Shandu One sculpts amongst his favorite graffiti pieces in La Fonderie

This weekend, the community along with the Echo Park Improvement Association (which I am a member of) will start a major cleanup of Glendale Boulevard, an almost blighted entryway to our beautiful Echo Park neighborhood. Throughout the planning process, we’ve been slowly discovering these amazing businesses located along the thoroughfare that you would honestly never know existed. Forget the recycling centers, empty lots, and graffiti-covered buildings. Here we are lucky to have places like La Fonderie located in Keystone Studios, an exciting world of LA’s best artists inside a huge brick building on Glendale Boulevard.

You probably recognize the building on Glendale Boulevard by the big graffiti/mural by JR (now infamous in Echo Park). But I got the idea for this article from friend, real estate agent, and EPIA chairperson Darren Hubert. He and Josh Post – the Echo Park resident who started and organized the Glendale Boulevard cleanup – visited as many businesses as possible one day, hoping to encourage everyone to contribute to the day of cleanup. Granted, I had read about the art space in a The Eastsider LA article when it first opened in June of 2009, but I really had no idea what was really going on these days.

Read more

Lots of cool stuff going on today – grand opening parties and other festivities all around Echo Park. Here’s the calendar breakdown in case you missed something:

Día de los Muertos celebration

Holiday altars and vendors along with the Echo Park Mariachi Festival. From 4:00 – 6:00 pm at El Centro Del Pueblo.

The Warehouse Anniversary Party

Starts at 7:00 pm. Live music, beverages, and Delilah’s Bakery cupcakes.

Villainy General Store Grand Opening

Music and refreshments from 7:00 – 10:00 pm.

Sunset Beer Company Grand Opening Party

Music and beer from 6:00 – 10:00 pm

Weekend Music

Origami Vinyl, The Echo, Bootleg, Lot 1 and Taix have some great music tonight and tomorrow.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!

Sunset Beer is hosting its grand opening party today just a month after it opened, the beer bottle shop and bar celebrating with, what else? Beer! They’ve recently added Golden Road Brewing Hefeweizen and the Golden Road Point the Way IPA (which I’ve had and it’s tasty!). There will certainly be some other beer-related shenanigans and some elbow rubbing with the staff and owners, so check it out!

Sunset Beer Grand Opening Party
Saturday, October 15 from 6-10:00 pm
Music by Mr. Cocoon
Sunset Beer Co. is located at 1498 Sunset Boulevard, #3

Also be sure to walk across the street to Villainy for its grand opening today!

The annual commemoration of Día de los Muertos along with the Echo Park Mariachi Festival takes place at El Centro Del Pueblo on Saturday, October 15, 2011. Entrance to the festival is free!

Everyone is welcome to create a free altar in commemoration of Día de los Muertos at the center, which goes on from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Vendor booths are $50.

The Mariachi Festival (from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm) features LAUSD Middleton Elementary School Mariachi and Flocorico Dancers.
Join your neighbors, family and friends for altars, culture, food, free arts and crafts for kids, and plenty of entertainment – including an art exhibit.

This event is co-sponsored by GEPENC, State Senator Kevin De Leon, Assemblymember Gilbert Cedillo and Los Angeles Council President Eric Garcetti.

El Centro Del Pueblo is located at 1157 Lemoyne St.

Contact Lidia Martinez at lmecdp@yahoo.com or 213-483-6335, if you’d like a space for your free altar or vendor booth.

One of our favorite vintage shops in Echo Park is celebrating its one year anniversary! Though owner Justin Warwick isn’t new to the store ownership thing in Echo Park (his first establishment was called Warwick Vintage at a couple of different locations on Sunset Boulevard), he and his team have done a fabulous job turning an empty warehouse into a thriving vintage store called, appropriately, The Warehouse. They also opened The Classroom LA down the street this year, where you can take classes on sewing, jewelry, terrariums, and more crafty things.

And what would be a one year anniversary without a celebration?

Drop by The Warehouse on Saturday, October 15, 2011. Starting at 7:00 pm, there will be live music, beverages, and Delilah’s Bakery cupcakes (uhm… YES!)

