An Ode From Our Neighbor


by Paul Tanck

This past month, David Asper Johnson passed away. He was the creator, editor and all-around soul of Marina del Rey’s weekly newspaper, The Argonaut.


No matter what you feel about the Marina - I remember the days of seeing t-shirts that read “Venice is not Marina del Rey!” - it stands to be told that the Argonaut through its years was also the unofficial newspaper of Venice. And those folks south of Washington Street faithfully reported on the crazy goings-on of their older neighbor to the north.

I’ve read the many tributes to Mr. Johnson, and he seems like a right square guy to me. When he made up his mind, that’s where he stood, and he backed it up in his weekly column ‘Snoopin’ around.”

I recently came across one of those columns from April of 1978, written about the April 1978 issue of The Free Venice Beachhead, then celebrating its 100th issue.

It’s a bit of time travel to reread about this publication back then, but I was amazed at how true some of Mr. Johnson’s assessments about Venice were, and still are.

Here’s a reprint of that column:

Beachhead reaches 100th
by David Asper Johnson
April 6, 1978

Abut the time the Marina was getting its feet wet, to the north there was all sorts of turmoil.
Venice was going through another “phase.”

The late 60’s and the early 70’s were violent times for our neighbor to the north, which has seen considerable change in its day.

If you want to know what it was like living in Venice during the past ten years try to find a copy of The Free Venice Beachhead, out this week.

We say “try” because this month’s Beachhead is a special issue, the 100th, and it’s a gem.

The issue will probably become a collector’s item and be grabbed up in a hurry by all who want a first-hand look at the Venice transition.

The fact The Beachhead reached its 100th issue is newsworthy in itself.

The paper has not missed an issue since it started its monthly frequency back in 1968.

The more remarkable since the paper is put together by a “collective.”

No one is paid for the writing, the ad gathering, the production and the distribution.
The paper has had its ups and downs.

But, the current issue could possibly be the best Beachhead, made more interesting for “outsiders” by the personal reflections of the past ten years.

“The Free Venice Beachhead. My funny Valentine. Your columns not so straight. Shakey grammar. Earnest, pompous, sincere, mistaken, precise, and homey.”

Staff member Carol Fondiller captures the essence of it and seems shocked herself that the Beachhead reached 100.

“Who’d uv thunk it.”

A newspaper is at its best when it reflects the community it serves.

The Beachhead was born during the Vietnam war and it offered a printed expression of the frustration the war created among Venice residents.

The Beachhead founders were more than reporters. They created the news they reported - a condition that would be abhorred by today’s ivory tower press critics, who demand an isolation of reporters from involvement in the stories they report.

Venice has had a history of involvement. When my aunt moved to the Venice beach in the late 30’s, the area was already a violent place to live, work and play.

“Venice in those days had more crime than any place in the country,” she would tell us. There were lots of different lifestyles and a stimulation that brought residents who were willing to drive for miles just to live at the Venice Beach.

In later years the Beats came. And then the hippies and the war and the Peace and Freedom Party.

This week’s Beachhead presents a first-hand report from the folks who lived it and created it.

Names like John Haag, Rick Davidson and wife Marge Buckley and Bob Wells.

“Rick Davidson ran for City Council that year…”

“In 1974 the Venice Peace and Freedom Party candidate for governor was Elizabeth Keathley, a Venice resident…”

“Marge Buckley, who ran for attorney general, got the highest number of votes of a PFP candidates on the ballot, and I ran for lieutenant governor.”
Doers indeed.

Venice in those days was not everyone’s cup of tea. But, looking back this week through the safety of time, the Beachhead’s 100th issue give us an idea of what grass roots involvement is all about.

Time mellows out the inconveniences of the moment, but you can’t help but admire what Terry Bloomquist went through to get a seat on the first Venice Town Council.

And while you may not want to have lived in the Carlton Apartments as did Ed Sievers, his report in this month’s Beachhead indicates living at the poverty level is not completely devoid of fun.

“I’m still living in the same place - the Carlton Apartments. A very strange building. It’s not actually in Venice, it’s right on the edge of Santa Monica in the old Ocean Park, across from the Oar House,” Sievers writes.

“It’s a building mainly of old folks, a lot of alcoholics, a lot of lonely people. I call them trolls - old folks who really don’t leave their apartments much anymore.”

But there were what Sievers calls “some very positive things” that happened in the neighborhood.
The One Life Family moved in three or four years ago and changed the corner.

“They had a little restaurant and they didn’t charge regular prices,” Sievers tell us.

“You would just donate what you thought was a fair reimbursement.

“Well, the obvious thing happened: all the street people would go in and eat a huge meal and leave a quarter.”

Sigh. Such are the problems of the businessman in Venice.
There are as many different interpretations of Venice as writers in this month’s Beachhead.
Sievers sees Venice as “a zoo.”

“People have always come to Venice like it’s a zoo, just to see animal life,” he writes.
“And the Venice people are very obliging. They do love to put on a show. Where else do you get this wonderful act that Ralph does, of being very very drunk and stumbling over trashcans?”
Sievers thinks Venice is “a place for people who’ve not grown up.”

Remaining a child is not easy because of all the pressures of society, he tells us.

“You’re supposed to be a responsible citizen. But really what makes ‘em angry is: if you don’t grow up you’re not a consumer, and that’s what keeps our society going.”

Venice ten years ago was supposed to be a stimulating place for those dropping out into a creative environment where they could express themselves, and so is Venice today supposed to be that.
But not everyone in Venice is part of that creative environment, Gary Gardner tells us in the current Beachhead.

“Venice is where the debris meets the sea,” he writes.

“This is where artists don’t paint, models don’t model, poets don’t poet, musicians don’t make music. You know, it’s kind of stagnant in a way, artistically, the last few years.”

So here’s to you, David Asper Johnson, in your validation of Venice, and the rightful ways of this sister publication, the Beachhead. May you rest in a groovy peace.

Posted: Sat - July 1, 2006 at 08:06 AM          

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