Okay, I admit it; I teared up. A little.

Last night was the goodbye party for Antigua Cultural Coffeehouse in El Sereno,my little local coffeeshop just a short walk away from my house. Truth be told, one of the reasons we even made an offer on this house was because of the coffeeshop. We got used to living within walking distance of a coffeeshop when we lived in Hollywood, so it made sense. But Antigua lost its lease due to what sounds like shady shenanigans by the property owner.

When we arrived around 8pm, the place was packed. Julio and his wife Cuauhtli were behind the counter serving up coffee. The until-recently-off-limits patio was open in the back where alcoholic drinks were sold. It was jarring to see the murals and signs removed, along with the counter and the bookshelves. It it hit me that I really have no place to take my kids in the morning any more. I’ll no longer will be able to hop over to Antiqua to talk politics with Cuauhtli, Yancy and some of the regulars.

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I think this stuff is fascinating. HOW does anyone fabricate a two-story-high aluminum balloon dog?

Well, Ave. 50 Studio in Highland Park (the same folks who gave J. Michael Walker, whose work is now on display at the Autry, his first show for his “All the Saints of Los Angeles”) is hosting a tour through the very place that made artist Jeff Koons’ balloon dogs–and other monumental works of art. The deets:

“Carlson & Company is one of the leading fabricators of industrial-sized artworks in the Country. The Carlson building is a warehouse of over 30,000 square feet. A few of its clients include Claes Oldenburg/Coosje van Bruggen, Jeff Koons, Ellsworth Kelly, and Noguchi. A number of engineers from Disney Imagineering work on their staff, along with 75 regular employees. One of the major projects of Carlson was Jeff Koons “Balloon Dog” a 10-foot tall brightly colored stainless steel sculpture. This tour will appeal to artists, collectors and art fabricators alike, and will be led by owner Peter Carlson.”

Click thru for the vital info. (more…)

Hello friends, Mark here. Walking around Franklin and Highland today, my fiance noticed a large glob of dried blood on the street. Click to biggify, if you dare.

Is it at all odd that all of the least violent situations we can imagine that result in a whopping dollop of plasma splattering all over the pavement are also the most nauseating? It’s not like there was a trail of spots leading up to or away from the larger puddle, which to me, rules out any injury… right?

In any case, you ought to visit the Southern California Red Cross some time. They can guide you to a more appropriate place to deposit your spare bodily fluids, rather than all over the sidewalk.

Hello friends! Walking down Hollywood on our way to the Farmer’s Market we noticed quite the hubbub by the Chinese Theater.

Judging by the size of the premiere, Dreamworks is counting on Kung Fun Panda to be a huge release this summer. We’ve heard good things and are both big fans of Jack Black. So, it’s a good sign of faith to see the studio sink this much money into the opening.

They are still setting the things up, so if you are anywhere near the area, you can go see the giant display and probably get a gander at some celebs with their kids. Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian Mcshane, Seth Rogan, Lucy Liu, David Cross… sheesh, don’t they hire actual voice actors for these pictures anymore?

Click here for some more pics you can click to biggify

It’s been awhile since I lasted posted here, damn full time work seems to get in the way of various projects, interests, and general internet goofing around. Yet another reason why work should be abolished. Rather than pretend I can somehow be at more than one place at a time, I just popped in to say Adios. It was fun being part of the crew here at blogging.la, but it’s best I stop wasting pixel space here. If you’re interested, you can find my posts over at LAEastside.com, where I’m teaming up with a few other people to give a different take on life here in Los Angeles. Naturally, I will be continuing the Eastside 101 posts (the most recent one being about Brooklyn & Soto) along with the usual dosage of stupidities you’ve all come to expect from me. For even more pendejadas, I’m still going at it over on my personal site chanfles.com/blog. Well, ya ’stubo. Nos vemos al otro lado del rio!

Your Amigo, EL CHAVO!

