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Melba Morris Ballet Studio closing

The Melba Morris ballet studio has been operating in Echo Park since 1988, but Thursday (August 25, 2010) will be the studio’s last day open.

The message on the answering machine says that the Echo Park location will be closing, and that the future location of the studio is uncertain. Melba may be doing some private coaching but will not likely be teaching on a daily basis.

Ms. Morris has been offering low-cost ballet and dance classes to the area for over 20 years. It’s a little sad to see the studio close, but we wish her the best of luck!

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Get inspired: Novel writing class in Echo Park

It's hard not to be inspired in Echo Park. Flickr photo via Alysa Pakkidis

Echo Park resident and novelist Tempany Deckert is offering a Beginner’s Novel Writing Class on Wednesdays, starting September 1. While the class isn’t free, you will get to:

Learn to write your very own novel in this fun, informative and inspiring class. Taught by eighteen time novelist, T. Deckert, you’ll learn how to develop characters, plot, structure and most important of all, have the discipline to complete your very own work of art. Anyone can write, but not many people can navigate their way through the entire novel writing process. In this class you’ll not only learn the tricks of the trade, but you’ll complete your very own book over the course of 10 weeks.

Cost of the class is $260, and class size is restricted to so sign up fast!

To reserve your spot, email Tempany@mac.com

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Donate to Blue Collar’s Military K9 Program

Flickr photo via The U.S. Army

Blue Collar in Echo Park has been collecting donations for their Military K-9 Program, in which the business sends military K9s in Afghanistan some much-needed dog items, including beds, shampoos, ear cleaners, medicines, joint support, treats, and grooming supplies. They were also accepting items for the K9 handlers such as bug spray, sun screen,vitamins, coffee, etc. They have had success collecting those donated items, but the boxes have become expensive to ship the items – just two boxes cost $100 to ship to Afghanistan.

They are asking for monetary donations or someone with a Postal Service business account to help by funding some of the shipping (they can only ship via USPS). They have four boxes that need to be shipped, and Blue Collar needs your help!

Stop in and talk to the folks at Blue Collar about how you can help.

Blue Collar is located at 1533 Echo Park Avenue.

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How high can you go? Avalon St. development criticized

The corner used to have a gas station. Flickr photo via mr. rollers

This skinny housing development was a topic of conversation at the Echo Park Improvement Association last week when a few of the residents next door to the proposed development expressed their discontent. The eight “live/work lofts” at Echo Park Avenue and Avalon Street tower over the neighborhood at four stories high (45 feet), and design-wise it doesn’t appear to fit in well with the rest of the 1920s-era homes in the neighborhood.

The nearly 8,000 square-foot lot covers both 1910 N. Echo Park Ave. and 1615 W. Avalon St. Each single-family unit is less than 19 feet wide and 39 feet deep, and three stories plus a ground-level parking floor that fits cars end-to-end. Cars pulling in and out of the units will have to navigate Avalon Street, a narrow street always packed with parked cars.

The resident who owns the home pictured directly to the left of the rendering (see above) is very concerned with with the density of the project, saying, “It is a clear abuse of how community planning intended the lots to be used.” The lots are zoned commercial (there used to be a gas station on the corner, pictured to the left), and developer Echo Park, LLC is asking the city to “sub-divide a commercially zoned lot,” allowing developers to build the 1,000 square foot units under the city’s small lot subdivision ordinance.

The neighbors have sent out emails and posted the following call-to-action on the Echo Elysian Neighborhood Council forum: “Avalon Street is used as a thoroughfare for residents of surrounding streets, and families with children walking to our many neighboring schools and day care centers. This proposed development is unsafe as currently planned. Residents surrounding the vacant lot are not against development, just the large inappropriate development currently proposed. Please help protect the character and safety of our Echo Park neighborhood. A quick call can make a big difference!”

September 1 is deadline if you’d like to express your opposition to (or support for) the project on Avalon Street. You can call or email Eric Garcetti’s office and let them know you are a constituent and a concerned resident of Echo Park.

Case number: VTT-70653-SL

Eric Garcetti’s phone: (323) 957-4500

Alejandra Marroquin is the Field Deputy for Echo Park. You can call her at the number listed above or email her at alejandra.marroquin@lacity.org

There are more reasons to oppose this project. Please email avalon.echopark@gmail.com if you’d like to learn more.

