Homage To A Starry Night Restored!

Rip Cronk is a legend in Venice, with his famous murals adorning many walls around town. It was with great delight that I saw his newly restored Homage To A Starry Night gleaming and fresh on my morning walk at the Boardwalk. It had been marred by some very low-level tagging, wrecking what has been a popular photo op tribute to Van Gogh in Venice since 1990.

I was also pleased to see Mr. Cronk there on the other side of the building doing touch-ups to his 2004 work Venice Beach Chorus Line, which always reminds me of the old Aardvark store on Pacific for some reason.

See, the thing is, I'm all for paint on every wall in Venice - but GOOD paint. The Graffiti Walls are there for people to learn and hone their craft. Once you get good enough, you might be offered big walls to adorn. People pay for those big pieces to be done, and artists have earned the right to be paid and display their work for all to see. They become landmarks. They become history. No one has the right to paint over any bit of it ... imagine going into a museum and spray painting over a big painting! Same thing. It's respect. Earn yours, and show it to others until you get there yourself.

Seriously.

Thank you to Mr. Cronk for re-beautifying our neighborhood! 

Fluent In Love

There seems to be a new street art person around town, and I saw a few different pieces today from "TrustyScribe" on my constitutional this morning. My favorite was about love ... and everyone could do with taking this dude's language course.

Then a way up the street on Abbot Kinney there was another one, that he might have slept on a little, but I still get it.

I didn't take a photo of the one by Blue Bottle Coffee because it was about depression, and no one needs to be reminded about depression right now. Then I looked them up and saw that Trusty Scribe's Instagram page talks about love and depression, and even offers a number for people to call if they're dealing with depression (#877-726-4727) ... which so many are these days.  No one is alone. And there is always love to be spoken.

Thanks, TrustyScribe!

Viva Venice! Viva Mexico!

The Venice Art Walls are at it again ... reflecting what's going on around us and making the social commentary that goes along with it. This weekend's graffiti news brought a piece that celebrates Venice, celebrates Mexico, and condemns Trump. Perfecto.

I'm on a Mexico trip at the moment (and will be literally this weekend) and it's really been on my mind a lot since the KRS-One show I went to a couple of weeks ago. That prophet said that we were standing on Mexico ... as this art piece (by I'm not sure because I can't make out that tag?) also states. Then we went outside and the hot dog cart ladies took off running from the cops because they were scared of ICE. Then there was this anti-Trump Wall banner hanging on Venice Boulevard. Then there was another checkpoint on Lincoln over the weekend that gets everyone scared about ICE more than DUI's. Then I went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela and absolutely swooned over the beautiful music being made by these Mexican treasures.

You can go anywhere in Los Angeles - or California as a whole, really - and see all the contributions made daily to our lives and economy by our Mexican friends. Did you ever see A Day Without A Mexican? Well, you should. L.A. would literally grind to a halt without them. They should be appreciated and thanked, not persecuted. It's ridiculous, and sad. So, I'm going to go celebrate a new year with all the color and flavor of a Mexican fiesta, and let them all know that we've got their backs - and that we're not all bad. Thank you to the Venice Art Walls artists, for always keeping it on the real real.

Viva Mexico! Viva Venice!

Help Every Youth Succeed

I like to regularly check out what's happening down at the Venice Art Walls, because very often what you see there is a reflection of current events, done in a fresh way. The news via art.

A lot of the time it's a big "Venice" or someone's personal tag style stuff, but often there is very conscious thought, as I saw this morning. HELP EVERY YOUTH SUCCEED. That really is the answer to our collective future. ALL our kids are precious. I saw Spike Lee's excellent MUST SEE Blackkklansman last night (HOLY. MOLY.), and the students have a chant ... "All Power to ALL the People!" which I feel is the mantra for all time - but especially these times.

