The beatniks used to joke that the goats came from Eden Ahbez, who was still near enough in vicinity that people at the coffee houses knew his lesser known songs by heart. They wouldn't sing "Nature Boy" the song Nat Cole made famous, but another one Eden had written for his wife, "Anna Was Mine". Later, a guy I knew from Pomona when he was starting out (Arthur) had moved to Los Angeles and actually lived near Eden in the hills and went and took photographs of his music group near the Gong. I'd see Arthur once in a very great while in Venice when I was there.

And when I tried to describe the weird foreign accent I'd overheard and was laughing about the cirsumstances of it all and wondered who it was, somebody teased me and shouted, "Akim Tamiroff" as Akim had been in this old movie shot in Venice and apparently he was still hanging around the area a bit, maybe he'd made a friend or listened to jazz, or maybe he liked having a cup of coffee by the beach, who knows.

Labels: Venice as it was

  ¶ 12/31/2010 08:53:00 PM