To Meter Or Not to Meter
What Would Miki Do?
Of late, the nature of automobile parking has initiated bitter and divisive debate in fair Venice. In the last twelve months or so, it's been whether to institute parking permits, the year before--metering in the alley between Abbot Kinney Blvd.
This gem on the subject, a story as told by the late great Miki Dora, might shed a little light as to what he'd do regarding the latter. Many thanks to writers C.R. Stecyk III and Drew Kampion for including it in the book: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora. Elegantly published, if we may say, by T. Adler Books, Santa Barbara.
"Gard Chapin [Dora's stepfather] was a relentless individualist with whom no holds were barred and all the moves were unconventional. Once, in the middle of the night, he came into my bedroom and woke me up.
'Hey kid, you've to come with me to see something.' Then he dragged me down to Hollywood Boulevard. 'Look around… what do you see that's wrong here?'
Then he opened the trunk on his car and took out a sledgehammer and walked me over to the curb. 'Miki, these bastards want to control everything. Now they want to make us pay money to park on the street.'
Chapin then smashed the head off every brand new parking meter that the city had just installed. It was the first day they had been put out, and he creamed every one of them for several blocks. His anger and the point of it were something that you could never forget seeing. When he was finished he suddenly became very calm, and he climbed up the sign pole on the corner.
'Here’s a souvenir.'
He handed me the street sign from Hollywood and Vine. I kept it for years until it was lost when they auctioned off all my stuff in Gisborne, New Zealand."--Miklos Sandor Dora
Given the ease of appropriation in the internet age, we checked with Mr. Stecyk prior to posting the above.
Weekend Stuff-to-do
Electric Lodge Production Plays w. Health Care
MOLIERE PLAY EARNS A RUN IN VENICE
Thursday, October 8, 2009--
The Doctor Despite Himself is a one-act farcical attack on the medical profession. Doctors were Moliere’s favorite target. In his time, the 1700s, medication was more fatal to patients than their illness. Today, with modern medicine, things are not that different. Prescriptions drugs are one of the leading cause of death in America.
This new staging by director Gulu Monteiro will feature 5 actors playing 11 roles and incorporating a theatrical style inspired by the Buffoons.
In the Middle Ages Buffoons were sometimes the only ones bold enough to make critical comments about the condition of the kingdom, because anything they said was by definition "a jest" and by making people laugh they could speak frankly about controversial issues.
Without sets, the staging will be centered on the actor’s work and following the Buffoons’ tradition, the actors will have Moliere’s plot as a base with freedom to improvise and create scenes and seek a conspiracy with the audience. Outstanding costume designer Swinda Reichelt will dress these jesters in daring futuristico-medieval costumes in colorful geometrical shapes.
Like the Buffoons, the troupe appreciates the value in making people think about serious issues through jest, but is mostly concerned with giving the audience the miraculous medicine that everybody needs: Laughter!
Come have a great time and you can bring the entire family!
Where
Electric Lodge
1416 Electric Ave
Venice, CA 90291
www.electriclodge.org
When
Oct 2nd through Nov. 8th.
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm and 7pm.
How
Tickets price: $20.00 ($15 for students, seniors and children)
for all performance and are available by calling (310) 823 0710
Who
Clara Bellar, Raquel Brussolo, Charles Fathy, Steven Houska, Brad Schmidt
TICKETS ONLINE:
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/82185
MORE INFO:
http://web.me.com/clarabm/The_Doctor_Despite_Himself/Home.html
News
Skate Park Opens
October 6, 2009. Venice. At the skate park opening on Saturday, October 3, Skater Jesse Martinez humbly encapsulated its importance to the skate community. The
LA Weekly had us cover it and you can read that piece at
http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/city-news/dogtown-skate-park-jesse-marti/#more
In the meantime, congratulations, Venice. You can stand on a skate park nestled in the sand, watch surfers take off at the Breakwater with your right eye, and skaters take off in a bowl through your left. As beautiful thing to behold as the depth of the quiet commitment of many for decades to get the thing built. Ger I Lewis, Heidi Lemmon, Jesse, Melanie Berry, Jeff Ho (who showed up at City Councilman Bill Rosendahl's first post-election meeting to lobby the councilman on it) and countless others who stepped up, kept it pure, we thank you.
End Of Summer Bash
Street Fest--It's On!
