February 2008 – The Manhattanization of Venice

By Jim Smith

The tallest building ever proposed in Venice is on the drawing boards and planning committee agendas. At 31 stories, the building will tower over anything for miles around. It will be a landmark for approaching airliners and ships at sea. It will be reviled by motorists struck in gridlocked traffic on Lincoln Blvd.

The official “Project Description” gives an idea of just how big it is:

The proposed project is the development of a mixed-use residential development consisting of up to 158 condominium units and approximately 3,178 square feet of ground-floor retail space, along with 408 parking spaces, related improvements and landscaping. The project consists of a podium structure, containing the ground-floor retail uses as well as internal parking, from which rises a narrow residential tower reaching up to a maximum of 366 feet in height. Thirteen percent of the condominium units will be affordable to persons of families of very low income. 

A Venice Neighborhood Council informational meeting on the tower attracted more than 50 locals on Jan. 23. Nearly all were opposed. A spokesperson for the yet-unknown developers said the project will rely on the city awarding them more density than would normally be allowed. Buildings are allowed three square feet of floor space for every buildable square foot on the lot. This project would need at least 4.5 square feet. The developers are also banking on a density bonus from the recently passed bill, SB 1818, which provides for bonuses if a certain amount of affordable housing is included. Even with this bonus, they’d have a hard time reaching 31 stories. At least one Venice activist believes it may be the old “scare and switch” routine where something outrageous is proposed, the community rallies to the barricades, and the developers “retreat” to a more modest building that they had planned for all along.

Even so, this project may renew calls – like Lori LeBoy’s plea at the meeting – for a building moratorium. More than a year ago, petitions for a moratorium were gathered, but organizers ran into a brick wall with the pro-development L.A. City Council (except for Bill Rosendahl).

As a symbol of the “let’s build it because we can” mentality, the building will house the wealthy and a couple of low-income families – that is, if low-income families can afford to buy a condo, no matter how cheap it is. The law requires at least 10 percent of units to be “affordable” in the coastal zone. There is no data as to how long the units would remain affordable.

The new Tower will join – and dwarf – the existing three 17-story luxury condo buildings next door. The Channel Gateways project of the 1990s spawned these out-of-place creatures despite community opposition. Some community organizations, including the Venice Town Council and the Venice Community Housing Corporation threatened a lawsuit, but reached a settlement for some low-incoming apartments in the building on Lincoln Blvd., an affordable housing trust fund, a fund to mitigate negative impacts on the Oxford Triangle (the nearest Venice neighborhood), and the establishment of a Native American museum. 

The Venice community has long fought hi-rise building schemes along the beach, and more recently, at Lincoln Place. No developer, until now, has had the audacity to suggest a 31-story tower in an ecologically-sensitive coastal area that is also a liquefaction zone.

The location of the tower, south of the “Marina” Ralphs may lead people to believe the building would be in Marina del Rey. It is in Venice. Many of us have a cloudy idea of exact where Venice is located (geography not being suited to the American temperament). The rule of thumb is this: the Marina is in the county, Venice is in the city. This distinction is lost on many, particularly on newer residents. 

The reasons for the confusion are multi-fold. In addition to the problem of being geographically challenged, the city of L.A. seems unwilling to erect street signs informing travelers when they enter Venice. The U.S. Post Office further confused matters when they divided Venice into two zip codes and lumped south Venice in with the Marina as 90292. Small wonder that many in the south-of-Washington Venice neighborhoods of the Oxford Triangle and the Peninsula wrongly believe they live in the Marina. 

Finally, there is the snob appeal of the Marina. In spite of the rampant gentrification of Venice, it still doesn’t have the cachet of a Marina del Rey address. Hence the abundance of Marina signs on Venice businesses.

The Incredible Shrinking Venice

In the good ole days when Venice was its own city, and Los Angeles was still below the eastern horizon, Venice was much larger. Everything from at least Centinela west and north of the Westchester bluffs was considered part of Venice. What is now Mar Vista was farm land owned by Venice farmers, many of whom were Japanese. The Maxella shopping center was a dairy farm and bottling plant. Playa del Rey below the bluffs was the south end of Venice. It still uses the Venice street numbering system. When the Marina boat harbor was dug, this tail of Venice was severed and cast adrift.

