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Dodger Stadium’s Tourist Photos Mapped

Photo by Eric Fischer via Flickr

You may or may not know that when you upload your photo(s) on Flickr, you can “geo-tag” them, providing a location for each photograph. Photographer Eric Fischer has taken the geo-tagged information and turned it into maps that indicate tourists that have posted photos (the red lines and dots) versus the locals (the blue lines and dots). The resident photos are determined by those who posted photos in the city “dated over a range of a month or more,” while the tourists are “people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month.” The yellow dots and lines are those who can be either tourist or a resident, and it couldn’t be determined which was which.

The map above shows a zoomed-in view of the “Los Angeles and Pasadena” map. Quite a few tourist shots going on there! Click on the map to view the full map and more of Eric Fisher’s geo-tag maps for other parts of Los Angeles.

Also – shoutout to LAist for its article today on the maps!

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Echo Park Film Center Screenings and Workshops

Thursday, June 10 @ 8:00 pm – SAN FRANCISCO’S EXQUISITE CORPSE & INTIMATE OBSERVATIONS
Super 8 films from San Francisco! Intimate Observations is a collection of moving collages, left-field narrative and cinema vérité committed to the confines of small gauge celluloid. Filmmakers include Phoebe Tooke, Christian Bruno & Natalija Vekic, Paul Clipson, Daniel Gorrell, Jim Granato, Miles Montalbano, Douglas Schultz and “King of Super 8” Danny Plotnick. The second half of the show will feature Exquisite Corpse films. Each of these films was created using a 3 minute cartridge of Kodachrome super 8 film and was assigned a topic chosen by the group, with six 30 second opportunities to describe the subject. The filmmakers edited their contributions ‘in camera’ and the films are presented as they w ere shot. Live music by Don Black of GHIANT and Eric McCann of the New Amsterdams will be featured to score the 2nd half of the show (Exquisite Corpse).

Saturday, June 12 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm – SENIORS DIGITAL DROP IN CLASS
EPFC invites neighborhood seniors to join us for our FREE Introduction to Digital Filmmaking Drop-In Classes. Learn how to use digital cameras and basic computer editing software to make your own movie in a relaxed and informal setting. All materials and equipment are provided by EPFC. No previous filmmaking experience necessary.

Saturday, June 12 @ 8:00 pm – ARMCHAIR ADVENTURES III: AN EPFC ANALOG ANNEX EVENT
Another evening of bizarre, surreal, and wonderful animation from around the globe presented by John Cannizzaro and Cosmo Segurson. This evening’s screening will feature work by local animators including Colin Barton, Norwood Cheek, Nancy Jean Tucker, and co-presenters Segurson and Cannizzaro; as well as rare, 16mm classic animated films including THE HAND (Jiri Trnka 1965), CANON (Norman McLaren 1964), SCIENCE FRICTION (Stan Vanderbeek 1959); as well as LIVE MUSIC and refreshments. EVENT IS AT THE NEW EPFC ANALOG ANNEX… CALL OR EMAIL FOR DIRECTIONS!

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Edible Landscape Video

We found this video on the Huffington Post, called the “Edible Landscape of Los Angeles.” Click here for the article or check out the video below to watch:

While the video above might take place in nearby Silver Lake, there is a LOT of fallen fruit in Echo Park to explore.

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Echo Park Guitar Shop The Fretted Frog Opens its Doors

Photo courtesy of Roland

I’m not gonna lie to you guys; I don’t know a damn thing about guitars. But that’s okay because Roland does. Roland is the owner of The Fretted Frog, Echo Park’s newest “alternative acoustic guitar store.”

Roland is a musician/former corporate accountant from Toulouse (southern France), but his story is similar to many Americans’. When the recession hit, he was forced to re-evaluate what he was doing with his life. When his job as a corporate accountant ended, he decided to pursue his other passion: music. He had spent some time in southern California and chose Echo Park as the location for his store because, according to Roland, it has a much more down-to-earth vibe than many other southern California neighborhoods.

Photo courtesy of Roland

Roland runs the store with two other guys, Colin and Aaron. When I stopped by to visit the store the other day, Colin and Roland were seated opposite each other in one of the stores open spaces, jamming. Guitars, banjos, mandolins and ukuleles cover each wall, but every instrument is given a certain amount of space creating the impression that each one is a work of art. Roland has done on this purpose in order to distinguish himself from warehouse-like stores such as Guitar Center. He wants every customer to wander the space, pick up whatever catches their eye, play around with it and, in the end, make their own decision. He’s not a fan of guitar store employees telling customers what to buy.