When you have an idiot multi-millionaire like Betsy Devos as the Secretary of Education doing nothing for our youth, and a self-made man like LeBron James giving everything to our youth, you know that things simply MUST change ... from the top down to the bottom up. And soon, or this nice experiment in Democracy called The United States Of America will ultimately fail. Hate. Greed. Love. Generosity. It all starts when you're a kid. It's all taught. And it takes a village.

Teach your children well. Help every youth succeed.

Have A Real Venice Weekend!

I've been running around all over the place and not had as much time to either really enjoy or write about Venice as much the past few weeks. So, it was with extra anticipation and enthusiasm that I finally got to enjoy a fully Venice weekend last week. And I'm about to do it all over again ...

Both weekend days were beach days, though Saturday was a lot cloudier than Sunday. No matter, as you still get that Vitamin D through the haze, and it was plenty warm enough. With a TON going on. There was a Venice Festival (don't know who put that on, but there were booths and food and live music - by the likes of Venice's own Venice's Mark Lennon and John Vester - and a bunch of fun and good vibes). There was a skate contest at the skatepark (I got there when it seemed to be for the 50+ age group still getting it!).

Walking to the beach, I noticed a perfectly Venice patio, all colorful and inviting, with just enough kitsch to make it feel like groovy old Venice.

I ran into people I knew all both days, which is always the best part about a great day in Venice. I had the breakfast burrito from Hinano's for breakfast on the beach. I swam in the Pacific, whose water has finally warmed up enough to make it a delight, with almost zero easing in time. Especially Sunday, when the sun was all the way out and it REALLY felt like Summer.

While on my human rotisserie beach blanket, I used my new koozie from the funeral of my dearest friends' dad's (Larry Hendrickson) funeral (funeral merch!), and thought about its wording ... "The PriZe is worth the PriCe." That is almost always true, and it could apply to so many situations, but I was thinking of Venice ... and how hard it is to still live here, with the ridiculous rents, the annoying Bird/Lime users, the BUBs, the traffic, the scenester restaurants, people who walk down Abbot Kinney like it's the airport, all slow and haphazardly, the corporate chain stores, the line at Salt & Straw, the "New Venice" people that warrant constant eye rolls, sad gentrification, etc ...

... but then you see your pals, and watch the skaters, and swim in the Pacific, and find out there's a new store for old school rollerskates in town (Moxi Rollerskates on Main Street), and you get that the Venice Vibe is still very much alive and well. As are the people that love it and want to keep it cool. I know, because I saw a ton of them last weekend. And I hope to see even more on this one ... starting very soon.

So, get out there and enjoy all the Venice you can - and get funky. Wear a costume. Paint a mural on your house. Go for a rollerskate. Jump in that awesome water. High five an O.G. Be happy ... because Real Venice is still here for your enjoyment. Dig that.

Beyond The Streets To The Venice Pavilion - Welcome 2 Venice!

One of the best parties ever was held last Sunday at the Beyond The Streets art exhibit in downtown L.A. ... but it was exactly like Venice, only not in Venice. A recreation of the Venice Pavilion had been constructed using old photographs to get it as real as possible, and they did an awesome job. I showed someone photos the next day, and they were like "Whoa. It's exactly the same, but cleaner." Yep. It was like a time machine landed us right back in '90's Venice, complete with almost all of the same people too. It was one of the best Summer kick-off parties ever, hosted by our excellent friends at Juice Magazine.

Juice had a party the night before, so it really was a proper Dogtown Memorial Weekend - and one for the books. It was a hot, sunny day downtown, and folks were in the mood to let loose. There was free beer and food to help with that, and art and skating enough to satisfy even the most hardcore.

Old friends caught up all day, and new friends were made. There were some people I hadn't seen pretty much since the Pavilion was bulldozed over in 2000, and some that I'd seen just the night before, and everyone agreed that it was the most awesome thing every to all be back together in the Pit ... even if it was a fake one, it was as real a time as we've all had in a long while.