When the Venice neighborhood council’s boundaries were laid out a few years ago, the job was in the hands of newcomers who had only a foggy idea of what was Venice and what was not. Up until that time, the main source of industrial jobs for Venetians was on Glyndon Avenue, below Washington, at Revell Plastics and about a dozen other manufacturers. This area was not included in the neighborhood council’s borders, and some time later came under the sway of the Del Rey Neighborhood Council, which is much more development friendly than is Venice. A trip down Glyndon today will reveal the eradication of the job-producing manufacturers and the erection of big apartment and condo buildings which add thousands of auto trips to our streets.

It was during the creation of the boundaries and bylaws of the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council in 2001 that a minority of participants tried to include Playa Vista in the Venice boundaries. Had they been successful, the fight against this small city being built on wetlands and a Native American cemetery would likely have been more forceful. On the other hand, it would have opened the door to meddling in the Venice Neighborhood Council by Playa Vista, Inc., as undoubtably will the residents of the 31-stories, if in fact, it gets built.

But now Venice seems to be shrinking to north of Washington and possibly, west of Lincoln. The previous owner of Lincoln Place – just east of Lincoln – erected signs advertising the place as being in West Los Angeles in hopes of higher rental prices. Lincoln Blvd., like Washington Blvd., sports its share of Marina signs on businesses. And with many of those who inhabit Ocean Front Walk thinking they live or work in someplace called “Venice Beach,” just where is Venice? 

A few years from now will Venice fade from memory as 20 and 30 story hi-rises crowd the coast? In that case, why not call it the Marina or West L.A.? Years from now will naive foreign tourists come here looking for the haunts of the Beats, Jim Morrison and the dream of Venice but will only find more of Los Angeles? Or will they find a city that honors its past and promotes its uniqueness, but most of all, comes together when it counts to say no to developers who would destroy Venice to build Manhattan?

February 2008 – Law Abiding Citizens Vow Crime Spree Over Fencing Regulations

By Georgie Gravel

Always, just always, it amazes me how people will move to Venice, attracted by the openness, airy, loose lifestyle, and freedom of expression, and then put up fences to keep all that good stuff out. 

I am an innocuous-looking gent that observes, asks questions and listens. Listening is key. Listened to people at the Farmers’ Market discussing the upcoming Venice Neighborhood Council Board meeting on Fences and Hedges. Checked out the proposed motion on the VNC web site – noted that the last two paragraphs of the draft recommendations describe the city action that is requested and there is a special section on retaining decorative gates. 

Read the many emails and flyers I got about it. So I went. Well, ol’ Georgie here got a lesson in participatory democracy gone stark, raving mad at that meeting. Definitely world class ranting and raving. 

If you didn’t go, you missed quite a show. Out of almost 200 locals attending, 90 percent were screaming and hollering, “…How dare VNC tear down my fence…Draconian measures to enable the few to dictate to the many….Over my cold, dead body….Fight to the last stake in my fence……you are evil, EVIL and a curse on you and your family…How dare there even be a LUPC task force on this…of all the things wrong in Venice you focus on our fences…” A list of sex offenders in two communities of Venice was submitted with instructions as to how VNC could address that problem. And my favorite, “…you antichrists you, how dare you spring this on us at the last minute like this.” 

Sorry folks, even the most casual look at VNC/LUPC web site over the past year revealed a draft copy of the report with an email reply address for public comment through July 25, 2007. There was many an opportunity to read and comment on this report before January 29th. 

My, my, my. Makes one wonder if the creationists are right and we sprung full blown into life four thousand or so years ago without the benefit of learning to live together, acquiring good manners and/or eschewing foul behavior.

Attendance was seriously slanted to people wanting to keep their illegally high fences and damnation to anybody that wanted to reduce them for any reason. The few that spoke in favor of the LUPC paper were booed and hissed until the VNC president, Mike Newhouse, reminded the audience that civil behavior was expected. 

On Tuesday, February 19, the VNC Board will consider recommendations on the LUPC paper. If anybody out there is in favor of low or no fences in our fair city they had better show up and be heard. I drove slowly through most of Venice last week and IMHO only about 30 percent of our homes have over high fences. That means that 70 percent observe the law. 

Perhaps it would be a good idea for the 70 percent majority to testify at the next VNC Board meeting, Tuesday, February 19 at Westminster Elementary School auditorium.

February 2008 – Letters

• Just want to thank you - Suzy Williams

• I just picked up the recent January copy - Krista Schwimmer

• Please accept my contribution – Pegarty Long

• Keep up the great work - Michael Linder

• In My Perfect World - Rebecca Moore Frey

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Just want to thank you

Dear Beachhead: 

Just want to thank you for being you, the very valuable voice o’ Venice. You are so much part of our town as the walk street and the palm trees. Bless you. 

