The 2015 Abbot Kinney Festival - A Locals Reunion

When the sun rose yesterday morning, you just knew it was going to be a great day for the 31st Abbot Kinney Festival. It was HOT, it was bright, and everyone was all the way ready for it. I live right around the corner from Abbot Kinney, so you could feel the anticipation (and hear the tent poles clanking) all night long leading up to the big day.

Booths lined the boulevard from Venice Boulevard to Main Street, where you could purchase or learn about pretty much everything under the sun. I have a friend who saves her jewelry budget all year to get new things at the Festival, and this year probably gave her a huge haul, as there were so many great artisans selling their original pieces. You could buy art, soap, clothes, chimes, hot sauce, or even get a massage ... the only problem is having enough time to see and do everything - which I never do.

The Abbot Kinney Festival is great because it ends up being a big reunion of your favorite Venice locals, many of whom now totally avoid Abbot Kinney these days, due to its influx of chain stores and scenesters. We again had an advantage this year to meeting up with our locals by having the "Locals" stage located at Andalusia.

With the School Of Rock kids kicking it off, then Kim Michaelowski, then our Venice Symphony Orchestra, it definitely was the place to find your favorite people. In fact, the line-up was so good that it actually made it hard to leave and see any of the rest of the Festival! A good problem to have. We had the pleasure of watching our dear Lacey Cowden make a whole slew of new fans, while accomplishing the major feat of getting a festival crowd to be stone silent while they listened to Cowden weave her musical spells. It was awesome.

The Spirit Of Venice Awards were appropriately given out at the Locals stage, and I was so happy to see my friend, Edizen Stowell of Venice Paparazzi, receive her richly deserved honor.

WIth a break in the music, it was time for a quick lap to see what and who else we could see. The kids area down at Westminster was very popular for families, though the Ferris wheel looked a little rickety for my taste. Also on Westminster was an area for the chalk artists, a Gary Palmer spearheaded project that hopes to become its own fun festival soon.

Kids were taking part in a big colorful chalk mandala, exactly the kind of participation and color you want to see during your neighborhood festival.

After a quick spin through the Roosterfish, and stopping every few feet to greet a new old friend, we made it back to Andalusia to see Matt Ellis and his band blaze through their set.  Ellis organized the Locals stage, so it was beautifully curated with all our talented friends playing. His own set was a true highlight of the day, as our gang all congregated and danced around. Ellis and his wife/bandmate Vavine arrived in Venice ten years ago exactly, and the Festival was their welcome to town, so it was extra special to have them playing at it.

With all the hoopla of the day, I have to envy a kid who can sleep this soundly through it all. Beckett wins! I bet he had awesome dreams.

The great National Anthem played next, a fun and purely rocking set. My friend Quinn's reaction was not a good review of the band, it just got loud.

I kept running into long, lost faces, and to me, that is the very best part of the Abbot Kinney Festival. We always call it "Venice Thanksgiving", and this year was no different. People will avoid AKB all year, but they'll come back for the Festival. And they'll have a blast.

It's great to live right around the corner now, so we can have a headquarters. A place to take a break, use the bathroom, get out of the sun, take a nap, make road drinks ... I did none of that myself, but it was nice to know I could. There was too much to do to hang out at home!

Our friends and neighbors Nocona headlined the Locals stage, and have quickly become one of our favorite bands after complete throw down shows at block parties earlier this year. We love them.

I also love that their kids and their kids' friends all play instruments, and are gearing up to take on the Locals stage for years to come. This year it was enough for them to watch their parents rock.

The sun began to set on the 2015 Festival, but things only got more heated up. Crowds flocked to all the watering holes and beer gardens up and down the street, DJs took over for bands, and everyone either kept dancing, or stumbled off to watch the lunar eclipse go down (I did the former and totally forgot about the eclipse until it was too late - oh, well.).

The annual sweep down the street by the lights and sirens came along to clear out the people, and with it, the clanking of the tent poles dismantling for another year.

It was a completely beautiful day in every way, made most so by all the beautiful, wonderful people that came out to celebrate our home. I don't think of the Abbot Kinney Festival as a celebration of the boulevard, but as a celebration of the man, Abbot Kinney. As an all day opportunity to toast the cool dude who created the playground where we now dwell, and thank him for it.

