Things are a little hectic out there on the roads and freeways in Echo Park – tonight is James Loney Bobblehead night, and the fans go crazy for those promotional items. It’s also game two of three in the series against the Giants, which means the Scott Avenue gate will likely be open for exiting traffic.
Stay clear of Stadium Way, Sunset Blvd., and, well, all the other roads and freeways. Surprisingly, the 110 doesn’t look that bad! Go Dodgers!
For the week of Tuesday, July 20 through Sunday, July 25.
Tuesday, July 20
Grand Archives, S, Kaiser Cartel @ Echo
Poison Control Center, One Trick Pony, The Faraway Places @ Echo Curio
Wednesday, July 21
Dub Club with Echodelic Soundsystem, Mcpullish, El Tambor, Jah Faith, Ron Miller @ Echoplex and Echo
The Tough Cats, Crooked Paw, The Sundowners, 100% Good Time Solution Band @ Echo Curio
LA Record 100 presents: Whoa Hunx, Cowabunga Babes @ Origami Vinyl
Thursday, July 22
Barrio Tiger, Neighborhood Bullys, Stab City @ Echo
Down And Derby Roller Disco @ Echoplex
Upsilon Acrux, Voice On Tape, Megasquid @ Echo Curio
Friday, July 23
Club Underground Presents Jared Dreams of Far Out Things, John Carpenter, Kisses (DJ Set) @ Echo
Tan Dollar, Weed Diamond, Dash Jacket, Slow Animals @ Echo Curio
Standing Shadows @ Origami Vinyl
Papermade Records Presents: Canyons, Bear Flag Republic, Black Elephant, Ostrich Eyes @ Pehrspace
Rock ‘n’ Roll with Dan Daniels and the Southern Gents @ Tribal Café
Saturday, July 24
Wild Records – A Night of 1950s-style Punk with Luis & The Wildfires, Omar & The Stringpoppers, Don Juan y Los Blancos, The Desperados, The Rhythm Shakers, Santos & More @ Echoplex
Heather Woodbury’s “As The Globe Warms”, followed by the official closing party for “Geography of Somewhere” with movie screenings and surprise guest @ Echo Curio
Funky Sole @ Echo
James Apollo @ Origami Vinyl
Signal Hill, Silian Rail, Death House Chaplain @ Pehrspace
The Omegans, The Graven @ Tribal Café
Sunday, July 25
The Spits, No Bunny, Audacity @ Echo
Part Time Punks – Smiths/Morrissey Nite @ Echo
Father Figures, Phil Musra, Manhattan Murder Mystery @ Echo Curio
Slow Animal @ Origami Vinyl
Los Angeles Loves…A Summer Soiree, Elle King, Ema and the Ghosts, Miniature Houses, I Hate You Just Kidding @ Pehrspace
Michael Whitmore, Gus & Friends, Ray Charles Manson, Surveyor, Paper Rainbow and more @ Tribal Café
LA Flea Market debuted on Sunday, July 18, 2010
Hey, Pasadena, we have a stadium too! And anything you can do we can do… sort of.
Sunday was the first ever Dodgers Stadium flea market, which will be held, barring a Dodgers home game, on the third Sunday of every month. However, if they hope to draw crowds of flea marketers to the parking lot, the organizers need to put a lot more effort into finding decent vendors a month from now. Or they could scrap the flea market and be a food truck party, in which case they would already be winning.
Parking was a breeze, I arrived at about 10:00 am hoping to beat the heat a little bit. The heat won regardless, but such is life when you’re hanging out in a Los Angeles parking lot in the throes of summer. There was a short walk to the ticket booth where I paid my $5 and received my ticket. You could pay with a card and there were the only two ATM machines at the ready, no sign noting these as your last chance for green as these were the last machines I spotted all day.
Not exactly on my list of quality Flea Market finds
Perhaps I have an East Coast bias when it comes to the age of vintage items, or maybe I was spoiled by the Pasadena City College flea market a few weeks ago. When I first walked into the LA Flea Market, I already felt this event was planned around food trucks, Rick Dees, and small business owners. Every fiber of my being routes for the small business to succeed, but today I also had hoped for a true flea market experience.
