Old Fart's Venice

My Father’s Pictures

As enamored of the arts as I was when I was a teenager, like most of same, I sought the things I was interested in outside the home. It’s too bad, because I missed out on what should have been more of a source of inspiration to me. Ken O’Brien, my dad.

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Old Fart's Venice

The Venice Painters

When I was twelve or thirteen, a young couple moved in across the street. They were Max Hendler and Arlene Goldberg, and they were part of a loose group of painters who lived and worked in Venice during the sixties.

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Old Fart's Venice

Claire Horner

I met a lot of peculiar and interesting people at Venice West Café — none more interesting (or more peculiar) than poet Claire Horner. He read at VWC alongside people like Bukowski and Taylor Meade, and peddled mimeographed “books” of his poetry with names like “Please don’t step on the Bacon”.

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Old Fart's Venice

The Venice West Cafe

In 1965, when I was fifteen, I started hanging around the Venice West Cafe, a dank little hole in the wall with wooden benches and tables. Of course they served espresso. And the place was always full of (to me at that age) coolly romantic hipsters, complete with shades, turtlenecks — yeah, even berets.

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McCain and Paris Hilton caught together in video

VENICE, CA — On the same day presidential hopeful John McCain likened his opponent Barak Obama to celebutant Paris Hilton, Dogtownink.com received this video (CLICK “READ ON” BELOW TO VIEW) of John McCain and Paris Hilton cavorting together, enjoying the benefits of the same Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that McCain has vowed to extend.

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Art tour canceled after David grows morbidly Goliath

VENICE, CA — David, the subject of Michelangelo’s world-renowned sculpture, may have slain Goliath back in the BC, but after a few short months on a whirlwind American art tour, he’s succumbed to a more powerful foe: double-meat double-cheese with curly fries.

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“Nature’s Viagra” watermelon placed on endangered list after Marina Del Rey riots

MARINA DEL REY, CA — The Environmental Protection Agency today placed watermelon on the endangered species list after reports that the fleshy fruit is nature’s Viagra sparked hoarding and riots in Marina Del Rey, Calif, home to the world’s largest concentration of aging horn dogs.

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Reward offered for Obama’s stolen ‘fro

VENICE, CA — Candidate Barak Obama’s afro was stolen here today in a sign that the 2008 presidential campaign has grown increasingly hairy–after its recent lipsticky phase. “You may boost a brother’s do-rag,” said Obama supporter, 50 Cent. “You do not steal his ‘fro.”

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Underground Diaries

Feeling the heat? Go Bollywood!

Next time you find yourself with a gun to your head, a suggestion: Slap on an outrageous grin and bust your best moves through undulating bolts of colorful fabric and a phalanx of bhangra-ing backup dancers. If you know anything at all about Bollywood movies, you’ll know it works every time.

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Underground Diaries

It’s a Bollywood World After All

For Iram Parveen Bilal, a USC grad student and self-professed Bollywood nut, this was the last chance to join the school’s Anjaane Hindi film dance team before receiving her degree. The lone Islamic member of the team — she’s from Islamabad, Pakistan — Iram took full advantage…with a couple of costume alterations.

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Underground Diaries

Smile Hard: How to win a Bollywood dance-off

Participants in Bollywood film dance troupe competitions are nothing if not serious about winning… Didrik and I studied the oeuvre extensively and came up with this plan for world domination. Watch and learn.

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