Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremi Handrinos, Victoria Handrinos, Eric Ando.
Jeremi, Victoria, and Eric, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I believe it was November of 2006 when I received a phone call at around 5 in the am. At the time I was working as a writer (slave) for my God Father, the film producer David Weisman (Kiss of The Spiderwoman, Ciao Manhattan, Naked Tango). David, is ah… Or can be rather a little high strung, and at the time having already worked for him for around ten years I was kind of use to strange requests, but this one seemed even out of character for him he said something along the lines of “Jeremi get dressed we’re going to Len’s…” To which of course I responded by hanging up which only belayed about a thousand more phone calls until finally my wife at the time Nadine spoke to him, and then explained to me that there was an emergency and that David, who can barely walk without crashing into things, let alone drive, needed me to take him over to Len’s house because there was an emergency. Now I began to take things a bit more seriously because I knew that Len had been MIA for awhile, and that he had a pretty serious umbilical hernia besides a pension for self destructive behavior. It didn’t take too long to get up to Len’s house since he only lived in the hills near argyle and the 110 Freeway, and we were at Melrose and Highland so couple miles maybe. When we got there it was still before dawn and kind of creepy and cold. All of a sudden I realized that in almost 15 years of knowing Len that I had actually never been in his house. Strange I thought, well here goes. And then that’s when my life changed. Have you seen this? https://youtu.be/FBL6sqvHfkg?list=PLkoR59xO82mLp0sFZ6F7z4vKrwSBdgzWa
Because you should, it really… This answers a lot of questions. Obviously there’s a lot more to it and a lot of things have changed and transpired since then. Burnt bridges here, giant damns there, gain, loss, divorce, TB… Being forced, more or less, to become an entrepreneur. That’s what saved my life during what I’ve come to now call My very own Treaty of Versailles (mid life crisis). Essentially, Len’s was the first house and estate that I handled and they actually paid me after 3 continuous years of 6 days a week 12 – 16 hour days (excavations) by pretty much saying when all was finished “Hey Jeremi if you don’t want this stuff we’ll probably just throw it all away.” And I can see why. Len’s house at the time was, well Dirty and Haunted… If that job and house were a bar cocktail, it would have been called Ernest Hemingway’s Shotgun and get mixed up precisely like this first, take all of those hoarder OCD shows and multiply them by each of their seasons aired then divide that by a decade of Tales from The Darkside put that dividend in a Little Ninja Blender with a handful of sandy ice, Two Xanex and a fifth of tequila and slam the whole vessel in 21 seconds… On Acid. It was like the House of Usher meets M.C. Escher. A game changer. I think everyone has a moment in life when they realize that they’re not going to live forever, and that was mine. I went from being a failed actor/musician/singer/writer to an amateur Book Dealer by proxi, and the rest is history.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Funnily enough, is it really ever? Because often you have this idea or image of the way you would like things to be. So you fight your way to that spot of green in the desert, buy your way, charm your way, whatever. Then, you arrive at the oasis and you are greeted by a list of new absurdities and things to fix and solve and challenges to conquer so… I don’t know – I can only speak for myself, but the last 5 years have really been hell. I got divorced, lost my children, lost my mind, went to jail, struggled with addiction and anger issues. For me growing up… all I ever wanted was to not be like my parents and maybe a great writer, you know, I pursued music and story telling until it killed me. I think it’s difficult for any artist to have poured their soul into a body of work that absolutely nobody really gets or frankly cares too. And then top that sundae off with losing your children and then yourself… You wake up one day washed up on a beach stumble back home, and guess what? Your kids are all grown up, and you cry… You know, you just break down and you cry. Life makes you earn it sometimes, and sometimes you get the life you’ve earned, but other people, sometimes they get the life someone else earned for them. That’s all I can really say about that.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Venusian Lore – what should we know?
