Swing by Tavin today for 15% off your purchase of anything in the store. Located at 1543 Echo Park Ave, Tavin is open until 7:00 pm today.
The first Echo Park Beautification was scheduled for late February, but all that rain interfered with the events.
This time the Beautification project will take place on Saturday, May 1, 8:45 am at the Echo Park Walgreens parking lot (1625 W. Sunset Blvd). Join Council President Eric Garcetti, members from the Positive Energy Group, Echo Park TAP, GEPENC, and volunteers from Kaiser Permanente and the Big Sunday Organization.
The morning will start out with refreshments and instructions, followed by a couple of hours of some beautification labor, all for the purpose of continuing to make Echo Park a little brighter.
Download the flyer here.
Please contact Field Deputy Alejandra Marroquin of the LA City Council at Alejandra.Marroquin@lacity.org, or call 323-957-4500 for more information.
Shop Echo Park Avenue and fill your belly with mobile food goodies on Sunday, April 25 in front of Mishka L.A. from 12 noon – 4:00 pm.
Dosa Truck (Indian sourdough crepes), Mandoline Grill (Vietnamese cuisine), and Lomo Arigato (Japanese cuisine) trucks will be feeding you for the day.
Mishka L.A. is located at 1547 Echo Park Ave.
Hamlet, Prince of Puddles
April 10th – May 9th
Saturdays and Sundays at 11am
$9.99, $5 for children
“Hamlet, Prince of Puddles is an all ages adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play opening at the Bootleg Theater on April 10 at 11am. All tickets are priced $9.99 and under (kids are only $5) with the hopes that the economy and cost will not prevent families from exploring the wildly imaginative world of live theater.
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, but after the untimely death of his kingly father, his mother Gertrude hastily marries his uncle Claudius. When Hamlet learns who is to blame for his father’s death, he struggles to take action and becomes known as the Prince of Puddles! Find out why in this all-ages adaptation of the Bard’s classic.
The show is a coming out party for new theatre group l’Enfant Terrible. The company is dedicated to creating family friendly plays for all ages and reaching a variety of communities throughout Los Angeles. By making its work accessible to adults and kids L’Enfant Terrible aims to create new theatre lovers while pushing the boundaries of children’s theatre.” – Bootleg Theater
The Bootleg Theater is located at 2220 Beverly Blvd.
The Echo Park Historical Society is hosting its Echo Park Lake Walking Tour tomorrow, Saturday, April 24 at 10:00 am.
According to the EPHS website, the tour will include “some of the neighborhood’s most prominent landmarks, such as Jensen’s Recreation Center, Angelus Temple and, of course, the lake. The tour takes about two hours to complete and includes several stairways. Building interiors are not included. Reservations required. The tours are free for EPHS members; we ask a $5 donation of all others.”
Make your reservation by calling (323) 860-8874, or e-mail your name, the number of people in your group, your phone number and the name and date of the tour.
The tour starts at the Echo Park Lake Boathouse, located at 751 Echo Park Ave.
On Saturday, April 24, Bake Me Up LA is holding a bake sale at Mooi Food on the corner of Logan and Sunset in Echo Park. The bake sale proceeds will benefit cats and dogs via PAWS LA and Kitten Rescue.
Bake Me Up is part of the “Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale” and will be holding bake sales on occasion to raise money. They still need help baking all the goodies, so if you’re interested please sign up here.
Bake Me Up Fundraiser
Saturday, April 24, 2010
11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Mooi Foods at 1700 Sunset Blvd.
Photo by Don Normark
During the 1940’s, Chavez Ravine came to the city’s attention as an area ripe for re-development. At the time, it was the home of a well-established, predominantly Mexican-American community. It was poor but pastoral and self-sufficient. Many of its inhabitants grew their own food and raised their own animals. This small, hidden valley was home to several hundred families many of whom had trouble finding other places to live due to housing discrimination.
During the post-World War II housing shortage, the city of L.A. looked to Chavez Ravine as the perfect place to build public housing (rooms that were meant to be rented-out by low-income families). In preparation for the building of this complex (to be known as “Elysian Park Heights”), most of the inhabitants of Chavez Ravine were evicted from their homes. But before construction even began, the political climate in L.A. changed drastically. It was the height of the Red Scare and this plan for public housing were a bit too socialist for L.A.’s public officials including the newly-elected mayor. The planner of this project, Frank Wilkinson, was then called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. His was fired due to his refusal to confirm or deny Communist Party membership.
