September 27, 2002
My friend Joke Vroegop asked me to share the following with all of you:

So there you go.  Go check out Harma's pictures of Venice, and while you're there, be sure and purchase a baby mermaid figurine handcrafted by my lovely wife.


September 22, 2002
Venice has added a show to their tour.  October 27, at Het Arsenaal in Vlissingen.  See the Tour Dates page for more details.


September 21, 2002 - Update
Steven Radice has drawn two new illustrations:  "For A Kiss" and "Welcome To the Rest of Your Life."  My brother Aaron got a little creative with his shadow work on the second one.  Too cool.  Thanks to both.


September 21, 2002
Venice will perform a show in the discotheque Locomotion in Zoetermeer on October 11th.  This will not be a normal Venice set, because it's the closing ceremony of Radio 2's "Seventies Week."  So Venice will be performing nothing but 70's songs.  (Not just Eagles and CSN, the way Radio 2's webpage says, but a large selection of 70s music, mostly pulled from the Pine Mountain Logs reserves.)  This show will be broadcast live over the internet, so worldwide fans can listen in.  More information is here, but if you can't read Dutch, I recommend keeping an eye on Venice Talk, where I'm certain that helpful Dutch fans will fill in the details of exact showtime, etc.


September 18, 2002
Looks like that Hoorn concert will be on the 10th after all.  Printed tickets that say "October 20" will be honored.  All dates are now posted on the Tour Dates page.


September 16, 2002
Okay, I've now spent close to 15 hours barely moving from this spot, but it's all worth it, because V.V.T.G. 2002 has now officially been integrated into Venice Central, adding almost two hours of additional Lennon commentary to this webpage.  A good chunk of it is on the "Welcome To the Rest of Your Life" audio clips page.  Click on the top spinning box first, and then once that ends, go down and, one at a time, click on every box that you see.  As for the rest of the new entries, you're going to have to find them on your own.  Though I can tell you that 75% of them are on the audio and video clips pages.  Happy hunting!

"What is V.V.T.G.?" I hear some of you thinking.  (That's how plugged in I am after 15 hours.  I can hear your thoughts through my computer, days before you actually think it.)  Well, click here for an explanation.

Thanks to everyone who sent the Holland venue information I requested.  I'll get those posted as soon as we figure out a possible miscommunication between the promoter, the ticket agency, and the band.  (The show in Hoorn might be on the 10th, or it might be on the 20th.  Out here on this side of the world, we're just not really sure.  I'll let you know as soon as I get a definitive answer, which should be soon.)

In the meantime, I must sleep.  I'll talk to you again in a month, when I wake up.


September 13, 2002
The tour dates for Venice's upcoming Holland tour are now official.  If someone could please e-mail me these venues' addresses, phone numbers, and webpage URLs, I would greatly appreciate it!

Wednesday, October 9 - Eindhoven-Effenaar
Thursday, October 10 - Hoorn-Manifesto
Sunday, October 13 - Utrecht-Tivoli
Tuesday, October 15 - Groningen-Oosterpoort (klz)
Wednesday, October 16 - Tilburg-013
Saturday, October 19 - Leeuwarden-Stadsschouwburg De Harmonie
Monday, October 21 - Amsterdam-Paradiso
Tuesday, October 22 - Rotterdam-Nighttown
Wednesday, October 23 - Enschede-Vrijhof
Friday, October 25 - Geleen-Hanehof


September 11, 2002
Mark Lennon has donated a song that he recorded on his own, "I Will Always Remember Katrina."  The composition, along with Mark's deeply personal story behind it, can be found here.

In other news, VVTG is coming...  Uh, again...  So, you know, just, uh, go about your business and we'll be with you shortly....................


September 9, 2002 - Update
Venice's new album, "Welcome To the Rest of Your Life," debuted on the Holland album charts this week at #14!  Congratulations, guys!


September 9, 2002
A couple of new things today.  Spoonido (Steven Radice) drew up a great drawing for "Sweet Aloha."  That's over here.  We've also got a couple of new audio clips of fan covers: "When I Get Over You" from 3 Men & A Box, and "The Man You Think I Am" from Marius Suiker's band, Just Us.  Those are both here.

By the way, I haven't mentioned it before, but Spoon sends me his pictures against a white background, and my brother Aaron takes that, puts it against the blue, and adds drop-shadow.  So I just wanted to give him a quick shout-out for doing that.  "HEY!  AARON!!!!!"  There, I shouted it out.


September 6, 2002
Okay, nothing is ever 100% official and post-able until after I've gotten verification directly from the band, so I can't say on record yet that this is true...  but...  I have it on very good authority that Venice will be performing at De Harmonie in Leeuwarden on October 19th.

Thanks, Joey, for the heads-up and the scan.

September 5, 2002
I've been getting a lot of e-mail from Americans wanting to know who they can order Venice's new album from over the internet.  So I've started a thread on this subject at Venice Talk, and many helpful fans are providing the answers.  Check that out here.  And if you know of any others, please add them to the list.


September 3, 2002
Venice's brand new album, "Welcome To the Rest of Your Life," is released today in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and over the internet.  The band will be selling it at all of their upcoming U.S. shows, but be sure and get your copy early, because they're likely to become sold out very quickly.

To celebrate the album's release, I've made a few changes to Venice Central's look.  First, all of the webpage's headers (several hundred in total) are now graphically based, with a look inspired by the album cover's font and color scheme.  The jpgs are a little slow to load the first time you view them, but don't worry, after that they'll exist in your browser's cache, and with all subsequent visits, the pages will load instantaneously.

Next, I've completely redone the Lyrics Pages, so that now each song exists by itself, and instead of being organized alphabetically, they're all arranged by album.  I've also added the lyrics to all of the new songs.

The Audio Clips and Discography Page and the Video Clips Page both have a new layout.

But the very best addition is the one that didn't come from me.  I asked Steven Radice (a.k.a. Spoonido, which is his handle on Venice Talk) to create pictures for each of the site's main areas, and I think he did an incredible job.  You can see his work at the top of the following pages:  Audio Clips and Discography, FAQ, Links, Lyrics, Community Mailing Lists, News, "Oh Yeah, Oh Well," Articles and Reviews, Tour Dates, and Video Clips.  I've invited him to make more for the Lyrics Pages, with drawings inspired by various songs.  I hope he'll take me up on that, so that over the next few years, I can continually post them as he sends them to me.  If you like what you see, please let him know on the Venice Talk forum.

I've dropped the Pictures pages.  It hadn't been updated in years, and you can now post your own pictures at Venice Talk in a dedicated "Fan Photos" area.  I plan to replace this section with something far more exciting in the coming months, so stay tuned...  (If you'd like to download the pictures that used to make up this section before they're deleted permanently from the server, head here and go for it.  You've got about a week.)

Another addition you can look forward to in the near future is a new batch of VVTG entries, covering all the songs on the new album, and everything that's been added to Venice Central since our last VVTG interview session.  I hope to get that up sometime in the next few weeks.

Finally, speaking of Venice Talk, I'd like to thank everybody for making it an overwhelming success.  Especially Kipp, Mark, Michael and Pat Lennon, who's presence and participation on the boards has created a rare and wonderful opportunity for artists and fans to intermingle.


September 1, 2002
Yesterday, Free Record Shop, one of the biggest CD chains in Holland, jumped the gun and started selling Venice's new album four days early.  So if you live near to one, you might want to rush over there and get yourself a copy.  Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Tuesday like everybody else.

In the meantime, here's a nice ad from the chain.  Note the prominent placement: