THE FREE VENICE BEACHHEAD Today - 35 years of the Free Venice
Beachhead
By Jim
Smith
During the 1990s, many of the
Venice organizations declined in activity, or stopped functioning altogether.
This included the Beachhead, Peace & Freedom Party and the Venice Town
Council.
Issues of the Beachhead became more and
more sporadic in the early 90s. Issue #252 finally appeared in August, 1994,
nine months after Issue #251. Many more months went by and Venetians, who
thought about it, probably assumed that the Beachhead had breathed its last.
This was a sad thought for many, and a cause for celebration for others.
Then one day in June of last year,
John Haag, Carol Fondiller, Yolanda Miranda and I had dinner. Someone said,
“Wouldn’t it be nice if the Beachhead was still going!” And
someone responded, “Yeah, why
not?”
Some of the usual suspects were
gathered together, including veterans of former Beachhead Collectives, Chuck
Bloomquist and Carol Fondiller, as well as new collectivists Mimi Bogale, Sherry
Chovan, Vessy Mink, Yolanda Miranda, Calvin Moss, Alice Stek, Suzy Williams, and
me.
An 8-page Issue #253, dedicated to
the late Rick Davidson, rolled off the presses in July 2002. That was the first
of 18 consecutive issues of the 21st Century. That’s not a record for
consistency, but it’s pretty good considering we have no visible means of
support.
It’s a mad scramble
every month to come up with enough cash to pay our printer (everyone else works
for free). We have some advertisements from local merchants (who you should
patronize, and tell them you saw their ad in the Beachhead), but no one on the
collective is very good at going out and selling ads. We’ve started a
sustainer program (which you can join for $100 a year). These are the people who
really care about the Beachhead, part of that endangered species called the
alternative press.
Even though the new
Beachhead is put together on computers, we try to keep the “look and
feel” that has made the paper distinctive for the past 35 years. We also
hope we’re true to the spirit of the old Beachheads. As Carol says, we try
to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted. The Beachhead looks at
the world through that odd sensibility called Venice. If there is any such thing
as a distinctive Venice culture, you’ll find it in this
newspaper.
While some of the old
Beachheads dabbled in color from time to time, we went one step further
beginning last February (Issue #260), when we started using full color on four
pages. Yes, we know this makes our monthly scramble for money more difficult,
but Venice is a colorful place. There were too many works of art and photos that
we only could properly portray in living color. Some purists were aghast, but
most readers said they liked it.
Will
there be another 35 years for the Beachhead? Will you be part of the Beachhead
Collective somewhere down the road? Will the Beachhead sell out, as we joked in
our April Fools edition (issue
#262)?
If we don’t get more
merchants to advertise, and we don’t get more sustainers, and we
don’t get more of you to come to our great fundraisers, the Beachhead may
have to stop coming out each and every month. On the other hand, if we can get
several pages of ads every month, or some magnificent donations, we might be
able to come out more often, say every two weeks like the founders envisioned
back in 1968. It’s up to you Venice.
Posted: Mon - December
1, 2003 at 03:31 PM