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!

Sunshine In The Rain

It's rainy and cold and it will most likely all blow past by tomorrow, but in the shivering of today, enjoy some bright sunshine from the other day ...

Brought to you by the Venice Art Walls and Dschianojr ... take a gander and feel your heart warm up and your spirits lift.

The sun will be back tomorrow.

After The Rain ...

Venice is so so so pretty after a good rain. The colors are as crisp as the air, and it looks like everything has just had a thorough scrub down. It's a bit like the feeling of regrouping after a good, long cry.

Which is needed sometimes, as much as the rain. Things always look brighter after both (Just stay out of the water for a couple of days!).

"After the rain, the sun will reappear. There is life. After the pain, the joy will still be here."
                                                            - Walt Disney


Yep. The joy is still here!

After The Rain ...

Los Angeles is finally FINALLY getting some so badly needed rain, and it's great. People don't really know how to handle it that well, but I think we can all agree it's great. It's even kind of great when you're sick, because it makes you feel like you're really not missing anything out there. Except you are. Look at the beauty captured by my brilliant friend, Mike Ozier!

Pouring rainy day ... but with light at the end of it. Like I was feeling extra sick ... but now am starting to feel better. And just when I was feeling like a corner has been turned with my health, my brother Paul texted me a photo of a massive double rainbow. A sign!

It's all going to be fine. Sometimes we just need reminders to slow down. To look at the bigger picture. To value what we have when we have it ... our health, and our sunshine. And that we can all be rainbows.

Love, your hippie friend CJ


*Pier photo by Michael Ozier
*Rainbow photo by Paul Gronner Photography

The Little Things

March came in like a dang Lion, outside and internally. Sometimes the weather matches your mood ... sometimes the weather helps to cause your mood. Whatever the case may be ... this past weekend was gloomy and so was I. That doesn't happen to me much, but after a bunch of disappointment in people and events that should be better than they are, I was kind of over it. Then it started to rain, and it was actually perfect. We need the rain, I had a couple books from the library, plus my own projects to work on, so I was going to be a hermit and wallow in my misery.

But that's no fun! After a little while of that - and enjoying it, but getting antsy - I decided it was time to go on a search for things that made me happy, for no reason other than just because.

Fresh orange blossoms wooed me with their heady perfume, and filled me with almost a sort of relief with each inhale. Possibly the world's best smell.

Pann's Restaurant made me happy with their $6.95 bottomless mimosas, great waitresses, chicken and waffles, and Pulp Fiction vibes.

Randy's Donuts made me happy, because it's a giant donut serving great donuts.

This fresh yellow car made me happy because it was such a bright spot on an extra grey day.

This toy soldier paratrooping down to Cabrillo Avenue made me happy because it was a mystery, and it looked like someone had had fun.

It made me happy to see this brother taking pictures with his great talent, that somehow makes nature look even better than it already does.

Waving to friends, sharing umbrellas, and stomping in puddles made me happy, especially when the reward for the walk to the beach was one of the most dramatic and stunning sunsets since ... well, last week, but still.

There was an orange glow over everything, that with the ominous looming of a gigantic storm cloud hovering, made it all seem that much more intense. Like something big was about to happen.

And maybe it is. You just never know what's next. When you're staring so hard at something that you think is SO great, and SO beautiful, sometimes you miss what's going on behind you. Like this giant, vertical rainbow that was climbing the skies right behind me, but that I didn't see until someone pointed it out to me. Hmmm ....

The more the sun set, the more spectacular it got out there. There weren't many people out there, because it had been so stormy, and we ran down there between squalls, just to see what would happen with the light. Because you never know if you don't go.

Standing there, bathed in the colorful spectrum of everything being reflected off everything at once, I got that old feeling that it's all going to be alright. Just look! How can anything be that bad when there is this much beauty in the world, right there for you, for no other reason than to be beautiful?

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes ...

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen


It really is the little things that are huge.

A Sea House In Venice

I was delighted to discover a new paint job on a house on North Venice Boulevard on my morning stroll. It made me feel like I was under water, and the fact that it had just finished raining only intensified that sensation.

I love it when people make beautiful and fun use of their spaces. It gives color and fun to a town that was meant to be about just that ... color, fun, beauty ... ART. This house also features owls all over it, like sea owls, giving it a wise edge above. Almost like a wink, that they get it too.

Others shouldn't be afraid to follow suit. Be creative. Express what you love. Make your house a landmark. Give strangers a smile. Make a day.