Again, I don’t know a damn thing about guitars, so if this piques your interest, I suggest stopping in and meeting the guys. Their hours are slightly abbreviated for the next couple of weeks until their grand opening (we’ll let you guys know when). They’re open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. They are located at 1200 N. Alvarado St. (right next to where Sunset meets Alvarado.

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Monday Menus: Grill ‘Em All Truck

The Grill ‘Em All truck frequents Echo Park, so it felt right to post its awesome menu.

Click here to follow the truck on Twitter for locations. For the website click here.

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Woodsist Festival

Tuesday, June 15th

Echoplex

6pm

$10 advance, $12 day of show

18+

Real Estate
Woods
Kurt Vile
Abe Vigoda
Art Museums
The Mantles
Nodzzz
Sun Araw
All Saints Day (Katy from Vivian Girls + Greg from Cat Power)
The Baths

Buy tickets here.

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Wagner at Machine Project Tonight

He’s not actually gonna be there (he died 117 years ago), but starting tonight and continuing through this month Machine Project is going to be hosting some “Wagneriffic” events and installations. They are collectively entitled Basement Wagner: A Brief History of the Bayreuther Festspiele and include an installation by Liz Glynn and performances and workshops organized by her and  Juliana Snapper. The opening reception is tonight (Saturday, June 5) from 6:00 to 10:00 pm. Here’s the full list of all the events:

Saturday June 5th, 6pm – 10pm:
Walking through Wagner
A step-by-step participatory walk-through of Wagner’s complete stage directions for all four operas. Opening night of installation.

Friday June 11th, 8pm:
We Sing the Ring
A Richard Wagner singalong lead by Juliana Snapper. Tone-deaf amateurs and aspiring professionals are welcome to come and learn the major leitmotifs in Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

Saturday June 12th, 8pm:
On the Operatic Origins of the American Space Program
Lecture by Jason Brown

Friday June 18th, 10am – 10pm:
Hojotoho!
Wagner’s song staged by a series of different artists acting as opera director, with Juliana Snapper as Brunhilde.

Saturday June 19th, 8pm:
the ing Cycle
A musical performance by ing. Closing night of installation.

Machine Project is located at 1200 N. Alvarado St.

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Skullphone Show Tonight at Subliminal Projects

From Orrin's Flickr

If you’ve lived in Echo Park for a couple of years, you probably remember seeing the above Skullphone poster perched atop a billboard overlooking Casablanca Furniture.

Skullphone has a new show at Subliminal Projects and the opening reception is tonight (Saturday, June 5) from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. The show is entitled Digital Media and it “examines the contradictions inherent in outdoor digital signage, demonstrating cause for both wonder and concern over the increasingly ubiquitous medium.  The artist explores advertising, government and private enterprise signage, and the California landscape on which outdoor media proliferate, making permanent on panels what is removable and reprogrammable in outdoor space.”

The show will run through July 2. Subliminal Projects is located at 1331 W. Sunset Blvd.

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Mishka Lunch Truck Day on Sunday

Another Mishka L.A. Lunch Truck day this weekend! Sunday, June 6, from 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm.

This is a great opportunity to check out the Mishka store and try those mobile food trucks you never seem to get to. Dosa Truck (Indian sourdough crepes), Mandoline Grill (Vietnamese cuisine), Lomo Arigato (Japanese cuisine), and Coolhaus (ice cream sandwiches!) trucks will be parked outside Mishka.

Mishka L.A. is located at 1547 Echo Park Ave.

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6th Annual EPFC Youth Film Festival

The 6th Annual Echo Park Film Center Youth Film Festival is tomorrow! There are two events, one in the early afternoon, and the other in the evening. Check out the details:

Youth Film Festival: FEED THE MONSTER

1:00 pm at The Smell (247 S. Main Street) in Downtown

Free, all ages welcome

EPFC will be screening youth films from around the world, plus video poems by King Middle School youth poets. There will also be an interactive video and musical performance, where audience members participate in some film loop making and musical improve (musical instruments encouraged!). In the final hour of the event, they will display the results of the interactive video/music-making.

Selected films, images and music will also be posted on EPFC ’s YouTube Channel here.

Work: EPFC Spring 2010 Youth Class Screening

Potluck at 6:00 pm, screening at 7:00 pm followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and instructors

Downtown Independent Theater (251 S. Main Street)

Free, all ages welcome

The EPFC’s youth class will debut their films they’ve been working on for the past three months. The films explore work in our society, turning the cameras “on the worker and becoming craftsmen themselves.”