On days like yesterday, you forget about any differences among us and our individual ideas and ideals for Venice, and just get down with your people. Gratefully.

Cheers to another year of the Abbot Kinney Festival, and to all of us - for being there, and for being Venice.

Abbot Kinney Street Festival 2014!

We look forward to the Abbot Kinney Festival every year like it's Venice Thanksgiving. Old home weekend style, as you finally see all the old school friends that have been hiding out and avoiding Abbot Kinney these days when it's much harder to recognize as Venice there. But the Festival brings us all back, brings us all together ... and that's why we love it. This year was its 30th anniversary, so it felt extra-special.

You couldn't ask for a more perfect Festival day, bright blue skies, high puffy clouds and a slight breeze to refresh you in the sunshine. It all started real early, as we awoke to the sound of poles clanging as they set up booths in the wee hours.

When you start to hear the live music wafting inside your windows, it creates a sense of urgency to get out there and let the fun begin! This year - FINALLY - we had a dedicated stage (curated by Matt Ellis) for local music at Andalusia. That became our headquarters for the entire day, as every artist playing was a dear friend, thus it was by far the place to be (So much so that I didn't really see all that much else at either end this year, as we were smack in the center of it all). It kicked off with a performance by our Venice Symphony Orchestra, which I JUST missed, but know it was great as always.

Lacey Kay Cowden played so beautifully that I heard a lady say she'd heard the music from a few blocks away, and headed right in our direction. Once there, she was so mesmerized (like we all were) by Cowden's resonant voice, that she said she completely forgot there was the entire ruckus of a street festival right behind us. That's a good review.

Blue Eyed Son was a perfect fit for the day, as his surfy tunes put a spring in your step automatically. It also made us want to party. Which we proceeded to do ... all day and night.

I took a little stroll to see what was what, and was happy to see that Beyond Baroque again had their Spoken Word stage set up, with Venetians and friends getting up there to express their souls to anyone who happened to be there taking a breather. Poetry lives!

The fine folks at Trim were all American Hustled out, with glam 70's looks and $20 hair cuts all day, keeping their fun theme tradition alive.

The morning attendance seemed a little more sparse than usual, I think people had big nights the night before. That soon changed, and before long, you couldn't walk two feet without bumping into a familiar, friendly face. That's the best part of the whole festival, seeing your homies all together having fun in the place that we all love.

The next best part might be the annual parade of the Samba school and drum line that always struts their stuff down the middle of the festival. It's so happy, such a celebration ... everyone just stops in their tracks and shouts and dances along. What a beautiful tradition.

Next up on the Andalusia stage was Paul Chesne, our favorite local raconteur/tireless showman.

 He fired up the people, as usual, and showed why he's booked like 300 nights of the year all around Los Angeles. 'Cause he's the best.

While we were on a burger/drink break on the delightful patio at The Roosterfish (*Festival tip: never a line for the ladies bathroom in there)...

... the Spirit Of Venice awards (and grants) were given out back at the Andalusia stage, where artists Ed Moses, Laddie John Dill, Tom Everhart, activist Mariana Aguilar, VNC's Eduardo Manilla, and a post-humous award for skater Jay Adams all received their Venice props.

Also keeping it very Venice were the Hecho en Venice and Dogtown booths, where there were lines all day to buy the gear that has always shown their local pride. 

Next up at Andalusia was Matt Ellis and his band. Andy Clockwise was the guest drummer, and they demanded and held the attention of pretty much everybody walking by. We sang along, we danced, we felt really grateful that this much good music is available to us all the time here in Venice, most every night of the week.

A little more strolling ... lots of jewelry booths, some new big, cool wings for kids to wear, clothes, t-shirts, bags, hot sauce, art, art, ART ... if you couldn't find it at the AKF, you probably won't.

We made sure to get back over to Andalusia to see Venice's own Tom Freund close out the local stage, playing songs from his great new Two Moons album (also set mostly in Venice). Freund and his band (Adam Topol! Jessy Greene! Gabe Noel! Rami Jaffe!) brought their international level talent to our own backyard, and it was a sublime time in the sun with all of our friends.