The Warehouse is located at 1197 West Sunset Boulevard. Contact events@thewarehousela.com for more information.

Also be sure to check out the store’s monthly events, including Movie Nights every third Tuesday, Comedy Night every third Wednesday, and the Echo Park Art & Design Fair every third Saturday. Click here for details on events!

For the week of Thursday, October 13 through Sunday, October 16, 2011

Thursday
Wild Beasts, Ema @ Echoplex
Manimal 2011 Showcase with Papercranes, Cameras, The Child, Guineafowl @ Echo
Family of the Year EP Release Show, Maniac, Black Flamingo @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Missions, Black Mambas, John Carpenter @ Lot 1 Cafe
Flying Platforms, Heart of Gold and Brian Kenney Fresno @ Taix Lounge
Thursday Night Residency: Sucker for Pumps, Aftergloam, Matthew Sikora, DJ sets by Alex Pastor & Andrew @ El Cid

Friday
Pure X, M. Geddes Gengras, Strangers Family Band @ Echo
Buraka Som Sistema, Oro11, DJ Panamami @ Echoplex
Aan @ Origami Vinyl
Katie Herzig, Butterfly Boucher, Amy Kuney @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Ashtray Boy, The World Record, The Honey Loving Cells @ Lot 1 Cafe
Barbara Manning, Circe Link @ Taix Lounge

Saturday
Back to School: Booking And Touring (How in the hell do I get a show?) @ The Echo
The Hold Steady, Jesse Malin @ Echoplex
Funky Sole @ Echo
Capsula @ Origami Vinyl
The Inevitable Backlash, Kozmonaut, Help, Wreck Of The Zephyr @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Lantern, Haunted Tiger, So Wrong, Mikki and The Mauses @ Lot 1 Cafe
Patrolled By Radar, Son Ark and Friends @ Taix Lounge

Sunday
Part Time Punks with Street Chant, Cool Moms, Neonates @ Echo
Walls, The Urxed, David Scott Stone @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Correatownm Peachy Keene, The Remainers @ El Cid

Visit the venue websites for more information on the cost and times of shows. Feel free to add more events in the comment section. All events listed are subject to change at any time, and new events announced for the week after this posting may not be included.

Glenn Hill with his first of many Halloween decorations, made from recycled materials

As an overworked adult these days, it’s easy to forget about the Halloween holiday. Not to mention, there are fewer decorations than the days of growing up in a small town, our mini suburbs full of kids trick-or-treating and haunted houses (remember the house that gave out full-size candy bars?!). Thankfully, however, we’ve got our very own resident bringing the Halloween spirit alive to one pocket of Echo Park.

I first noticed this house a few years ago when I lived in a dark little apartment across the street, my first Echo Park pad. As the Halloween holiday approached, we watched as an enormous figure took shape in front of our neighbor’s home, its giant arms reaching out over the sidewalk and a vague grotesque expression on its face. It was completely made out of paper and tape, surprisingly surviving our street and the weather. It turns out the papier-mâché figure was one of many, and certainly not the last.

Hoping to catch a glimpse of more of these figures, we met up with the artist himself, Glenn Hill. He’s lived in his Echo Park home on Douglas Street near Beverly Boulevard for about nine years now. Five or six years ago, he started hosting Halloween parties for fellow 12-step program members at his home – and what would a Halloween party be without decorations? Read more

Echo Park has recently become quite the beer destination, but who knows – maybe it’ll turn into the Yoga/Pilates/arts destination!

13-year Echo Park resident Tannis Kobrinsky saw the “for rent” sign next to the Yogala Echo Park space (in Peter Shire’s building) and, as she told us in August when construction started, “I knew this was the time and place. I’m extremely excited to be able to make this happen this year!” She wanted a place for Pilates classes as well as a dedicated art space, so that when you think about the studio, you think of it as a “wellness and cultural Salon.” Thus was born Pilates & Arts!

