• Wet cement, an opportunity for immortality. I will always remember that Jeremy Is A Fag ’84. #
• practice makes pirfektt. #
• Locking up butterflies for open hand combat on the 405. Number of butterfly deaths from jellyfish stings this year: 14. Still pretty. #
• Tiny bright red dot dancing across your face. Duck please, we have an eternal date of a completey different nature. #
• Like dogs, sticking our noses wherever we want. The pack’s out tonight. No moon for howling. First to the top of the hill wins. And down. #

• Ducked out. Playing ‘Something’ on the Ukulele under a darkened window. I guess it was just practice before. Who is listening? #
• Everybody has met. Final preperations can now be made. Seating charts. Escape routes. #
• Dinner at Piccolo. So damn good. And such a great place to take a date. #

• Quote of the night: “fuck those bouncers. I ripped four bouncers in one night. I gotta job.” #
• Well, upon further review, at least my stickers will stay up a while. #
• Nope I’m just here for a beer. Please move on to the guy that even blinks stupidly. #
• Ha! How many pictures of yourselves at bars can you take?! #
• Sit down at the bar next to me. Smile, laugh, hand touches my arm. Don’t play any games, let the massacre begin. #
• A homeless man by the side of the road with a sign. I wanted to tell him to change it from “Vietnam Vet” to “Civil War Vet”. #

• If I levitated you’d drop something and ask me to pick it up. #
• The breadcrumbs dropped so close together. You could have known how to get back. You fed pigeons instead. #
• Page 42, tips on how to please your man. Page 89 was going to be a feature on gaining courage. Instead an ad for shoes you had to have. #
• I wanted to kiss her again. I make no guarantee that I will be here when this side of Earth faces the Sun again. The covenant is broken. #
• The quiet rider on the hill, lingering still, when will he come to collect me, nobody to resurrect me. #

• You can tell they are maggots, they are still feeding off his decomposing flesh. Turn up the music so I don’t have to hear them feed! #

• This status update only contains 42 calories. #
• Sigh. I’m tired of walking. No cab money. And I’m probably still a bit sick. Maybe I can just sleep on the beach. #
• Just for fun I asked another homeless person what his words of wisdom were. He also said “kindness. just show people kindness”. #
• The city is very brightly lit tonight. Almost a white and orange glow. Walking slowly, my steps are a lethargic morse code. #
• A homeless woman just asked me for a dollar. I gave her $5 and asked her to tell me the wisest thing she knows. She said “to be kind”. #
• Buttonfly or zipper? A girl slowly undoing a buttonfly is much hotter. #

• It’s nothing personal. But that’s probably part of the problem. #
• Sitting on the beach sipping a piña colada, conspiring with the ocean and Sun. #

I’m not even sure where to start. I guess I’ll start with ‘thank you’ to everybody who was part of Venicestock 2009. I had been threatening to throw a party for a couple of months and then one day I figured I would get a bunch of bands together and make it a much bigger event for local Venice musicians and bands to play for a cool local audience. From start to finish it took about 10 days to plan, prep, and promote. All-in-all it was so much fun, and throughout the day we had more than 400 people come through.

There are three very special things that really stand out about Venicestock 2009 for me. First, was the audience. We had a mix of everybody, from surfers, to die-hard rockers, stoners, homies, preppies, rastafarians, trustafarians, tourists, goths, shoegazers, etc. etc. etc., and everybody was just cool and had a good time. There weren’t any fights, there was no drama, and everybody was smiling and enjoying the music and sunshine. And then when the police finally shut us down and I told the audience we were moving to the Stronghold, everybody immediately pitched in and moved the whole party over there within about 45 minutes. The beer, the food, the bands, the audience, the vibe, everything, picked up and moved to a new location. Unbelievable.

The second incredible thing was the music. I have been wanting to get the local music scene in Venice to be more united and more of a real ‘scene’ for a while, and Venicestock 2009 proved it could be done. All the bands that played brought their own sound and vibe and the audience dug all of it, whether it was reggae, alt-country, funk, folk, blues, rock, and whatever else we threw in the mix. Every performance was good and showed we have some deep talent here in Venice. I’ll put links to all of the bands at the bottom of this wrap-up so you can visit their sites and spend more time with their music, they were all really good.

The third (and probably most) special thing about this event is that we raised a lot of money for the American Cancer Society. I didn’t want the event to be cancer focused, with all of the heavy and sad things that go along with it, but I figured if we were going to get a bunch of people together and give them beer and music all day, we should ask to see if they can help and donate to a good cause. And even though the message was subtle, everybody listened and got the point. Many people also came to me throughout the day and shared their stories about how cancer had affected their lives and said how they appreciated that we were doing something to help. And then those same people blended back into the audience and started dancing to the music again. It was magical.

So again, thank you for making it such a great day. I knew it was going to be a good day, but it really went to a much higher level. I’ll be putting together some more shows in the near future, and we’ll definitely do Venicestock 2010. If you have pictures from the event, I’d love to put together a collage, so please contact me. I’ll see you next time.

All the best,

Saint John

http://www.facebook.com/saintjohn

Saint John and the Revelations: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-John-and-the-Revelations/24515068195
Stevie Starlight: http://myspace.com/steviestarlight
Steve McCormick: http://www.mccormickaudio.com
Ironheel: http://www.myspace.com/ironheelmusic
Paul Chesne Band: http://paulchesne.com/
Amilia K Spicer: http://www.amiliaspicer.com
Braw!: http://www.myspace.com/Brawmusick
Mikel Farber (from Quebb): http://quebb.net/
Kim Michalowski: http://myspace.com/kimmichalowski
Julie The Band: http://www.myspace.com/julietheband

• I need a home cooked meal. I’ve been eating crap for the past few weeks. Empty food. #

• Venicestock is officially over. We’ll see you next time. #
• Venicestock has moved to the Stronghold. Near the corner of Venice Blvd and Abbot Kinney. #
• Venicestock is in full force!!! #