Photo by Cindy Bennett

Lots of paint being splashed about Echo Park recently. Cache's cute mural on Mohawk, of chickens in love, has been browned out of existence. The colorful reds and other bright colors of Cache's palette have been replaced with bear brown on the side of the wall where The Kids Are Alright used to be. It wasn't my favorite Cache mural, but it was about 100 percent better than what replaced it. If you never saw it or don't remember The Kids was a hipster-ish boutique/gift shop, a nice one where you could pick up a cool Taro Gomi coloring book or a pair of gold ballet slippers. I have heard that the building was purchased recently and the rent raised, which is why it now is empty space, like a shop that never happened. Your blank (brown) canvas has arrived. My best hope is that the antiques shops aren't priced away, too. And my prayers are that the owners are not louts and don't plan to demolish the structure.

Around the corner, on Alvarado near Sunset, there is a new frozen yogurt shop, called Orange Cream, that I've heard good things about: rumor is they serve fresh fruit with their product. It took a long time for the shop to open. It's in the strip mall diagonally across from the Downbeat Cafe. And I think Orange Cream may have inspired the Rancho Market to go white. Rancho has been a dingy orange forever. But now that Orange Cream has opened it's off-white. That's the universe punning with paint, not Chicken Corner.

In other paint news: the Episcopal Church across from Echo Park Lake is said to be experimenting with grape purple for its newest color. I guess the old white wasn't bright enough. I'm heading down to see it with my own eyes this afternoon. My best hope: that it not frighten away the birds on Bird Island.

Looks like art pranksters tagged the bright green gates of Peter Shire's studio on Echo Park Avenue. Something about cats. It was hard to read. Shire has long been left alone by the more traditional -- and often gang-affiliated -- taggers of the neighborhood, many of whom had grown up with Peter or had been portrait subjects or studio assistants over the years. In fact, Shire's pottery studio work was often signed eXp (or was that ExP?), same as the Echo Park gang. Doubtful that the new breed of street writer knows about all of that. My best hope: that it's already painted over -- as if it never happened.