, ,

Case cracked: The mysterious, hanging red-glitter shoes

Photo by Emma Cunningham

From Manny Castro's Facebook page

The Eastsider LA first brought this to our attention last week: just up the street from where we live, a mysterious pair of glittering red high-heel shoes and a trophy cutout were noticeably hanging from power lines. Then they popped up in Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Hollywood -the trophy cutout bearing the words: “This Hollywood Life.”

And before you think it, it’s not one of those signs of gangs and drug dealers marking their territory (unless they really love Hollywood glitz and glam). Nor is it the genius ad campaign for Wicked returning to Los Angeles. In fact, we think the case has been cracked.

It’s the work of artist Manny Castro, basically an ad for his upcoming show at new Echo Park Gallery iam8bit. The gallery started off with a bang last month with its show featuring 80’s video game inspired artwork, and with all the guerrilla art going on, this new show is bound to have the same effect. We’ll share more info about the show once we learn more!

Manny’s show, This Hollywood Life, starts September 29, 2011 at iam8bit, located at 2147 W. Sunset Boulevard

/184 Comments/by
, ,

Must love beer: Echo Park’s Sunset Beer Co. opens doors Saturday

Logo by Evan Spiredellis of JibJab Media

Last night we were thrilled to be a guest at the pre-opening party for Echo Park’s newest addition to the neighborhood beer craze – Sunset Beer Company. It’s been about a year of transformation and lots of anticipation in the 2,000 square foot space, a former ladies gym on the 1400 block of Sunset Boulevard.

Behind the labor of love: John Nugent and wife Jennifer Morgan of Colorado Wine Company, along with partners Jenna Miller-Von Ah and Drew Von Ah (also investors in Eagle Rock Brewery). Joining them is beer- and wine-lover Alex Macy as the manager – he’s who you’ll normally see around the shop running the day-to-days.

The shop itself, from what we can remember of last night’s festivities, is warm and minimalist. Treated concrete floors, candles, eclectic art hanging on the walls, and dark leather arm chairs give it a library meets beer meets romance atmosphere. It’s certainly not a liquor store or your average beer store, and the tasting area offers plenty of time to lounge, sip, people watch, and chat with your new friends seated nearby. Designer Rick Crane will take credit for the design of the store, as well as nearby Colorado Wine Company. In the Sunset Beer Company press release, they wanted “an environment for beer that doesn’t feel stuffy but also takes the idea of beer and beer appreciation seriously.” We think they accomplished that!

Read more

/141 Comments/by
,

Keep Echo Park clean: CA Coastal Cleanup Day tomorrow

Join thousands of volunteers at over 60 cleanup sites in Southern California beaches, rivers and parks for Heal the Bay’s 2011 Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday (tomorrow!).

Trash weigh-in at Echo Park Lake, photo via Heal the Bay

In past years, Echo Park Lake has been a major concentration for these cleanups – in 2009, 120 volunteers cleaned up 1,000 pounds of trash and over 6,000 cigarette butts around Echo Park Lake alone. Keeping inland cities and neighborhoods clean are important for our beautiful coastline – a lot of our trash ends up in the ocean from inland creeks and waterbeds.

Echo Park Lake is currently gated up and being cleaned/rehabilitated under the Los Angeles clean water bond, Prop O. But that doesn’t mean Echo Park streets don’t need help, so there are actually two locations in the neighborhood for you to volunteer:

Location 1: Vista Hermosa Natural Park

100 N. Toluca Street

Location 2: GEPENC Office & Community Center

1572 West Sunset Boulevard

Like past years, the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council (GEPENC) is spearheading Saturday’s cleanup effort, along with help from Office of Senator Kevin De Leon, Assembly Member Gil Cedillo, First District Supervisor Gloria Molina, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, Council Member Ed Reyes and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Lunch will be provided to participants courtesy of the neighborhood council. There will also be bulky item pickup in the area.

Signing up is easy! Just go to the Heal the Bay website. Click here to download the Echo Park cleanup PDF flyer to pass along to your neighbors and friends!

Echo Park CA Coastal Clean Up Day Event
Saturday, September 17th
9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Don’t live in Echo Park but want to participate? Inland neighborhoods like Silver Lake and Culver City, along with a slew of beaches will be cleanup site. Click here for the full list and map from Heal the Bay.
/1,236 Comments/by
, , ,

Chinatown celebrates harvest moon with a festival this weekend

Don’t let the morning marine layer keep you from thinking it’s still summer, but we’re gearing up to saying goodbye to 100 degree weather. Chinatown is celebrating the coming of Fall (which is September 23) and the Harvest Moon with its 73rd Annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on Saturday, September 17, 2011.