September 25, 2009, Venice--Yes friends, it's on: the 2009 Abbot Kinney Festival. This Sunday, September 27, from 10 AM - 6PM. On AK between Venice Blvd and Main Street. Bike, walk--we'll see you there!
Exit Interview
Erik Joule Looks Back
Before he came here he lived in Marin. On a property backed up against a state park. In a house dubbed
Rancho Nudo. With three beautiful women who had long cast off their clothes. There was no road to their hearth. The door was never locked.
His first night in Venice--a helicopter hovered over his barred window.
He hadn't wanted to come to LA. But the clothing company
Guess had recruited him, and then he stayed on to work for
QuikSilver as Senior Vice-President of Merchandising and Design and by the time Erik Joule left Venice--ten years later--to return to
the city and a position with Levi's, the iconic jean brand, he was a Venetian. The home he'd purchased on a walk street packed with the talismans of Venice friends, stores, designers, intimates, craftsmen and artists. Think global, facilitate local--that's Joule.
While Joule has earned respect as a high level executive working for multinational corporations, he has consistently plumbed such structures for positive means of change: to better lives of individuals and to spark our collective spirit.
Though he officially departed months ago, we held back this piece for why
we-do-not-know, maybe we didn't want to officially let him go. On this hot August morning, however, it's time to reconnect.
Here then, Erik Joule's exit interview.
Last restaurant you'll want to eat in? Axe.
Last design you admired? Joule lays down two. "I have to!!!," he pleads. A Bruno Matson chair. "I'm a freak for chairs. Chairs are the most beautifully designed objects." And a Diebenkorn painting Joule had seen two days earlier at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
Last surfer you want to prop? "Strider [Wasilewski.] He grew up in Venice when it was so hard to live here. He has that hardness. On the other side, he's sensitive. He's got such a connection to the world. In Venice, everyone talks to you like you're human, there's a softness to it. Strider embodies that."
Last book you read? He's four pages into
Waking, an essay by Thoreau. Recently finished (again)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Last mistake you made? He doesn't quantify actions or thoughts as outright errors but the night we interviewed him what haunted Joule, just a little, was a career decision that forced him to choose between what would have fed his own soul versus an opportunity that he perceived would have a greater impact on the spirit of others. He went with the latter.
Last innovation or contribution to QuikSilver? Paraphrased, this is what he said: "Hire people that have the right experience to look at a problem differently not necessarily the precise skill set required by the job. But who have a foundation of multiple thought processes and experiences. It's those individuals who may devise new approaches."[...] "I still live that today," he adds by e-mail from San Francisco.
Last thing you want to say about Venice? "I've lived a lot of places. And I've traveled a lot of places. The reason why Venice is so special is, it has a history and it comes from someone's dream. A lot of nostalgia is very damaging to progression. Venice is aware of its past but it's very relevant. It's not a museum."
Last think you want said about Pinkberry? Joule famously entered the chain during one of its first nights of operation in order to forcefully remove a high-profile and critically-acclaimed friend he had caught eating within the premises. We'll let that stand as his answer.
Last good thing a local said to you? "'Don't you dare move out of here completely, it'll ruin the neighborhood--my friend Maria."
Last e-mail address you want to ask for in person? "I'd love Ed Moses'."
Last memory you want to cherish? "Riding my bike with friends after going to the beach in July. Summer in Venice... I love that feeling."
Last thing you'll throw out? "Probably old issues of the
New Yorker."
Last person you'll want to kiss goodbye? "Michael from Equator Books. Do you know him? Michael Deyermond?"
Last thing to live by in the time we're at? "There's this American story and we've forgotten what it is to be American."
Last thing you'll pack? "My bike."
--Tibby Rothman
News
Skatepark To Open October 3
August 28, 2009 Our friends at Juice Magazine just posted the news that the Venice skatepark will open this October 3. Since 2001, we've been reporting that the skatepark cometh... now due to the tireless (and we mean tireless efforts) of such individuals as Geri Lewis and Jesse Martinez, it looks like we won't be liars any more. More details as they come. Congratulations, Venice.
Java Jones?
Book it to Equator
Sunday, August 23, 2009 If you're reading this on the dateline, Equator Books is serving up free espressos and cappuccinos for the day. (In advance of the java space in the back of the store opening for good.)
