The Grunion ... Crawl.

The grunion didn't really seem to be running on Saturday night, as much as crawling. I always look forward to the grunion party put on by the Venice Oceanarium, but this year was kind of a bust in terms of fish sighting. I saw exactly three of the little silver fish by the time we left. Three.

They might have showed up in the thousands later on in the night, I'm not sure, but it had already been a full day, so standing there in the chilly night air could only last so long until we had to go warm up/sleep.

Still, walking across the sand in the dead of night and seeing all sorts of people out there with their flashlights flickering across the water is fun. It's exciting feeling, just because of the anticipation, and the fact that we were all there for the same reason ... nature. Phenomenal nature.

And some fun outside in the dark night under the stars when most everybody else was sleeping. I really hope those grunion did wind up getting their big orgy on ... was sorry to miss the main event. Better luck next time!

The Venice Art Crawl Spring Fling - Spring Color Fun!

Spring has sprung up all over, and last night's edition of the Venice Art Crawl celebrated that the way we do best ... with art and fun and color and community, everywhere you looked. The central meeting point this time around was Westminster Avenue off of Abbot Kinney, which had been closed to traffic for the occasion. I love when we get to party in the streets.

Westminster was happening, and all of it served to bring the people together in the name of art and fun. Much of the art was interactive, which added to the overall vibe of community involvement. I got a late start due to work stuff, so I never even bothered to put together a posse, knowing I'd bump into friends and neighbors all along the way. Which I did. The very first person I came along was the wondrous and talented performance artist, Amy Kaps, dressed like Spring itself, sweeping up and giving out flowers as she traversed the avenue. Perfect.

There was a lot of live painting going on, as Westminster basically became an open air studio, complete with live entertainment.

Dancers danced, musicians played, hula hoopers hooped, and drums were drummed.

There was an enthusiastic poet at the stage, which I always like to see. Venice itself is a poem every day, so we need as much of that as we can get (whether you care for it or not, it's an important part of our very fabric of the town).

There was an almost vaudevillian show put on by Super Tall Paul, a tall dude that played tennis ball cans, and a mean electric flute.

Over at In Heroes We Trust, there was the hula hooping headquarters outside ...

... And a whole bunch of wearable art for sale from their collaboration with local streeet artists who have done limited edition hats and tees for the shop. There was also wine, in true art opening fashion.

There was an appearance by the Yellow Submarine.

There was a man doing live portraits of passersby that were fun to watch take shape.

A popular attraction in the street were the "Infinity Boxes", where people look at each other through smoke and mirrors. I have to admit I still don't really get it, but it's fun, and created good interaction between strangers, which is one of the best things about the Art Crawl.

The highlight of Westminster - and I think the whole Crawl this time - was the very cool installation Hydra by Franklin Londin of a bunch of Viewfinders in a circle. When you looked into them, there were different photographs of women underwater. People looked and then rotated to the next one, again all the while meeting people, talking, sharing thoughts and ideas. That's what I really love the most about these nights.

Kids also got into the act, with the Citizens of the World Westminster school fence, and some art being done among a bed of straw.

I zipped around the corner to take in the work of Mear One at the C.A.V.E. Gallery. One piece by this renowned street artist was cooler than the next, but I think this one was my favorite.

                 

After thoroughly enjoying the "Spring Color Fun" theme on Westminster, there was still a lot of ground to cover, so we took off in search of the next coolest thing. We sped over to Hama Sushi to take in the gorgeous surf work in their "Making Waves" show. It was actually kind of a bust though, because the place was packed and the art was on the walls behind tables full of diners, so you couldn't get near enough to see it without feeling like a creeeper hovering over someone's table. But they looked pretty great at a distance. As did the Venice sign, all greened out for St. Patrick's Day (but it felt a little sad, like a discount table after the holiday does. Change it back fast!).

I met two girls I felt bad for outside, because they'd driven across town and were walking around the Crawl in heels. Things were so spread out - with no shuttles this time - that unless you had a bike, you just weren't going to see it all. Or even that much. My bike is actually wrecked at the moment, so all the stuff on the far ends of Rose and Washington just wasn't going to happen. Those girls were bummed. Sorry!

Though Gotta Have It wasn't included on the VAC map (which this time there seemed to be plenty of), so I almost didn't go, I'm glad I did, because as usual, it was one of my favorite stops. The art by Sophie Blazey and Courtney Coll was my runner up to the Viewfinders. Great collages featuring graceful nude women, that now I wished I'd bought one of, but didn't want to carry around. That's one of the flaws of art events - we need party lockers!