Photo by The Eastsider LA
Some Echo Park residents have noticed this as recently as the Lotus Festival: It appears the Lady of the Lake statue at Echo Park Lake is missing a few digits. The fingers of both hands have fallen off the 76-year-old statue (or perhaps broken off by vandals), which has been repaired as recently as May of 2009.
It seems the Neighborhood Council took on paying for restoration in prior years, and there seems to have been some drama revolving its restoration. An August 2008 article on Chicken Corner has the back story behind it all, including the story about how the neighborhood in the late ’90s got the graffiti-marred statue back after being stored for 13 years.
UPDATE:
GEPENC President Jose Sigala commented on The Eastsider LA article on the subject, saying:
I join with others in expressing my anger over the defamation of the artistic history and cultural icons of our neighborhood. I see no difference when a developer tears down a cultural and historical home or structure with the mindless vandalism of the Lady of the Lake. Both actions impact the reason why we live here in Echo Park.
Given the city’s budget financial crisis, I am not sure where the funding many come from to repair the lady of the Lake.
I am not sure what the cost may be to replace the statue’s hands but I would like to commit to work with other community members in identifying and raising the funds to restore her hands.
I will ask to see if any of the funding that is dedicated to the rehabilitation of the lake may be used to assist in repairing the statue.
A couple of Saturdays ago on July 10, Echo Park residents put together a “Share Fair” down on Echo Park Avenue. One of our readers wrote up a sort of review/article on the event, and shared it in the comments section of our post. We thought you’d like to read about Thea’s experience at the Share Fair here:
Echo Park Share Fair: What the Heck is a Share Fair?
Saturday July 10, 2010 from 1-5pm the first Echo Park Share Fair was held at the home of Katherine Gladwin and Car Nazzal. What is a share fair? When people come together and share goods or services or good company for the price and profit of enjoyment; the event was created by Echo Park Time Bank Members (a group that is all about sharing) but open to the community.
The house was placed in one of those secret Echo Park type locations; I drove around for a bout 15 minutes, looking for this seemingly made up location. I then remembered how some houses in Echo Park are without road access. I parked my vehicle and walked up the street. I ran into my friend Monique (a fresh transplant from France who hails from the Westside) on the sidewalk. She asked if I thought this place existed, I explained that the City of LA used to have a great public transportation system, and why there wasn’t a need for driveways in yesteryear Echo Park. She replied with a French lilt “L.A. is a very funny place.” I smiled, looked down and noticed the chalk arrows on the sidewalk as promised by the information on Echo Park Now and EPShareFair facebook page.
Monique and I entered the gate, and followed the sidewalk chalk arrows. Half way up the nefarious looking staircase was a young woman and a middle-aged man, the former was drawing arrows and writing “Share Fair a little bit further” and “Share Fair Almost There.” Three-quarters of the way up the harrowing-uneven-shifting-step-size staircase was the house of share.
Upon walking into the urban garden, there was a Share Table at the front of the yard where you could place unwanted items for exchange. There were toys, children’s clothing, and adult clothing. At one point in the day a few fellows started trying on the the kid’s clothing for humor, a few girls walked away with cute clothing items in both children’s and adult size.
Entering the house Breanne Martin (of Brock Real Estate) was teaching knitting. On the patio Car Nazzal (the woman I met on the stairs) a San Francisco filmmaker transplant showed us how to make cyanotypes and provided found objects from the junk drawer and garden. I felt proud one my cyanotypes looked like a helicopter, this was a result of using a decaying leaf, a strip of super-8 film and a small branch. Others used leaves, crystal unicorns, popcorn kernels, branches, stencils, sunglasses. Each print provided a new look into old items, providing abstract images, surrealism and direct representations of objects.
In the kitchen Katherine made and shared delicious vegan berry popsicles and chocolate peanut butter popsicles. The skills I shared were Handwriting Analysis and Hypnosis. I provided handwriting analysis to all who attended, people were amazed at what traits their handwriting revealed and some were a bit taken aback by the accuracy. Neither Katherine or Car had ever been hypnotized, I had been so busy with the writing we barely had time for it. Toward the close of the Share Fair I eased them into a progressive relaxation and into a state of calm. Did I make them quack like ducks? No…Was I tempted?