The project died, and in the meantime, Chavez Ravine was still occupied by a small number of its original inhabitants that refused to leave. In 1958, the city of Los Angeles (wanting to pull in the revenue that would come from having a major baseball franchise) sold the 352 acres of land to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The remaining residents were forced out through the use of condemnation or eminent domain. A handful of residents avoided this and held out until the very end when, in May of 1959, the sheriffs department came in with bulldozers and armed men and physically forced them out.
The story of Chavez Ravine is a complex and interesting one, and I highly recommend that those who are interested in it read more about it. One of the best books on the subject is Don Normark’s Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story. As a young photographer in 1949 he photographed the residents of Chavez Ravine. Years later he found many of the people that he photographed and their memories make up the majority of the book’s text.
Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now, Ezra Furman and The Harpoons at The Echo:
9pm. $8. 18+
If you don’t know the gimmick yet, Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now is all about rewriting the biggest mistakes in pop history. Whether it’s telling Avril Lavigne to back off or correcting the likes of Bob Dylan on “Think Twice (It’s Not Alright)”, they’ve corrected some grave injustices in the popular musical landscape. But if you’re still not sure what’s going on, you can get a first-hand look when the band, lead by Art Brut’s Eddie Argos and The Blood Arm’s Dyan Valdes, tour the U.S. and Canada this April and May.
The tour kicks off April 23rd in Los Angeles, CA and darts all across the U.S. and into Toronto and Montreal before wrapping up on May 26th in Phoenix, AZ. In an interview with NME recently, Argos said he was excited to get out on the road, especially to get ahead of work on his day job band.
“I’m really looking forward to the tour,” Argos said. “Unfortunately Dave Newton, who played the European tour and SXSW shows, can’t make it. We have Ian Catskilkin from Art Brut instead, which will be useful for writing the next Art Brut album.” – Consequence of Sound
with resident DJs spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam
Find out more at ClubUnderground.net.
Announcement!
Do you subscribe to Echo Park Now via our email service? If you do, I’d like to inform you of a small change to the schedule. Instead of receiving the email between 7am and 9am with all the prior days posts, emails will now be sent out between 5pm and 7pm with all the current days posts (plus anything posted after the previous day’s email went out).
I hope this change will make the emails more current and useful. Why wait for tomorrow to read today’s news?
If you don’t like this change, feel free to comment in this post. If majority rule wants to return to the old time slot we will do that!
Wait, I can read EPN in my email? Yes! If you would like Echo Park Now delivered daily to your inbox, you can subscribe below. Emails are sent once a day with all the posts from the previous 24 hours. When you sign up you will receive an email containing a link to active your subscription. You will not start receiving emails until you click on that link. You can cancel your subscription at any time by scrolling to the bottom of any daily email and selecting the unsubscribe now link. How risk free is that! Don’t worry, we won’t share your email address. If email is not your thing, you can subscribe to EPN using any standard blog reader. Just click here!
On Saturday, April 24 started at 7:00 pm, Dodger Stadium is hosting the Joel Osteen Ministries event called the “Night of Hope.” Noel Pallais, Neighborhood Relations Manager for Dodger Stadium, sent out some details on how the Stadium will handle the traffic and timeline:
- Set-up will commence on Wednesday, April 21st in the parking lots immediately adjacent to the Stadium – during the set-up stadium lights will be on;
- A sound check for the event will commence at approximately 3:00 pm on Saturday;
- Parking gates will open at 5:00 pm, event will start at 7:00 pm and the will conclude at approximately 10:00 pm;
- The event is expected to be a sell-out and all parking gates will be used for inbound traffic. However, to minimize the impact on the community please note that the Scott Avenue gate will not be utilized for outbound traffic and the City will not close any streets but the “Local Access Only” barricades will be placed at the previously agreed upon locations;
- Event breakdown will commence on Sunday, April 25th and will be completed on Monday, April 26th – as will be the case for the set-up the stadium lights will be on.
- Finally, you may contact our Neighborhood Focus line at 323.224.2636, should you have any questions, require additional information or to report any security concerns.
As it turns out, the Scott Avenue gate will in fact be open for outgoing traffic, and while Noel’s announcement indicates there will be Local Access Only barricades, it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not there will be traffic officers around to help the flow of traffic at the intersections.
Jenny Burman of the Chicken Corner might be saying a prayer herself about the potential traffic issues: “…here’s to the hope that for Osteen’s nighttime service the traffic and crowd flow through the surrounding neighborhood is managed more effectively than we’ve seen at the ballgames. Or maybe say a prayer to that effect.”