Windward and the Boardwalk both had a bunch of art, but now we were starving, and that meant Hal's. A quick bite before we raced over to the old Samy's building on Venice Boulevard to catch the closing party of the week long Verve exhibit.

The cavernous space was full of art and art aficionados. There were lounge areas, drink areas, and plenty of good people watching. Though I really can't stand the things, there did seem to be a lot of fun and photographing over at the Spirit Animal hood station. Goofy. And once again, immersive.

As the Spring Fling Art Crawl, came to a close, Amy Kaps and The Brutal Blondes cleaned up their flowers, and another installment of one of our community's very best events was complete.

People split off to the various after parties or to hit one of the surrounding watering holes. Walking home from the VAC later, I breathed in the heady perfume of the Spring blossoming ... and already started looking forward to the next one.

Happy Spring! Happy Weekend! Fun.


*Sorry to any art and artists we missed. On foot!

Where My Sidewalk Ends ...

I was walking down my street this morning, and it was so pretty out, I wanted to share it.

Then I started thinking about Shel Silverstein's Where The Sidewalk Ends*, because on this street, that's where I live.

That beautiful, classic book of poems is now 40 years old, yet the wonder and wisdom is simply timeless. And after all these years, the opening poem is still my favorite ...

INVITATION

If you are a dreamer, come in.

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer . . .

If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire,

For we have some flax golden tales to spin.

Come in!

Come in!

Yes. We really do have some flax golden tales to spin around here. Please come in!

*Always available at Baby Burro!

Happy St. Patrick's Day From Venice!

The Windward Circle is all decked out in green for St. Patrick's Day! And the first person I saw today was Venice Irishman, Gary Palmer!

I think the greening was done by Jules Muck (who is never mad at green) and friends, and I think it's great. The Circle is such a centerpiece of town, and it's been dominated for far too long by the off-center dismembered Black Dahlia sculpture by the late (so he won't know it's gone) Robert Graham - that no one I've ever talked to even likes. Certainly not as a representation of Venice. That thing needs to be auctioned off, and the great circle be turned into a real town center. Maybe a little gazebo/band shell in the middle, that our Venice Symphony Orchestra could call home? Maybe a sweet fountain that looks like it has something to do with Venice? Maybe more graffiti walls? Rotating public art installations? I don't know, but it hasn't been used to its full potential yet for sure.

Until today. Today it gave us a bright spot of the spirit of fun that we've always been known for, that gave everyone passing by a smile and a touch of the Irish luck/blarney to start their day.

I'll take that over Lucky Charms or green beer anyday.

Have fun (and if you're going to Brennan's, get going. The line was down the block at 6 am)!

Driving Out The Snakes

This past weekend was mainly all about this. Me on a spit. 

It's been just crazy hot weather, as if we're skipping Spring altogether and jumping right into Summer. Like I jumped right into the ocean in March (earliest ever), without even flinching. It was that hot.

Which maybe contributed a bit to an overall feeling of lethargy and irritation, which was totally out of place in the bright sunshine, but still present, for some reason. I read a lot. I read a lot of disturbing things, but also a lot of good things. I was really disappointed in some people, and kind of fed up with the whole town (except for the beach). Flakes everywhere. Fakes everywhere. Users. Opportunists. Studio executives that say filthy things like, "Everyone understood because we all live in this weird thing together called Hollywood ... If we all actually were nice, it wouldn't work," and the idiots that buy into that very wrong way of thinking. Snakes, all of them.

Then you feel yourself starting to think negatively, kind of like, why bother being the nice guy if this is how people really are. Then you start seeing the world like that. Thought is very powerful. Thoughts become things. Thought manifests things, good and bad. Like walking home from the beach, this dang flower looked just like a snake.

Then going out again later and looking up to see a snake cloud.

That's when I put a halt to that fatalist way of thinking, because if you start in like that, the terrorists win. And terrorists are sometimes just terrible people that make you think terribly too. And I don't want that in my life. I want to see good things in the flowers, in the clouds, and in people. 

Re-set. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, all the snakes have been run out of the town in my head. Happy beautiful, gorgeous Monday!

Louise Goffin - An Apple On Fire

Our paths have been circling each other for a while now, and I finally got the chance to have a sunny conversation with Louise Goffin last weekend. She just released her great new ep Appleonfire last week, so we discussed that, and all sorts of things that led up to it.