UPDATE:

The City is still accepting official comments on the development. Send an email to Sarah Molina-Pearson at sarah.molina-pearson@lacity.org

Related Articles:

  1. “Thin is in when it comes to new Echo Park homes.” August 18, 2010. The Eastsider LA
  2. “Slices of Echo Park life up for sale.” February 17, 2010. The Eastsider LA
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Cooling down at Echo Park Pool in 1958

Photo via USC Libraries

The Echo Park Shallow Pool in 1958, with the 101 Freeway in the background. This pool (located by the Rec Center) is now closed until further notice, but the Echo Park Deep should be reopening today after dealing with some cloudy water issues.

h/t USC Libraries for the photo!

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Echo Park’s Week in Music

For the week of Monday, August 23 through Sunday, August 29

Monday
Monday Night Residency – Fol Chen, Crocodiles, Woom, Jessica 6 @ Echo
Asss, Bestial Mouth, Tik//tik, White Leopards @ Echo Curio
Sean Carnage presents: Stellaluna, Blood Beach, White Fang, Sexhair @ Pehrspace

Tuesday
Henry Wolfe, Charlie Wadhams, Sunday Soundtracks @ Echo
Gza, Freddie Gibbs, Kendrick Lamar, Toks, Abcnt @ Echoplex
Chelsea Boys, Buffalo Moon, Tan Dollar, The Cosmonauts (Burger Records) @ Echo Curio
Big D (Little Richard Tribute), Thee White Dogs @ Bootleg Theater

Wednesday
Dub Club @ Echoplex & Echo
City Of Progress, Whqles (Both Last Shows!!!), Random Patterns @ Echo Curio
Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses, The Americans @ Bootleg Theater
Live Jazz every Wednesday night at 7:00 pm @ Downbeat Cafe

Thursday
Juliette Commagere, Papercranes, Luke Rathborne, Estelle Raskina @ Echo
Vaud And The Villains, Lil Gizzelle, Rt N The 44s @ Echoplex
Learning Music Residency With Gals, Forget Me Nauts @ Echo Curio
Black Mountain (Jagjaguwar), Lower Heaven @ Bootleg Theater

Friday
Club Underground With Little Ones, Downtown/union, Kissing Tigers @ Echo
The Shants, Evan Ap Roberts, Dead Flowers, Ricky Stein @ Echo Curio
Easter Everywhere Presents: Gamble House, Walter Meego, Mystery Claws @ Pehrspace
Shannon Curtis, Jt Spangler, Aaron Beaumont @ Bootleg Theater

Saturday
Lit Crawl II and Funky Sole @ Echo
Heather Woodbury’s As The Globe Warms, followed by Cinder Cone, Swore, Towards Distant Suns, Snore Tape @ Echo Curio
Cap’n Jazz, Abe Vigoda, The Black Apples @ Echoplex
Cobra Lilies EP Release, Evangina …Daylong Valleys Of The Nile @ Pehrspace
Nate Lapointe Band @ Origami Vinyl

Sunday
Part Time Punks with Batwings Catwings, Dadfag @ Echo
Pete Swanson, Rene Hell, John Wiese, Robedoor, Infinite Body @ Echo Curio

For more information on weekly musical events like club nights, see our community resource pages.Visit the venue website for more information on the cost and times of shows. Venue information can be found in our community resource pages.

This list may not represent all the musical events happening in Echo Park this week – feel free to add more events in the comment section. All events listed are subject to change at any time. New events announced for the week after this posting may not be included.

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Gentlemen’s Breakfast gets a celebrity visit

The folks at Gentlemen’s Breakfast in Echo Park got a visit this week from Loney Island, the guys behind the musical parodies like “I’m on a Boat.” The vintage eyewear shop opened April this year at 1101 Mohawk St.

Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Jonah Goldstein

And just because I would never, ever have an excuse to post a video so ridiculous on Echo Park Now, here’s the “I’m on a Boat” video from Loney Island (cover your children’s ears):

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Echo Curio nixes BYOB

When you go out this weekend to see some awesome shows in Echo Park, don’t forget that the Echo Curio is no longer allowing patrons to bring their own booze to the gallery’s shows. Last week the curiousity shop tweeted “changes they are a-coming – ECHO CURIO is going to go dry for the time being… no byob in or out of the shop… sorry for inconvenience.” This week they confirmed the news with a blog post, saying:

We’re now an alcohol-less venue, neither selling nor allowing byob anymore. It is for the greater good, according to the LAPD, so all we can suggest is get your freak on before or after you visit us. Or maybe sneak out in the middle for a quickie… My word!