Apart from the art activities, food trucks, and a craft beer garden (yes!), the best part is the moon viewing via telescope provided by Griffith Observatory. Although the full moon was officially on Sunday, it will still be a nice night to check out the brilliant moon.

Full schedule after the jump:

Read more

/6 Comments/by

Hearing date set for Fix’s beer and wine application

Flickr photo via Stuart Fingerhut

Fix Coffee owner Marc Gallucci hopes to turn his thriving Echo Park coffee shop, Fix Coffee, into a place for a little nightlife as well – he applied this year for a Conditional Use Permit for the sale of beer and wine inside the cafe as well as outside on the 450 square foot patio. The application is up for review at City Hall early next month.

The notice provides the hours during which he will serve alcohol, which is limits sales from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm weekdays, and 10:00 am – 10:00 pm on weekends. This might be helpful for direct neighbors, who have raised concerns that the quiet streets of that residential area will be interrupted with loud bar noises. Add additional stress on already limited parking, and the elementary school directly across the street, there are reasonable concerns. But not all residents are opposed, as we mentioned in a previous article about the issue on Echo Park Now. In a previous article publish by The Eastsider LA, resident Susan Borden is quoted as saying:

This is the first step in turning our neighborhood from a residential one into a commercial one.  When he moved in three years ago Marc Galucci (FIX owner) could see that this is a residential not a commercial neighborhood.  He wants to change it.  All along Echo Park Avenue businesses will try to get alcohol licenses and bring the club-goers up from Sunset.  Some people will enjoy that—they are [usually] the ones who are not adjacent to the businesses and don’t have to deal with the noise and trash. Most of us like the non-commercial nature of our canyon.

Like it or not, the hearing is set for Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 10:30 am at City Hall. Click here for the public notice PDF. If you support or don’t support the application and would like your opinion on public record, contact Christine Saponara at Christine.Saponara@lAcity.org and reference case number ZA-2011-2029(CUB).

Additionally, the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council is also expected to take a vote on whether or not to support the application by Fix at tonight’s Planning, Public Works, Parks and Land Use Committee meeting. In addition to Fix, GEPENC is discussing and/or taking action on conditional use permit applications from other Echo Park restaurants, including Xoia, a proposed 7-11 store on Glendale Blvd, as well as the new Echo Park Blvd. restaurant Red Hill. Click here for the PDF agenda for tonight’s meeting.

If you’re intersted in attending the Neighborhood Council meeting tonight, it takes place at 6:30 pm at the St. Paul Cathedral Center, located at 840 N. Echo Park Avenue.

 

/235 Comments/by
,

Echo Park Lake Odor Monitoring Group meets for the first time

Volunteers of the Odor Monitoring Committee met with the Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation Team (CD13, Public Affairs Office, Department of Public Works, etc.) last Wednesday, September 7 to discuss the draining of the lake what to expect in the near future.

According to the meeting minutes, the rehab project is on schedule, with the lake draining to be complete in a couple of weeks. Here’s where we are at the project:

  • 89 Red Haired Slider turtles were removed and are on their way to the California Tortoise Club and their Tortoise and Turtle Adoption Program
  • 300 fish have been captured and relocated
  • Paving on the pathways have been removed
  • New storm pipes will be installed at the east side of the lake in a couple of weeks

The first Odor Monitoring Committee reported a slight smell of fish, but no dead fish were found so far and they will continue to monitor.

As mentioned in our last Echo Park Lake article, construction workers will be keeping track of what they find in Echo Park Lake as they drain it – from shopping carts to other treasures, we’re hoping there are some interesting items and not any dead bodies or anything in the muck.

If you catch unusual odors from the lake draining, please go to www.EchoParkLake.org/odorreportingprocedure.pdf, call (213) 978-0317, or email bpw.pao@lacity.

The next Odor Monitoring Committee meeting is scheduled for October.

Click here for the meeting minutes, which includes a question and answer section from the committee members.

/877 Comments/by

Date a Dodgers fan: Singles night is back!

You’re single in Echo Park and a Dodgers fan – god forbid you end up dating a Giants fan!

As part of the Stadium’s “Group Theme Nights,” Singles Night takes place on Friday, September 16. Pittsburgh is in town, and it’s actually the last Friday Night Fireworks of the season.

