed me to be as prolific with Venice stories as I'd like to be lately, and for that I apologize, and thank you for being here to read again now. There is so much to say about the election nightmare, but I think it's really better to go forward now, and think and talk about things that we as people can do together in the name of good, regardless of whomever our leaders are. The climate is in deep crisis (Please everyone watch Before The Flood online asap), and it won't matter at all who's in charge for four years when no one is able to inhabit Earth anymore. So let's focus on what's really important. LIFE.

Water is Life. When we first started hearing about the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, everyone was appalled at the images coming out of there with Native Americans being tear gassed and attacked by police dogs. For peacefully wanting clean drinking water. Let that sink in.

Some people want to help more than look away, and Kim Michalowski is one of them. She owns the Ananda boutique on Abbot Kinney, as well as being a wonderful friend to all of Venice. We talked about the idea of having a mural done in support of Standing Rock on the front of her shop, and started reaching out to Native American artists. Friends connected Michalowski with artist Lehi Thunder Voice Eagle Sanchez, a Navajo from Arizona. Thunder Voice Eagle recently returned from Standing Rock, and after sitting down with him to talk about it all, I feel both inspired and encouraged, as well as super impressed with both his art and his humanity.

Thunder Voice Eagle worked for years with his father's organization, Anasazi.org, a kind of Outward Bound type group that takes at-risk kids out into nature for 50 day trips (awesome). A few years back,  he had a dream that he had a message to help his people, and that his art work would be the best tool to do so. He did a painting for a family friend that was so well-received that he began to focus on art full-time, selling paintings through Instagram and his website, as well as through various galleries.

"Nothing has changed for the Natives, now it just feels like we have a whole bunch of new allies," Thunder Voice Eagle told me. "Every reservation has crazy stuff happening. There has always been corporate land grabs, it's never on the news, and we always lose. But now we have social media."

The U.S. Government separated tribes by design, so they wouldn't band together to oppose the stealing of their land and resources. Once reservations got cell towers, the people got cell phones. MySpace days started connecting people. Facebook has connected us all. Once the Facebook Live videos started coming out about elders, pregnant women, kids, everyone being attacked at Standing Rock by police in riot gear for peacefully protesting, tribes across the nation saw it, grabbed their stuff, and went to North Dakota. United.

Native leaders can also not always be trusted, and often take the corporate money to line their own pockets to the detriment of their people. Standing Rock is not like that because their leaders said no, and realize how this awful pipeline will affect the drinking water of so many people all over the affected area, not just those on the reservation that our government tends to dismiss. All Americans, all who deserve better. "This situation has stirred something in the warriors, it has become their top priority," explained Thunder Voice Eagle. He told me that the pipeline company took the information of where Native burial grounds were and dug them up so there would be no evidence of it ... it's really that sinister. And must be stopped, for us all.

In talking about the mural and the message, Thunder Voice Eagle said, "It's really about hope. I believe that people are inherently good, sometimes they just forget. Like the mural says at the top, 'Protect the Sacred' ... People need to protect themselves, because they're worth it. You must remember that YOU are sacred. The more we remember that, the less things like this will happen." I love that. Remember that you are sacred. If you do that, chances are you absolutely will not put up with anything that harms anyone. Right?

"We have to learn forgiveness. Those police are scared too, they're doing their job that they've been ordered to do. But if we took off the riot gear and the headdresses, we're all just people. We can sit down to dinner together and talk about what's next, and how we can work together." I got a true sense of calm when talking with Thunder Voice Eagle, and am choosing now to look at things like he does. That we are now being forced into action as a people, and that we are in the time of being Rainbow Warriors - warriors of all colors standing together. We have to be to survive these times, and try to protect our Mother Earth. Nothing else is more crucial right now.

I could have sat and talked all day with Lehi Thunder Voice Eagle, but I was hogging him and others needed to hear his wisdom, so he left me with this ... "Have a heart at peace, but stand strong for what is right." And please, please remember what this wonderful new mural says ...

"When the last tree is cut down, the last fish is eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize you cannot eat money." - Cree prophecy

Support Standing Rock in any way you can. Support EACH OTHER any way you can. Now, more than ever.