Visit the Echo Park Film Center website for contact information.

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Flashback Fridays: Communists in Echo Park!

I've only found two pictures of Manewitz and they are both slightly creepy.

Big news! A suspected communist was arrested at his apartment at 1420 Echo Park Ave. and charged with “teaching and advocating overthrow of the U.S. government by violence”… on September 17, 1952.

Echo Park was home to a lot of communists and socialists during the couple of decades after the first Red Scare (in the 1920’s) and before the second Red Scare (in the 1950’s). However, it’s difficult to find information on the group’s activities as it is (understandably) not widely published. Most of the information we have are personal accounts and newspaper articles. That’s where the handy-dandy Los Angeles Times archive at the L.A. Public Library comes in!

I found an interesting little nugget of an article about a man named Robert Manewitz who was picked up by the FBI at his apartment in Echo Park. A long-time Communist Party member and the son of Russian immigrants, Manewitz first started organizing laborers and protests in the Midwest in the 1930’s. According to the article, he came to Los Angeles from Missouri in order to “take over the duties of some of California Communist Party leaders who had been arrested on similar charges of Smith Act violations.”

The Smith Act is a statute that basically says it’s illegal to do or say anything that could be seen as an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government. And you wanna know the really fun part? Although most of the cases under it were thrown out as unconstitutional, it’s still on the books today.

And what did Manewitz say to the press? “He refused to comment on the charges against him, saying only: ‘I don’t know what it is all about.'” Good man.

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EPIA Meeting Tonight

No plans to watch the Laker game tonight? Join your neighbors for the monthly Echo Park Improvement Association meeting to learn about what’s going on in the area.

On the agenda tonight, CD1 and CD13 council reps will update us on any district news (for instance, Alejandra Marroquin, Field Deputy for Garcetti’s office, usually provides updates on issues like the Echo Park Lake Rehab project, among others). Northeast and Rampart Division reps will also address the community on any police updates.

The featured speaker is a rep from Congressman Xavier Becerra’s office.

The meeting takes place from 7:00 – 9:00 pm in Williams Hall at Barlow Hospital (2000 Stadium Way). All are welcome!

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Get Ready for The Big Parade II

Feeling in shape (or out of shape) these days? Maybe it’s your time to join your neighbors for a free two-day, 35 mile walk throughout Los Angeles from Saturday, June 12 through Sunday, June 13.

The Big Parade is a two-day walk through Los Angeles. It starts at the famous Angel’s Flight Stairs, downtown, and works its way west, through multiple neighborhoods, stopping at the famous Music Box Stairs in Silver Lake – named after Laurel & Hardy’s Oscar-winning 1932 short film – for an overnight campout. Then, we continue through the stairways of Silver Lake, on to the Franklin Hills and Los Feliz. We traverse Griffith Park, and then walk through the Beachwood Canyon/Hollywoodland neighborhood, all the way to the Hollywood Sign.

Anyone can come along – for an hour, a day, or the whole hike. The group had a couple of practice hikes at the end of May to get everyone geared up and in shape, but there may just be another one this weekend (June 5 or 6) before the big day. Visit The Big Parade website for more information on those practice hikes and the event.

We will post the route map as soon as the event organizers do (camping sites are also being finalized). For now, feel free to get yourself geared up on your own by taking a tour of some Echo Park stairways.

Click here to download the PDF flyer for the event.

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Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in Angelino Heights

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through June 20, The Oasis Theater Company will be performing Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” in a private home in Angelino Heights. The play is interactive and is staged in different rooms throughout the house, with the audience sometimes sitting down to watch the action and other times following the actors from room to room. And if you get there an hour an hour early, you’ll be served some free borscht, bread, wine or vodka, and dessert!

Click here for more info and to buy tickets. Cost is $40 and show times are: Friday at 6:00 pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 pm.

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Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks series brings protesters

Photo via gmazariego on TwitPic (Elysian Park gate)

Protesters gathered yesterday around Dodger Stadium protesting the Arizona’s immigration law during the first of three Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks series (LA Now reports there ended up being a few hundred). The Diamondbacks are being focused on because owner Ken Kendrick has been supposedly tied to the Republican party in Arizona, which spearheaded the current immigration law. Click here for a call-to-action posted on the KPFK website for yesterday’s protest.

The Dodgers play the Diamondbacks again tonight at 7:10 pm.

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