The pre-game party (with music from a KLOS 95.5FM DJ) goes on from 5:15 pm – 7:10 pm in Lot B. The $25 ticket gets you a Infield Reserve seat, Dodgers cap and one drink, courtesy of Anheuser Busch.

Click here to buy tickets, and make sure to use the promo code SINGLES.

Call Dodgers Representative Charlie Brooks at 323-224-2630 email charlesb@ladodgers.com for more information.

/310 Comments/by
,

Today: Free Dodger Takeover Party at The Echo

Today’s free event at The Echo is inspired by frustrations with Frank McCourt’s handling of the Dodgers – so Origami Vinyl is organizing an “investor group to buy the Dodgers,” and is having a party to celebrate.

Today, at The Echo, enjoy a BBQ with free Dodger Dogs, veggie dogs, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks. They’ve also invented a drink called “The Vin Scully” for $5, Heinekens for $6.

Origami’s Dodger Takeover Party Presented By Pony Attack
Saturday, September 10th from 3:30 pm – 8 pm
The Echo, 1822 W. Sunset Blvd.

Set rimes:
4pm – The Black Apples
5pm – Summer Darling
6pm – Gestapo Khazi
7pm – Future Ghost

/1 Comment/by

My love letter to Echo Park

Flickr photo via Orrin

Inspired by a recent LAist post and the Foodlatio post, “One Man’s Love Letter to L.A.: If You Don’t Like It Here, ‘Get The Fuck Out'” I think we need to write a love letter to Echo Park to remind everyone (especially with the Echo Park Lake rehab project) why we love this ‘hood. We’ve had a couple of friends and roommates ditch out on LA after only a couple of months in Echo Park, and we think they missed out on a great thing. Here is our love letter, and feel free to share yours in the comments below.

Read more

/155 Comments/by
,

The newly revived Los Globos takes on a different crowd

Chromatics performs in the revived Los Globos. Photo by Taylor Kephart

Last Friday night, we made our way a little it outside of Echo Park to the soft opening of the revived Los Globos to see our friends Chromatics and Glass Candy take the stage, becoming quite possibly the first Indie group to perform at the traditionally Latino venue (just read the Yelp reviews, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

The booking by Echo Park Records and a fresh coat of paint on the outside indicated to us all that Los Globos had changed hands – in fact, the owners of El Cid just down the road purchased it just a couple of months ago (not Echo Park entrepreneur Mitchell Frank as we had thought).

But good news for fans of the venue before these changes: the ground floor remains the same, and will continue to host the Salsa and merengue nights Los Globos has traditionally had. But the ground floor was pretty empty (and smoke-filled), bringing up the question asked by LAist: Can hipsters and merengue fans co-exist?

Echo Park Records will continue to book bands as well as manage the venue. Be prepared with some cash at the cash-only bar (there’s an ATM if you forget), and $6 Coronas, $5 valet parking (don’t bother looking for street parking). They’ll continue to make changes to the building, and hopefully install a Las Vegas-sized air conditioner (man it was HOT in there). The grand opening is bound to be grand!

/by
,

What will they find in Echo Park Lake?

Ever since we learned of the Echo Park Lake rehab project, we’ve been thinking: What in the heck are they going to find in the bottom of the lake?

The contractors will be keeping track of everything found in the lake, and hopefully at the next Odor Monitoring Group meeting we’ll learn what’s been found so far. And we’re optimistic they won’t find any (ahem) bodies… but certainly some illegal items made their way into the murky depths.

So now we are taking bets: How many shopping carts? Knives? Jewelry? Sunken boats? Tell us what you think!

In the meantime, here’s the latest from the EchoParkLake.org website:

Read more

/359 Comments/by
, ,

The changing landscape of Echo Park Lake

Click here for the full map (PDF)

In case you’ve missed it, there are not only covered fences up around Echo Park Lake, but it’s also looking a bit… lower now. That’s because the rehabilitation project has finally (and sadly) begun – phase one of the draining having started at the end of August, pumping about eight feet of water out of the lake and into the storm drains.

The temporary pools have been installed, and with all the muck in the lake water already it seems the wildlife is taking advantage. The fish and other water wildlife (turtles, etc.) will be relocated once the lake has been drained a few feet (supervised by a wildlife biologist), after which the lake will be completely drained and the Odor Monitoring Group will be called upon to monitor.