Love XXX Suzy Williams

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Really enjoyed it

Dear Beachhead, 

I just picked up the recent January copy of the “Beachhead” and really enjoyed it! It is nice to see this paper grow. And still, you give so much space to poetry!!! I love it!

My husband and I have been living in Venice for almost 10 years. We love the area and work at time as tarot readers on the Boardwalk. So I thought I would submit one of my Venice poems.

Krista Schwimmer

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Keep up the good work

Dear Beachhead, 

Please accept my contribution as an annual sustainer. Happy New Year and keep up the good work.

Pegarty Long

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Keep up the great work

Dear Beachhead, 

Keep up the great work, the splendid tradition. The Beachhead was alive and kicking when I first arrived in Venice in 1973 – here’s to many more years of covering our neighborhood.

All the best, Michael Linder

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In My Perfect World

Dear Beachhead,

Here are potential political solutions (in my perfect world):

PAY A TAB

Let homeless and poor “run a tab” at restaurants and grocery stores, and either the establishment itself picks up the tab, as a tax write-off, or a wealthy Samaritan or non-profit organization pays for the food.

GREEN SPACES FOR GARDENS

Take 1/4 to 1/8 of every park and green strip, dedicate it to growing foods, plant fruit and nut trees, vegetables and herbs; instead of ornamental landscaping. Allow anyone to gather and eat the free, fresh food! Some may over-pick, but nature will take its course and grow back.

BEYOND THE GARDENS

Section off a corner or end of all parks, about 1/6 of the land, and allow homeless to live there in tent cities, but with the stipulation that they must maintain the edible gardens, and keep the parks clean and safe, thus imbuing the residents with the responsibility of caring for the land itself, and themselves and their neighbors. This would be minimally supervised by the Parks Department, and/or environmental and citizen action groups (such as those who monitor city gardens or provide for the poor). Key homeless personnel would be authorized to become resident leaders and groundskeepers. In addition, the restrooms would be enlarged to include showers and running water for drinking and watering the gardens.

ADOPT A CONTINENT, COUNTRY, CITY, TOWN, MOUNTAIN, RIVER/BAY/OCEAN

Put humanitarian leadership in private hands (such as Angelina Jolie, Oprah and President Clinton have been doing with Africa). Those with wealth and heart can adopt those places and people who are poor, downtrodden, sick, polluted, lacking resources, etc…

Huge tax relief (or no tax at all, for every year of charitable service) that a charitable foundation or humanitarian individual with the resources and wherewithall (such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which could adopt an entire continent), “adopts” the land/river/mountain/stream/people (at whatever level is financial feasible), and pours money and resources directly into that region (bypassing its government, in some cases), not altering the area to become culturally different or “white-washed,” but to be supported through providing the basic needs: irrigation and clean water systems, alternative environmentally-friendly fuels, food, refrigeration, farming and industrial tools, medicine and hospitals/clinics with adequate trained staff and needed items, education, clothing, roads and transportation, and training and employment in all areas listed. (Based on the simple premise that “if you give a fish, he eats for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime”).

Rebecca Moore Frey

February 2008 – Kathy, RIP

Kathy – sister of Pat, Dennis, Timmy, Milly and Petey, Auntie of David. Passed away on January 19. 

She was a part of Venice and Ghost-Town USA from the 60s (our mom lived on Breeze Ave). Remembering “The-forty-thieves club” and so much more. Older beach people will especially miss her.
She was a sweetheart, loads of fun – and most of all – she was a very loving and nice lady with a cute little grin.

-Pat Troy (her sister)

Feburary 2008 – Results of the January Beachhead Poll

What should be done with the Venice Circle? 

Mark as many choices as you like.
* Fill with water – 21%
* Close to traffic – 16%
* Add more statues – 17%
* Leave the Circle as it is – 19%
* Remove the present statue – 37%
* Add a fountain – 51%

Comments:
*Create a giant Peace sign shaped as walkway
*Put up permanent displays about Venice history
*Make a garden or park with benches!
*Have a really cool fountain with some kind of animal figures
*Put in an interactive info point
*Italian fountain, statues (not sexist) at least one gondola
*Chess tables and chairs or benches
*A large arch (like Washington Square, NY)
*No more victim women, and loose that clown on Rose
*Statue of Abbot Kinney. Little cafes and shops around the circle
*A collective of Venice artists combine forces to create multiple works
*Please more art is nice, but less sexist
*Add more paper mache heads to statue
*Live music
*Giant windmill to generate electricity
*Have a contest for redesign
*Bring back the canals

