Independence Day: My friends, old guard Echo Park, have put together a gorgeous party -- lots of neighbors.

At the barbecue, it seems everyone is talking about how quiet things are this July 4, and it's true. People are talking about "disruptions in the flow" of fireworks from China. An artist friend of mine says factories there have been damaged in fires. (Fire at fireworks factories?! Doesn't sound good.) No one says a different obvious: it's been getting quieter and quieter on July 4 in Echo Park for the last few years. The noisy people, with their eruptions, are getting pushed out, replaced by the nosy ones.

The sun sets spectacularly -- partly due to smoke coming from Santa Barbara. The sun is red-red, dipping fast below the ridge over Griffith Park. Before it gets dark out, the flower-bloom-type of fireworks have started all around in the neighborhood, particularly to the south. It's a downward view of them we're enjoying, but they are lovely and not too loud from the ridge. My three-year-old daughter is enjoying them. I am, too. Some of what we're watching comes from Echo Park Lake. I am aware of what an untranquil scene it will be down at the lake, and can't bear to think of the four heron nests on the island, never mind the other nests. "Look, Maddie!" I say, pointing to the flower of fire in the air. (It can't be sky if it's below you, can it?)

To see what it was like at Echo Park Lake this July 4, 2008, click here. Footage by Kevin McCollister. In his email, McCollister says, it's "anything goes" down by the lake. Maybe the party people and the city think it's safer to set fires next to a body of water. Better than in Elysian Park, or most back yards -- if you're thinking in terms of fire. This morning, McCollister reported:

At 7:30 [a.m.] the place was pretty much trashed and you could still smell the gunpowder (cordite, smoke, whatever) in the air. Surprisingly, tho, the cleanup had begun.

Photo by Martin Cox (c), 2008

And here, above, is Martin Cox's most recent report on the lotus of Echo Park Lake, photo taken a couple of days ago. Martin, who is Chicken Corner's waterfowl-and-lake correspondent, leaves it to the lotus leaves to speak for themselves. Meanwhile, the palms, reflected in the water, seem to be doing some kind of crazy dance, which Chicken Corner isn't sure how to interpret. A rain dance, perhaps.

Chicken Corner wonders which of these reflected palms will have its fronds blown to bits or burned in the July 4 mayhem that usually comes to Echo Park Lake. Something about a celebration of independence wants to burn it all down.

Click here to see video footage of last year's Echo Park Lake fireworks amid the trees, by the Jimson Weed Gazette's Kevin McCollister.

Stephen Roullier, who lives across from Echo Park Lake, is one of many thousands of people who have mourned the lotus this year. Roullier expressed his mourning with a small-scale installation -- a photo of a lotus staked by the lake, where the lotus used to be, shown in the picture below. Shadows tell us it was taken in the early-ish morning.

In a note to Martin Cox, Roullier wrote: "Wouldn't it be beautiful if hundreds of other photographers did the same thing, perhaps by the time of the Lotus Festival we could have the entire lake bank in that area filled with lotus images?"

Chicken Corner agrees. A beautiful shrine for our beautiful lotus.

Photo: Lotus Memorial
By Stephen Roullier (c), 2008

In a note to Chicken Corner, Roullier said he will probably add more pickets to the shrine after July 4 (when fireworks mayhem in the park is over).

...in Echo Park. Curbed L.A. posted yesterday talk of two recent rapes in Echo Park, and an attempted assault. No added info at Chicken Corner, except to note that the senior lead police officer for the northeast district in Echo Park (north of sunset), Bobby Hill, is expected to be at the Echo Park Improvement Association meeting tomorrow evening. And representing the Rampart division, where Curbed posted that one of the rapes took place, will be the councilman for District 1, Ed Reyes. Might be a good opportunity to give/receive information.

EPIA meeting: 7 p.m., Thursday. Barlow Hospital, Williams Hall. 2000 Stadium Way.

Photo:Night for Day
By Nathan Britton (c)

Nathan Britton sent me this gorgeous photograph -- a time lapse photo taken at night, looking south from Curran St., where Britton used to live. Britton is a former Echo Park resident, who now lives in Washington, D.C. where he is a speechwriter and press secretary for Senator Barbara Boxer. I like the weird, dislocating light in this photograph, the kind of light we get when there's a fire or some other unusual event that affects our sense of time.

Orientation: To the left of the viewer -- and out of view -- is the Curran Steps. To the right is Echo Park Avenue, close to where it ends; also, the sun as it sets. Behind us is Elysian Valley, the river, Taylor Yards, Cypress Park, Mount Washington, the San Gabriel Mountains and Canada. ...

Speaking of fonts. These Chicken Corner shirts were designed and sold circa 2002. They are artifacts of the era when Aaron Donovan's mural of chickens faced Delta Street. Chango was no more than a bright burning bit of fire in the brains of a few entrepreneurs. There were five art galleries at the base of the Del Mor Apartments. Huge crowds showed up for the collective openings once a month on Saturday night. And the Ojala gallery offered these Chicken Corner T-shirts for sale. They branded the corner, and way predated the blog. In this case we know which came first.