Friday, April 23rd
8:00 pm
Origami Vinyl will be premiering ‘Together’ by The New Pornographers
Free drinks and goodies.
Stop by for your chance to win tickets to see the New Pornographers at the Music Box on July 20th.
RSVP: gettogetherla@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 28
7:30 pm
$15
18+
featuring:
Mayaztek
LA Fog
Chango
Chicano Batman
Allan Ides with DJ Phatrick
100% of the proceeds go towards keeping Eviction Defense Network
To Purchase tickets, or for more information, please call 213.385.8112 or email info@evictiondefensenetwork.org
The Eviction Defense Network (EDN) is a network of trial lawyers, advocates and tenants dedicated to defending the right to affordable housing and ensuring access to justice in housing matters to tenants in Los Angeles County. EDN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance and representation to tenants facing eviction. – EDN website
Today, April 22, marks the first day of the CA Cash for Appliances rebate program. If you buy an eligible appliance during the rebate period, recycle your old appliance with a certified recycler, and fill out the rebate form, you get $200 for refrigerators, $100 for clothes washers, and $50 for air conditioners. If you’re interested in the program, get started soon – it continues through May 23, or until the rebate funds run out. Just about anyone is eligible, just be sure to check out the website for details to make sure you’re one of them.
The LADWP also offers rebates through the Residential Drought Resistant Landscape Incentive Program when you apply online. The rebates will help you get high efficiency clothes washer units, residential drought resistant landscaping, high efficiency toilets, weather-based irrigation controllers, rotating sprinkler nozzles, and synthetic turf. Click here for more information on what the rebate offers.
An LADWP press release last week announced February’s water use was the lowest recorded water use in 32 years, also marking 31 consecutive months of reduced water use.
“In a time when water resources are scarce throughout the state, Los Angeles is taking the lead and setting an example on how to conserve water and maintain a sustainable water supply,” said James McDaniel, LADWP Senior Assistant General Manager – Water System. “The more we can rely on our City’s available water resources, the better prepared we are to get through this water crisis as a state.”
The department claims Angelenos have cut water use by 30 billion gallons over the past nine months, and 50 billion gallons since July 2007.
But it’s almost summer, and soon enough those heavily landscaped areas will need watering in the hot desert sun. As a reminder to our readers, Los Angeles county water restrictions start June 1, after which it is “illegal” to:
- Use sprinklers on any day other than Monday and Thursday
- Water landscaping, including lawns, between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm
- Water using sprinklers for more than 15 minutes per watering station, 10 minutes for other irrigation systems
- Use water on any hard surfaces such as sidewalks, walkways, driveways, or parking areas
- Allow runoff onto streets and gutters from excessive watering
- Allow leaks from any pipe or fixture to go unrepaired
- Wash vehicles without using a hose with a shut-off nozzle
- Service water to customers in restaurants unless requested
Click here for the full list in PDF form.
There are a bunch of business in Echo Park that offer eco-friendly goods and services. Here are just a few:
- E.P.I.C (Echo Park Independent Co-op) sells locally-made fashions and one of it’s co-founders, Rhianon Jones, is a huge supporter of eco-fashion.
- Warwick on Sunset is all about recycling household items and re-styling vintage clothing.
- Tavin boutique offers vintage collectibles and new local eco-designs. And through the end of the month, they’re offering free shipping on all Etsy orders.
- Feeding Birds Boutique is a vintage store in Echo Park that carries unique clothing (including organic tees), accessories and decorative objects.
- This week at Vons, they’ll deliver your groceries for free if you buy five earth-friendly products online.
- Masa uses lots of organic, local produce in their foods, and they’ve started to use eco-friendly packaging and doing away with plastic bags for take out (unless you’re desperate).
- The Echo Park Time Bank conserves energy in a very unique way: by getting rid of the middle man and the use of currency.
- Aisling Walsh is the Maid on a Moped. She’s got both an online local vintage store and she offers eco-friendly cleaning services.
- The Echo Park Film Center has an eco-friendly option for film education – the Echo Park Film Mobile is an old school bus transformed into an eco-friendly mobile cinema and educational facility, providing free documentary film screenings and filmmaking workshops in non-traditional venues.
- Delilah’s Bakery recycles all of their food waste through a Los Angeles-based company called Athens Waste Management. The company also supplies Delilah’s with its compostable packaging for take-away orders, and offers an oil waste collection service as well.
- The Green Beacon Foundation, located in Elysian Heights, focuses on environmental educational, teaching you how to lead more sustainable lives through workshops and lectures. The next workshop called “Intro to Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy” is in May, visit the website for more info.