… or works here or hangs out here, or you know one of them through a friend or through a friend of a friend. Perhaps that’s why it feels less like a store and more like someone’s home. But you never feel as though you’re intruding. The front of the space is a second-hand store; “But it’s also my living room,” says Whitney (resident/photographer) who happily showed me around her home.

The Clinic is both a living space for several artists and a space in which they’ve set up shop or studios. There’s a custom framing shop, Ballard’s Artwork Framing, run by Aaron Ballard and focused on personalized and sustainable framing. Adriana Rodriguez, a professional hair stylist, has set up a one-chair salon in the back of the space where she does work by appointment. And local band Pity Party (Have you heard of them? If not, check them out. They’re super.) does “design, layout and printing on 100 percent trash.” And it just seems to keep going. It’s less of a store than a living entity. Or an artists co-op, if you wanna get technical. Perhaps I’ll let the man that helms the whole operation, Drew, explain what it is.

Now for the hard data. The Clinic is located at 1832 W. Sunset Blvd. It’s on the south side of the street just east of the Sunset bridge that goes over Glendale. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday) and by appointment.

After the Echo Park Art Hop (aka Echo Park Public Displays of Art), stop by Feeding Birds Boutique for their 1 year anniversary.

February 6, 2010 from 6-9:00 PM

According to their Facebook event page, “Festivities will include live music by Miles Moore, snacks & drinks, and varied sales throughout the store!”

Bring your wallets as one of those sales includes 50% off all original organic print t-shirts, and free t-shirts with purchases over $100.

Click here to RSVP on their Facebook page.

Feeding Birds Boutique is located at 1825 Echo Park Avenue, Suite A

ADULT

Sunday, February 7 – INTRO TO FINAL CUT PRO: 1 – 5 pm

Calling all interested adults (ages 20+) looking to learn the beauty and grace of digital editing! All equipment and materials provided by EPFC. Class limited to 6 students;. Tuition is $60. $50 for members.

Monday, February 8 – INTRO TO DOCUMENTARY: 7:30 pm

In this 8-session class, students will learn the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking through the creation of a 5-minute film on family and/or community stories. No filmmaking experience necessary; all equipment and supplies provided by EPFC. ONE SPOT LEFT! Instructor: Josh Lee. Class limited to 6 students. Tuition is $250. $200 for members.

Read more

Adding to their already delicious-looking menu, Stories Books & Café is now serving Pancakes with Cinnamon Apples (yum!).

In addition to the breakfast item (which is making me hungry), Mondays are now “Mac N’ Mondays”, during which you can order their 3-cheese macaroni n’ cheese and green salad for $5.00 every Monday between 5-8:00 pm. “You bring the vino we’ll loan you the glass.”

Some more updates to their menu of events to keep you entertained throughout the week in Echo Park include:

– StoryTimeFunLand kids music hour every Wednesday at 4:30 pm.

– Tarot Card Readings with Marcella (on the patio) are now every Wednesday at 5:00 pm

– Friday Night Knits every Friday at 7:30 pm

– Happy Hour Book Discounts start Monday, February 8 from 5-8:00 pm. Get 20% off books from these sections:

Mondays: Music & Pop Culture

Tuesdays: Cookbooks & Child Care

Wednesdays: Biographies

Thursdays: Architecture, Art & Gardening

See you there Echo Park!

Stories Books & Cafe is located at 1716 Sunset Blvd.

CAFE HOURS
open at 8:30am Mon – Fri
(please enter through the back alley)

STORE HOURS
Mon – Thur 10:30am – 9pm
Fri & Sat 10:30am – 10pm
Sunday 11am – 7pm

Check out Useless Keys here.

Mondays at the Echo are always free, 21+. 8:30pm.

826LA just announced their upcoming writing workshops for kids and teenagers. Over the next month and a half, kids can learn to do things like write a screenplay, create a piece of fantasy writing and re-imagine Valentine’s Day (jealous!). Check out the listing on their website for more details and to sign up!

826LA is also working on a project called High School Students – Talk Back! In their own words:

“You, this generation’s high school students, know so much about education—and yet you’re rarely asked. 826LA is working with other 826 chapters nationwide to produce a sequel to 826 Valencia’s Talking Back: What Students Know About Teaching. Come to the 826LA writing labs and work with 826LA tutors to write essays for this book, for possible publication by Edutopia and The New Press!”

Click here for more info.

I’d like to welcome the weekend with two very different pictures from Flickr.

Echo Park Lake as a rainstorm passes by. From Newsphotog2's flickr.

Have You Seen My Dignity? From Pixx of Nixx's flickr.