As was the entire day, really. The party kept going long after the police did their sweep to clear everyone out. I saw that the beer garden at The Brig was still going strong when we had to gather our wits and head to Hollywood for the excellent George Fest. Phew!

What a great day in Venice. Social media and word of mouth blew up with people talking and sharing photos about all the fun they had at #AKF2014, as this year's t-shirts read. Very timely.

I could go on and on about it all ... but it really comes down to just this every time: I LOVE YOU, VENICE!

Venice Canals Holiday Rain On Parade

Yesterday was my annual baking day with my dear friend, Brigette ... and we mean business. We catch up and talk and stuff, but it's serious work too. Hard work (math ... endurance ... patience), that made the break we took to attend the Venice Canals Holiday Boat Parade even sweeter.

The drag was that it was raining, but rain gear and Irish coffees to go made us impervious to the elements, pretty much. If you squinted (or look at my photos), you could kind of pass the rain drops off for snow flakes.

I was surprised at the good turnout in the rain, especially for L.A. people. It tapered off to more of a mist, and we tried to find the main drag of the parade, though it looked like far fewer boats/floats this year, so it was hard to be sure.

We got pulled over by the cops on our way into the canals ... for riding in the middle of the street. Yep. We got off with a warning, but it felt like a stupid waste of time. Again. Can't we just be adults having harmless fun without getting hassled? Can't we be commended for riding our bikes in the rain instead of driving and creating more havoc? Guess not.

Oh, and speaking of driving and creating havoc, I think we might want to ask that cars not be allowed on the canal bridges on the night of the Holiday Parade. Because the people and bikes were maybe an inch away from the cars passing by, with tons of kids out, and it just isn't safe. My friend almost went into the drink trying to get out of the way of one vehicle, and that ain't cool. No cars on parade night. Thanks.

Anyway, the mood was bright, in spite of the bunk weather, and maybe even more so. You felt hard core about the fun, so the spirit of that was infectious.

A Brig vessel sailed by, and my friend Sydney and his surfing dog, Buddha SUP'd on by with some friends, all lit up. People shouted their approval from under their umbrellas, and cared less about getting a little wet for this.

Families and friends and some guys in tuxes with a big screen featuring a photo of Barry Manilow went by, which they lowered to clear the canal bridges. Comedy.

It looked magical out, as the mist dissipated and the skies cleared to reveal a perfect crescent moon lightening everything up even further. The lights on the bridges reflected their colors off of the canal water, and it was about as lovely as you can imagine. Made even lovelier when some teenage girls walked around arm-in-arm singing Christmas carols, without affectation or jokiness, simply sweetly. Magical again.

 As we were oohing and aahing and laughing and carousing, a lit-up (inside and out) and mystical Elf man came walking by, full of jokes and probably a lot of nog. He insisted on having his picture taken with each of us, and then sauntered off - growling like the Cowardly Lion at us -  to make other peoples' night. That's when you just go, "I love you, Venice."

And so I do. For evenings and events exactly such as this. Keeping it special. Filling you with that spirit of community and fun.

But there was still baking to be done ... so we dinged our bells to each other, and the bikes (very legally and safely) carried us off in our separate ways, cold, but hearts completely warm.

Merry Merry!!!

Venice - Where Art Meets Corporate Greed? Say No!

If you had left Venice even a year ago, and returned today to stroll down Abbot Kinney, you might think you got lost and wound up on Robertson or Montana. If you ever cared about Venice being cool and unique and outside of the mainstream, you would certainly be aghast to find corporate-owned chain stores - once thought to be forbidden - open for business for people that like Mall clothes. I'd like to think we as a community are better than this mass sell-out of cool ... but money talks, apparently. LOTS of money, and lots of talking.

Many of the businesses that made Abbot Kinney a cool destination in the first place - Surfing Cowboys, Jin Patisserie, Venice Vintage Paradise, Plantation, Capri Restaurant (and its great pop-ups), Glen Crest BBQ,  etc ... - are now either getting the boot by outlandish rent increases or choosing to sell in the big money grab of now. It's stomach turning, and sneaky too.