In the beginning of the event people trickled in and out: by mid-event several people were present and then shifted to a different group of people. The conversations were friendly and amiable. Discussions regarding handwriting, personality traits, dating, cinematography, music, funny psychic stories, veganism, pure land Buddhism and satirical filmmaking filled the air. The plan according to Katherine is to hold a Share Fair bi-monthly. What are you going to share?
Thanks for the review!
Photo by QuarryGirl
Everyone goes crazy over Masa’s Chicago-style deep dish pizza, especially when the Cubs come into town and the favorite dish comes half off. Now vegans have more opportunities to join in on the fun – Masa has added an animal-free version of the pizza to its menu.
Chicago Soy Dairy supplies the vegan cheese called “Teese Soy Cheese,” and Masa uses olive oil instead of butter on the crust. Vegan blogger extraordinaire Quarry Girl has all the great details and a rave review of the new menu item.
Masa is located at 1800 W. Sunset Blvd.
The other day, I noticed a facade emblazoned with the Spacecraft Group logo outside of the old abandoned theater on Sunset next to the Elf Cafe. Spacecraft Group is the construction and design firm behind a whole mess of Hollywood restaurants, bars and nightclubs. We emailed them, but at the moment, they can’t tell us what it is they’re working on. Let the speculation begin!
UPDATE: Both The Eastsider LA and NBC’s blog Feast wrote about this space a few months ago. According to them, this space will be home to a restaurant called El Camino. It should open in late 2010 or early 2011. We’re working on an extended piece about it and the community’s reaction to it, so stay tuned!
Courtesy of EPHS
Thanks to the efforts of the Echo Park Historical Society, the Lento Brick Courtyard (at 1288 Sunset Blvd) has been declared a Los Angeles historic-cultural monument. We wrote about this nifty little Echo Park landmark a couple of months ago when the EPHS’s application was being reviewed by the Cultural Heritage Commission. Historic monument status protects this group of apartments from interior and exterior alterations and demolition as any proposed changes must now be approved by the Cultural Heritage Commission.
Ballard’s Artwork Framing, formerly located next to The Clinic on Sunset, has found a new home in Echo Park: 1568 West Sunset Blvd. (right next to the Gold Room and Barragan’s). Aaron Ballard creates custom frames using archival-quality, sustainable materials. Check out the website here.
At the beginning of this month, Havana Travel relocated from the 1800 block of Sunset Blvd to 922 North Alvarado Street. The travel agency was the last remaining Cuban-run business on a strip of Sunset Blvd. that used to be dominated by them. The EastsiderLA wrote a bit about the history of Echo Park’s Cuban community which flourished during the early 1960s due to its citizens fleeing Castro’s reign. They also interviewed Jose Angel Dominguez Mondejar. He’s a 30-year resident of Echo Park who I used to see all the time wearing a linen suit and smoking cigars outside of Masa (the former site of a Cuban bakery).
Echo Park filmmaker E.E. Cassidy’s debut Film We Are the Mods is now playing at the Downtown Independent Theater. The film will be showing there through through this week (ending July 23). Here’s a little synopsis:
Sadie’s art is her photography. Nico’s art is her life. Together they explore Britain’s 60’s mod culture of music, fashion, drugs and vintage scooters in contemporary Los Angeles. Sadie observes the world through the lens of her 35 mm camera, but everything changes when she meets Nico, the new “mod” girl who was born with Milroy’s disease that causes her to have abnormal swelling in her foot. Nico doesn’t hide her disability, in fact she loves the spotlight. Sadie is drawn into Nico’s thrilling world of aesthetics where Sadie learns about herself and who she really is.
LA Weekly gave Cassidy’s film a great review, so be sure to go check it out.
Dial Torgerson, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 19, 1971
Both Kelly and I (on separate occasions) dug up a rather interesting article from the L.A. Times circa 1971. The article, entitled “Which Way for Echo Park – Inner City Oasis or Slum?”, describes Echo Park at the dawn of the ’70s as:
…the hilly, multiracial, multiethnic home of both the poor and better off. Echo Park is becoming a near slum and a much-in-demand middle-class community at the same time. It is going up and down simultaneously. Newcomers from from poorer areas are crowding into substandard housing and youth gangs have become active. At the same time, there is a different influx: that of the middle class. Older couples who sold homes in distant suburbs and young marrieds with college degrees are seeking homes and rentals in the hills.