Tannis gets major kudos for her long-time residency in Echo Park, for opening the new studio, and for her major Pilates bod which you can check out on her website, HealtHabitravels.com (she’s inspiring me to get in shape!). While a grand opening party is planned for November (with a joint block party on November 13), this weekend she’ll be hosting a soft opening with a free “meet the machine” event so that any Pilates newbies won’t feel intimated trying out those machines like Pilates reformers, springboards, wunda-chair, and other exercise props with equally funny names.

You can expect traditional Pilates classes on the apparatus only in private, partner and group sessions, while Tannis will continue teaching Pilates mat classes at Yogala next door. Additionally, there will be a dedicated art wall in the studio along with intimate art gallery opens, art-related workshops and events during the studio after-hours.

You can sign up for the free “meet the machine” event on Saturday and Sunday, October 15 and 16, by calling (323) 913-9460 or email info@pilatesandarts.com. Classes will be held every hour between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm, and are limited to six people per hour.

Tannis wants to keep us budget-conscious folks in mind – Meet the Machine workshops will be held after the opening at $30 for three sessions. October is also a great month to sign up with Pilates & Arts – she is currently offering a discount on cash or check payments this month – 3 private session for $150, 3 partner sessions for $90, and 3 group sessions for $75 (must have prior experience practicing Pilates on the apparatus).

Pilates & Arts
1844 Echo Park Avenue

Reserve a spot: 323-913-9460 and info@pilatesandarts.com

Website

Hours:
Monday – Friday: 7:00 am – 8:00 pm
Saturday: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sunday: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Rates run $30 a person for a group class of 3-4 people max (or a series of 10 for $270), $40 per person for a partner class (or a series of 10 for $350), and $65 for a private class (or a series of 10 for $600)

Check the Facebook page for detailed hours on classes, and costs.

We all know it: Echo Park is the raddest. But it’s nice to get a little acknowledgment – LA Weekly’s Best of LA 2011 is out, and once again, we’ve got quite a few locations in our ‘hood to celebrate.

Keep reading what Echo Park businesses and locations made the Best of LA cut:

Spitfire Girl: Best Ironic Baubles for a Best Friend

Located along our stretch of Echo Park known as antique row, Spitfire Girl gets kudos for being a “more authentic version of Urban Outfitters’ indie accessories department.” From horses and owl-themed products to art books, jewelry, and woodcut wall art, LA Weekly recommends a stop as “you should have no trouble finding a unique gift for any lover of irony or beauty.” We have to admit we’ve never been to Spitfire Girl… we will definitely go now!

LA Weekly link
2203 Sunset Blvd. • (213) 989-1977 • spitfiregirl.com

Rewind Audio: Best Electronics That Don’t Fit in a Pocket

Audio geeks rejoice: “This is not the insanely priced stuff sought by audiophiles but great, quotidian, mainstream electronics…” says The LA Weekly.

Even better? “Their pristine little Echo Park shop attracts a steady stream of people in their 20s seeking a retro look and electronic equipment that’s fun to touch, as well as a 40s-and-up clientele who miss the richer sounds often lost to digital.

LA Weekly link
1041 N. Alvarado St. • (213) 273-8904 • rewindaudio.com

Read more

Photo by Martin Cox via The Eastsider LA

Rain fills just-emptied Echo Park Lake

The Eastsider LA published a photo by Martin Cox taken yesterday after a downpoor of rain filled up quite a bit of the just-drained Echo Park Lake. As the clouds separated, Cox captured a beautiful and dramatic photo of the lake with all that rain collected.

City hearing held on Fix Coffee’s beer & wine application

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning was the hearing for Fix Coffee’s application for a beer and wine license. While no official recommendations by the zoning administrator have been made (it’s expected in the coming weeks), Eric Garcetti of CD13 opposes the permit, as indicated in a statement issued by spokeswoman Julie Wong and published today on The Eastsider LA:

“After listening to community members on both sides and giving the issue careful consideration, Council President Garcetti decided to oppose the permit because he feels it is not quite right for the location at this time.”

Read more about the controversial application by Fix Coffee.