Places like Steven Alan, Robert Graham, Jack Spade, Civilianaire, the soon to open Scotch & Soda, and Flannel, and the mall-looking row of LF, Lucky Brand, and Gant are all corporate-owned, and sneaky because some sound like little boutique shops, but are really owned by massive conglomerates. They are turning our beloved Venice into a place just like anywhere else ... the last thing we who care about the history and freedom of Venice would ever would want it to be. That big mural of Abbot Kinney on South Venice Boulevard, looking down over his creation, now appears to be cringing every time I see him.

I had a good chat with Wayne Gunther, owner of Surfing Cowboys, who told me that his pioneering and well-loved business on Abbot Kinney is seeing its building being sold - and its rent skyrocketing - to a Dutch company called Holland Investments, LLC, headed by a Benjamin Derhy (no phone number listed), who seems to be doing a lot of the big buying out of Abbot Kinney. Gunther told me that Derhy's "Henchman" is Drew Glickman of Abbot Kinney Realty, who according to Gunther, tips off the buyers when the leases are coming up, so they can pounce on it, and offer such astronomical sums that sellers are obviously finding it hard to refuse. No one can make a profit when all the revenue is going to rent, so the business owners have no choice but to pack up and move elsewhere - if they can. Surfing Cowboys is moving to a bigger, cheaper space on 12553 Venice Boulevard, which will be great, but is an extra bitter pill to swallow for the Gunthers, who even lived in the back of their current space at one point, when NOTHING else was around. They're excited for the new prospects (their own parking lot!) and do a lot of great business online too, so they'll be fine. But still. In discussing why we loved and ever wanted to live in Venice, Gunther said, "I mean, just that there's VALET PARKING in VENICE is ridiculous!" Agreed.

These corporate wheeler dealers all claim to want to maintain the integrity of the street, but MAN, are they not looking at the big picture. First of all, they don't know the community. Venice doesn't want to buy stuff to look like everyone else in the world. The Venice that I know/knew and love takes pride in its individuality and free spirit. The Venice I believe in ran the corporate Pinkberry out of town with pickets and protests. I heard there were some picketers outside of the new Lucky Brand store, and that might be the kind of deal it's gonna take. If not outright picketing, which I encourage, then certainly boycotting. Let the Abercrombie T-shirt wearing tourists go there, because they're going to anywhere they go, but don't let that be YOU. If you chose to live here, with all that Venice is, good and bad, then YOU know better.

If Venice becomes a place full of chain stores that anyone can go to anywhere, then we lose all that made Venice cool in the first place, and there's no reason for all these international tourists roaming around to come here anymore. We'll be just another mall, and then a ghost mall, when all the boarded up shops and fancy build-outs sit rotting because no one could afford the rents anymore.

Like the $40,000 (!!!)  the guy that owns the Jin building thinks he's going to get for that space. Jin's lovely owner, Kristy Choo, told me that someone else said they could get $47, 000 a month for the little cottage with the charming patio SHE created, that they are now using as a selling point. She'd have to sell a whole lot of her perfect chocolates and pastries to meet that rape of a rent, so is looking for a new space, and hoping she'll get to stay on through the holidays. The buyers use the GQ article claiming Abbot Kinney as "the coolest street in America" as a bargaining chip, again failing to realize that as soon as the chains and big money take over (if we LET them!), it ceases to be any kind of cool - immediately.  Like I always say, "If it's in In Style, it's out of style." Please let Choo know if you know of anything REASONABLE, because it would be a damn shame not to have Choo and her  flawlessly delicious wares here anymore ... booted out of the happening boulevard that she helped to create.

It's all such a sad commentary on the role of greed in our community these days. I could tell you stories for days about artists that can't afford it here anymore - the very ones that settled here because it was the only place they COULD afford. My own rent has gone up already and I've just lived in this place since May. Building sold, new owners wanted even more money. So less money to spend locally. Again, a failure to understand the bigger, longer-term picture.

There are success stories on the block, of unique, family-owned businesses like Hal's, Principessa, Abbot's Habit, Abbot's Pizza, Firefly, The Green House, The Rooster Fish, Tumbleweed and Dandelion, Zingara, Joe's, Primitivo, Just Tantau, Trim, Urban Escape, Strange, Invisible Perfume, Huset, The Beauty Bungalows, Ananda, the Shoe Repair Guy, The French Market (but of course!),  and a few more, that I encourage you to shop and eat at every chance you get, because they DO know and care about their community. But they are increasingly rare, and on the endangered list too, if their leases come up and dollar signs are still blinding people to what is truly cool, and what set Venice apart from the rest of the world.