Josh "Bagel" Klassman had the best birthday party ever, as this jam fell on his day, and was also the release of a book of his photographs that Adidas Skateboarding put together (perhaps in a bit of penance for their earlier claim that they were "Defining Venice". No, THIS kind of day helps define Venice.), called It Wuz All A Beautiful Disaster. And it truly was.

This day wasn't, however. It was the best. A punk rocking set from The Shrine (a new favorite band now featuring Corey Parks from Nashville Pussy on bass!), and an even harder one from Excel set the tone and created a pit of skateboarding moshers. Super extra fun, and everyone just felt happy to be there (though like the old days, someone did have to be taken away in an ambulance - then the party went right back to raging after wishing him well). Metallica's Robert Trujillo was there mixing and mingling, and you name a skate hero and they were probably there.

Juice Dan was the M.C. for the day, and Juice Terri held down the Juice booth, and both accepted lots of love all day for the support and love they've given the skate community, Venice and international.

Skating was front and center, and you got wall rides from Christian Hosoi, Tuma Britton, Bennet Harada, and all the O.G. cats that gave Venice its name in skating. Everyone was tripping all day on how weird (and cool at the same time) to have picked up the Pavilion and transported it to a parking lot in downtown L.A. ... though an ocean breeze would have been most welcome. Maybe we can keep it and bring it back home? (Though I'm hearing a low buzz about unearthing the original again ... why not?)

Though the Pavilion pop-up was the place to be, there was also ridiculously sick art inside to be seen at the Beyond The Streets extravaganza back inside - and get yourself a little break from the relentless sun. Celebrating street art in all its forms - and beyond - the cavernous warehouse had room after room of mind-blowing art from legends of the genre, beautifully curated by graffiti historian, Roger Gastman.

The show opens with an entire wall of spray paint cans, illustrating the importance of this material in street art's history.

There was a "Cosmic Cavern" of all glow in the dark colors, that would have been fun to hang out in a bit while altered. Grooovy.

There was a room dedicated to the female street artists, repped largely by the Guerrilla Girls.

There were old school works by Basquiat, Keith Haring, Chaz Bojórquez, and Kilroy! ... all the way up to the latest stuff from the latest artists like ... you name it.

I loved an old man by Swoon (and I always swoon for Swoon) ...

Shepard Fairey work always has to be in this conversation, and his Andre The Giant pieces were well represented.

Slick showed up with his L.A. Hands, showing off Southern California in a nutshell.

Famed tattoo artist Mr. Cartoon created a funeral home installation insisting that "All Dawgs Go To Heaven". I sure hope so.

All souls need saving, some more than others ...

Another installation that was one of the heavier ones showed a bomb aimed at a wall of condoms, and when you looked inside of the bomb, it had a drive-in theater full of cars watching the world explode. It was as cool as it was gnarly.

The space was HUGE, and so were some of the pieces. The scale is not just beyond the streets, it's beyond impressive.

There had to be a C.R. Steckyk III wall, and there was. Topped off by a shark created from license plates.

"Trash Records" was an installation that exactly replicated the kind of record store we all know and love ... and miss.

Faile showed up with an enormous mausoleum that would not be out of place in an old European cemetery - or Vegas.

Much like the We Rise show that is located just a couple blocks away (and was just extended through June 10th - GO!), I've shown you a lot here, but I haven't barely scratched the surface with how much there is to see in this show (that goes through July, so get here also!). It's massive - and truly a spectacle to see.

There won't be an awesome Juice party when you go, and that is really what made this event SO special. Sure, it's the art and the skating and the memories and the cool, but what really makes something real is the people that know and love a place. Like the Pavilion. Like Venice itself.

It was an incredible day, with incredible people doing incredible things, and we were all lucky to be there - and we knew it. I think anyone that was there felt a real tug on their heartstrings, and a renewed internal vow to keep Venice real, to keep it special, to keep creating art and music and a new generation of skaters. Deeply heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in such an honestly epic day.