February 2008 – Los Angeles Practices LCP Interruptus

By John Davis

The City of Los Angeles is flouting the law, to the detriment of all of us coastal dwellers. 
Chapter 1, Section 30006, of the California Coastal Act reads as follows: “The Legislature further finds and declares that the public has a right to fully participate in decisions affecting coastal planning, conservation and development; that the achievement of sound coastal conservation and development is dependent upon public understanding and support; and that the continuing planning and implementation of programs for coastal conservation and development should include the widest opportunity for public participation.”

Los Angeles is doing something different. The Coastal Act requires local governments to create Local Coastal Programs (LCPs) to ensure maximum public participation in the planning process. The LCP must also be designed to reflect and implement the stringent environmental and access protections of the Act.

The City has completed only half of the Venice LCP, but is allowing development at such a rapid rate that it will prejudice the Coastal Commissions ability to certify a LCP consistent with the Coastal Act. 

The City plan is a rush to change the face of our fair community forever without letting the public participate. Huge luxury apartment complexes and angular buildings called “artists lofts” are going up all over Venice and the City is allowing other buildings to exceed the legal heights required by the certified Land Use Plan.

Development sprung up before a Land Use Plan for Venice was ever certified.

Until a Land Use Plan is certified by the Coastal Commission, all permits for coastal development must be approved by the Coastal Commission.

The two condo towers, euphemistically known as the Regatta and Water Terrace, stand as a developer’s view of what Venice should be. They were approved by the City years before the certification of the Venice Land Use Plan. The Coastal Commission turned a blind eye to this huge problem and let the City get away with it. It appears that the original project should not have been permitted until the Venice Land Use Plan was certified. Perhaps new hearings are in order.

And now as a further insult to the good citizens of Venice, the City is again cutting the public out of the process. According to Theresa Henry of the Coastal Commission, Los Angeles has not submitted the final part of the LCP to the State. 

In fact the City has not even submitted a draft of the required Implementation Plan to complete the Venice LCP in over two years. And it is no wonder, the City has not held one required workshop or public hearing. 

Recently the local Sierra Club Regional Group filed and won a lawsuit against the City to stop it from illegally destroying one of the only original wetlands in Venice. The City had planned to use heavy equipment to dam and dig up the wetlands, letting the sea life die slowly in the sun. We won and still have our wetland.

But the fight is not over, the City is still appeasing the interests of large scale developers and hanging the community out to dry. 

We are all watching a movie about Venice. Special effects are being used to transform small homes and businesses into a huge gated luxury community of bizarre trophy homes overnight. And we the people are just watching.

It is not too late to preserve our unique coastal heritage. People of all walks of life have a right to live in Venice. We are a Renaissance culture of free thinkers perfectly capable of protecting our own interests.

So it is time to demand that the City begin holding public workshops and hearings on the final component of the LCP, the Implementation Plan. Those of us who call Venice home will settle for nothing less. 

February 2008 – RV Crackdown Coming Soon?

By Peggy Lee Kennedy

Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) 80.69.4 revving up to be enforced in Council District 11 as a “pilot program.” 

Question: What is LAMC 80.69.4?
Answer: A city law written to target those living in RV’s or other vehicles deemed “over sized.” Two areas in Los Angeles are being used as pilot programs for enforcing the law. An area in Council District 11 is one of the pilot programs for the law.

Question: Why don’t the people living in RV’s just go live at the RV Park?

Answer: The only RV Park in the area is Dockweiler, which happens to be closed until March 2008. When it is open it costs around $30 per day, has rules regarding maximum time stayed per year, requires a reservation with a credit card one week in advance, and often the park does not have spaces available. Dockweiler RV Park is geared for those RVers who are on vacation and also for those who have a certain amount of discretionary money.

Question: Then why don’t the people living in RV’s just go into housing somewhere?

Answer: Los Angeles is having an affordable housing crisis and most people living in vehicles have an extremely low income. They cannot afford both food and rent. In fact, people living in vehicles are technically considered homeless. There are an estimated 91,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County.

Question: Why don’t they go into a shelter?

Answer: The number of shelter beds is severely low compared to those who are living without housing. Shelters are usually only open at night. Most winter shelters do not have walk-in access and do not have parking places for those living in vehicles. If an un-housed person has a vehicle to stay in, it is much better than going to a shelter most of the time.

