The Nightly Venice Light Show

The best show in town can be seen almost every evening along the edge of the continent here in Venice, California. The sunsets lately have been OUTRAGEOUSLY beautiful, and last night's fantastic display was the best one of 2019 - so far.

It was a hazy shade of winter all day long, and I went to The Whaler for happy hour with my friend Sailene, who recently decided to opt out of the expense of Venice and make the move to Joshua Tree, so she wanted to see some ocean. The Whaler has way better food now, and we thoroughly enjoyed our front row seat to the nice sunset shaping up. We were not prepared for how EXTRA spectacular it was to become, so we hastily finished up and sped out to the Venice Pier to get a better look - along with the rest of the nature lovers all facing west.

It got better and better with every passing moment, and was one of the rare sunsets where it's equally beautiful in all directions, lighting up the mountains behind us while the electric orange sun was sinking in front of us.

The air felt special, and everyone had that gorgeous sunset glow on their faces as we all shared in the awe. It was impossible to tear your eyes away from it all, and I was already about 15 minutes late for a meeting. That's when you start justifying things like, "Am I going to remember being on time for a meeting or the one of the top sunsets ever?" The sunset always wins with me. Sorry (not sorry).

We walked backward slowly, unable to turn our backs on the majesty. This is the best free show in town, with a pretty awesome wave soundtrack to go along with it. The social media feeds all filled up with the glory of the setting sun, for good reason - even though even the best of the photographs can never measure up to the real thing. There's a lot that people disagree about in Venice these days, but we can all get behind a glorious sunset. I'm still in awe of it just thinking about it, and feel so lucky and happy that I was in a place where I could enjoy it to the fullest - and have the memory for always.

Thank you, Nature! Five stars.

Tom Everhart - Waves And Bubble Baths

If you were in Beverly Hills last Saturday night, you may have thought you were in Venice. So many Venice friends made the trip east of the 405 for Tom Everhart's art opening at the Mouche Gallery that I heard someone say "I feel like I'm at Abbot's Habit." It really was pretty funny, as everywhere you looked there was either a Venice person or a friend of a Venice person. It was awesome.

Waves and Bubble Baths (showing at the Mouche until December 11th) is new works from Everhart, over 150 pieces all based on a drawing of a wave done by Charles Schulz in 1991 for his comic strip. The Snoopy character shows up in each piece, to show scale, and all pay direct tribute to that Shulz wave, but also to the various inspirations that have been important to Everhart in his long career. The bubble baths refer to the various bubbles Everhart dwells in as he works, like his Venice studio, his relationship with Schulz, his studio in Tahiti ... and the bubble we live in here in Venice (Thank God).

There are tips of the hat to such diverse luminaries as Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Missy Elliot, Biggie Smalls, Frank Stella, and Venice, California - of course.

The champagne flowed as friends caught up and congratulated Everhart and his muse/wife, Jennifer. Venice cleaned up nicely, as the ladies were hot and the gents were dapper. It would have been great to have turned it into an all night lock-in, to give everyone the chance to chat, as there were so many old friends present that it was hard to even just greet them all, never mind hear all of their latest. We need a sequel/closing party!

The new work was gorgeous, with the bright colors of Everhart's palette providing excellent selfie backgrounds for those that take those. I noticed some new color schemes in there too, as in the blacks and golds of Snoop Dogg's Sound Wave, and the pinks, purples, and golds of the beautifully abstract Andy's Tsunami. All of Everhart's work is fun to observe, and it gets even better when you know the meanings behind it. Do read the artist's written piece about the show here. It provides wonderful insight into the making of this art that had us all in Beverly Hills celebrating with our friend.

Cheers to Tom and Jenny! Thank you for the art, thank you for the fun!



Tom Everhart - Waves and Bubble Baths
Mouche Gallery
340 North Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
info@mouchegallery.com

Find People On The Same Wavelength

The waves are big again today, and it was a beautiful morning out there watching the surfers catch actual air. On my way back, I saw this big sign on one of the Boardwalk shops reading, "Find people on the same wavelength." It's an ad, of course, for some business networking app, but the sentiment is exactly why I first moved to Venice.

I was living in Beverly Hills when I first moved to California, and though I had a great roommate in a great pad on a great street, I didn't really dig it. B.H. wasn't me at all. I'd find myself coming to Venice every weekend, both to soak up the beach atmosphere, art, and fun, but also to find a place - which I ultimately did, and was so happy! For two decades.

Venice people were on my same wavelength for sure. That's why it's so sad to see the recent influx of people that are mainly about greed and self-consumption doing their best to take over our bohemian lifestyle by the beach. My brother left Venice a few years ago, and as we were looking for parking the other night for dinner, he said, "I can't stand Venice. It's all douchebags now." Ugh. Gut punch. We know he's not correct about it being ALL douchebags, but he's got a point. That's why I continue to seek out and write about those who remain on my wavelength near the waves ... and pretend like the d-bags don't exist. Kind of like we do here in our Venice bubble anyway. I know many of you in my community of similar souls are still here ... and I thank you for it. As for the rest of you ... try OUR wavelength. Present day hippies are happier.