Echo Park’s Week In Music

Monday
The Like, New Fidelity, Bloodbath at The Echo (free)
Let Go Of The Rail, State Rec, Güf Trüp, California Priest at Pehrspace

Tuesday
CCR Headcleaner, Back the Future the Ride, Heatrock at Echo Curio
Bro Safari, Pablo Hassan, Steady, Citymavrick, Kemst at The Echo

Wednesday
Evan Voytas, Bell Gardens, Superhumanoids at The Echo
Johnny Osborne, The Melodians at Echoplex
Woolen, The Nocturnes, Pope Anything at Echo Curio

Thursday
Mississippi Man, Pepper Rabbit, White Arrows, The Fling at The Echo
Bob Log III, Frank Fairfield at Echo Curio

Friday
Flying Lotus’ record release, Ras G, Samiyam, Dr. Strangeloop, Kutmah, Jeremiah Je at Echoplex
Turin Brakes (Acoustic show), Hard Drugs, Lucy Schwartz at The Echo
Oliver Future’s record release, London To Tokyo at Bootleg Theater
Summer Darling, Worker Bee, Golden Years, Wires in the Wall, George Glass (solo) at Pehrspace
Wreck of the Zephyr, Random Patterns, Boomsnake, Lovely Bad Things at Echo Curio

Saturday
Flying Lotus’ record release, Ravi Coltrane, The Gaslamp Killer, Gonjasufi, Matthewdavid at Echoplex
Jeremy Messersmith, Jeremiah Streeter at Bootleg Theater
Leila Adu, Howardamb, Voice on Tape at Echo Curio
Torches in Trees, Phoenix and the Turtle, WALK at Pehrspace
Le Switch and Les Blanks at Origami Vinyl (7pm)
IHEARTCOMIX and The Crush Bros present Son of Boogie Monster at 2Headedhorse (10pm)

Sunday
Bonfire Madigan, Rachael Cantu, Josh Norton at Bootleg Theater
Grand Ole Echo feat. Dan Janisch, 50 Cent Haircut, William Lee and The Modern Primitives at The Echo (Free Early Show; 5 PM)
Part Time Punks feat. Xeno & Oaklander, Epee Du Bois, Frank Alpine, Killing Spree DJs at The Echo (Late Show)

Thanks, in part, to LAist

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Weeds got you down? Durbin Project Overgrowth

We received an email the other day from an Echo Park resident about his frustrations with the human-sized weeds growing along Echo Park Avenue’s Durbin project. The weeds, he writes, are “DRIVING ME CRAZY!” So much, that he’s willing to borrow your weed eater and take care of it himself.

Unfortunately, it seems the only progress that’s being made are the weeds. There haven’t been any recent updates on the status of the Durbin project, located along Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street. For those of you who are new to the area or this issue, a Mount Washington-based developer sold the property to the Angeles Group in late 2006. The ground breaking ceremony was held in 2008, and the project supposed to be completed in April 2009. Since the financial crisis, the property is now owned by OneWest Bank, and so far there’s no word on any plans to finish or clean up the project.

Durbin project rendering

One Echo Park resident commented on a recent Eastsider LA article about the property, saying they had emailed the Angeles Group, and the response they got from the group’s Adam O’Neill is as follows:

I absolutely understand your frustration. This property is totally in the hands of OneWest Bank. I am forwarding your email to them right now. OneWest made a sweetheart deal with the government and we have tried to work this out with the bank and have been unsuccessful as they have little motivation. Their incentive is not to work it out. It is terrible what the bank has done and we truly have tried to do everything in our power but our efforts have fallen on deaf ears. The local council office has been involved and are working through their channels to get the bank to take some action.

What can we do about the weeds, debris, and buckling fencing? First off, please email Eric Garcetti’s office and ask them to put pressure on OneWest Bank to clean things up. You can also join the community for an Echo Park cleanup, to be held the first Saturday of every month, meeting in the Walgreens parking lot (more information to come soon!).

Community volunteers and leaders are working to get the Durbin project cleaned up and finished up. If you would like to go an extra step and help out, come to an Echo Park Improvement Association meeting, a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or join other community meetings to see what you can do. Click here for our calendar to learn when these meetings are happening.

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Menu Mondays: Rodeo Mexican Grill & Happy Tom’s

Rodeo Mexican Grill
1721 W. Sunset Blvd.
(213) 738-5252
Hours: Monday – Sunday, 7:00 am-11:00 pm

Happy Tom’s
1807 W. Sunset Blvd.
(213) 483-7077
Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 7:00 am-10:00 pm
Friday – Sunday 7:00 am-11:00 pm

Read more

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Photo: Then and Now

Kansas Sebastian Flickr photo

The caption for this photo reads:

In the early part the of the previous century, the Los Angeles Red Car Line was extended to Glendale. The “Glendale Line” made a path from downtown Los Angeles to Glendale through “Edendale,” now known as Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Elysian Heights. To create the line they had to blast through the hills, creating what was then known as the Edendale Cut. The Edendale Cut was the portion located between the Key Stone Station at Max Sennett’s studio to the India Street Station. All that remains of the Glendale/Edendale Line is the unused right of way.