Seeing as a sweet cup of joe is the last addiction we're allowed to imbibe in, we're particularly fussy about it. And have to prop the mud that Equator is serving. Rich fine chocolaty. And with none of that pretentious barista crap. With all due respect, it's about the coffee not the show. The mud not the pastries.
Head on down to the bookstore today--and if you miss out, we'll let you know when the coffee space earns a full open.
We also want to prop the fresh mint tea and avocado on toasted bagel that we love Abbot's Habit for. Longtime Venice proprietors Noah and Nina keeping it real.
Give it Up
August 20th Benefit Slated to Support the Skate Community's Jim Muir
August 18, 2009. Venice The local skate community has pulled together to host an A-class benefit for one of their own: Jim Muir who broke his neck in a surf accident at Westward Beach in Malibu.
Muir, who owes his life to a quick-acting 12-year-old girl who noticed him floating face down in the water last spring, writes of the ordeal with terrifying clarity at the website dedicated to spreading the news of the benefit.
Read it. It's a life changer.
The Thursday night, August 20 benefit will raise funds to help pay for Muir's severe injuries. It will include an auction featuring a plethora of decks, art and other tasty items by C.R. Stecyk, Lance Mountain and Chad White and other friends.
The $10 donation at the door (not even enough to cover a co-pay at the drugstore) makes it impossible not to attend. + there's a special showing of Dogtown and Z-Boys. If you can't make it to the event, contribute online care of the site linked at the end of the story.
Be there. Thursday August 20. The Air Conditioned Supper Club. 625 Lincoln Blvd. Doors open at 7:30PM... Bring your kids to see the 8PM showing of Dogtown. Alleged Adults only after the end of the film.
More info at
www.jimmuirbenefit.com
News & Views
Whole Foods Back Pedals Opposition to Health Reform
But Exec Fuels Fire by Referencing Trigger Words Like Socialism and Rationing
August 15, 2009. Venice-- Oh what a difference a couple of pissed-off customers makes.
Local meet-and-greet food outlet Whole Foods is back-pedaling on an op-ed penned by John Mackay, the company's CEO. Writing in the
Wall Street Journal Mackay appeared to oppose health care reform.
But an official statement from the company's customer communications team now claims that "John's Op/Ed piece was written in favor of health care reform" and offered angry consumers "our sincere apology."
An e-mail sent to store patrons who had written the chain protesting MacKay's op/ed went on to say "John titled the piece 'Health Care Reform,' but an editor at the Journal rewrote the headline to call it 'Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare,' which led to antagonistic feelings by many."
But a re-read of MacKay's piece would leave one hard pressed to say that MacKay in anyway supports the Presidents quest, or that it attempts to decreases the level of rage instigated by charged vocabulary words regarding the issue.
MacKay repeats the notion that health care reform will lead to quote unquote government bureaucrats making health care decisions and rationing treatments.
"Citizens in [the UK and Canada] are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments," he says.
But MacKay neglects to state several facts in his piece. Most predominantly that the "public option" being proposed in health care reform is just one option for health insurance buyers. The insurance menu will continue to offer every citizen private insurance company policies. In addition, the government will provide a plan should individuals choose to sign up with it. That program will be run by health care experts. MacKay fails to mention that bureaucrats already ration medical care for--staffers employed by private insurance corporations today.
So Cal Residents Line Up at the Inglewood Forum for Free Health Care
The controversy surrounding MacKay's op-ed piece comes as Remote Area Medical, a non-profit that dispenses medical attention to impoverished Third World countries spends a week in the Los Angeles area assisting Southern California poor.
Writing in the
Los Angeles Times, Steve Lopez notes: "At the Forum, [...] patients included a diabetic amputee who had not been able to buy his medicine for months, a retiree who couldn't afford an X-ray for a lung problem, and a 30ish female diabetic with a kidney ailment so serious that [a doctor] called for an ambulance to take her to a hospital."
No word yet on whether Whole Foods provided pastries for the volunteer medical teams or if the store was providing vouchers for healthy food for clinic attendees.
Thanks to Venice local Denise Stewart for sending us the Whole Foods Customer Communication Team's e-mail.
To read Steve Lopez' column in its entirety go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez16-2009aug16,0,3959652.column
Abbot Kinney Parking Blues Get Worse
Bar Gets Preliminary Approval to Expand Sales with Zero On-site Parking
August 13, 2009. Venice--While shrinking parking access is a key complaint of many Venice residents, Craig Weiss, the owner of
theotheroom, earned preliminary approval from a neighborhood committee last night to expand his Abbot Kinney business though it will provide no parking at its location.