For one reason or another people keep asking me where they can pick up a good used bike in time for summer. Aside from the obvious that I want more people to be on bikes in LA, and that summer is an awesome time to ride a bike in LA, I do want to point people in the right direction but often don’t know where to send them. Most bike shops focus on the new stuff and resources like craigslist are hit and miss when it comes to quality/value/price especially for someone very new to the whole thing and not really knowing what they need or how much that should cost them. It’s because of this that I’m so super psyched to officially point everyone the direction of Coco’s Variety (2427 Riverside Drive, just south of Fletcher in Silver Lake). The place is run by internet superstar Mister Jalopy and this weekend I stopped by to check out their selection and he gave me a personal tour showing me exactly what they do to clean up and repair all the old bikes they have there in the shop. Differently than the other shops in town, at Coco’s they focus specifically on the older more forgotten about stuff, making it roadworthy again. This is especially awesome for a first timer because you can pick up a solid bike in fantastic condition often for less than a brand new piece of crap at Target will cost you, and it’ll last a lot longer too. My quick scan of the bikes they had for sale showed a range of $50-$300 and I guess that’s mostly where they stick. Cruisers, Mountain Bikes, Road Bikes, Kids Bikes - all of it. Super awesome. So there’s my official recommendation, if you are in the market for a used bike to cruise around on this summer, swing by Coco’s for sure.

Driving through Lincoln Heights the other evening, in search of a large box of crayons, I came upon this dusky street in the deepening evening–lit for blocks with the incandescent glow of jacarandas in full-on violet bloom.

Jacaranda season always brings back memories: summers so hot it seemed the sidewalks would buckle upward with the heat & the burgeoning roots of the jacarandas, their instant burst into bloom violent and sudden; hot nights and more hours than I care to (or can) remember in the Rustic, living carefree and half-assed off the dregs of student loans, some money from teaching art, Pop-Tarts, & vodka.

I read a lot of Bukowski.

I don’t know if I remember it fondly or with regret; probably both. But the jacarandas still bloom this time every year, as the days get long and the night skies blur with heat.

Click to embiggen.

In more LA cycling news, last night was the Midnight Ridazz ‘Jedi Mind Trick’ ride, here’s a few pics:

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Yesterday, I opened the LA Times and saw an Op-Ed that opened:

Surrounded by freeways and bombarded with billboards, we green-seeking Angelenos take pride in our nature-ish things. East L.A. has Evergreen Cemetery; West L.A. has Venice Beach; Silver Lake has its reservoir. Or had, anyway.

I didn’t read further–I freely admit to not caring about the Drama of the Reservoir–because “Evergreen Cemetery” stopped me cold. Evergreen Cemetery? I’m one of the rare Angelenos who is aware of what is east of Downtown, but I had never heard of Evergreen Cemetery. Turns out it is the cemetery I have often photographed when I’m stuck in traffic. But come on, surely there are a lot of green spaces over here in east Los Angeles that are a lot more interesting than a cemetery.

In the year that I’ve lived in El Sereno, I’ve been supremely impressed by my local parks and what they offer. With the exception of one park, the 6 LA city parks within a 5 minute drive of my house all boast basketball courts, tennis courts, running trails and sometimes two playgrounds. 2 of these parks have public swimming pools (your LA Public Library card gets you in for free), one is open year round. All of them are immensely more fun that staring at a watery pit surrounded by chain link fencing.

When I’m feeling “nature-ish” I usually take the kids to Ernest Debs. You can climb the hilltop and enjoy the view of the skyline and Dodger stadium. Then, you can take the trails and go up to the lake at the very top of the hill. From up there you can see Highland Park, Mt. Washington, parts of Eagle Rock and Pasadena. If you drop down the trails on the north, you wind up at the Audubon Society where you can check out their completely green and environmentally sound property.

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Everyone knows that accidentally dropping your cigarette and burning a hole in your car seat is embarrassing, so it only makes sense that accidentally blowing up your car, or perhaps your friends car that you just borrowed to run to the store with real quick, would be doubly so. It’s OK though, no reason to run away. Just say “Oooops!” and know that years from know we’ll look back on this and laugh… No really. Anway, Dwiff writes in asking WTF happened on his street, he says:

Typical LA - last night outside my place at Belmont & Bellevue above Echo Park Lake in 90026 someone BLEW UP a car. Fire Trucks, Cops, and not a mention anywhere online or off. Any chance you guys have heard anything about it?

Needless to say I am curious… some picture i took of the event are here. Witnesses saw the driver park (illegally), get out. walk across the pedestrian bridge that crosses the 101, and then - BOOM.