Recently, the shirts have been reprised -- in their original glory. They are for sale by Marsha, who is a founder of the Echo Park Historical Society as well as the Echo Park Animal Alliance, with 20 percent of proceeds benefiting the Echo Park Animal Alliance.

Non-disclaimer disclaimer: Chicken Corner the blog is not involved in the sale of Chicken Corner T-shirts in any way except sentimentally. I was not asked to "advertise" the shirts and, unfortunately, I will not get any money from their sale.

For shirts information, click here.

Recently, Melena Ryzik dashed off the following in the NewYorkTimes.com:

In the era of immediate hyper-personalization, you could.not.possibly write with the same fonts as everyone else. Really, now that a documentary has been made about Helvetica, what kind of indie cred can it have left? Luckily, you can design your own fonts, with new programs like those at FontForge, some of which are free. Not selfish enough for you? For $200 or less, you can have a professional at Chank Fonts, High-Logic or FontLab make your Twitter even more you-centric.

An "era of immediate hyper-personalization"? Really? It seems to Chicken Corner that all of this custom this-and-that achieves the opposite: You never look more the same than when you're using mechanized means to look different. i.e., myspace. Sigh. What does this have to do with Chicken Corner? Cluck.

For the record: I never liked Helvetica much, starting in the '80s. I like Times Roman. New Times Roman, too. And Bodoni. And Courier. I like serifs. I like flowers. I like a font that plays a supporting role with restraint. But what about chicken feet? Now, there's a font for you! True grassroots.

Starting with beyond: As in beyond belief the variety of Grand Theft Auto-style obstacles the city threw at my friend Cindy Bennett* as she converted her art studio/home to an art gallery/studio/home (she received Community Redevelopment funds for commercial conversion). It looks like all sides achieve level 39 in the end, though, as Ms. Bennett at long last celebrates the opening of her gallery North Hill this Saturday in Chinatown. Fittingly, her first exhibition will be of her own photographs, part of a Wyoming series of junkyards she began 12 years ago. The Corvair ("Unsafe at any speed") above is part of the show. Reception is open to the public: Saturday, June 28, 5 to 8 p.m., 945 North Hill St. Los Angeles.

*Chicken Corner connection disclaimer: Bennett took the Chicken Corner signature photograph, above top, of Rosie the dog at the Baxter Steps.

Elysian Park: Speaking of the badlands, the Echo Park Historical Society on Saturday offers its walking tour of parts of the east side of Elysian Park.

David Futch takes a look at Echo Park vis a vis the neighborhood council elections in the most recent issue of the L.A. Weekly.

Futch writes:

...in Echo Park, as in many of the neighborhood councils throughout the city, that sunny-sounding [neighborhood councils] charter has devolved into screaming matches so filled with expletives, so laden with charges and countercharges of vote-rigging and class discrimination that the city clerk has taken over the elections and demanded that those running for council seats refrain from “mudslinging and profanity” in their candidate statements.

Judging by the whole piece -- which is short -- Futch got quite an earful as he interviews a smattering of the folks involved. Lots to sift and sort out.

One complaint: the piece starts out with a landlord's ranting about lazy neighbors and the difficulties of owning property in a dangerous neighborhood. Not pretty. This landlord has been involved in the neighbohood council, but I'm not sure what the connection is between her dislike of her neighbors and discord on the neighborhood council, except to imply that these are the attitudes exhibited by an entire group on the council.

For years I have been a fan of Ruben Ortiz-Torres' art (and his blog) as well as a mural that I assumed had been painted by Ortiz-Torres because the mural graced a wall outside of his studio. Recently, I was saddened to see the mural painted over, and I mentioned this in a post about a different mural that also had been erased. Now, I learn from artist Patrick Miller, who has worked on and off in Ortiz's studio for the last five years, that the new missing mural was, in fact, the work of the artist TOFER, not Ortiz. Miller explained that Tofer's mural came down after a band hipster tagged it with a smiley face sticker and his band's myspace address. It was all too hideous, and the whole thing had to be destroyed. Honestly, this new breed of art prankster/angry hipster is turning into a public menace. Though it should be noted that it actually was the city who painted the mural down, without notifying the artist or property owner. Is that right and proper? On private property?

Miller was at Ortiz's studio the day Tofer's mural went dark. He wrote:

I just wanted to clarify that the mural at Rubén Ortiz-Torres' home/ studio was commissioned by Rubén and painted by TOFER aka Christopher Chin. It has been tagged several times over the years. Tofer having a background in guerilla public art, designed the mural, with roller marks and drips, so that roll-overs of tags could be incorporated into the design.

The mural survived many defilements over the years and a few Rubén even liked and let stay.

The last straw was some jackass from a band that put up a happy face sicker and scrawled their myspace adress on the wall. Apparently that was all this city could take, and they rolled the entire mural without permission or notification.

To recap, the mural was Tofer's, and we miss that one, too.