Tonight At Machine Project

From Machine Project:

Waffle Shop meets Porta Hedge

Tuesday July 28th, 2009
8pm

If you’re driving past Machine today and see it in its usual spot, don’t freak out! We haven’t gone anywhere, there’s just a portable hedge parked in front of us.

The Porta Hedge is a mobile artificial hedge with a hidden interior observation lab, replete with video surveillance, peep holes, chalkboards, and prerecorded bird audio. Justin Shull and his team are traveling the country with the Porta Hedge this summer, siting it in as diverse landscapes as possible, using the interior observation space (mainly as a defense during overnight stays at rest stops) – and trying to lend it out for other people to use. Along the way they’re also installing it at museums, colleges, and other art related venues for open house days.

Coincidentally, we also have a guest in town, our friend Jon Rubin, who’s just opened an experimental restaurant/talk show venue in Pittsburgh called the Waffle Shop. Both Jon and the Porta Hedge are here for a limited time, so please join us TONIGHT, Tuesday July 28th, at 8pm for Waffle Shop meets Porta Hedge. A brief presentation by Jon about the Waffle Shop will be followed by a talk and show-and-tell by Justin about the Porta Hedge.

Machine Project is located at 1200 N Alvarado.

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Today: Los Angeles River Workshop

Learn about that Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (LARRMP) and provide your input at today’s 5:00-7:30 pm workshop.

The meeting takes place at:

Los Angeles River Center and Gardens
The Atrium in the California Building
570 W. Avenue 26
Los Angeles, CA 90065

Click here for more information about the meeting/workshop.

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Composting Workshop & Bin Sale today!

Make sure you head over to the Griffith Park Composting Education Facility at 5400 Griffith Park Drive for its monthly Composting Workshop and Bin Sale.

Residents can learn about backyard composting, worm composting, types of compost bins, grasscycling, and other smart gardening techniques at the City’s free backyard composting workshops. In addition to the workshops, special discounted compost bin sales events are held throughout the year. The workshop takes approximately 60-75 minutes.

Click here to learn more!

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Echo Park Walking Tour, Saturday 7/25

Lake

The Echo Park Lake Walking Tour,  sponsored by the Echo Park Historical Society,  will be held this Saturday, July 25 at 10 am.  The guided tour will include some of the neighborhood’s most prominent landmarks, such as Jensen’s Recreation Center, Angelus Temple and, of course, the lake. The tour takes about two hours to complete and includes several stairways. Building interiors are not included.

Reservations required. The tours are free for EPHS members; we ask a $5 donation of all others. Please see the Walking Tour section for details.

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Looking for something special this summer?

On Saturday, August 15, 2009, from 8PM-Midnight, you can treat your loved one, family, or birthday girl/boy to a spectacular evening in the high desert. “The Integration” is hosting a Perseid Meteor Shower Star Party near Joshua Tree, benefiting the Mojave Desert Land Trust. Each $35 ticket will get you live projections from deep space telescopes, a “Dark Skies” presentation, dessert, beer and wine, and of course, a perfect view of the gorgeous annual meteor shower that us city-folk will likely miss.

For an extra cost ($25) you can also camp overnight and receive a continental breakfast in the morning. Doing either sounds worth it for a special occasion.

Their website request that you pre-register by calling 760-366-5440 or email Leslie at leslie@mojavedesertlandtrust.org 

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Looking forward to the beach this weekend?

BeachThe LA Times is reporting that during this wonderful heat wave we’re having in Southern California, beachgoers may be warned to stay out of the water.

As the article reports, “The high surf will be the result of 50-knot winds that developed off Tahiti, producing 45-foot waves there – and that system is traveling north to Southern California.” While there is no official warning as of yet, lifeguards on the beaches will be keeping an eye out on the conditions of the water.

So it might be a little difficult for most of us to escape the heat and cool down in the water, but pro-surfers should be pretty pleased – the Hurley US Open of Surfing is going on in Huntington Beach until Sunday.