Echo Park Artist in the NY Times

The NY Times visited artist Lecia Dole-Recio in her Echo Park studio recently. Dole-Recio uses cardboard and paint to create collages of geometric shapes and strong colors. She has a show through October 15 at Richard Telles Fine Artin LA and an exhibit in December at the Secession in Vienna. Click here to read the full story.

High five! Flickr photo via falafelicious

Did a Dodger invent the high five?

Writer Jon Mooallem investigates the origin of the high-five, an investigation which led him to Dodgers outfielder Glenn Burke in 1977. After a home run by fellow Dodger Dusty Baker, Burke “thrust his hand enthusiastically over his head to greet his friend at the plate. Baker, not knowing what to do, smacked it. ‘His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back,’ says Baker, 62, who’s now managing the Cincinnati Reds. ‘So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do.'”

Of course the origins of such a thing are highly debated – read the article on TheWeek.com and decide for yourself!

Culture Collide Festival kicked off

The annual Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Fest kicked off yesterday, and end Sunday with the Toyota Antics block party at Reservoir and Sunset. Click here to get more info about the Festival.

 

The annual Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Festival descends on Echo Park this week, with dozens of performances at The Echo, Echoplex, Taix, 826LA, Origami Vinyl, Echo Park Independent Co-Op, Echo Park Methodist Church, and Reform Academy. The four-day fest brings artists from over 24 countries, along with live music there will be food, film screenings, and happy hours!

Along with musical performances, the International Happy Hour includes drink specials at Taix from 4-6:00 pm on Thursday and Firday, and 6-8:00 pm on Saturday, October 8. Click here to RSVP. The full schedule and lineup is also now available, click here.

Lineup includes artists like Ximena Sarinana from Mexico (who happens to have a new song titled “Echo Park”), along with headlines CSS, Clap Your Hands Say Yea, Avi Buffalo, and more. Echo Park always has some music events going on over the weekend, so if you don’t want to pay the $20 for the whole fest keep your eye out on the many music venues in the neighborhood for shows.

And finally like in past years, the festival ends with a free Toyota Antics block party event in Echo Park on Sunday, October 9. The party takes place at Reservoir and Sunset Boulvard, and often includes live music and family-friendly activities (we’ve seen bouncy castles before).

See you around!

For the week of Monday, October 3 through Sunday, October 9, 2011

The annual Culture Collide fest is upon us, but the schedule hasn’t been posted quite yet. In the meantime, there are plenty of musical events all over Echo Park for the next few days:

Monday
Screening Of “Fix”: The Ministry Movie @ Echoplex
Monday Night Residency: Swahili Blonde, Crooked Cowboy & The Freshwater Indians, Raw Geronimo, Dreamtapes @ Echo
Little Red Lung, Mind The Gap, Jim Hanft, Irontom @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Stephanie Rearick, Eric Potter Ambient Guitar Project, Daniel Ahearn @ Lot 1 Cafe

Tuesday
Peter Bjorn & John, Big Search @ Echo
89.9 KCRW Presents: Jolie Holland, Mr. French, Locksley, Italian Japanese @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Emperor X @ Origami Vinyl
Sketch Monster, Hank, Odd Modern @ Lot 1 Cafe

Wednesday
Dub Club @ Echoplex
Live Jazz Every Wednesday Night at 7:00 Pm @ Downbeat Café

Thursday
Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Festival Featuring: Liam Finn, Rainbow Arabia, Guineafowl, Handshakes, DJ Larry (Underground) @ Echo
Liam Gerner, The Americans, Patrick Park, Maxim Ludwig @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Roll The Tanks @ Origami Vinyl
6 Foot Peter, The Mo Odds, Blac Jesus & The Experimentalists, Empty Echoes @ Lot 1 Cafe

Friday
Yacht, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, The Morning After Girls, The Gift, Hands @ Echoplex
Cymbals Eat Guitars, Hooray For Earth, La Sera @ Echo
Mucca Pazza, Timur And The Dime Museum, AK and Her Kalasnikovs @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
Hooray for Earth @ Origami Vinyl
Stars At Night, Blood Buddies, Black Leg @ Lot 1 Cafe