We are an antique and collectibles auction house, art gallery, photography studio, and E-commerce store. Specializing in Film and All things Japanese, at least as far as film, music, theater, television, and literature go. We also do appraisals, consignments, and organize estates and wills. We have been digitizing Antiquarian books for a while, since well, books went digital. Old books, vinyl, and film are extremely fragile, and won’t always be around. So it’s not very wise to pull the thing out every time to look at it or read it. So if you are a collector and your collection is locked up and kept like a cigar we will digitize your whole library, safely, in a non hostile environment, making absolutely sure that every book and every page is treated like a child in brain surgery. That way your library can be with you, and accessible afterwards, whenever you fancy it to be – on your iCloud or whatever… And your books, vinyl and movies, are still locked up safe like virgins, not being handled you know. Books, yes, we are a rare bookstore, this company is really a grandchild, a child of my first business Literaturopolis, which is still chugging along. We handle quite a bit of Photography and Fine art, instruments too… (I have a thing for custom and vintage guitars, and upright pianos). Since we already own some intellectual and digital property beginning with my book Juno’s Peacock and around 8 albums that I did over the years as Horus8 & The Werewolves, I accidentally ended up figuring out rather early that everything was going digital while trying to find a niche for my material when I got dropped by my record label Rondor, around 2001, getting the rights back to my music and then my book rights reverted back to me in 2005. point being we have begun to do some various publishing here and there like creating iBooks for author’s (that can’t be bothered to really leave their house let alone build digital books), or the opposite and haven’t been found or even callable on the fun for a decade, you know the Howard Hughes type. We feel that in the future there is obviously going to be a more interactive experience when reading a book, seeing a film, or listening to music if you choose there to be, of course. Each page employing something new for the readers to maintain their interest and broaden the story or information involved. It naturally just improves the retention level I suppose, especially for those with ADHD etc… There will be music, flash, videos, there will be light… Which clarify and give the reader an actual taste in their mouth metaphorically speaking, or am I? Imagining and understanding the depth of the characters, settings, and themes means everything to an avid reader, student, teacher, whomever – because it makes the difference of whether or not they choose to remember it on a conscious level and for how long. And, it’s packaged and delivered the way that the author intended it to be visualized, revealed, and hopefully remembered. We cater to students, collectors, teachers, writers, artists, other publishers, presidents… Well, not presidents per-say yet, but who knows, set your sights high. Everyone and anyone that is looking for the past or the future in story telling with artifacts and literature, and their 6 senses, now are really going to start getting what they’ve imagined and paid for. We are a company that can not only digitize at the highest and best quality tech level both audio and visual media but we can also redesign your house’s interior with a whole new look essentially giving you that redesigned soul and mind vibe you get after you do the dishes and can finally relax and enjoy the evening, you know? Imagine being able to redesign your entire life to have less clutter and a whole new vibe. Don’t have the funds, no problem, we can appraise everything you want to lose, sell it by auction, then take whatever portion of that money you want to use to change your entire houses interior or exterior to something a little more… Well, you, just the you that you haven’t met yet. The Japanese really had it right with the less is more approach, more space and interesting lighting, and less sharp contrasting shapes and colors everywhere. It traps the senses you know. keeps a person subconsciously preoccupied and not feeling right or a 100%
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Probably my mom and dad for ditching me when I was a toddler… lol yeah of course. I have two partners. My wife Victoria, and one of my better friends Eric. They handle aspects of the business that I can’t. We are like the unholy trinity. Victoria is god because she is extremely ethical and integral so she handles research and customers, hiring and firing etc… I deal mostly with acquiring new inventory and sales in my own way, and thinking outside of the box by doing and or mixing businesses in a way that at first seems weird, but quickly grows on people, so call me the devil. While Eric is also an incredible salesman. He could sell a stripper clothes. and a lifetime supply of poles, even though she’s mostly never dressed, and definitely not lacking in things to spin around on at two in the morning. He’s the holy spirit. We compliment one another, and often work a ways away from each other, but I think it’s because fundamentally we all like to be in control, so we each run our own little fiefdoms within the empire.
Pricing:
- Appraisals buy one for 50.00 and get one free
- Websites and E-commerce Stores with domain and hosting starting at 500.00
- Adsense, Analytics, Adwords, yahoo, google, amazon, eBay we will integrate you, 300.00
Contact Info:
- Address: 6514 Leland Way
Los Angeles, Ca.
90028 - Website: venusianlore.com
- Phone: (818) 570-3133
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: venusianlore
- Facebook: venusianlore
- Twitter: literaturopolis
- Yelp: venusianlore
- Other: venusianlore.net
Image Credit:
Terry O’neill
Victoria Handrinos
Eric Ando
Jeremi Handrinos
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
