Digital Ink Los Angeles

New Orleans is a great city, and they have an up and coming film festival to boot.

One of Digital Ink Los Angeles‘s favorite single-screen theaters in the country — The Prytania Theatre — is hosting a few screenings this year. Well worth a visit.

In particular, the Make Out With Violence screening on Monday, Oct 12th, at 9:45PM at the Prytania Theatre should be good.

Make a date with a New Orleans cultural gem, the NOFF, from Thursday, October 8th through Thursday, October 15th.

In the words of Louis Armstrong, “What we play is life.” And films are life. Get out and enjoy.

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For most L.A. Westsiders, the 25th Annual Abbot Kinney Festival happening this weekend in Venice, California, is like a little New Orleans Mardi Gras mixed with Austin’s South-by-Southwest Music Festival.

Abbot Kinney was a visionary and a conservationist, but he was also a businessman. More than likely he would be proud of the current gentrified state of affairs on the street named after him — Abbot Kinney Boulevard.

Abbot Kinney’s dream of a “Venice USA” beach recreation development opened on July 4, 1905.

Though Abbot Kinney tried to create a bohemian mecca for arts and culture, the residents were more inclined for social parlors and sports activities. Even with some of the most astute lecturers and performers of this era providing a cultural beacon, Kinney’s artistic endeavor was a financial loser.

According to Westland.net, “By December 1905, Kinney knew his dream of creating a great cultural Mecca had failed and, ever the astute businessman, he turned his attention to accommodating the wishes of the public. The character of Venice succumbed to the beach goers and summer holiday guests who frequented the community’s many amusement attractions and Venice came to be known as the ‘Coney Island of the Pacific.’”

“By mid-January 1906, an area was built along the edge of the Grand Lagoon that was patterned after the amusement thoroughfares of the great 19th and 20th century expositions. It featured foreign exhibits, amusements, and freak shows. Trolley service was available from downtown and nearby Santa Monica.”

“Visitors were dazzled by the system of canals complete with gondolas and gondoliers brought in from Venice, Italy. There were ornate Venetian-style businesses and a full sized amusement pier. Around the entire park was a miniature steam railroad along a 2 1/2 mile track. Kinney and some of the nearby residents were aghast at some of the low-class shows that Venice began to offer, but it was considered the best congregation of amusement devices on the Pacific Coast, and it made a handsome profit.“

Eventually Kinney gained control of city politics and had the name changed from Ocean Park to Venice in 1911.

Today, Abbot Kinney Boulevard has replaced the beach boardwalk as the center of arts and culture in this seaside community. The 25th Annual Abbot Kinney Festival is a celebration of the man from New Jersey and his dream for a Utopian arts and culture mecca.

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They came in droves, by the carload, on foot, on bikes, toting babies and blankets, some without anything but the shorts and shorts they were wearing — some with less.

In the end, nearly 400,000 people showed up to enjoy acts like The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.

August 15, 16, and 17, 1969 — forty years ago last week.

The New York Times has an interesting article on the recent 40th Anniversary celebration in Bethel Woods, NY.

Music channel VH1 recently showed a “rock-doc” for the 40th Anniversary.

The BBC has an interesting audio slide-show documenting some of the sights and sounds.

The Digital Ink Los Angeles pick for Woodstock nostalgia would be this YouTube copy of Joe Cocker‘s now-famous version of “With a Little Help from My Friends”. Par Excellence.

Way before Coachella or this weekend’s Electric Daisy Carnival, there was the infamous ’69 Newport Festival. The three-day event was held at the old Devonshire Downs municipal park and raceway, near the site of the current Cal State Northridge campus. Despite rousing performances by legends like Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, John Fogerty, Jimi Hendrix, and Grace Slick, the concert was a poorly planned disaster.

An excerpt from some reports — and preserved on bootleg copies of the concert’s sounds — has Jimi Hendrix so dismayed and angered with the lack of meaningful fan interaction and the pseudo-hippie, poseur crowd that before going into “Voodoo Child,” he shouts, “This is a black militant song and don’t you ever forget it!” That’s not too uplifting.

Historian Jim A. Beardsley writes a retrospective article in the blog LA Observed that goes into the details of the weekend’s debacle. One particular excerpt was quite entertaining and can be summed as an accurate observation of what kind of fools generally create madness and mayhem:

“Texaco service station proprietor Jack Cunningham was compelled to close his business after the restrooms had been trashed, the gas pumps had been vandalized, and some tools and a cigarette machine were stolen. His take on the scene included the following perspective: ‘I had the Hell’s Angels, Satan’s Slaves, and War Lords in here [before]… They might have looked dirty but they cleaned up after themselves and threw their trash in the receptacles. The hippies were neat, too, but it was the kids from the well-to-do families who were the ones who tore up the place, as far as I’m concerned.’ Once again, the lines between the mainstream and the counter-culture had been blurred as the chaotic nature of Newport ’69 kicked into gear.”

Forty years ago this weekend — Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll! — or something.

Beautiful day.

Nice setting.

World-renowned writers.

Cool books.

You can view their web site here:  LA Times Festival of Books!