Question: OK, What does the law LAMC 80.69.4 say?

Answer: Well, this law affects any vehicle considered “oversized” in an area where the city has put up signs:

• No vehicle over 22 feet long or 7 feet high may park on a signed street between 2 AM and 6 AM without a permit.

• A permit costs $10 per day.

• A permit is granted only with two forms of identification with your residential address.

• A permit is purchased from a Department of Transportation Service Center M-F during office hours.

•Permits can only be purchased for 3-days maximum.

•Permits cannot be purchased if any outstanding parking tickets are in the system.

Enforcement of LAMC 80.69 is similar to the recent city law creating Overnight Permit Parking Districts (LAMC 80.54), which is swiftly covering our city with restricted parking districts being used to eliminate the poor from our streets, district by district. See our Justice Committee web site at http://www.justice.wetnostril.net for more information on LAMC 80.54, the Overnight Parking Permit District law.

The Los Angeles City Council seems to keep crafting local laws that simply make it illegal to be homeless! These are Public Streets. These kinds of laws are hurting the poor and they are turning public streets into private or rented space.

Please call on the City Council to have more compassion for those living without housing. Until we can actually house people, lets HELP the unhoused to be safe, warm, fed, and given hope that they too may someday have a better quality of life – Not treated like criminals or treated less than human.

Please send an email or call to oppose this anti-homeless law, LAMC 80.69.4:

District 11 – Bill Rosendahl councilman.rosendahl@lacity.org
District 11 Chief of Staff Mike Bonin mike.bonin@lacity.org (213) 473-7011

February 2008 – California’s Raging Health Care Crisis

By Seth Sandronsky

Big California papers such as the San Jose Mercury News and The Sacramento Bee have been urging the state Senate Health Committee to pass the Núñez-Perata health-care reform bill, ABX1-1. Gov. Schwarzenegger backed the speaker and senate leader’s bill, which the state Assembly passed in late Nov.

The 11 members of the Senate Health Committee, which Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl of L.A. chairs, held a hearing on ABX1-1 Jan. 23. The speaker, a legislative analyst and governor’s health secretary were three of those who commented on the bill.

The committee voted the bill down on Jan. 28. A yes vote would have paved the way for Californians to decide the bill’s financing mechanism in the Nov. election.

But ABX1-1 lacked the votes. The bill failed in Kuehl’s committee. Núñez has two options. He can return with amendments and request a reconsideration of the vote. Or he can request a new vote on the health-care reform bill with no amendments, according to Carol Wallisch, Sen. Kuehl’s chief of staff.

A Jan. 25 unsigned Sacramento Bee editorial blamed Big Tobacco and the California Nurses Association for the sacking of ABX1-1. Under ABX1-1, the former would see its tax bill hiked. That would likely cut cigarette sales. What horror!

The CNA wants to boot private insurers from the health-care system. Consider this. ABX1-1 limits insurers to spending no more than 15 cents of every premium dollar on administrative costs. Such costs were 28 percent of California’s projected health expenditures in 2003, reported Drs. David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler and Sidney Wolfe in the International Journal of Health Services.

Meanwhile, Kuehl’s SB 840 for a system of single-payer health care instead of the current system of multiple insurers is waiting to be heard in the Assembly appropriations committee. That process will begin this summer.

And, grass-roots support is building for a California constitutional ballot initiative in which voters can decide the fate of a single-payer health care measure this Nov. The California Health Security Plan is a single-payer system to provide every California resident with medical care: “no co-pays, no deductibles, and no premiums.”

And the Plan does specify a funding source: the state’s general fund and other sources like the federal treasury. To qualify the measure for the ballot, backers need 700,000 valid voter signatures. 

Visit http://www.CaliforniansforHealthSecurity.org for more information.

February 2008 – Interview with Venice Poet Frank T. Rios, Part 2

Part 2 (see January Beachhead for Part 1)

By Hillary Kaye

 

Beachhead: Is there anything else about Philomene Long you’d like to share?

Frankie: When she did The Beats, An Existentialist Comedy, I was involved in that. She was always a strange bird. She was outside the tip, even though she was with Stuart [Perkoff]. When he died she went to John [Thomas] …well I think that relationship was the best relationship she could have, they had this connection, she started to see that the poem, that thing where she came from having been a nun, like she was in revelation too. She had that experience. John was very knowledgeable and was dedicated like Stuart. And I think that’s where she got her voice. So that was really good. And we got very close because me and John were close, well John was like my poetry sponsor. I’d go down to Venice to their pad and we’d talk about poetry and I’d take my work. So it was important. And then when John died I got very tight with Philomene and we carried it on.  