There is a lot going on at Echo Curio this month! For those who don’t know, Echo Curio is located at 1519 Sunset Blvd. Echo Park, CA 90026 on the intersection of Laveta Ter and Sunsent Blvd. They open their doors 1 hour before shows start. Since the list is long I’m going to add one of those helpful read more links! Click below to see the list of February shows. Remember sometimes shows change at the last minute so check out their website to stay informed. Events are all ages and their is always art on the walls (a lot done by Echo Park residents).
Read more

A few days ago, we received some comments on our Echo Park Art Hop post regarding the galleries that AREN’T being featured during said event. We tracked down the writer of these comments and found what turned out to be a really cool guy and an awesome gallery that we never knew existed.

Artillery & Ammo is owned by Henry, a long-time Echo Park resident, and the shows are curated by Deryke. The reason that they don’t get a lot of press is because they’re tucked away in that strange spot on Glendale underneath the Sunset bridge. I’ll be writing more about them in another post dedicated to the stores and galleries in that little strip.

In the meantime, you should check out the group show that’s up right now.  It’s called “Friends of Ours…” and features three local artists: Bill Donovan, Maureen Sheilds and Patrick Haemmerlein. They’ll be having a hard closing (read: wine and cheese) for the show on Saturday, February 6th around 7 p.m.

I went to here for the first time a few weeks ago to see Black Church and it was great. They got the sound right. The girl working the door was very nice, the bathroom was clean and it wasn’t crazy packed. You can park on Glendale in that far right lane after a certain time at night. It was byob when I was there but I can’t say if that’s an official thing for the venue or not. Wouldn’t want to get anyone in trouble 😉

Leonard Gonzales of the Ear, Eye, Nose Candy blog will be collecting donations for Haiti at El Cid in Silverlake on Saturday, January 30, 2010.

Former Sunday’s Best drummer and Kite Eating Tree guitarist Tom Ackerman, will be playing with his new project, Star Part (Margate is also on the bill). The band will be donating the proceeds of the sales of their record “What You Bleed is What You Get” to the cause. A $5 donation will get you a copy of the Star Parts album and sticker.

All donations will be taken on behalf of the Los Angeles Chapter of The Red Cross to benefit the earthquake victims in Haiti.

Spitfire Girl, Pull My Daisy, Dusty’s Bistro, and Dangerbird Records have all donated items for a raffle as well.

Doors open at 9:00 pm and the show starts at 10:00 pm, $10 at the door.

Click here to check out the Ear, Eye, Nose Candy blog post and more information about the event, donations, and the raffle.

When: Thursday, February 04, 2010 from 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Where: 826LA East (Echo Park)

Purchase tickets here ($25.00 + service charge) and soon! Tickets are limited.

Event Description:

Join us for a panel discussion featuring some of the best hired hands in the business. Four freelance writers will share stories and advice about writing for various publications including newspapers and magazines. They will discuss their inspirations, how to turn an idea into a story, and how to get hired.

Joshuah Bearman is a former editor and writer at the LA Weekly. He has written for Harpers, McSweeneys, Wired, Rolling Stone, and contributes to This American Life.

Claire Hoffman works as a freelance writer for a number of national magazines, including Rolling Stone, GQ, and the New Yorker. Claire is also an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Riverside. Before going freelance, Claire worked for Condé Nast Portfolio and the Los Angeles Times, where she covered everything from Hollywood and polygamist Mormons to the adult entertainment industry.
 Claire has two masters degrees—one in religious studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School and another from the Columbia School of Journalism. Before coming to California, Claire worked as an intern and a freelance reporter for the New York Times.

Neal Pollack is the author of several acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling memoir Alternadad and the satirical cult classic The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature, originally published by McSweeneys. His freelance writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, GQ, Men’s Journal, Maxim, Details, Slate.com, Salon.com, and many other publications. His next book, STRETCH: The Unlikely Making Of A Yoga Dude, will be published in August by Harper Perennial. He lives about ten miles away from here, with his wife and son.

Joel Stein grew up in Edison, N.J., went to Stanford and then worked for Martha Stewart for a year. After a year of fact-checking at various important publications (okay, Readers Digest Books and TV Guide), he got hired as a sports editor at Time Out New York, where they paid him to write sentences. He felt like the luckiest boy in the world. Two years later he lucked into a job as a staff writer for Time magazine, where over seven and a half years he wrote a dozen cover stories on subjects such as Michael Jordan, Las Vegas, the Internet bubble and — it being Time and he being a warm body in the office — low-carb diets. After teaching a class in humor writing at Princeton, he moved to L.A. at the beginning of 2005 to write a column for the Los Angeles Times and work as a sitcom writer. In addition to working for the failed show Crumbs, he has already had two failed pilots at ABC and hopes to expand into failed pilots at other networks. He still contributes to Time and whatever magazines allow him to. He just sold a book proposal to Grand Central about learning how to be a man.

Moderated by Zach Frechette, Editor in Chief of GOOD.