From what I’ve learned about Echo Park, it seems that it’s always been home to a mixture of different cultures and incomes. It’s interesting to see proof of this and to see an argument similar to the one happening today, taking place almost forty years ago. The same racial tensions that bubble beneath the surface of today’s arguments were there in the ’70s as well and, presumably, the ’60s. For example:
‘The rapidly changing ethnic composition of the Silver Lake-Echo Park communities will soon transform Echo Park into a Mexican-American barrio,’ said a UCLA study for the city’s new general plan. ‘We strongly urge that, via the process of community organizations and related efforts, steps be taken to avoid further ghettoization.’ Many long-time residents of Echo Park, members of its Latin community, object to experts’ blaming Latins as the bringers of the slum.
Eek! Yeah, I think an objection to that study is justified. The article also brings up some interesting bits about the cultural differences between certain residents of Echo Park. Some of these descriptions sound vaguely familiar…
The Hip community calls it “The Other End,” the other end of Sunset Blvd. from the Strip. Barefoot hippies buy food with food stamps in the same supermarket lines with young deputy public defenders with mod clothes and lavish mustaches. Chicano street types dress in a uniform of neat jeans (or overalls) and clean white T-shirts; they haven’t learned, as have their Anglo contemporaries in the suburbs, to believe that dirt is somehow revolutionary.
Read the full article here (PDF download).
Flickr photo via indigo imposter
This coming Monday, July 19, will be the first Monday all 72 Los Angeles libraries will be closed as the result of city budget cuts and the reduction of library staff. Library branches, such as the Edendale and Echo Park Libraries, are now closed on Sundays, Mondays, and Holidays.
Branch hours and web-based resources are available 24 hours a day at www.lapl.org
Flickr photo via Nickels_Photography
There will be a demonstration and program to protest the closing of the libraries on Monday and those reduced hours listed above. “Unslam the Doors: Keep the Library Open” takes place on Monday, July 19 at 9:30 am at the entrance of the Central Library (630 W. 5th Street).
We have some information from the event organizers:
Please come out and show your support for Los Angeles Public Library. On July 1, the Mayor and City Council laid off 160 library workers, forcing service hours to be cut an additional day. This Monday, July 19th marks the first day the library will be closed on Mondays in LA history. If we don’t take a stand now, there are likely more layoffs and more cuts to come.
For more information, go to savethelibrary.org
A meeting on the Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation Project has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 4 at 6:30 pm at Barlow Hospital.
Pollution and much-needed updates to the filtration systems are behind the Prop O funded rehab project, which is scheduled for next year – the lake will be gated up in January 2011 in preparation for the construction, and in April construction will be at full speed ahead. They will drain the 13 acre lake and haul out approximately 50,000 cubic feet of soil from the bottom, replace the lake liner, rebuild the wetlands, and replant other vegetation (including the lotus bed). They filtration systems will also be updated, as the lake does collect water runoff from the city, and will help reduce the amount of city water used to keep the lake levels high.
Wildlife activists and bird lovers have been concerned with the state of the migratory birds once the lake is drained. It seems a compromise has now been reached, and the engineers will include four temporary pools for migratory birds.
A draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was recently released, but is not yet available online. You can click here for the initial study on the City’s website. Hard copies of the draft EIR are currently available at the following locations:
We will also post a downloadable version as soon as it’s available.
The public is welcome to review the draft EIR and send comments by August 30 at 5:00 pm. Send comments to:
Via mail:
City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, Environmental Management Group
Attn: Maria Martin
1149 S. Broadway, Suite 600, Mail Stop 939, Los Angeles, CA 90015-2213
Via fax to (213) 847-0656, Attn. Maria Martin
Via email to Maria.Martin@lacity.org
For more information about the upcoming event, feel free to contact Olga Morales at 213-485-5933, or email at Olga.Morales@lacity.org
Related articles:
1642 Beer and Wine Bar is hosting an Echo Time Bank Fundraiser on Saturday, July 17 from 8:00 pm – 12:00 midnight.
Special musical guests include: Karen Ramos, Les Shelleys and Angela Correa.
They will hold a raffle at 10:00 pm with prizes from Skylight Books, Fix Coffee, Masa and more!
$5 suggested donation.
1642 is located at 1642 West Temple St.