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A food Co-op from your garden

The Hillside Produce Cooperative reminds me of what it was like growing up with a huge plot for our garden and more than we could eat. We’d leave bags on the doorsteps of our neighbors full of our extras: zucchinis (the size of your forearm), tomatoes, yellow squash, and radishes.

The co-op organizes such a thing in Los Angeles neighborhoods. It is a “free neighborhood monthly exchange of all the FRUITS, VEGETABLES, HERBS and FLOWERS we grow in our yards,” and is, according to its website, “a collective in which we all get to enjoy some of what everyone grows in exchange for contributing what we don’t want or won’t use ourselves.”

In order to participate, all you have to do is sign up on their website for the email list, let them know what you can contribute, drop off the goodies (Glassell Park is the closest spot to Echo Park), and recieve some in return! The best part is, the Co-Op redistributes the items so you get a little of everything.

Makes me want to start growing some veggies of my own!

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Neighborhood Crime Update

Captain Bill Murphy of the Northeast Division has posted the following Neighborhood Crime Update for Echo Park:

NOE Crime Update

The year to date (YTD) crime statistics will cover from January 1, 2009 through July 11, 2009. The weekly crime maps I will be looking at will cover between July 5th through July 15, 2009.

I may also comment on other high profile events that have occurred the last month in NOE.

YTD Violent Crime: Down 8.5%

YTD Property Crime: Down 21.1%

YTD Part I (total): Down 18.9%

YTD Homicide: Down 55.6% (8 vs. 18 last year)

YTD Robbery: Up 0.4% (up one crime versus last year 249 vs. 248 )

  • All categories of crimes (except robbery) are down significantly compared to last year
  • We are down 688 total crimes YTD
  • NOE Area ranks FIRST in crime reduction City-wide (out of 21 police stations)

Neighborhood Crime Update

Echo Park

The area around Sunset Blvd and Glendale Blvd continues to be a problem for property crime (mostly stolen cars). We have increased patrol in this area and made a few arrests.

You can contact Captain Bill Murphy at 26152@lapd.lacity.org

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Friday Night Free Show At Show Cave

Flyer

July 17th
Living Tapes night with
Black Church, Vum, and Zombelle

@ Show Cave

10pm

Free!

1930 Echo Park Avenue in Echo Park

One of the last shows before the venue is rumored to change locations again.

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Echo Park Historical Society Presents: A Tribute to Edendale

On Saturday, July 25 from 7 to 9 PM, the Echo Park Historical Society and the Echo Park Film Center will be hosting an outdoor presentation and silent film screening at Echo Park Lake to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first film studio in Edendale (a section of what is now Echo Park where most of LAs first film studios were located). The presentation begins at 7 PM and will be followed at 8 PM with a screening of silent film shorts. The event is free and open to the public.

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Tonight

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LAPD’s Crime Map Omits Nearly 40% of Serious Crimes

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Police Department’s public crime database omits nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in Los Angeles:

LAPD’s public database omits nearly 40% of this year’s crimes

The discrepency was discovered while the Times was creating their own map to display the LAPD’s crime data. The Times reports that the omissions are due to a programming error. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as though the database is due for an overhaul anytime soon.

For concerned citizens that would like to keep themselves up-to-date on serious crimes being reported in Los Angeles, the Homicide Report and your local news are always helpful resources.

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Echo Park Community Festival

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New Little Joy

Photo via Brujo1972's Flickr

People kept telling me Little Joy had gone through some drastic change so I stopped in the other night to use the bathroom (faster than the bathroom line at the house party up the street!) and check it out. The biggest change to Little Joy is definitely on the outside. Inside looked oddly salmon colored but not all too different. Can’t comment on a price changes. Do you know?

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The No-Lotuses Festival

EP Community Festival

The Echo Park Community Festival will take place Friday evening, July 10th through Sunday July 12th, 2009. Like in previous years, fireworks will be lit on Saturday evening.

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