His proposed cafe, which is sited adjacent to
theotheroom, will operate from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. Weiss sought community approval for a Conditional Use Beverage request allowing him to sell beer and wine for both on and off site consumption.
According to members of the neighborhood council's Land Use and Planning Committee, Weiss said he will provide required parking behind the GlenCrestBBQ, which lies approximately half a block away and on the other side of the street.
(want more of this story? click the button to the right)
Worth Noting
Int'l Aid Group Provides Medical Care to Los Angelinos (we're not kidding)
August 14, 2009. Los Angeles-- As debates over health care reform are hijacked by those spreading unfounded fear and hate, an international aid group quietly provided free medical attention to the indigent this week. In Los Angeles.
Remote Area Medical (RAM), a Tennessee-based organization initially facilitated the medical needs of those living in the far reaches of Third World countries and territories such as East Africa, Nepal and Guyana. In the last few years, however, it has also launched free clinics in American regions such as Appalachia.
This week, RAM generated one of its "expeditions" to the Los Angeles Forum and, according to the
Daily Breeze, treated patients came from such exotic locales as Santa Monica and Mar Vista.
While other patients heralded from Inglewood, some drove in from San Diego and Santa Barbara waiting for hours to receive medical attention they could not afford from another provider.
Follow RAM's Los Angeles trip:
http://twitter.com/RAMLosAngeles
Daily Breeze story at:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_13038443?source=rv
Whole Foods CEO Pans Health Care Reform
In the meantime, John Mackey, the CEO of popular Venice grocery store and restaurant Whole Foods, penned a WSJ editorial against health care reform.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html
Consider the Source
Longtime local and friend-of-paper Denise Stewart pointed out to us that Mackey was the same Whole Foods executive who posted
anonymous messages in online chat rooms heralding Whole Foods while trashing its competition--Wild Oats.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1133440820070712
News
Novel Shutters; Remembering the Beginning
August 11, 2009. Venice--On the
www.laobserved site, writer TJ Sullivan reports that longtime hangout The Novel Cafe is shuttering. Sullivan says that a letter posted on the front window states that the landlord is not renewing the coffee shop/bookstore's lease.
Most people aren't ready for endings but Richard Karno, The Novel's founder who no longer owns the digs, wasn't ready for it to begin.
On that day, about 20 years ago, with press and alleged VIPs invited for The Novel's opening night, stacks of books had yet to be placed on their shelves. The place was a mess. Not even close.
So in a scene straight out of
30-Something (a popular TV show at the time) a group of Karno's friends stepped in for the afternoon to ready the small storefront. At that time, The Novel was half the size it is now. But it was a big deal--the first of a tight college crew, many of whom went to UCSB, to launch a business. There was some hardcore dusting going on that day, really mundane prep, but it was an adventure.
In those first few weeks, Karno's friends would hang out, ad nauseam, so it would look like the place was almost busy. John Henson, a roommate of Karno's, and I spent plenty of time there. We thought it was so cool that our friend owned it. And from time to time I would pick up a brilliant or beautiful edition of a secondhand book for a steal, like Joan Didion's
Democracy.
Karno subsequently sold the cafe and went on to be Venice's coffee impresario care of his GroundWorks chain, with multiple outlets in Venice. Then he reached all the way downtown. But he still fronts the coffee for such events as the Venice Garden Tour.
I haven't spent time at The Novel in years, but hearing the news today I just had to go back to that opening night. I still laugh that there was a
defacto guest list, I can’t remember who ran the door, but I’m pretty sure that it was Doug Kaback who still lives local who transferred The Novel's beautiful logo to the front glass.
Ciao, Novel.--Isabel T
The Society Page
Familiar Venetian Tabbed for 'Californication'
July 30, 2009. Venice, CA If you're a Venetian, spend any time on Abbot Kinney, and are addicted to
Californication, the cable TV series, it would be hard not to miss some of the similarities between
Hank Moody, the show's lead character, and
Michael Deyermond, the owner of AK's Equator Books.
The penchant for beer and cigarettes. The exasperating fuck-you attitude mitigated by the heartfelt soul-baring admission at just the right moment. The needed-friendships destroyed and tattered. The mind blowing discourse. And of course: the jail time. Busted for defending his wife's honor,
Moody gets a dream writer's gig in the slammer. While, to raise money to pay off an expensive old warrant,
Deyermond--an artist as well as proprietor--issues a new print. Need we continue? Probably not.