#NODAPL

Keep It Clean - A Waterkeeper Comedy Benefit On Earth Day

Ok, bit of a conundrum. Some of my dearest friends on this planet invited me to a benefit for Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization near and dear to my heart - on Earth Day. The only thing was that it was a comedy show benefit, and I'm someone that doesn't really find comedy funny that often. Stand up comedy is usually too mean spirited and awkward for me to enjoy that much, if I'm honest. But then I'd probably even suck it up and go to a Bieber show or something if it was for Waterkeepers, so off I went to the Avalon in Hollywood.

There was mingling, and information, and lots of tequila courtesy of Patron, one of the evening's sponsors (the tequila would help with making the comedy more funny, I figured). There was a very cool car on display coming out soon from Toyota (another sponsor) called the Mirai, that's only emission is water. Host Kevin Nealon joked that if we all here in California bought one, it would solve the drought! Not a bad idea ...

Nealon kicked off the show with, "I see you're all fans of water ..." and then went on to tell a story about his goldfish dying because of unclean water. "Goldfish are like foodies when it come to water, it has to be clean." He informed the crowd that Waterkeeper Alliance currently has 252 Waterkeeper organizations around the globe in 20 countries. So far. They focus on issues that affect our waterways, from pollution to climate change. They patrol and protect more than two million square miles of rivers, streams and coastlines - and I took all that right off their own materials. It's so important, and as we saw an absolutely sickening video of a river choked to death with a mass grave of fish, you understood how they came up with the idea for a comedy show - it would be way too depressing to even talk about it there wasn't also a little laughter.

There was actually just that, little laughter for Brad Garrett, who was there to introduce Ray Romano, and proceeded to rip on Ray Romano and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (President of Waterkeeper Alliance) in just that mean spirited and awkward manner that I was leery of. I settled in for a long night.

I was pleasantly surprised by Ray Romano, I have to say. I never watched his show, so wasn't familar with his schtick, really, and I was cracking up. He talked about the kind of friends you have as you age, and now he's in the stage where you want to be friends with as many doctors as possible. "I'm not gay, but if a gay doctor has an MRI machine, I'm sleeping over." He made some fun of his kid - "If my kid was on the space shuttle, he'd be watching his pee float." - and his wife - "Women want you to spend every waking moment paying attention to them, and then when they're sleeping, they want you to sketch them." HA! Yeah, so?

Sarah Silverman was up next, seeming unprepared (which I thought a little odd considering some in this crowd had paid thousands to be there. You might want to save the new, untried material for another time. I like her a lot, don't get me wrong, but I probably would have rehearsed for this event). Ignoring the "Keep It Clean" theme, about the only thing I can even repeat (barely) that she said was, "I have Angelina Jolie's lips - in my underwear." I'm not nearly a prude, but she made one guy in there real uncomfortable, and I can't tell you why because my Mom might read this, and we want her alive. But I admire not giving a rat's ass ... therefore, I admire Silverman.

Robert Klein brought it back to water and ripped on hypocritical Senators and corporate polluters (the main problem) and talked about how Americans are dumb. How most people in the U.S. think fellatio is a Shakespeare character and cunnilingus is an Irish airline - ba dum bum. He closed by saying, "I wish you not only clean water, but water itself." With California down to its last YEAR of a water supply, his wish was well taken, and seconded by all. It's honestly getting scary, and needs to be taken extremely hardcore seriously right now. (Especially by Big Agriculture - the main offenders).

JB Smoove bantered with Nealon, and Rachael Harris presented a great video of comedians talking about what water meant to them. It was funny, but also surprisingly touching, as these were funny people being funny, but also being nostalgic, and themselves moved by what's happening to these watering holes we grew up loving.