The title is a riff on the saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and as the eldest child of legendary songwriters, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Goffin's apple indeed landed right there, and in this case, is engulfed in the flames of creativity.

I always like to check out someone's music on Spotify or Pandora to see who else is pulled in as similar on their station, and after hearing her music and speaking with Goffin about the music on her own Spotify playlist, I was expecting at least a few more like-minded folks like Beck, Jill Sobule, The Black Keys, Delta Spirit, Amy Winehouse, Wilco, Iron & Wine, Sufjean Stevens, Jose Gonzalez...you get it. But was surprised to find the algorithms were pulling up her first ever single as a teenager from the soundtrack of Fast Times At Ridgemont High (!) and a lot of jazzy women, and a lot of French. She told me that this is a source of annoyance for artists across the board, that the algorithms really don't represent the real deal.  

Appleonfire came right on the tail of Goffin's last full length album in 2014, Songs From The Mine, but when she played one of its songs ("It's Not The Spotlight") as a memorial for her father two days after his passing last year, songwriter Barry Goldberg encouraged her to record it. That session wound up yielding four songs recorded in one day, and two more on her own, to become a beautiful sonic tribute to her father. In fact, four of the songs lyrics were written by her father, including the one written together with his daughter, "I"m Not Rich But I'm Not Poor".

Though the ep features guest stars like Jakob Dylan (on "Take A Giant Step") and a duet with Joseph Arthur on "If I'm Late" (one her parents wrote together), the song that I personally loved most is one of the younger Goffin's own, called "Higher Than Low"(written with James Hall and the late Chris Aaron). It shows off Goffin's beautiful, sweet voice, but also reveals a toughness and an edge, and I've always been a sucker for the minor notes. I just love it on repeat. It's one of those very cinematic tunes, that you could hear playing behind a good montage in a romantic film. *Music supervisors take note.

Born in Brooklyn, and growing up in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon in its musical heyday, I asked if it gets old always being talked about as the child of famous parents. "My fans are my fans. People are too busy these days to like something just because of who your parents are ... Fans of my parents' music are reminded of the music they love with mine, but I'm playing the music I love." Goffin was born for this life. As she explains it, "I didn't have a choice spiritually. I was given the gene."

She certainly was. While talking and remembering different shows she's played or songs she's written and/or recorded, albums she's produced or played on, she said, "I've done more things than I can even remember I've done." Because it's a lot. Like singing in a video with Kate Bush and Bryan Wilson, "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that ..." Like playing with David Gilmour. Like touring with Tears For Fears as their electric guitarist. Like playing banjo in a video ("I Put A Spell On You") for Bryan Ferry. Hearing these tales, the line from her website's bio certainly rings true ... "Louise Goffin is a badass, multi-talented, modern-day renaissance woman." Truth.

This is all in addition to being a busy, Westside mother of musical kids of her own ... more apples set on fire. Goffin is about to launch a tour of mostly East coast dates, coming back home to play a show at McCabe's at the end of April that you won't want to miss. She has also been known to sit in with Steve Postell and friends at Feed on Abbot Kinney, or get up and jam with friends at The Cinema Bar in between her own gigs. It's a musical life in a musical town with musical fans and we all love music.

As Goffin said, "People are busy, and there's not enough time to gather all the information. People have to listen to the music and fall in love, and then it creates indispensability ... but a lot of people are really missing out on a lot of great music." How true. I always love a musical pleasant surprise, and in a world of hit songs basically being commercial jingles these days (Goffin's point), you have to dig a little deeper to find the real good stuff that touches your heart and soul.

Or maybe you just need to look under an apple tree.

Appleonfire is available now everywhere.

Louise's Homepage (with tour info and videos):

http://louisegoffin.com

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/louisegoffinmusic

Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/louisegoffin

Instagram:

https://instagram.com/lulahoop/

*Photos by Amanda Bjorn

The Optimist Creed

I got a great card at Burro (formerly Firefly - more on that soon) to send a friend the other day, but then decided I wanted to send it to all of you.

On the front it has "The Optimist Creed" - something I'd never read before (written in 1912 by a Christian D. Larson, who appears to have been a leader in American New Thought and metaphysics - and also a Norwegian!) but something perhaps we all should.

As the print on the card is pretty small, I'll type it up here for you. Feel free to print out and stick on your fridge or something ...

The Optimist Creed

Promise yourself -

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.


Yeah. I think if you can swing all of that ... happy is about the only thing you can be.

It can't hurt.