Beachhead: So you stayed in contact.

Frankie: Oh yeah. We were supposed to do this reading & collage show at Sponto Gallery.

Beachhead: That never came about?

Frankie: Oh yeah it did. We were supposed to do it together, we were talking, you know Frankie there’s really no one that I’d like to read with but you. Yeah that’s a great idea. Me too, I’m reading with nobody. We could do a collage show too. I was working on these collages. I had some already because I previously did collage shows and readings. I had some left, but I did about forty others for this reading . That Tuesday we were supposed to meet for lunch and talk about what we were going to do and kind of finalize it and she died that day or that night. Too weird, too sad. I had called her the night before. Yeah, okay I’ll see you tomorrow.  So she must have died during that night or that morning.

Beachhead: Do you want to talk about your writing?

Frankie: Sure. How I go about writing a poem. It’s still the same way. Usually I have the line, the opening line. And I’m receiving it. If it don’t come all out, if I get stuck, it don’t work. I’m good enough where I could –

Beachhead: Fiddle with it.

Frankie: Yeah I could make it right, but it’s not satisfying, it’s not really the way it should be. Everything I write has to come out clean, as I receive it. If I follow it and it has to do with trust. But usually it’s the opening line, unless of course I’m on a blow then one poem follows the other, then I don’t have to think about the opening line, you know what I mean.

Beachhead: Yes I do. I saw that you were very moved at the memorial for Philomene the other night. Is that why you left?

Frankie: Yeah. I left for the other one too, for Tony. 

Beachhead: Yes I noticed 

Frankie: Can’t handle it.

Beachhead: I understand.

Frankie: Can’t handle it, there are too many of them, the next one I’m going to do is for me. Shit. Well you know how it is. You can’t really dictate that stuff.

Beachhead: Right. How is your health?

Frankie: Very good  Very good 

Beachhead : That’s great. 

Frankie: With this new kidney, very good.

Beachhead: How many books have you written?

Frankie: I’ve written eleven books.

Beachhead: Are these books available?

Frankie: Some, here’s how it goes. You write a book, you get the money to publish it. You publish your book and then you do the reading. And you sell a bunch of books and you get some of the money back. And the rest you just give them out or sell them here or there, and that’s the way we always did it

Beachhead: Right, right, the life of a poet.

Frankie: Yeah you know what I mean.

Beachhead: Do you think about your mortality?

Frankie: No

Beachhead: Do you think about your poetry being read?

Frankie: Well yeah my poetry is read. 

Beachhead: Yes I know. What I mean is do you think about it going on after you, and people still knowing who you are and wanting —

Frankie: Some will, some won’t. That’s the way it is. What did Tony say, “There won’t be no parade for us”. (Frankie laughs)  So it’s all about right now, it’s all about what you do now, every time the chance comes up I present it and usually I get a very good response whenever I do a reading.

Beachhead: I thought your reading was beautiful the other night.

Frankie: Yeah, and the one I did at Sponto Gallery, with the collage show reading was excellent. The place was packed. And the people just loved it. Man they just start taking the collages off the wall. Cause I sell them real cheap so people can buy them, you know $25.00, $50.00 for the big ones. So they just went nuts. It was really cool. Yeah good stuff. 

Beachhead: This is a funny question, if you don’t want to answer, please feel free not to. Were there things you liked better about yourself when you were on dope? And are there things not being on dope that you like better about yourself now ? I’m trying —

Frankie: Yeah I did everything right to get here. And I’ve done everything right to stay. I was good at it.

Beachhead: So you enjoyed your time being —

Frankie: Well it wasn’t about joy. That’s who you are, that’s it. I did the best I could.

Beachhead: Right, I see.

Frankie: When I look at my old notebooks, I see across the page, pain and black, all the images of my mind, leaked out, the angel, the death, the metamorphosis, pages and pages and then blop the poem falls out.

Beachhead: The poem falls out?

Frankie: Yeah a perfect poem on the page. 

Beachhead: Right, okay.

Frankie: Dig, cause that’s the way,  The Perfect Poem, but the insanity of the drugs you dig, the mind into the dark side, the drug- life, in truth, the Lady is pissed at me.

Beachhead: Because?