It seems they were visited by the LAPD on August 9 during a show, and were cited for being a “bottle club.” Co-owner Grant Cape told the LA Times music blog Pop & Hiss: “Funny thing was, we had no one drinking outside, no loud music playing, and maybe five adults drinking inside.” Either way, patrons had to poor out what drinks they did have (for quite a few months now, the Curio hasn’t allowed drinking outside).

So is this the future of venues like Echo Curio, where BYOB or a cooler of Colt 45 will be a critical concern of neighbors and the LAPD? It’s becoming such a common (and expected) part of the “speakeasy” shows in LA, especially in areas like Silver Lake and Echo Park. What once started as an innovative way to bring customers into an art gallery or a record store, now might be a problem. The Echo Curio isn’t as concerned, Cap told the LA Times, “[This] will make it harder to get a crowd, I think, but we’ll see.”

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Echo Park Pool closed temporarily

Tweetphoto via brookiescookies

Just when the heat is starting to get to us all, it looks like the Echo Park Pool is closed for at least today. The message phone (and the sign pictured above) says the pool is closed for safety reasons – the pool pump and filtration system is broken, and the water is so cloudy they can’t see the bottom of the deep part of the pool. No word on when the pool will reopen, but definitely not today.

Call the pool phone at (213) 481-2640 before you go to the pool this weekend and make sure it’s open!

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Blood Drive and Health Fair tomorrow

Before you head off to Sunset Junction this weekend (and especially before you hit the beer garden), stop by the Doll Factory in nearby Historic Filipinotown and donate some blood!

The L.A. Derby Dolls and Eric Garcetti’s office have teamed up to host a FREE Blood Drive and Health Fair tomorrow, Saturday, August 21, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Get there early – they expect over 500 residents!

Besides the blood drive, they will be offering free services, including:
Mammograms (email questions@derbydolls.com for an appointment)
Blood Tests – St. Vincent’s Hospital
Diabetes Testing – St. Vincent’s Hospital
Body Fat Testing – St. Vincent’s Hospital
STD Testing – Planned Parenthood
Birth Control Information – Planned Parenthood
Referrals for Clinical Breast Exams and Gynecological tests – St. Vincent’s Hospital
Bone Marrow Registry – Be The Match
6 massage therapists – Royal Thai Massage
Doll Repair Team – medical staff of Chiropracters, Physical Therapists and Acupuncturists, led by Dr. Rick Fox
Self Defense Workshop – Johnathon Blank
Body image Workshop – Hollywood Chapter, National Organization for Women
Proper Dental Care workshop – Western Dental
Nutrition Workshop – YMCA
Making Healthy Tamales Workshop – Mama’s Hot Tamales
Free Food and Refreshments – Brooklyn Bagels, Masa, Mama’s Hot Tamales, La Guerra Tamaleria, Ex Drinks, Tropical Cafe, Gigi’s Cafe
MediCal Enrollment and Low Cost Insurance – St. Vincent’s Hospital and Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic
Information on Free/Low-Cost Services – Department of Mental Health

The Derby Dolls will also give you a half-off coupon for the all-star bout on September 11 when you come to the Fair!

Second Annual Free Health Fair
Saturday August 21, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Doll Factory located at 1910 W. Temple St.
email questions@derbydolls.com for more info

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Upcoming EPFC Filmmobile Screenings

Friday, August 20 @ 8:00 pm – KILLER OF SHEEP
Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouses. It was shot on location in Watts in a series of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. Finished in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, the Library of Congress has declared it a national treasure as one of the first fifty on the National Film Registry.

Friday, August 27 @ 8:00 pm – INTOLERANCE
For the last event of the 2010 Filmmobile Summer Screening Series, we’re excited to present DW Griffith’s 1916 silent epic. “Professor Theodore Huff, one of the leading film critics of the first half of the twentieth century stated that it was the only motion picture worthy of taking its place alongside Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the masterpieces of Michelangelo, etc. as a separate work of art.” –Wikipedia. LIVE MUSIC BY DUBLAB.

All screenings are free and open to the public. The locations are secret until a few hours before the screening. You can call (213-484-8846), email (info@echoparkfilmcenter.org) or follow them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/EPFCfilmmobile).

