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Venice Beach based "surf lifestyle" hipster brand, Aviator Nation and it's Texas-born founder Paige Mycoskie are being acused of committing cultural appropriation by the Native American owned brand, NSRGNTS. It appears the hipster brand has been taking traditional Native American clothing, as well as tipis, and selling gaudy versions of them.

NSRGNTS has been calling them out on this on social media:

"We have had several relatives from this area reach out to us. We see problematic and harmful actions taking place by owner Paige Mycoskie and her clothing brand Aviator Nation! Her brand consists of the misuse of traditional regalia specifically traditional beaded moccasins. Her brand consists of hipsters wearing traditional “vintage” beaded moccasins. They are being referred to as “hippie slippers”, “boho”, “eccentric”, along with all those other usual cringey terms. Traditional moccasins are very sacred, and not to be used as a fashion accessory on hipsters for exploitation. Every color, pattern, design, and material has significant cultural meaning. It is a problem when people want to take bits and pieces of our culture and use it for their own personal fashion shoot. It’s problematic that they want to take from us but will not stand with us. Where are they when we are fighting pipelines, fighting to protect Mother Earth, fighting to protect our people, bringing awareness to MMIWg2S? Where are they then? Paige Mycoskie we demand you do better and stop with the cultural appropriation that is very apparent within your clothing brand, and your use of tipis at ACL Festival. We see that you are proudly boasting you “build tipis for a living!” Tipis are not yours to appropriate and paint hideous neon colors at festivals!!! Tipis have very powerful and significant meanings. All of this is not yours to take, or to be played with. We have entered new times, and we hope for your sake that you take the time to educate yourself and stop this behavior."

Aviator Nation responded to this by deleting people's comments on their postings and disabling all future comments on their Instagram account.

So now NSRGNTS going to hold a protest on Sunday in front of the Aviator Nation store on Abbot Kinney, here's the latest statement from them:

"Because Paige Mycoskie and her company Aviator Nation have decided to knowingly move forward with committing cultural appropriation after being told not to by the Indigenous community, Southern California relatives and allies have decided to move forward with action! Our culture is not yours for the taking! We demand you stop your profiting off of Indigenous culture, your misuse of tipis, your exploitation of serapes, and your misuse of Native regalia specifically moccasins. Our culture is not a costume, and appropriation is not appreciation."



Mike, aka German in Venice, vlogs about daily life in Venice Beach, and the nearby communities.

"My last homeless encampment video on venicebeach was five months ago this is an update video that shows you how to situation of the homeless community looks like at the current time In the Venice area more and more tens Accumulates around the beach area."

If you would like to support German in Venice with some gas money or you want to buy him a coffee, you are welcome to donate to his paypal account: https://paypal.me/germaninvenice


From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Santa Monica Pier painter Joey Alvarez, with the help from City Employees Daryl Nathan and Alex Vizuet, refurbish the compass rose on Wednesday, February 2, 2022. The compas rose was originally painted in 2018 by Santa Monica High School student Mimi Gaudet."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/fabianlewkowicz


From Santa Monica Close Up:

"City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works sanitation workers in white hazardous materials suits, with Clean Harbors hazardous waste management, clean-up homeless encampments at public parking lot 740 on 301 Main Street in Venice on Wednesday, February 3, 2022."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/fabianlewkowicz


Venice beach, CA library park major homeless encampment clean up AKA sweep. 1/12/22 Filmed by Cop Watch Venice

"A homelessness update of Venice beach and surrounding areas filmed on 2/1-2/22. There's a lot of other people around Venice, this is just some of them. Everyone is still being moved around aimlessly while the funding intended to help them is wasted."

Cop Watch Venice follows LAPD pacific division on world famous Venice beach, showing a point-of-view style cop watch and update on Venice's current conditions. We make edited shorts, full scenes and are working on a documentary about homelessness and city failures. Donate to Cop Watch Venice via Cop Watch Venice Paypal


DSRT Surf is slated to be the first Wavegarden Cove surf park built in the United States of America after plans were unanimously approved by the City of Palm Desert in the Coachella Valley. Wavegarden´s technology will comprise a 52-module wave generator and a fully integrated surfing lagoon.

DSRT Surf is implementing a unique “turf for surf” program to offset all surf lagoon water use by converting 20 acres of turf on the adjacent golf courses to drought tolerant landscaping. The surf program will use the same amount of water as the golf course area being removed, making it a “net zero” water consumption operation.

On top of world-class waves, the resort will also feature a 92 room hotel, 83 residential villas with water views, a beach club and spa, together with pickleball courts, a pump track, restaurants and bars.

According to the development plans, construction on the surfing lagoon will soon commence and completion is scheduled for the end of 2023.


Filmed by Green Cloud Art Org




From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Santa Monica Pier painter Joey Alvarez refurbishes the compass rose on Monday, January 31, 2022. The compas rose was originally painted in 2018 by Santa Monica High School student Mimi Gaudet."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/fabianlewkowicz