ETCETERA NIGHTCAP Where Is The Art? By Harry Kirsbaum 'd like to apologize to the tech startup wizards up front and hope that what I write in this month's column isn't taken the wrong way, and you won't seek revenge by mak- ing my smart phone and computer unusable. You're only a microcosm of the problem at hand, and I'm using your takeover of Venice Beach, Calif., as a prime example. For you have discovered Venice Beach — once home to artists and actors, muscleheads and gang mem- bers — and turned it into a rich mess now referred to as Silicon Beach. I watched a riveting story about it on PBS News Hour recently (http:// tinyurl.com/oren473). So forgive me Juan Bruce, co- founder of EpoxyTV, who showed off his work loft, and said,"Venice has always been like kind of an experi- mental and artistic community. And so startups pretty much fit perfectly in that kind of ethos" Sorry, but startups like yours that I • market YouTube channels to other platforms for a fee is just pure promo- tion. And they don't fit "perfectly" into an artistic community when artists like Laddie John Dill are forced to move. Laddie, who once owned the Frank Geary building that your company now occupies, had rented that space since 1968, until the rent increased to $42,000 per month. One of Laddie's most expensive pieces of artwork is an untitled origi- nal painting, and ironically, an oil on epoxy bas relief on mahogany that sells for $6,500, or a little more than four-and-a-half days of rent. When I think of an artist colony, I think of an area filled with artists and paintings and sculptures and galler- ies. I don't think of Google employees, or"ennployees" of Panjo, a market- place for enthusiasts of all types who can buy anything they want, or Snapchat employees who take up an entire block in Venice, so people can take and send "private" photos or videos from – their cell phones that will self-destruct after 10 seconds, unless of course they don't, and then they're off the hook. (Just read their terms and conditions.) So Mr. Bruce, you currently lease a property that also was part of Dennis Hopper's studio. That doesn't make you or your employees artists. You don't create anything except buzz. Promoting anything on YouTube, whose most subscribed channel is a Swedish 25-year-old video game commentator who calls himself PewDiePie, isn't art either. And the thought of 19 million subscribers watching someone else play video games makes me, well, nauseated. Are those 19 million just too tired to use the joystick themselves? And to Tami Pardee, the Venice Beach real estate broker who said,"It's really creative, the technology sector, and Venice is known for its creativity in the art — in the whole art world in the past, so it's actually a great meshing of cultures. There's been a little — as we have talked about, little gentrification issues going — you know, not issues, but gentrification going on, I would say. And that's — it's difficult." Sorry Ms. Pardee, there's no "mesh- ing" if the current residents are forced out. And "gentrification" is when a Whole Foods comes into a rundown area of a city, followed by a Starbucks on every corner. There has to be a better term for property values that rise 20 percent a year, forcing out even the middle class who have lived there for de- cades. And there has to be a better term for what will happen when these new tech royals grow tired of beaches. It's a term we've heard before. It's called a "bubble" waken Me eiauty Now Taking Reservations! Regular menu available or indulge with this special three-course menu by chef Adam Galloway (choose one from each course) I $70 Per Person 1st COURSE EST MAPLE PLASTIC SURGERY Specializing in Cosmetic Surgery & Aesthetic & Reconstructive Breast Surgery DANIEL SHERBERT, M.D. FAGS Certified by The American Board of Surgery, The American Board of Plastic Surgery & Fellowship Trained in Aesthetic & Reconstructive Breast Surgery (248) 865-6400 5807 W. Maple • Suite 177 • West Bloomfield • Crispy Maple Glazed Pork Belly • Winter White Salad • Lobster Bisque MAIN COURSE • Three little birds: duck sausage, stuffed quail and chicken ballottine • Fillet of beef with black truffle butter • Barley risotto with ch a ntere lles • Butter poached lobster tail and porcini dusted scallops DESSERT COURSE • Chocolate sphere • Blood orange panna cotta • Cheese course with apple cider shortbread TheBirdAndTheBread.com 248.203.6600 Mention this Ad for $10 off Early Seating or Complimentary Moet Champagne Toast for Late Seatings. Regular Menu Available. 210 S. Old Woodward Birmingham MI 48009 1947220 30 January 2015 I RED THREAD