Cheryl Hines (Larry David's former t.v. wife, Bobby Kennedy's current wife) came on to thank everyone and introduce Tig Naturo, who I'd never heard of, but when I said I was going to see her, a friend told me she was like Mitch Hedberg - just about the only comedian I've ever found to be truly hilarious. Well, good job, friend, because she killed it. I had actual tears in my eyes from laughing. If she's on the bill, I could see myself going to more comedy shows. She did this bit about how people laugh that was hilarious. Like the sigh people do after a laugh, "like they're reminiscing about one second ago." Or the person that throws out a pig snort in their laugh, who she so badly wants to find out one day is an actual pig in the audience that comes up to her and says, "Pig fan!" (that one was funnier if you were there). The one that just killed people though was when she talked about seeing an actual sign at a public swimming pool that asked people to refrain from entering the pool if they had "Active diarrhea". As if this was so commonly an issue that there needs to be a metal sign made. People were crying ... and then a man in my row showed me a photo that he'd actually taken like two weeks before of just some sign in Santa Barbara. That's a real thing. Naturo ended by saying, "So I guess I did have water material." Hoo boy ... that was funny stuff. (Naturo is also a breast cancer survivor, and joked about even that in hilarious fashion - not easy).

Dan Aykroyd and Jon Lovitz came on briefly and charmingly to introduce Martin Short. They are so clearly great friends, and that was touching too. Akyroyd said he'd want Lovitz as his friend on a desert island, "because we'd laugh until we starved to death." We all could have had more of them and less of Short, I think, as his set was basically just talking about how great he was. I think facetiously, but still. He made it into kind of a roast of Bobby Kennedy, which I'm not down with because I think the man is simply great. About the funniest thing Short said was that Kennedy looks so good these days he gets mistaken for Rachel Maddow. Courtesy laughs, but nice of him also to be there to support his friend and Waterkeeper Alliance.

But seriously, folks ... the best part of the show (after Naturo) was Kennedy's speech. It was so inspiring, and so vital for really everyone to hear. He told about how he moved to California and has loved living at Point Dume and having a swim every morning to start his day. How it calmed and healed him, and when it recently rained (not nearly enough), how he and his son couldn't go in the water for three days, and that felt like a theft to him.

And it IS a theft. Corporations polluting our water to the extent that you can't go into our publicly owned waterways or eat the fish within them without fear of getting sick or dying, and that is a robbery of our right to clean water, and should be punished accordingly. How his memories of the sea air, the feel of the clean water, the fish he'd caught as a boy, how much more special those thoughts and feelings are to him than any electronic device spent childhood could ever hope to be, and how important it is to not only share water and nature with the kids of today and the future, but to preserve it for them. "We will keep these waterways clean and protected for the kids," Kennedy said in closing, to a thunderous - and well-deserved - standing ovation.

We all carried on to the (fun and funny) after party, truly feeling not only greatly entertained, but deeply inspired to play any part in helping the superheroes of Waterkeeper Alliance in anything they need help with. And you all should too. It's a really big deal, and everyone has to treat it as such now. Donate, because legal battles against big, sinister, polluting companies takes a lot of dough. Pressure those companies to change their filthy habits by not supporting them in any way with your dollars. I think, most importantly, love and respect your waterways, and hold them dear. When they're destroyed, so are we.

Please support Waterkeeper Alliance, and #Keepitclean!

Waterkeeper.org
Facebook.com/WaterkeeperAlliance
Twitter: @waterkeeper
Instagram: @waterkeeperalliance

Water Is Gold

I was over at my friend Lacey's for dinner last night, and as we were sitting down outside after we ate, I noticed a little green plant growing in her backyard that is entirely dirt. It's entirely dirt because we're in a terrible drought, we've had no rain in forever, and no grass would or could grow.

But this little guy sprouted up because condensation builds up on the top of their patio umbrella and drips off directly on this spot. The miracle of water!

Over near where the garden hose is coiled up, there was another burst of life where the spigot drips. Things here want so badly to grow ... but they're dying of thirst.

We made a little barricade around the plant to protect it and see what happens ...

... And then we prayed for rain, so that we all don't wind up like this girl in Paul Gronner's photograph (Closing reception tonight, 6-9 p.m. at the Verge Gallery at Bergamot Station)!

With so many people so concerned with wealth and status and consumption ... it's important to remember that water is gold, and without it, we're dead. That's that. Then today my friend said, "Water is God", and I thought he might be right.