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Sunday: Mother’s Day 2010 in Echo Park

There are a few specials going on in Echo Park for Mother’s Day tomorrow:

CitySip: A complimentary glass of bubbly for Moms

Tavin: 10% off store-wide through Saturday, May 8. View flyer

Mohawk General Store: 20% off all clothes and shoes through Sunday, May 9. View flyer

Police Academy Restaurant: Serving Mothers Day Brunch, including Roasted Steam Ship Round, Frittata, Pancakes, Hash Browns, links, eggs, muffins, fruit salad, carrot cake, brownies, and more. $25 per person from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Call for reservations: (323) 221.5222 x227.

Masa: A complimentary glass of bubbly for Moms

The Park: Complimentary cranberry biscuits for all Moms during brunch. Today’s special includes Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes for $7.50.

Did we miss anything? Let us know!

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Plant Cloning Workshop at Machine Project Today

In case you're wondering, this is a Mother of Thousands plant. It's a type of Kalanchoe. You're welcome.

Today, Saturday May 8, Machine Project and CRITTER Salon will be hosting a plant cloning workshop entitled Clone-Home from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.

CRITTER presents Clone-Home, an afternoon open house for multiplying plants. Come with a few cuttings of your favorite plant(s) to share and trade with others. If you’re new to the world of cutting and growing, come ready to start your own little plantlets with a variety of cloning methods that will be demonstrated throughout the afternoon. No experience or green-thumb required.

Clone-Home will feature Denise King from the Exploratorium, Philip Ross and other growers from plant societies and local businesses. Clone-Home will host a wide spectrum of plant cloning, ranging from simple do-it-yourself methods to more complex recipes for making many from one, as well as music to clone plants by featuring machine’s sometime house band ing.

Enjoy some fresh herbal tea, mingle with fellow plant fans, and learn how to make your own home a little bit greener with your new buddies.

The workshop is FREE, and there is no RSVP required. Machine Project is located at 1200 N. Alvarado Street.

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Mini Craft Sale at Sargent Court Lawn on Saturday

Tomorrow, Saturday May 8, KHW Jewelry is going to be hosting a craft sale at Sargent Court lawn (1673 Sargent Court). You can peruse their selection of gladiator sandals, dinnerware decorated with doves and big bangles from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. They will also be serving quesadillas and Frank Fairfield will be playing bluegrass music!

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Flashback Fridays – Chicken Corner

Today we’re going to delve into the shallower part of Echo Park’s past. “Chicken Corner” is the name used by many long-time and semi-long-time residents to describe the corner of Echo Park Ave. and Delta St. It’s where Chango has stood for the past six years. Why is it sometimes referred to as “Chicken Corner”? For the answer to that, I’m going to turn this post over to Jenny Burman and her excellent Echo Park blog, Chicken Corner.

Chicken Corner is the name of a place that does and does not exist. Technically, Chicken Corner sits at Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street, across from the Magic Gas gas station and Morton Avenue. For generations, this crossroads has been one of the nerve centers of the neighborhood. It has been a gang hangout, a drug market, an art gallery scene and now a fashion/indie rock scene, as well as a place where a lot of families have lived.

The place I call Chicken Corner is named after an Aaron Donovan mural that showed a bunch of unusual chickens. Hard-eyed chickens, one of them in leather, multicolored, painted in 1997 or 98 without a permit (I assume but don’t quote me on that) and occasionally tagged and otherwise assaulted. (At one point someone tossed about a quart of tan paint over it and at least one of the chickens disappeared forever.) The mural was titled, forgettably, “Moron.” When the Chango coffee house opened in 2004, its owners blasted out the mural in order to create a window on the side of the building.

In the late 1990s, Aaron Donovan, and his partner ran the Delirium Tremens art gallery, which was one of five storefront galleries at the base of the Del Mor apartment building facing Echo Park Avenue. The mural was painted on cinderblock on the Delta Street side of the building. It faced an open lot where chickens and goats lived. At one point, it was called a ranch. There was said to be a horse. This lot has been sold twice. Condominiums will be built there soon.

Recently, a friend of mine walked into Chango. He was wearing a Chicken Corner T-shirt. The clerk, standing behind the chicken mural mosaic, looked at the T-shirt and asked, “Where is Chicken Corner?”

Thanks to Jenny for letting me re-post her prose.

And now I think it’s time to throw this post into the Way Back Machine! The Eastsider LA posted this clip from a Three Stooges short that features “Chicken Corner” a long time ago. I thought I’d share it with you guys. During the last couple of minutes of the clip you’ll see a bunch of barrels rolling into a car-filled street. You see the sign that says “Ex-Lax”? That’s where Chango is today. That’s “Chicken Corner.” Enjoy!

*Just as a side note: does anyone know why Chango coffee is called chango? I thought that before they moved in there was a salon or something called Chango, but I’m not sure.

