Journey Well!

Beach walks happen rain or shine, so this morning when I was checking out the day, I cut down the Boardwalk instead of the usual sand and saw this groovy pad all painted up in positivity, and it made me smile. This is what you want to see on the homes of Venice, California when you visit ... a declaring of peace and love in vivid color!

Angel Starlove is also a name that you'd want someone living in Venice (in "Vortexland"!) to have, and when I looked it up, sure enough, she's a groovy hippie chick, just like you'd want to see frolicking about on Ocean Front Walk. I don't know her (yet), but I appreciate her color and vibes, especially on such a cold and gloomy day. I was feeling pretty bleak, about the world at large, but also personal stuff that you don't talk about publicly. When I looked up from dodging puddles and noticed that someone had taken the time to wish everyone well, it honestly made me feel a little better about things. Everything is about attitude and outlook, and Angel Starlove helped mine improve ... so Thank you! And to everyone going anywhere today, even just on a walk to the beach ... Journey well!

Last Days Of A Bohemian Paradise - An Evening With Dotan Saguy

I finally got to see Dotan Saguy's great photography show at Venice Arts last night for the closing reception and conversation that would kick off the four day Venice Art Crawl Afterburn extravaganza this weekend. Last Days Of A Bohemian Paradise shows off the Venice Boardwalk at its most beautiful and poignant, as we all know this last beach community of color is very much an endangered species. Saguy has been doing in photography what I have been doing with stories - trying to capture the beauty and originality of this place while it still exists.

Saguy's book of the same name was also being celebrated (and I'm creating a book of stories too!), and we got to see its wonderful photographs enlarged on the walls of the Venice Arts gallery, as local characters mingled and discussed the good old days - and what we still have. So far. Artists and hippies and all the character that has historically made Venice great is being evicted ... and we all have to ask, as the photo does below, Why are you doing this?

After an impromptu electric guitar set from Harry Perry that got folks dancing, we sat down to listen to Saguy speak on this fantastic photo project. It started super late (Venice Standard Time), but nobody seemed to mind, as Elisa from Venice Arts said, "Thank you for having a festive Venice attitude about the delay." Once the tech stuff got sorted out (maybe do that before the event next time, friends), Saguy shared the stories behind taking these photographs. He started shooting 25 years ago, and he knows that because he got a camera for a wedding present, and he and his professor wife just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. He took some classes and workshops, and assigned himself to go shoot Havana before it changed too much ... kind of like Venice.

Saguy won a National Geographic contest, and the prize was an assignment to South Korea, so he was now a real professional, and that gave him the encouragement to pursue photography as a full-time career. He was drawn to and felt connected to Venice (like most of us who chose to make it our home), and he showed a slide show of his progression in Venice. Saguy spent three years shooting the Boardwalk and its denizens, resulting in his beautiful book, completed in the summer of 2017. That was the year I reigned as Venice's Neptune Queen, and I was honored to be included in one of Saguy's photographs in the book (and am now coveting a print!).

Saguy talked about "how inclusive and generous (Venice) people are with each other ... with a tenderness to it all" ... and how that is all in danger. The project is so great that the press has been phenomenal, which brings an awareness to how special Venice is - and a responsibility to us all to preserve it. Saguy's method is best summarized by the acronym "D.I.E." - which stands for Design. Information. Emotion. - all of the elements he feels are necessary to make a great photo. And it's all there in every piece of his work. There was a photo of a surfer girl, that until he discussed it, I didn't really notice the organization and geometry of it all, and how he fills the frame with something interesting for the eye in the foreground, background, and the focal point. His pictures really are worth at least a thousand words.

Shooting in all Leica black and white lends a timeless quality to Saguy's work, and at times it's hard to tell if you're looking at the 60's or the future - should the future remain cool. That remains to be seen, and Saguy felt a responsibility and an urgency to document what still left of bohemian Venice, and create a record (same here, Brother). The Venice Freak Show, the homeless, skaters, body builders, surfers, gangsters, snakes ... they're all represented here, in all their glory. 

The Venice Boardwalk led Saguy back to Havana for his next project, where he will capture its own version of the Boardwalk, the Malecón. However, "I can't stop shooting Venice", so he's also at work on a project about the homeless and their pets, as well as one about Van Life. Awesome.

The Venice cast of characters celebrated with Saguy (seen below, the one who's not Harry Perry, Marcus Gladney, or Sunny Bak) until we got kicked out of Venice Arts and took it on over to James Beach, but I think we all felt happy to be together and to know that in some small way, we've all contributed to this creative mecca by the sea. With photos, stories, and each other - we'll always have Venice.

Last Days Of A Bohemian Paradise is available in book form and in photographic prints limited to 10 of each photo at www.dotansaguy.com. Saguy will also be teaching a Leica master class in Venice, March 29-31, 2019 (information on his website).

Long Live Venice!

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.