As it turns out, we'll finally be seeing
Deyermond in Californication, as he's been cast as himself (as if there was any other possibility) in the finale of the show's upcoming season. The only marvel is that
Deyermond wound up with his own trailer in the canals. Not a surprise--when he reported to wardrobe wearing a self made t-shirt that read 'what did you expect, you met me in the bar' (the result of a bad breakup), he was told to go away, his wardrobe was fine. And what his dialogue is, vintage
Deyermond, though out of deference to the show and the writer we won't give it away.
Back Your Homies
Historical Society & Ray Bradbury Team Up For Ambitious Project
Monday, July 20, 2009, Venice--Few Venetians span the course of history that 95-year-old Navalette Bailey does. A direct descendant of the area's founding Tabor Family, she's seen Venice grow around her. The fact that she's never gotten directly involved in Venice politics and has instead sought to improve the area by simply doing, rather than talking, earns our
props for her evermore.
Currently Bailey's touting the Venice Historical Society's "Ray Bradbury Adopt-A-Colonnade Celebration | An Ambitious Restoration Project."
Bradbury, himself, will be on hand for a program fundraiser Friday, July 31, 2009 at the Electric Lodge in Venice.
If you've never met the man, and think he's old school--someone has misguided you. At 89-years-old the author of such game changers as
Fahrenheit 451 is as relevant and witty as ever.
He'll wrap Venice stories around you that will make you leave the evening laughing and in further awe of the great place we are truly fortunate enough to habitate. Like, the years when he was a struggling screen writer here, couldn't afford a phone line, and gave the number of a phone booth across the street to his bosses.
The Colonnade program is no less important. With huge swaths of Venice's economic engine being tossed aside--ie a few parking spots taking priority over old-school-Venice shacks where artists Ed Ruscha and Laddie John Dill have space--items such as the colonnades that set Venice apart from say, Old Town Pasadena, or the Promenade, will be key to the area's economic prosperity in the long term.
Tickets to the event are $55 if purchased in advance and $60 at the door. If you can't make the event but are interested in sponsoring a colonnade, the inventive, Bradbury-esque sponsorship packages alone make it worth it.
Sure there's the "Farenheit 451 Sponsor" at $250, but our personal fave--"A Graveyard for Lunatics Sponsor." If that's not Venice, what is?!
The event invitation states that not only will "Delightful delicacies & desserts will be served," but the evening offers "Flowing Champagne", so you know we'll be there.
For more info on how to attend/contribute or to download the full invitation visit :
http://www.venicehistorical.org/
c: 310.967.5170
News
Villaraigosa Honors Swami X; Blows Off Officially Running for Gov
Updated June 23. See below
June 22, 2009. Venice-- We should have known yesterday, when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presented Boardwalk legend Swami X with a city proclamation honoring the sidewalk poet, that something was changing in the career of Los Angeles' most avid serial campaigner.
Since his second campaign for mayor, the one that landed him in office, Villaraigosa has stayed so far away from the counter culture you'd think the far left had herpes. And yet, there he was in its bastion, in an event thrown by Venice's collectively run newspaper--the Beachhead--at a building set aside for poets!
And today comes the news, via his announcement on CNN that he won't run for the governator position. Evidently, according to LA Observed (www.laobserved.com), he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer "I can't leave this city in the middle of a crisis."
Many congratulations to the Beachhead for luring Antonio west of Lincoln. The bad news? Now we could be stuck with him.
Given that the Mayor chose to make his announcement on national versus local television, it's pretty clear where Villaraigosa's loyalties lie. That, and, he might have received some tough questioning about the city's current crisis--like why did he not gestate any economy for the city other than real estate and development. Thus leaving the City of LA with little when the real estate market tanked.
UPDATE-June 23, 2009 At least two people attending the event told us that Villaraigosa said his involvement was initiated by memories that he had of Swami X back in the days the mayor attended UCLA and saw Swami X on the boardwalk.
'His presence appeared to be genuine' was the supposition of both of our friends. But you look at that compared to announcing you won't run for gov because your city is in crisis but bypassing local media to make a national appearance about it, and it's hard not to remain overwhelmingly cynical of the man.