Frankie: Because I’m using drugs and I’m fogging the mirror, I’m fogging the window, I’ve forgotten the poem. I’m fogging the flow I’m trying to write the poem. See you don’t write the poem, you receive it. It’s like way different. So now when I look at my notebooks, every page is clean.

Beachhead: And that’s because why, because you’re clean now?

Frankie: Yeah, because I’m clean.

Beachhead: So it’s just coming out clean. 

Frankie: Yeah, I don’t have to change anything. Once in a while when you transfer it, type it,  you might see oh if I take this line out the leap would emphasize the next image really good. See with craft you make that choice because now I’m into craft, not the poem.

Beachhead: Now you’re into craft, not the poem? 

Frankie: Yeah.

Beachhead: How’s that possible when your into receiving it?

Frankie: Craft is after you receive the poem. 

Beachhead: I thought craft is like when you perfect something.

Frankie: That’s what I’m doing. That’s the craft. Exactly. So there’s little stuff, oh I want to break it here, or this is the form, I see that the form it was written in, and I didn’t complete that, it broke itself somehow, because it’s automatic, your hand goes and sometimes you break the poem where you shouldn’t, so you do that. Sometimes you take the word, oh I need to emphasize that one. So that kind of craft thing.

Beachhead: Are you sorry you don’t live in Venice?

Frankie: Yes, I wish I did. See when I was living in Venice on Cabrillo next to “The Temple of Man.” I loved it,  I was clean, and walking and writing. I love Venice.

Beachhead: Who started “The Temple of Man”?

Frankie: Bob Alexander.

Beachhead: And what was he like?

Frankie: He was a character, an original, an original cut. He was with all those guys, David Meltzer, George Herms, Altoon, Artie Richard, the San Francisco tip, the jazz clubs. Then he had this vision of the temple, Art is Love is God, which is Wally Berman’s sound. And for the sentient being, the free being, the one outside the society, because the whole concept of it fit me perfect cause I never worked, voted, paid taxes

or drove a car. Till only a few years ago, five years ago, something like that. Seven years ago. So that was the whole idea, not to be involved with the society, but only in the creative act.

Beachhead: So are you political now would you say?

Frankie: No I listen to it, but I only voted once for Bill Clinton because his brother was a recovering addict so I thought oh man maybe he’ll do something for us. I don’t think he ever did anything, but that’s why I voted, once so far. The whole thing about the political thing is it’s all big business. They control the whole thing. You know 5 % of the people own 95 % of the world, and 95% of the people own 5% of the world. And they got it controlled. And our government is selling everything to China and they’re selling America. Everything’s from China. You can’t find American products. So the middle class is out and there’s going to be rich and poor, and that’s how they want it, and they control the whole thing.

Beachhead: I know. It’s horrible.

Frankie: Terrible.

Beachhead: Fascism.

Frankie: Yeah, America is going to be gone.

Beachhead: America is gone.

Frankie: Almost. There’s still pockets.

Beachhead: Do you ever think of leaving the country?

Frankie: No.

Beachhead: You’re here for the ride.

Frankie: Oh yeah. I only got ten or fifteen left. Eighty seven I’m probably out, Think I’m going to become independent or free.

Beachhead: Is there anything you’d like to cover in this article that I haven’t asked about?

Frankie: Well just the importance of Stuart Perkoff, Tony Scibella, Jimmy Morris, John Thomas, Philomene Long who kind of carried the torch there. Just the idea that she was present. And I just hope that that’s part of history, stays part of the history.

Beachhead: I’d like to get the library in Venice to carry all of the Venice West poets’ books. You go to the Venice library and there’s nothing there. I think it’s a disgrace that they aren’t there. Maybe there could be some kind of grant to do this or have something done.

Frankie: Well I’d like the history to be remembered whenever anything is happening they would be able to come up. Like being put in a library and that kind of stuff. I think we have a lot of the art work we’ve done through the years at UCLA. I think so. It’s always been a problem. We always talked about it. Larry Lake —

Beachhead: That’s so funny, I knew Larry Lake so many years ago. In fact Larry Lake and I did a poetry reading together twenty five years ago. Maybe twenty eight years ago now that I think about it. Is he still alive?

Frankie: No

Beachhead: What happened to him? 

Frankie: He stepped out of the tub and died of a heart attack. 

Beachhead: Where was he living?

Frankie: Denver. Now his kid, I just talked to him yesterday, he was going back to Denver for the holidays, he’ll be back the beginning of the year. He has the trunkload full of original copies of our work.