I also encourage the folks who like to ride naked down the street on their bikes, or roller skate down the middle of AKB in a chicken suit just for fun, or leave art installation treasures, or wear a sign that's funny, or let your kid wear their Halloween costume again, just because it's Tuesday, or  .... you get what I mean. Be Individuals! Be Fun! Smile and say Good Morning, like we always have done, none of this cold hipster biz I've seen. Be decent, at the very least. Be Venice, for goodness sakes!

Remember Mobay? Venus of Venice? The Korean liquor store where Wabi Sabi is that had like three items in stock? The Hydrant Cafe? Slave? Stroh's? Van Gogh's Ear? Ten Women? I do, and fondly. Wouldn't it be sad to be having this talk in a few years saying, "Remember when Starbuck's was Abbot's Habit? Remember when Domino's was Abbot's Pizza? Remember when The Gap and Gap Kids was Firefly and Kid Firefly? Remember when some b.s. like Chili's was Hal's? Remember when Joel Silver's office was the Post Office? (wait, that DID happen!) Remember when Venice was cool?!" It could happen. It IS happening.

(And by the way, not even big corporate stores are fine, as the still-new Quicksilver store right around the corner on Venice Boulevard (former Samy's Camera) is already gone. I never even went in, and I think it's because it felt too mall store chain same, which holds no appeal for me. Bye. Exclamation pointing on this entire discussion. )

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I walked by a massive line outside of the Vera Davis Center, where they were distributing food to those who really needed it for the holiday. The line (of mostly elderly people, so you can save your "Get a job" comments, if that's your argument. There are none for them.) stretched down way around the corner, past the Electric Lodge, made up of our residents and neighbors who need help. It wrecked me all day to think that one block over from Electric, on Abbot Kinney, there are those who could take one month's proposed (filthy with greed) rent and feed everyone in line for a year, at least. Who do we want to BE, as a People? Geez ... It's just sick.

I recently saw a bumper sticker that read, "You Ruined Venice".  Please don't let that be you, and please don't let that happen. You can't take any money with you, but you will always have the golden memories of your time in OUR Venice. The preservation of those sweet times is in OUR hands. Don't. Ruin. Venice! BE cool.



*Times Square like photo found at studiolindfors.com

Abbot Kinney Spirits - Vanishing

Well, the stories are backing up in Blogtown lately, because of a relocation of residence for this writer. A LOT of stories ... believe me, but for the moment I just have to trip you out with the news that Abbot Kinney Spirits or Lucky Stop, I think they answer to both - the only liquor store on Abbot Kinney, where the whole neighborhood goes for sundries, lotto tickets and booze - is closing on May 10th. The guy working whose name I can never remember, because he grunts it so fast if he answers you at all, but I'm slowly softening up, I can tell, told me the old school liquor store was closing and the landlord (yeah, more on landlords later) was going to have a flower store go in. ANOTHER floral shop on Abbot Kinney and no whiskey? One of the only OG places left on the block that ANYONE in town can afford a little something?! No way.


He joked that we were all going to have to go to Ralph's now for party supplies/toilet paper and the couple + her brother that had already been Easter drinking in the daytime, were wide eyed and not pleased with the news that the one store nearby to get refills of whatever normal life stuff you need - generally not an emergency minimalist floral arrangement - was shutting down. And SOON. We were all bummed. The guy working kept a stiff upper lip, as usual.

If you will be affected by this, or just have fond memories of finding out about each others' parties whilst inside getting the sauce, then get in there and voice your displeasure. Blahblah's "Coolest Street In The U.S." or not, Abbot Kinney is slowly losing the flavor that MADE it cool in the first place. Not SAID it was.


*** UPDATE -Abbot Kinney Spirits has RE-OPENED - at a third of the size, but the same guys and roughly the same stuff. Phew.

*Extra credit to the dude dressed up in a giant Easter chick yellow costume and nothing else but briefs, rollerblading down the middle of Abbot Kinney amid the Easter Sunday dressed strolling masses of people we didn't know. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I'm still smiling at the memory. The SPIRIT!