By Bill Mohr Frank T. Rios, a poet who joined the Venice West poetry scene in the late 1950s and remained one of its most loyal advocates, died early this morning, at age 82, according to his friend, the poet S.A. Griffin. Rios was born in New York and grew up there; he moved to...
by Jim Smith Phil Melnick, one of the founding staff of the Free Venice Beachhead, died Feb. 4 of lung cancer, just months short of the 50th anniversary of the paper. Phil was a 19-years-old college student when he connected with John and Anna Haag, Rick Davidson and the rest of the Free Venice crew...
Community activist Roxanne P. Brown died on Jan. 10 at her home in the Beverlywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was 62. Roxanne is survived by Marc Spigelman and her cherished family: her brother Bruce (Pam) Brown; her nieces Holly (Tim) Oten, Rachel (Tim) Mitrovich and Bonnie (Josh) Judson; grand-nieces Violet, Leah, Camilla, Cora, Adeline...
Moe Stavnezer was a tireless fighter for a Venice which is now gone but not yet forgotten. It was a Venice which was a counter cultural mecca, a community of small individual two story or 24 foot high homes and duplexes, of homeowners with small incomes, working stiffs, professionals and students who voted Democrat...
by Krista Schwimmer – Photos by Krista Schwimmer and Jake Sarfaty On Sunday, January 17th, over one hundred family members, friends, and neighbors gathered at the Venice Pier for a paddle out to celebrate Carter Riley Irwin, and show support for his mother, Mikal Sky, both well-known and well-loved local Venetians. Carter tragically took his...
By Ken Haas Evans Haas, a salty character on the Venice Beach scene, passed away at the age of 83 on March 16. Born in Manhattan and raised in Culver City, Evans spent most of his life in Venice, so much so that he became known as the King (or Mayor –depends on who you...
By Sam Abbes “Lives do not have plots, for the most part they accumulate events, day by day like a stack of old newspapers. But sometimes someone glimpses a fixed point in the flux of things, a hard certainty around which the rest of life turns like the pages of a good novel.” – Phillip...
Harry Drinkwater was my friend and part of my life for almost 40 years. He was a total inspiration to me because he knew how to live his life to the fullest. He remained young at heart and was dancing and partying with friends into his nineties. He always had a reason to get up in the morning because...
Sunshine Baker was run over by a car while bike riding on South Venice Blvd., just East of Speedway. She was 39 years old. The tragic accident happened at 5:10pm on November 27, Thanksgiving day. The car was making a left turn from Speedway onto S. Venice and Sunshine was riding against traffic. It was...
