VIDEO – OK Go in Echo Park
Just noticed… the location for the above OK Go video looks familar, no? And in true internet celebrity fashion, the persistent goose in the video now has a facebook page. No kiddin’.
If you’re the sole person who’s never seen this band’s videos before, check them out. I am clueless as to how these guys have the energy to tackle so many super clever and uniquely intricate video ideas *and* also make music.
HISTORY – Sister Aimee & Her Castle
As some of you may know, as a teenager during the early 20th century my grandmother preached in tent revivals alongside (and also babysat for) local evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, who was once – without question – the most powerful, influential, and controversial woman in all of America. Founder of the Foursquare Church, Sister Aimee opened her Angelus Temple on New Year’s Day in 1923… a giant round building facing Echo Park which no doubt many of you pass daily without thinking twice about. The building’s cost was an unheard-of 1.2 million dollars at the time (paid for through average donations of TWO CENTS!!)… leading one critic to declare that Aimee “put the cost in Pentecost.”
At the very bottom of this post is a rare video tour of Aimee’s castle home in Lake Elsinore. Directly below are a few short samples of the show-womanship of Sister Aimee in all of her sin-battling glory… so REPENT, SINNERS!
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TODAY – Echo Park Holiday Shop Hop
WHEN: Today, December 12, from noon to 2am (!)
WHERE: Echo Park. Duh! (More specifically, along Sunset Boulevard between Logan Street and Alvarado)
DETAILS: A day of holiday cheer with shopping specials, performances, and workshops throughout the neighborhood. A fun-filled day of events – you can do your holiday shopping, enjoy great food, drink and entertainment, and support local businesses!
The Echo Park Holiday Parade begins at noon, but other festivities start as early as 10 a.m., with happenings all day and night until 2am! In addition to the festivities, businesses participating in the Echo Park Holiday Shop Hop will be collecting donations for local charities.
Participating vendors include: 826LA, Allston Yacht Club, City Sip LA, Future, K9 Loft, Masa of Echo Park, MediaNoche, Origami Vinyl, Out of the Closet, Rec Center Studio, Stories, The Clinic of Echo Park, The Echo & Echoplex and more!
GOOD CAUSE – 826LA’s Paddle Boat Regatta
***Echo Park Paddleboat Regatta deadline is MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!***
What: 826LA’s Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta
When: Sunday, July 26, 2009, 4pm
Where: Echo Park Lake. Duh.
Who: You! Sponsor a team! Donate prizes! Just show up to gawk and cheer or JOIN IN AND RACE – bring friends or join a pre-existing team.
Why: Because it’s great Sunday fun to mow down swamp turtles with a paddle boat! Oh, and it’s also cool to raise money for the kids of 826LA. *PLUS* there are PRIZES and goodie bags involved! Wheeeee!
Details: “On Sunday, July 26, 90 paddle-boaters (45 teams) will meet for the second annual 826LA Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta. These fearless navigators will brave the elements, the geese, and each other as they race through (the possibly monster-infested) Echo Park Lake to earn the title of World’s Best Paddle Boat Racers and to raise funds for 826LA. Teams pre-register online, then solicit donations from friends, family, significant others, passers-by on the street, and large corporations—all to secure a better starting position.” Registration and fundraising for the Regatta closes midnight on July 24th.
EVENTS – The Close Up 7/6-12
Note: Event listings are updated during the week as we see fit.
Now through 8/31/09 – Photography: The Billboard Show
7/9/09 – Downtown LA Artwalk
7/10-12/09 – Echo Park Community Festival
7/11/09 – Historic North Hollywood Walking Tour, 80′s Prom Party
7/12/09 – Bastille Day Los Angeles; Art and Poetry with Exene Cervenka
ONGOING THROUGH AUGUST 31st
What: THE BILLBOARD SHOW Selling the California Lifestyle – Photographic Landscapes of the 1950s & 1960s
Where: Take My Picture Gary Leonard 860 South Broadway, Downtown (213) 622-2256
When: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10am–2pm & 3–6pm; Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am–2pm; Saturdays 12–6pm; Sundays 12–3pm
Price: FREEEEE!
Details: “Ever since taking a photograph of the Dodgers as a little boy in 1959, Gary Leonard has documented the mercurial landscape of Los Angeles, from the political to the cultural and economic. A former employee of billboard advertising company Pacific Outdoor recently gave Leonard thousands of billboard slides, a hundred of which are now on view at Leonard’s gallery, Take My Picture (named after his column in various regional publications). Advertising everything from funeral services and early fax machines to civic defense and entertainment, the images provide a rare historical survey of mid-century American commercial design, proving that, much like one of his influences, Weegee, Gary Leonard has an excellent sense of timing.” (SOURCE)
IMAGERY – Sister Aimee’s Stained Glass
Up until a few days ago, I had never set foot in the Angelus Temple in Echo Park. Not being much for organized religion myself, this might not seem unusual… except that the temple is one of the more noteworthy parts of my family heritage. At 19, my Grandma Beulah preached at Pentacostal tent revivals alongside the woman who built the temple, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, and often babysat Aimee’s son Rolf who recently passed away. I’ve passed the huge structure so many times that getting out of my car and walking inside was a long overdue experience.
To say that Sister Aimee was one of the most influential and controversial women of the 20th Century in America is an understatement. Let me put it this way… her following was so large that she estimated the entire $1.2 million cost of the temple (we’re talking 1924, people – think about it) was paid for with an average donation of TWO CENTS. I’ll be writing more about her in the future… now that I have this site, I have a great excuse to make myself get off my rear and do some research. My dream is to go through their archives and find some incredible photo of my nutty Grandma as a young girl speaking in tongues or something, but that will take time. So for the moment I’ll just share with you a photo I took of one of the temple’s original stained glass window after the jump. Sister Aimee is the woman portrayed kneeling on the bottom left. CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW.
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