September 30, 2003
Venice's "Lunch With A Leader" auction has officially begun.  Place your bids right over here!


September 25, 2003
File this one under "Lennons Who Lunch."

Would you like to share an afternoon meal with Kipp, Mark, Michael and Pat?  Now you can, and you'll be helping out America's youth while you're at it.  Venice is participating in Communities In Schools' "Lunch With A Leader" auction.  The higgest bidder will win a lunch with Venice, and the winning payment will be donated to the LA chapter of the CIS charity.

Bidding begins on September 30, 2003 at 12:00 PM EST.  Opening bid is $100, with a reserve set for $250.  (If the auction closes at lower than $250, the sale can be voided.)  The winner will have one year to redeem the prize.  Bidding is supposed to be open to Los Angeles residents only, because travel is not included in the prize package, but when I asked whether fans outside of LA can participate, I received the following answer:

"We can make exceptions on a case by case basis.  Last year we had some Canadian bidders who asked friends of theirs in the US to bid for them.  If there are interested bidders I'm sure they will contact us.  Please keep in mind though that we still need to perform the background check and if the person lives out of the country that can be a little complicated, and there could be additional costs."  In other words, yes, non-Americans can bid.  But e-mail the organization first just to confirm.

So fans in Holland and Germany may participate, and the winner may redeem the prize when the band is on tour in your neighborhood.  Outside of Holland, Germany and Los Angeles, you can also still participate, but you'll have to provide your own travel.  If you do come in from out of town for this, Hilton Hotels will provide one night's stay, provided there is a Hilton in that area.

The winner will also receive autographed Venice merchandise, two free admissions to a Venice live concert, and a photo opportunity with the band.

Details about this Venice auction are here.  (A link to the eBay auction will be posted on this page after the auction begins.)

Details about the Communities In Schools charity are here.

The main page for the "Lunch With A Leader" Online Auctions is here.

To all you bidders, I "bid" you good luck!


September 21, 2003
Well, if you ask any parent, they'll tell you that the very best things in life take nine months to form.  So please keep that at the forefront of your mind when I tell you...  Hey look!  Christmas pictures!  In, uh, September!!!

But not just any Christmas pictures, these were taken by Kipp, Mark, Michael and Pat themselves, in a brand new section of Venice Central I like to call, "Through the Eyes of..."

Seriously, I'm sorry it took so long to get this online.  It's been a really busy year, and since February, most of my spare time has been spent putting together the "Blue Paint" DVD.  (Which you Americans can purchase for $10 right here at Venice Store!)  Hopefully it won't take so long for the next batch of photos.

Be sure and listen to all the new VVTG entries as you peruse the band members' photo albums.


September 17, 2003
Okay, I just got the go-ahead to make this major news announcement.  So here it is:

Venice will be releasing a live concert DVD!  It will be a full show, and it will go on sale by the end of the year both overseas (in Pal) and in America (in NTSC).  Full 5.1 stereo sound, multi-camera, really professionally done.

Now for the part that only concerns the Dutch fans.  This DVD will be taped on Monday, October 27, 2003, at the concert at the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam.  This show is already on sale, but there are plenty of tickets left.  If it's within driving distance for you, go buy yourself some seats right now!  Because the setlist for this show is going to be different from the rest of the tour.  And besides, it's your chance to be a part of Venice history, and to dance and sing and go crazy and be a part of showing the rest of the world just how much audiences enjoy a great Venice show.  So what are you waiting for?  Buy your tickets now!

September 12, 2003
Well, the major news announcement I promised remains unconfirmed, as details are still being worked out.  Hopefully I'll be able to talk about it early next week.

In the meantime, has everybody checked out "The Simpsons: Season 3" DVD yet?  If you listen to the commentary for the Michael Jackson episode, "Stark Raving Dad," they talk about Kipp Lennon quite a bit.  They never mention Venice, though.


September 8, 2003
A number of people have told me that they're having trouble printing the DVD cover.  So here's a tip.  Don't print this picture directly from Internet Explorer.  The browser program resizes it, and all you'll wind up with on your printed page is a corner of the picture, blown up to superhuman size.  What you should do instead is save the picture to your hard drive, and then print it through Windows, or a program like ACDSee or Photoshop.  Hope that helps!  Here's the link again.

Many of you may have noticed that Venice Central has been down several times over the last week.  We've been having major server problems.  We are dealing with them, and we hope to have this problem resolved shortly.

Great news for LA fans!  Venice has added one more show in September, prior to their pre-Christmas hiatus.  They'll be performing for one hour at the Abbot-Kinney Festival at 5:00pm on Sunday, September 28.  Further info is here and on the Tour Dates page.

Lastly, fans in Holland should keep checking back this week for a major surprise announcement.


September 6, 2003
Introducing, Venice Store.

And a huge congratulations to Michael Johnson for singlehandedly putting the entire thing together.  If you see him at the Canyon Club tonight, be sure and give him a hearty pat on the back for a job well done.


September 4, 2003
The "Blue Paint" music video DVDs go on sale tonight and Saturday night, and they'll be sold in thin jewel cases with no cover art.  That was done so that the band could keep the price low.  However, if anybody would like cover art, we're offering it free of charge, right here at Venice Central.  Full credit for this goes to my brother Aaron Levitz, for designing and constructing the whole thing, and to Steven Radice, for his always brilliant cartooning work.

Currently, we've only made art for DVD longboxes.  (Hopefully we'll get jewel case sizes online shortly.)  Download the DVD longbox cover here.  Print it on good, thick paper, if you have it.  Don't change any dimensions.  It should be the proper size already.

Because the average printer paper is larger than the dimensions of a DVD box, you're going to need to cut it smaller with a scissors or paper knife.  Along the outside of the entire picture, you'll see three edges where it's obvious where to cut. (Look for the color change to light blue, and a border line along the white.) The fourth edge is just past the cartoon, where your printer will not print. So you'll have to create this fourth border line yourself. To do so, pull out the paper from some other commercial DVD and lay it down, lined up on top of this one, and with a pencil, draw a light line along that edge. Then cut along the four sides, slip it into an empty DVD box, (which I believe you can purchase cheaply at Best Buy, Tower Records, etc.) and you're good to go.

Bring it with you to tonght's and Saturday's concert.  There's plenty of room on there for autographs.

In other news, I've just learned that the German radio station WDR2 will broadcast the Ringfest festival this Sunday, September 7th, from 20:00 to 24:00, on their program, "Soundfiles."  Venice fans who are not in Germany can listen over the internet from here.  (Click on the fourth picture block at the top of the page, underneath the word "Programmvorschau.")  (Pacific Standard Time: 11am-3pm)  Venice's set at this show consisted of the following songs: "End of the World," "Most of Us," "Blue Paint," "Landslide," "Circle of Life," "Welcome to the Rest of Your Life," "Baby's Calling," "One Quiet Day," "The Family Tree" and "Think Again."  Speaking of "Think Again," it's the #1 listener requested song on "Soundfiles" this week.