Love forever. Venice forever.

Calvin & Hobbes Love You!

Awwww. Returning from the beach this morning, I was thinking about everything in the whole world, like most days. As much garbage news and as many mean-spirited people as there in this joint, there really are some truly lovely ones. Like the person behind the "Someone loves you" street art. This morning they struck again, and there was a new one featuring Calvin & Hobbes letting everyone know that they are loved.

I'm sorry that I don't know who the artist is to properly credit them (let me know if you do!), but I want them to know it's appreciated, and almost always seen when it's really needed.

Thank you to them for this little day-maker there at the entrance to the Venice Canals. And just so they know ... someone loves them - and their work -  too. XOXO.

We Mob Deep

I was back in Venice taking my morning stroll today, when I came upon this old painting of a lighthouse attached to a sign in front of the Pacific Resident Theater. Someone had tagged over it and written "We Mob Deep", and then bothered to hang it on a parking sign. I kind of love it.

And I love how well "Mob Deep" accurately describes Venice and its denizens that care about it. When you love a place like the people I'm talking about do, you take it seriously. You have each others' backs, which I'm finding out now more than ever. You fight for what's right, and defend against what is wrong. And we run mob deep.

Love you, Venice. Thank you.




*And RIP Prodigy from Mobb Deep.

Venice Is Not For Sale - Only It Is.

I was walking down the street this morning when I came upon this little tag on the sidewalk ... "Venice is not for sale". I have to figure it must be old ... because at this point in time, Venice is for sure for sale.

Not the SPIRIT of Venice, of course, but Venice property has been so pimped out and sold, it's nearly unrecognizable if you haven't been here in a while. It's so disheartening. For the first time since I moved here over 20 years ago, I'm thinking I'm not as sure that this is the place for me anymore. I mean, I LOVE VENICE, as everyone knows ... but what I love so much seems to be in ever increasing danger of disappearing completely.

The new people moving in don't get it at all. You can tell just by the things that they complain about that they have no idea what Venice was ever truly like. The fact that Adidas and Smashbox - massive chains that were never tolerated in this town - both just opened for business on Abbot Kinney. Thi should really tell you all you need to know. That Venice, like America itself, has been bought and sold to the highest bidders. It's disgusting, and sad, and I'm getting weary of the battle. I can't stand walking around listening to these entitled, self-centered jerks acting like they own the world, and thinking they can take over our little beach-side Community. It's heartbreaking.

The future is wide open, and it is what we make it. I have no idea what's next, but I'm no longer as sure that whatever happens will be in Venice. I'd hate to be one to throw in the towel on a place in the world that is downright sacred to me, but the greed sickens me on the daily.

It's true that those magical qualities that originally defined Venice cannot be bought and sold ... but you have to still be able to feel them to want to be here, and that's getting harder and harder every day.

We shall see.

Live And Learn

The phrase "Live and Learn" has been coming up a lot lately, so it was fitting that I saw it painted on Venice Boulevard by the C.A.V.E. Gallery, where its artist, Kid Acne, had his show Mark My Words open last Saturday.

I was unable to attend the opening, but I like that they brought the show outside on to the sidewalk for all to see, day or night. I've learned a lot in recent days ... like how crucial it is to pay attention to signs and flags. Like what friendships are true and supportive, and which are not. Like how you can try to be the very best person you know how to be, and sometimes it's still not enough. Like what is truly important in life, and what is and what isn't worth getting upset about. Like how karma has a way of sorting things out. And like how even though these are very trying times in the world - and in my own life - it's still so extra awesome to be alive!

Live and Learn ... all day, every day.

Mark My Words is on view at C.A.V.E. Gallery now through August 5th.