After a July 20, 2011 Echo Park Lake Rehab public meeting, a couple of improvements were made after residents spoke up:

  1. A portion of the sidewalk on the west side of the lake along Glendale Boulevard will be closed after residents complained the sidewalk was too narrow, and thus dangerous, for pedestrian use. They will install alternate route signs.
  2. Parking restrictions along Echo Park Avenue have been slightly relieved – instead of No Parking between 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, it’s 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. Residents more recently pointed out that the parking isn’t even being used by construction workers. According to one resident, who contacted the project managers, the parking will be used by construction workers since the Lady of the Lake statue was removed (apparently she was in the way of construction access).

Read more

/1,525 Comments/by
, ,

Echo Country Outpost taking up new diggs

Echo Country Outpost has been host to many types of events – ho-downs, BBQs, and musical acts reminiscent of the ol’ Echo Curio days (don’t tell the city of LA). Opened in November 2009 by Erica Forneret, Chris Hajek, and Brendan Missett, the small space on Echo Park Avenue has been a great neighborhood and family-friendly establishment for music and shopping (they carry the kinds of antiques and hand made items that make the store feel like home).

But now it seems that they may have outgrown the store, which occupied the same building as the former Echo Park Cycles (now frame store Hotel de Ville) – “for rent” signs decorate the commercial space hoping for new occupants. The Echo Country Outpost website says only: “The Outpost is real busy traveling the country and cooking up big plans for the future of Outposts in Los Angeles and around the world.”

Call it perfect timing, but production company 2HeadedHorse recently vacated their production space at 1770 Glendale Boulevard, just south of the 2 Freeway entrance, and it seems our friends at the Outpost have settled on some new diggs. Posting a sketch on their Facebook page, the Outpost looks to be expanding beyond what we thought the Glendale Boulevard storefront even had – there’s an inner court/patio, an atrium and gift shop, studios, lofts, a kitchen, even a bar!

We’ve reached out to the guys and gals at Echo Country Outpost for further details, but expect a lot of great Echo Parkian thinks to do up on the Glendale corridor.

/2 Comments/by
,

Go “pazzo” with some local Echo Park gelato

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer



“Pazzo” may mean crazy – but there’s nothing wrong with the culinary flavors of the new Echo Park gelato spot, Pazzo Gelato. This is the second store for the family-run business, which opened the first location in Silver Lake in 2006. The Echo Park location, which opened in July, is just a mile down Sunset, and fills an ice cream void for us locals (Kind Kreme also has great vegan ice cream options).

Though the Echo Park location offers fewer flavors than the Silver Lake location (18 here, 24 there), it still has mouth-watering flavors like Blood Orange Sorbet, Watermelon, and the unusual Butter Brown Sugar Bacon. Since the flavors are made fresh from local ingredients, they do change so make sure to check them out on Facebook to see what’s in the freezer.

For our first-ever visit, we ordered Almond Expresso Chip, and a Plum-Mango Sorbet combo (half of each). Two medium scoops cost us around $10 (plus I always tip!), which is about right for this type of treat – it sure ain’t your RiteAid ice cream!

In addition to free parking behind the Citibank building, there is also free wi-fi and plenty of seating, including a spacious patio area overlook Sunset Boulevard.

Next up, we’re looking forward to trying the food menu – gourmet coffee, bagels, bagel/breakfast sandwiches, and sweets. It’s also nice they are open at 7:30 am for the early morning commute! We are hoping to see an addition of paninis and other sandwich options to the menu as well.

Pazzo Gelato is located at 1910 West Sunset Boulevard.

/3 Comments/by
,

LAFD Motorcyclists head east, 9/11 memorial service Sunday

On August 25, the LAFD Fire Hogs departed from the Los Angeles World Trade Center Memorial in Elysian Park, joining other LA Firefighters on the road to the World Trade Center in New York to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The LAFD Fire Hogs are a group of “retired and active-duty firefighters.” They’ll be traveling by motorcycle the whole way.

Here in Los Angeles, the nearby Los Angeles World Trade Center Memorial will be the site of a memorial service “commemorating our collective loss and affirming our personal resolve.” September is also National Preparedness Month.

“This year will mark the 10-year anniversary of 9/11,” Erik Scott of the LAFD told Our Weekly, “and the Los Angeles Fire Department asks you to take time to remember those lost as well as time to make sure you are prepared for future emergencies.”

The memorial shown in the picture to the left is a 23 ton, 22 foot tall steel column that originally was part of the World Trade Center lobby, and believed to be the largest remnant on the West coast.

The free and public event is on Sunday, September 11, 2011 from 9:00 am – 10:00 am, with a reception immediately following.

The Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center is located at 1700 Stadium Way.

/646 Comments/by