This might interest punk readers, or not. I can never tell.
I just got back from Venice Beach. We drove out to the coast for a five-night off-season beach getaway. Our rental apartment was 100 feet from the sand. Very few sunbathers were in the water. I jumped into the cold Pacific for a five-minute swim just so I could say I did it. It had been nine years since my last visit in 2017.
If you're in Phoenix, the nearest beach is Santa Monica at the end of Interstate 10. We drove home today in 6 1/2 hours. The drive to LA, arriving mid-day Wednesday, took almost 8 hours. I've made that drive many times.
In 2003, on my first trip to CA, I took my teenage sons to see the Red Sox play the Angels in a weekend series. Venice Beach was #1 on my list of touristy places to see. We did the Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood, Mulholland Drive, and three MLB games on that trip.
Over the next ten years, between Red Sox road trips and my youngest attending UCLA for five years in Westwood, we vacationed in LA more than a dozen times, usually staying in Venice hotels, condos, VRBOs, whatever we could find, and never in the same place twice. We visited twice a year for five years.
After my son left California in 2013, our only LA trip was in 2017, for his wedding in Malibu. My recently deceased brother flew out for the celebration. I told Glen, "If you see one place in LA, it must be Venice Beach."
So many places we enjoyed years ago are gone, some lost during the pandemic, but the truth his, Venice always has a lot of turnover. Old hip restaurants and shops are replaced by new trendy businesses catering to tourists and day trippers. This week, I viewed Venice through a different lens.
For the first time, I was in town looking at the beach scene for inspiration. I specifically sought businesses and buildings that have survived the decades, so I can use them as real-life locations for future scenes and storylines as Joe's life after marriage becomes more localized, closer to home, starting a family and running his businesses.
The next two books in Joe's journey are mostly in Venice. White Wedding has chapters set away from California, like the wedding and honeymoon, but it's largely a Venice tale. The book after WW will be very close to the beach. I'm ten chapters into that writing, and this holiday gave me a lot of material to work with.
The best thing was finding the locations I needed for a specific business plan Joe has for his future. Standing in a cool, very unique bar, I knew I had found my real-but-fictional bar, in business since 1986, owned by one person. They have a killer breakfast.
I have created places in my Venice fiction that don't actually exist, like The Surfside Lounge. Standing on Washington Blvd, a short walk from the fishing pier, the building I describe in the Venice Scene wouldn't even fit the block; the lots aren't deep enough. (shrugs)
On the other hand, Joe's home, studio, and the Daily Grind at Abbott Kinney and California Ave are set there because of the alley and rear parking. I had been there before, but I had to find it on Google Maps. Joe's building has more storefronts than the real building, but that lot is otherwise accurate.
Now I have genuine, long-standing Venice businesses I dined and drank in, shopped in, and scoped out for my future close-to-real-fictional needs. I did some Google research on historical buildings and will work with that information, adding to the old memories that inspired me to set Joe's life in Venice in the first place.
I could create a dozen new characters based on real people I encountered this week. A few stand out, like the gold-toothed Brit who sold me a T-shirt. Nigel has been in a few scrapes in his life. His nose told the tale. We chatted as he ironed the California state flag on a black T-shirt for me. He's an old West Ham hooligan from East London.
My partner and I had dinner at the Continental Riot House Restaurant and Bar on the Sunset Strip, then walked next door for a show at the Comedy Store. Uber across LA on a Friday, $$$. That was our only night on the town.
We walked out to the pier at sunset with an open container in brown paper, no joint, a vape pen. It's not 1998. As we were leaving, LAPD bike patrol arrived, just like fiction. They eyeballed the young people. We, old folks, fly totally under the cop radar.
White Wedding will come out in May.
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