C.A.V.E. Gallery
55 Venice Boulevard
Venice

Meow-ural On California

On my way back from the beach this morning, I saw a bunch of Missing posters up and down Venice Boulevard, looking for a lost cat. The reward for lost cats has really gone up, as this one was offering $20,000 for its return. Twenty G's. For a cat. OK. When I passed a human person sleeping under one of the signs. I hope a very poor person finds it and can afford their Venice rent this month, and there will be a very happy reunion with the very fancy cat and its owner. Everyone wins. Right? Wow.

Back on Abbot Kinney, I was waiting for my friend outside of Abbot's Habit and noticed a new mural on the wall outside of Salt & Straw. An old-timey milkman is now out there feeding some cats to entertain the long lines of sheep/people waiting for ice cream on California Avenue. They all appear to be strays, but you never know on Abbot Kinney. It might be where the $20,000 cats go to hang out these day. Keep your eyes peeled.

Meow.

Venice - Artists Used To Live Here

Whew, this week has been all about defending Venice. It's been so encouraging to go out and stand up for our town against the awful Snapchat all week, and see all the homies coming out to join together in solidarity down on Market Street. Meanwhile, over on Abbot Kinney, the same sentiment was scrawled across the slew of posters advertising Logan by The Brig.

 My friend Gallo took that shot, and he's also the guy that created the classic Venice shirt, "Venice - Where Art Meets Crime" (which you can purchase HERE). While I don't agree that artists USED to live here, as I still know plenty who live here, the point was well taken. Every artist I've interviewed has said they moved to Venice to live and work because it's known as an artistic vortex, but also because it was cheap rent back in the day. That's no longer the case, of course, and we've seen a mass exodus of artists to places like Inglewood and San Pedro, and that's a major drag. Thank goodness we have things like the upcoming Venice Art Crawl to keep it arty around here. Again, we know change is inevitable, but just THINK. Think about what made Venice great, and it always comes back to the art, the skating, the beach, the freedom, the FUN. It was never about the money. We also know that money talks  ... but you don't have to listen. Some things are more important.

RESIST.

*Photo by Gallo Christopher

High Five For Truth!

I'm often contemplating the state of the world when on my morning constitutional - both mine and the one at large - and today the sidewalk seemed to echo my thoughts precisely ...

Seriously. I don't even like to acknowledge the man's existence, but as it's being choked down our throats every day this week, I thought I could at least return the high five.

Fight the power!

Take A Breather - Gone Fishing!

I'm leaving today for Summer vacation back home in Minnesota, so Blogtown is taking a little breather while I'm away as well. As I was walking down Abbot Kinney this morning, I saw a whole bunch of Buddhas sitting there, reminding us all to remain calm. To take it all in. To breathe. To relax. To be here in the moment - now.

That sentiment carried on as I walked along the beach, soaking up and breathing in all the fresh, salty beach air to sustain me while I'm in the Land of Lakes. And Rivers.

I'll leave you with a little beach meditation and Summertime Pacific splendor ....

... and hope you all have the best time ever while we're apart. I sure plan on it.

Happy Summer Vacation!!! Yessss.

Positive Affirmations On Venice Boulevard

It sure does make your walk a whole lot nicer when every few steps the sidewalk is telling you how great you are.

For the past couple years, someone has been tagging the sidewalk along South Venice Boulevard with awesome little messages and put-ups for whomever happens to be ambling by.

The City (I presume) keeps coming out and painting over them (why?) with black paint, but then the person or persons come back with silver or white paint over the black. So there. I love that they are defiant in their positivity.

Whatever is happening in your life at any given moment, it doesn't hurt to be reminded that, in truth, you are perfect.

Or that you made someone's day.

Or that someone always knew you were the one.

Or simply that you're going the right way.

The newest one brought me back to college, when I was all about Joseph Campbell and his urging to Follow Your Bliss. There is perhaps no better advice in all the world.

Follow your bliss ... and in this case, and on this sidewalk, that leads right to the beach.

Happy beautiful, blissful weekend to one and all!

And THANK YOU to the spray paint bandits that always make MY day.