The photographer took this photo from Elysian Valley, Frogtown, after walking his dog along the Los Angeles River.
Photo: Tasawa69 via Flickr
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Film crew turns the clock back on Angeleno Heights store
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LAPD Northeast Division’s newest crime fighting tools are Facebook, Twitter & YouTube
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Silver Lake tree is long on lemons
January 2009
Jonathan Veitch, who has served as the dean of Eugene Lang College at the New School in New York, was named the 15th president to head Occidental, the Eagle Rock college announced today. Veitch is a Los Angeles native who comes from a family of actors, according to a profile of him last year in the New School Free Press
Veitch, in a campus press release, wasted no time mentioning the school’s Obama connection:
“One need only look at Occidental’s most famous student, Barack Obama. “Our new president demonstrates the very best qualities of a liberal arts education. It is evident in so much of what he says and does, and how he thinks.”
Photo: Occidental College
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Cash is what the Echo Park-based Tom of Finland Foundation really needs these days. The nonprofit created to promote the legacy of the legendary homoerotic artist known as Tom of Finland has joined the growing list of cultural groups that have suffered a drop in contributions and grants as the economy tanks. The foundation is headquartered in the Echo Park home of its president, Durk Dehner, who played host to Tom (his real name was Touko Laaksonen and he really was from Finland) on numerous occasions before the artist died in 1991.
In a recent fundraising appeal, Dehner warned that the group, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, is at a “critical juncture” as donations have dropped steadily.
“It is difficult for me to accept that we may not have the revenue to continue,” writes Dehner. “Your memberships and donations are vital to keep the Foundation open”
The foundation is not in any “imminent danger” of closing , said administrator Sharon M. in an email. However, it does look like erotic art fans and leather daddies alike will need to dig deeper into their wallets (if they can get them out of those skin tight jeans) to keep the group going.
“We need help getting new members to take up the cause and support year after year,” Sharon wrote. “Times are tough for everyone and the Foundation has felt it.”
Image: Tom of Finland Foundation website
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The sign by the front door welcomes you to the Sunset Apartments. But most people in Echo Park know this white, two-story Sunset Boulevard building as the longtime home of Herb’s key shop and the fairly new Dona Mary tienda and botanica. On Thursday, an “Open House” sign plunked on the sidewalk invited people inside to take a look at Apt. No 7. It’s downstairs, below street-level, on the right side of the hall.
Open the door to Apt. No. 7 and here is what you will find: a clean, single room, about 11-feet by 14-feet, with a small fridge, sink and a space for a soon-to-be installed stove. A Laverne & Shirley-like basement window faces a concrete wall and the parking lot of Happy Tom’s restaurant. (Well, since Apt No. 7 is partly below street-level, you are actually looking up at the bumpers and fenders of cars and trucks parked in that lot).
But wait. Where’s the bathroom to Apt. 7? It’s down the hall and shared with the tenants in Apt. No. 6, explains the person who answers the manager’s phone. Don’t be surprised, however, to bump into the owners of Herb’s and Dona Mary while you wait to take your morning shower. They also get to use the same bathroom. And it’s all yours for only $695 a month.
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The show will go on at Bob Baker’s Echo Park puppet palace. Curbed LA
What’s that I smell? Eagle Rock residents seek restrictions on 11 area pot clinics. LA Times
Police shoot man after exchanging gun fire at Ramona Gardens in Boyle Heights. EGP News
Ceremonial opening for El Sereno’s Valley Blvd. bridge. EGP News
Oxy teaches teens to build and race solar powered boats. Occidental College
LAPD to hire a graffiti cop as part of this year’s anti-gang initiatives. LAPD (last item)
Parking cops assigned to neighborhood beats. LAist
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Digital billboard ban may not apply to Boyle Heights shopping strip and other neighborhoods. LA Weekly
City will pay $20.5 million to settle Rampart police scandal lawsuits. LA Times
The tumbleweeds of Lincoln Heights. LA Eastside
Hike the Eagle Rock Canyon Trail. Boulevard Sentinel
A new look at Peter Shire’s Elysian Park sculpture. Unframed
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The Echo Park Film Center purchased an old bus two years ago and converted it into a traveling classroom and theater. But the blue FilmMobile might also one day serve as an escape vehicle from rising rents and other gentrification forces, the film center’s Lisa Marr told Eastside Living:
“The bus is also a model for us to deal with potential gentrification here, if we end up not being able to afford a site,” said Marr. “The reality is that property values in this neighborhood are going up and the last time we had a lease change we had to do some serious negotiations to stay here. We need to think creatively about how we can still do what we do. Who knows what the future holds.”
The EPFC and the neighboring Machine Project both faces challenges to keep their mix of arts and activism alive. More in Eastside Living.
Photo: FilmMobile
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This is one way to recycle all those used spray paint cans left behind by taggers. This message, composed from about 50 cans, was found by the photographer under the Figueroa Street Bridge as it crosses the river near Cypress Park.
Photo by Echo29 via Flickr
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The January meeting of the Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council came to order at about 6:30 Tuesday night. Ten minutes later, there was total disorder, with gavels and drums banging, board members trading insults and threats and others pleading for the police to be called in to calm things down.
Things went down hill fast after some council members objected to a move by president Jose Sigala (who has seen plenty of nasty public meetings as an aide to City Councilman Richard Alarcon) to seat an alternate representative to the council. Augustin Cebada called Sigala a “Mr. Fat, bald-headed, Mussolini” and banged on a hand-held drum*. Sigala, pounding his gavel on the table, demanded that Cebada, a former, ally, shut up. Then there was some more heated, junior high school-like, back-and-forth:
“You stop it!,” Cebada shouted.
“You, stop it!,” Sigala responded.
“Both of you stop it!” one audience member shrieked.
“Let’s go outside,” Sigala told Cebada
“You, stop it!,” Sigala responded.
“Both of you stop it!” one audience member shrieked.
“Let’s go outside,” Sigala told Cebada
Then, like a bunch of unruly students caught by the principal, Sigala, Cebada and other members fell quiet as City Councilman Eric Garcetti walked unannounced into the meeting room. “Happy New Year,” Garcetti declared, unaware of the feud he had just diffused.
What happened next? Well, who cares. The show was over until next month’s meeting.
* P.S: A frequent audience member of these meetings noted that Cebada beat his drum with a wooden kitchen spoon. During the December council meeting, a different representative, apparently annoyed by the council president’s gavel, showed up with an old meat tenderizer. “It makes me wonder what kitchen appliance that will show up at the next meeting.”
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