Director Quentin Tarantino has exhibited brilliance when depicting stories set on the streets of Los Angeles.
It appears, however, that the folks who produced the collector's edition DVD of his most-celebrated film, "Pulp Fiction," still have a few things to learn about our fair city.
Some of the trivia is educational. Some of it is effusive self-admiration. And at least one bit of it is flat out wrong.
I'm referring specifically to a kernel of LA ignorance regarding Echo Park (see inset). This trivial tidbit states during a scene set in Echo Park that the community is "a suburb of Los Angeles."
It's not a new mistake. Errors like this have appeared in news stories before. Even Starbucks expressed a lack of understanding recently about what communities are in LA. But the fact remains that it's not that complicated to differentiate communities like Silverlake Silver Lake from suburbs like Simi Valley.
A quick glance at Wikipedia would have revealed, had anyone bothered to look, that Echo Park is not a suburb of LA. Indeed, Echo Park is part of LA, and a very historic part at that. In fact, Echo Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city with a rich history in film.
Of course, I don't doubt a film buff like Tarantino knows the 909 from Edendale, but that's of little consolation to his partners in 213, who have now been forever branded with the "S" word in finer DVD collections worldwide. And that's about as wrong as giving another man's wife a foot massage.