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Bird lovers club returns to Echo Park Lake

Flickr photo via Zeus Of HollYWOoD

The Echo Park Ornithology Club used to meet every other Sunday at Echo Park Lake to, well, watch the birds! It seems that it has been a while since those Sunday meetings have occurred, possibly because of the swap meet that used to take place every Sunday. It should now be a welcoming place for bird watchers on the weekends since the swap meet was shut down a couple of weeks ago. The Facebook events page reads, “The cops kicked all the vendors out of the park, so it’s time to watch some birds again! GO BIRDS!”

If you’re interested in joining the Ornithology Club,

Some info about the Club:

The Echo Park Ornithology Club is a small group of naturalists, bird-loving hipsters gone wild, animal friends, cute scientists, radical artists, and nerdy city punks. We organize nature hikes, bird watching parties, science lectures, natural history field trips, community outreach and conservation activities, etc. Come out and join us, dude!

We meet roughly every other Sunday afternoon at Echo Park Lake. Join the mailing list or watch Facebook and MySpace for event announcements. Propose an event of your own!

Email them at echoparkornithology@yahoo.com for more info, or visit the group’s Facebook page.

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Echo Park’s Missed Connections

“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.”

– Washington Irving

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August 9:

redhead at el prado – m4w – 32

hello there..

we locked eyes like a million times but you were sitting with some dude.

i moved behind you, you turned and i said hello.

you. are. hot.

i sure hope you see this.

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August 3:

Dan of Echo Park! Dance Right at La Cita on 07/29 – w4m – 23 (Echo Park (where you said you lived))

Oh, Dan of Echo Park, who works for the LA Times blog section (?)

You wore a black t-shirt with red horizontal bars and I wore a blue and white button down with a pencil skirt. You had cute glasses; I had black stilettos. You were walking by the bar, when I spotted you fretting and I told you to smile and cheer up a bit. A while later, you came out and told my friend that you wanted to talk to me. She told you to ask me to dance. So we did. It was great. You got my number, but you might have heard it wrong? I’d like for you to call me.

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August 13:

Bank of America?! (Echo park)

Now i regret i wasnt brave to Talk to this dressed in red girl…but there was somebody sitting next to you And i want to ask you now: do you want to have a Coffee?

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August 18:

Patras/Echo Park – w4m – 26

Hello, I was at Patras with my cousin her man and her kids. We were waiting for our food and I noticed a guy on his cell phone. When I looked at him he smiled. Since he was on his cell I just smiled back. Then once again our eyes connected and we smiled at eachother. I wanted to say hello but since he was on his cell I did not want to interrupt anything. He was so adorable with his colored eyes and light hair.

If this message reaches you let me know what color your eyes are and what I was wearing so I know it’s you.

h/t Craigslist

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Learn more about the Echo Park Lake Rehab Project

We are just a few short months away from the start of the Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation project, and just a few days away from the end of the comments period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). Not sure what’s going on with the DEIR or the rehab project as a whole? There is a meeting this weekend you can attend to help you learn more about the 86 million dollar project and what to expect when they gate up the whole lake come January 2011.

Echo Park Lake Project discussion with Michael Jacob Rochlin

Saturday, August 21 , 2010 at 2:00 pm

Edendale Branch Library Community Room located at 2011 W Sunset Blvd.
Call 323-661-2703 for more information.

What role does the lake play in our city’s water system? What will happen if it is fenced off for two years or longer? How will the money be spent and how does this project relate to previous city water projects?

There’s also a public hearing on the DEIR for the proposed Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation Project. Learn about the proposal and submit your written comments about the DEIR (the deadline for your comments is Monday, August 30).

DEIR Public Hearing

Monday, August 23, 2010 from 6:00-8:00 pm

St. Paul Cathedral Center, Grand Hall, located at 840 N. Echo Park Avenue
Click here for the flyer (which also contains a Spanish-language page) so you can distribute info in your neighborhood.

See you there!

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Open Mic Nights at Fretted Frog

Fretted Frog, the acoustic guitar shop that opened recently near Sunset and Alvarado, recently threw its first in-store concert and is now hosting an open mic night!

Starting Saturday, August 28 from 7-9:00 pm, the open mic night will host singer/songwriters and acoustic bands for the evening. You can sign up to strut your stuff (pun intended) two hours prior to start at 5:00 pm at the store. Email them at info@thefrettedfrog.com for more info.

Fretted Frog is located at 1200 N. Alvarado St.

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