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Echo Park Film Center Annex Opening in Atwater

This Sunday, May 9 from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, the Echo Park Film Center will be throwing a party of sorts at their new “Analog Annex” in Atwater Village. They will be hosting visiting experimental filmmaker Roger Beebe and christening their new space with food and drink. Call (213) 484-8846 or email them (info@echoparkfilmcenter.org) for directions to the space and to RSVP.

Through the absolute benevolence of relative strangers, we have been offered a 2,500 sq. foot warehouse to use for selected Film Center activities. This gift could not have come at a better time as we were truly bursting at the seams in our tiny 900 sq. foot storefront on Alvarado Street.

We will continue to use the Echo Park location as our main screening room, classroom and media arts center.

The new space has been dubbed the EPFC Analog Annex and will include:

– The majority of our 16mm and Super 8 film archive
– A 16mm animation stand
– An optical printer
– Traditional flatbed 16mm editing
– A large venue for film-related projects, screenings and events

The space is currently open only for special screenings, events and workshops. Due to staffing issues, there is no public access at this time.

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“LA Be Counted” Free Concert at The Echo

Voto Latino is celebrating the organization’s successful “Los Angeles Be Counted, Represent” campaign with a FREE concert at The Echo on Saturday, May 8 at 6:00 pm.

In filling out the Census, Voto Latino’s L.A. members brought in almost 30 million dollars of federal resources to Latino neighborhoods. You hooked up your comunidad, so Voto Latino is hooking you up with a concert.

Akwid, a Los Angeles hip hop duo, and Clorofila of Nortec Collective will present tracks from their new, L.A.-inspired albums, California and Corridos Urbanos.

So que esperas, get texting! Send ‘LA’ to 738674, get your friends to do the same, and represent! You can also RSVP on Facebook

The Echo is located at 1822 Sunset Blvd

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Mother’s Day Sale at Tavin

Now through Saturday, May 8, you can shop at Tavin and receive 10% off store-wide.

Tavin is located at 1543 Echo Park Avenue

Know something going on for Mother’s Day in Echo Park? Let us know!

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What is Time Banking?

This is a really great video about what time banking in Echo Park means to residents!

Click here to visit the Echo Park Time Bank website, view the video, and learn more about how to apply. The next free workshop on time banking (attendance is the first step to applying) is coming up on Saturday, May 8th from 5:00-5:30 pm at The Echo Park Film Center.

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Sobriety Check Tonight

As mentioned yesterday, there is a sobriety check going on until at least midnight tonight on Sunset and Echo Park Ave.

The Eastsider LA also posted an article earlier, be sure to check it out!

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Echo Park Improvement Association Agenda

The Echo Park Improvement Association town hall meeting is on Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 pm, Barlow Hospital in Williams Hall

The agenda is as follows:

  1. Welcome and Introductions
  2. Council District 1 & 13 reports
  3. Northeast & Rampart Police Reports
  4. Sustainable gardening practices (drought tolerant and edible gardens – 4 speaker panel)
  5. Elections – committee update
  6. Treasurer report (Barbra Neal)
  7. Neighborhood Issues committee report (NIC)   (Andrew Garsten)
  8. Approval of Minutes from April meeting

REPORTS / ANNOUNCEMENTS:
To make an announcement, sign a card when you come in, giving your name and topic.  Cards are collected and given to the moderator.

  1. Next meeting on June 3rd – featured topic –Out of school – summer programs – confirm location.

Call 323-882-4835 or email EPIA for more information.

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Cinco de Mayo in Echo Park

Have fun celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the neighborhood, just drive safe! DUI checkpoints are planned “somewhere” in the Northeast division area between 6:00 pm and Midnight on Wednesday.

But, instead of driving, why not stay local? Here are some great places to check out some Cinco de Mayo drinks in Echo Park:

El Compadre

  • Nothing special going on for Cinco de Mayo, but happy hour takes place from 4-6:00 pm. Margaritas are $7, imported beer $3, and domestic beer $4. The margaritas are always delicious at El Compadre.

Barragan’s Mexican Restaurant

  • Wednesday nights are $2.50 margaritas
  • DJ set from 5:00 pm – Midnight
  • Bucket of five beers for $20
  • Appetizers at the bar (free nachos!)

Allston Yacht Club

  • The last time we went to AYC, they served up a delicious spicy margarita with jalapeños (fresh jalapenos muddled in blanco tequila and agave nectar). YUM!
  • Wednesdays are also $5 Wicked Wednesdays, where every plate on the menu is just $5

Dodger Stadium

  • The Dodgers will be playing the second of three games against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Stadium is celebrating Cinco de Mayo with some “entertainment,” including: Mariachi bands, Ballet Folklórico, Latin music and a ceremonial first pitch by the host of Univision’s Accion Deportiva Extra, Bernardo Osuna.

And of course you can venture outside of Echo Park to nearby Olvera Street for festivities over the weekend (May 8-9). It’s incredibly easy to hop on a bus to get to Olvera Street, I highly recommend it.

Did we miss anything? Let us know.

Be safe!

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