Beachhead: Of art work?

Frankie: Of all the poetry we’ve done through the years. Of course Marsha Getzler has the stash and I have some of it. But he has the original copies, untouched.

Beachhead: So what’s going to be done with them?

Frankie: He’s a writer, he loves poetry. He read at Tony’s thing, he’s good. He’s with us.

Beachhead: What’s his name?

Frankie: Yama Lake

Beachhead: I notice you have a book of Diane Di Prima? Did you know her? 

Frankie: Yeah she’s a heavyweight,  She’s done some great stuff. I was never that tight with her. Tony was tight with her. She loved Tony, they all loved Tony. All the girls loved Tony. 

Beachhead: Did the girls love Stuart?

Frankie: Yeah, they all loved Stuart too. I mean they loved me too, but different. I was more reserved. I was always looking for love.

Beachhead: So Diane Di Prima was crazy about Tony?

Frankie: Oh I’m sure they did it together, but they weren’t lovers or anything like that. Called free love.

Beachhead: Yeah that was going on at the time.

Frankie: Yeah I was in prison all those years anyway. From 61 to 68. 

Beachhead: You were in prison that long?

Frankie: Yeah, probably did about —

Beachhead: Where were you in prison?

Frankie: Federal joint. Terminal Island.

Beachhead: How did you handle your time?

Frankie: Oh I did good time.

Beachhead: What does that mean?

Frankie: It means I knew how to do time. I probably did eleven years all together.

Beachhead: So when you said you did good time you mean you read….

Frankie: Yeah read, wrote. I had a good tip, a good job, I knew how to jail.

Beachhead: And what gave you that kind of —

Frankie: Experience.

Beachhead: To be able to handle it in that kind of way.

Frankie: Going to jail. I’m a guy, stand up and all that. I got all the history, I got the credentials.

Beachhead: Right. But somebody can do time and go insane, and somebody can do time and really use it as a period of real growth and learning. You can do time in a lot of different ways.

Frankie: That’s right. Like when Stuart came he didn’t know how to do time.

Beachhead: So he was really suffering.

Frankie: Yeah when I got there I just took him under my wing and brought him into the tip and everything changed.

Beachhead: So you guys were there together?

Frankie: Yeah we walked the yard together for a long time.

Beachhead: That’s incredible.

Frankie: Yeah it was great. We had conversations that were unbelievable about poetry and the Lady Muse, what to read and all that stuff.

Yeah we had a nice trip. That was a good time.

Beachhead: Because you could really focus.

Frankie: Yeah there are people that really dig each other, and we guard each other’s backs. When it’s a Federal joint it’s a lot easier than if it’s a State. There aren’t too many gunsels. Guys that are trying to make a reputation. Everybody in a Federal joint got a heavy beef. And you know they were older and they were there just to do their time.

Beachhead: Where can people get your poetry? 

Frankie: You want to take some things to Beyond Baroque?

Beachhead: I’d be happy to do that.

February 2008 – Swami X Speaks

By X Swami X

If everyone realized that they are creating their own lives with their every thought and feeling, that the life they are goes on forever and that their essential nature is creative ecstasy, no one would be watching television.

What is man (embracing woman) anyway? Man is conscious intelligence, imaginative will and creative compassion, regardless of how momentarily limited, misdirected and/or myopic he may be. That soul of intelligence, will and love will inevitably merge in Consciousness Existence, Bliss Absolute, aka God or OWow.   

If people really understood that “ye reap what ye sow,’ perhaps they wouldn’t be kicking and robbing each other, or being mesmerized by television. Is reincarnation that difficult to grasp and accept, or has religious dogma contagioned what’s left of society with rabies in their belief systems?

The idea that keeps occurring to me, in spite of being distracted by those men in uniform who keep insisting that I purchase reams of tickets to the Policeman Ball, or go to jail on trumped up charges of jay walking, is that all I really have access to is in this moment and that I would be wise to utilize it for its ultimate potential of self-realization. 

My heart goes out to those without a clue, nevertheless, I am still reluctant to open the door for Harry Krishmans, Jehovah Witnesses and Klansman.

I just realized I have not yet made a sexual reference, joke, observation, fantasy, wish or prediction. Fortunately, it is not too late.

I predict sex will become more popular with ages between 12 and 16, news commentators will perform naked to prove they have nothing to hide and Hillary will streak around the White House, if elected, and maybe, even if not elected.