Thanks to these neighbors, for making mine.

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.

A Colorful Weekend In Venice

I don't know how the weather sometimes seems to know it's the weekend and after a week of bright sunshine while cooped up inside working, the weekend came and was all gloom, not August feeling at all. But where the sun did not shine through, and though the melanin levels suffered from no beach time, there was still plenty of color.

Saturday night we were invited to hear the Blue Oyster Cult play in the Marina from some friends' boats pulled up right next to the stage. They had drinks, a grill with tasty whole fish and hot dogs, and quite possibly the most spectacular sunset of the summer so far. The electric colors competed with the rock for everyone's attention, and the sky won until the sun fully set.

It was also a delight to see that there is a gondola available for rides around the Marina, adding to the Venice atmosphere that we appropriated from our sister city in Italy. It was utterly charming, and the passengers were treated to an gorgeous evening of epic proportions. Soon after the sun set, the (badly, badly needed) rain began to fall, and we enjoyed the rest of the night below deck, listening to the rain beat on the rood as we gently rocked and loved every minute of it. Thanks, Commodore Farrell!

Though Sunday rose as another gloomy day (August Foggest), Venice doesn't let that dampen the spirits at all. It was the annual Festival Of The Chariots and the Hare Krishna colors were flying high. Everyone looks forward to this day each year as the parade comes down the Boardwalk and invites all it passes by to join in the dancing, sharing and fun, regardless of religious affiliation. Like it should be.

Stephanie captured a little of the action, so you can kind of feel what it's like as the saffron colored flowers are tossed out to the crowd by the people in saffron colored robes aboard the chariots.

In spite of the grey skies, the weekend was FULL of color, and the kind of days that carry on with the fun, no matter what the weather does. Yeah, we weren't able to do the usual weekend solid beach days, but were instead rewarded with perfect afternoon Bloody Marys by George at The Townhouse, occasional glimpses of blue sky, rain drops on our upturned and grateful faces, and a finale of a delicious meal at the good old Galley.

Weekends are just great in Venice ... no matter what. Hope yours was exceptional too. And extra colorful!

West Of Winter

My friend Sarah captioned one of her photos "West of Winter" the other day, and I thought that was so well put. We've been enjoying a gorgeous winter here in California ... really more like spring.

It's surreal to see the news and photos from friends back home with blizzards and snow mountains in cities. As nice as it has been here, we really, really need rain (and so do you, as CA provides so much of the nation's winter food sources). It's always something, somewhere, huh? You just have to appreciate whatever it is, for what it is. So this, from my stroll this morning, is for everyone everywhere else. Especially you, Mom.

I wish it was scratch and sniff.

Trashy People

We've been blessed with some real lovely days recently, like patience rewarded. It's been almost a week since it last rained, and glorious ever since. Except for the loads of trash on the beach. It is enough to make you want to grab the entire city by the lapels and scream in their face "THROW GARBAGE IN GARBAGE CANS, YOU FILTHY BEASTS!!! IT ALL WASHES INTO THE OCEAN AND YOU ARE KILLING US ALL!!!" or some such subtle thing.

A week later, and you'll notice the long row of stuffed giant industrial sized trash bags lining the shore this morning (and STILL there is more work to do!):


Because thank GOODNESS that there are people out there that actually DO care about our planet (or have Community Service - either way, THANKS!), and get up early to go pick up after the slobs that don't get it. Yeah, you. Go walk two feet across the sand and throw your junk food bag away in the trash before we seriously turn into a WALL-E type place. That would make me very unhappy. The dolphins leaping out of the water this morning looked very happy, by some miraculous ability to overlook our reckless pollution of their home.

The sea talks to you, if you listen. I was having a mild panic attack about all the litter (obviously) and stuff, and needing some kind of sign that things will be alright, and Jenny said, "We're going to see dolphins". Before the echo of her "s" died out, two arcing dolphins leaped out of a perfect wave, truly that very second. Ask Jenny - she is my witness.

Then a ways down the beach I returned back into the zone of deep thoughts about appreciation and doom, and other conflicting emotions, when a giant wave came out of nowhere and SMACKED me back into being here now, and loving it. Along with that smack, from straight out of the late '80's or early 90's, En Vogue's badass tune, "Free Your Mind" (" ... and the rest will follow ...!") burst into my brain, and I took both the advice, and the reminder from the sea, to heart.

Free your mind, and the rest will follow ...

And while you're at it, throw away your garbage in the proper receptacle. Mahalo.