Saturday
Css, Young Liars, The Yellow Dogs, Deskartes A Kant, De Staat, DJ Jason Bentley @ Echoplex
Funky Sole @ Echo
Chamberlin, Olin And The Moon, A B & The Sea, The Oregonian Film Screening @ Bootleg Theater/Bar
The Go Round @ Origami Vinyl
Pick Up Sticks, Radars To The Sky, George Glass, Dona Nicha @ Lot 1 Cafe

Sunday
Chad Vangaalen @ Culture Collide Festival
Part Time Punks With Big Troubles (Slumberland Records), Young Prisms, Kids On a Crime Spree @ Echo
Eagle Rock Gospel Singers, Sarah Winters, Doran Danoff Release Show, The Oregonian Film Screening @ Bootleg Theater/Bar

Visit the venue websites for more information on the cost and times of shows. Feel free to add more events in the comment section. All events listed are subject to change at any time, and new events announced for the week after this posting may not be included.

The photography of Echo Park resident Martin Cox will be celebrated at an Echo Park framing shop on Sunset Boulevard tomorrow, October 1, 2011. The art opening, titled Summer Navigation: Passage though the pastoral (an 18th century English machine in the modern era), will display some of Martin’s latest work and runs through November 5.

Enjoy some English tea and cookies (Martin is, after all, English), along with “cheese and crackers gromit.”

If you’re not familiar with this local photographer – well you’re missing out on some of the loveliest images of Echo Park and Echo Park Lake out there (I have a postcard on my fridge!). Martin also currently has an exhibit nearby at a Silver Lake/Echo Park gallery displaying his images of Echo Park and Los Angeles through November 2.

Summer Navigation: Passage though the pastoral
Aaron Ballard’s Framing & Gallery
1568 W. Sunset Boulevard
Saturday, October 1, 2011 from 8:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Exhibit runs through November 5, 2011

Flickr photo via Andy Sternberg

On Saturday, October 1, 2011, Echo Park’s own nursery slash lighting store will be the host of 24 Hours on Sunset, an evening of short plays written by the talented Sharon Yablon and music by Thomas Chan. The scenes and monologues performed are about those eccentric characters that populate the long stretch of Sunset Boulevard from east LA all the way to the beach.

But don’t worry, the play doesn’t last 24 hours – “They don’t state what time it is, but the language, setting and tone is suggestive of a certain time of day or night.  The show is somewhat of a ‘day in the life’ of Sunset Blvd., and the variety of people who populate it,” Yablon told the LA Writers Examiner.

The performances feature Adrian A. Cruz, Jacqueline Wright, Eugene Butler, and Michael Bonnabel. It will start on the street outside of Mi Alma, then move into the space where each short play is set in a different spot (so there will be walking and standing).

Along with the play itself, tamales and sangria are complimentary – but donations are accepted!

Please RSVP by emailing Sharon at syablon22@gmail.com

24 Hours on Sunset
Saturday, October 1, 2011
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Mi Alma Gardens at 1901 Echo Park Ave.

The Echo Park Avenue storefront that housed Echo Country Outpost for two years donned newly hung For Rent signs earlier this month when the folksy store slash gathering space decided to move up to Glendale Boulevard. Owners Erica Forneret and Chris Hajek (newly married!) along with Brendan Missett are very excited to expand their shenanigans to the former and HUGE 2HeadedHorse productions at 1770 Glendale Boulevard, although sad to leave their little corner at Echo Park Avenue.

So in celebration of the move, and a goodbye to their former diggs, the Outpost is having a little shindig. “Love, warmth, beauty, playfulness, bright colors, wooden smells, whiskey drinks and downhome art & music will all be magnified at the new Outpost…,” said the event invite. “Starting at 9pm on the 29th y’all should come over, listen to some good music, spend some time with this version of the Outpost and set a good course for what’s to come.”

See ya there, and good luck to the Outpost on the move!

Echo Country Outpost moving party
Thursday, September 29 at 9:00 pm
1930 Echo Park Ave