It drives me nuts when I ask someone where they live and they tell me, “The Eastside,” only to find out that they live in Echo Park or Silver Lake. Yes, I know. Echo Park is east of Hollywood, and despite what publications like the L.A. Weekly might tell you, Echo Park/Silver Lake Area (for that matter, downtown) is not “The Eastside.” That title is reserved for the communities east of the L.A. River, on the other side of the bridges. Areas such Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, City Terrace and Lincoln Heights have their own culture, history and mentality that is miles away from the rest of the Los Angeles. Many people that live west of East L.A. have never ventured past those bridges that connect downtown to the East L.A., even though it’s only a few short miles away. In fact, to me, calling the Echo Park/Silver Lake “The Eastside” is like calling Culver City the “Eastside” simply because it is east of Santa Monica.

Here’s a little helpful guide so that you might be able to tell the difference:

In Echo Park/Silver Lake, it's called Sunset Blvd.
In East Los, it's called Cesar Chavez Ave.
Echo Park/Silver Lake is 40.53% White
East Los is 96.80% Latino
Echo Park/Silver Lake gave us Tom Waits, Beck & The Silversun Pickups
East Los gave us The Midniters, Los Lobos and Ozomatli
Echo Park/Silver Lake was once the home of the Walt Disney Studios
East Los is considered “the mural capital of the world” behind Mexico City
Echo Park/Silver Lake has The Sunset Junction Festival, Cuban Festival & Lotus Festival
East Los has Dia De Los Muertos @ Self Help Graphics and Festival De La Gente
Echo Park/Silver Lake: Elliott Smith, voice of a generation, died in Echo Park
East Los: Rudy Salazar, voice of a generation, died in East L.A.
Echo Park/Silver Lake: Mi Vida Loca, Quinceanera
East Los: Blood In, Blood Out, American Me (don’t look at me Lil puppet….)
Echo Park/Silver Lake: Almost completely gentrified
East Los: On it’s way if they don’t fight it

Oct. 3 & 4
Two rarely screened French classics directed by Marcel Pagnol
Neither film is on DVD
THE BAKER’S WIFE (1938)
“One of the greatest films ever made.” – New York Times
at 7:30
plus
HARVEST (1937)
at 9:45
______________

Oct. 5 & 6
Two Ingmar Bergman classics
AUTUMN SONATA (1978)
Fri: 7:30; Sat: 3:50 & 7:30

plus
CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972)
Fri: 9:20; Sat: 5:40 & 9:20

______________

Oct. 7, 8 & 9
Two by Wes Anderson
RUSHMORE (1998)
Sun: 3:50 & 7:30; Mon/Tue: 7:30
plus
BOTTLE ROCKET (1996)
Sun: 5:40 & 9:20; Mon/Tue: 9:20

_______________

Oct. 10 & 11
Two by the late Michelangelo Antonioni
IL GRIDO (1957) at 7:30
plus ZABRISKIE POINT (1970) at 9:45


New Beverly Cinema
7165 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
1 block west of La Brea
www.newbevcinema.com
www.myspace.com/newbeverlycinema
$7 general
$6 students w/ID
$4 seniors/children
cash only
always a double bill!
all films presented in 35mm studio prints
reasonably priced concessions!
continuous repertory programming since 1978!

Last night I was flipping channels and happened upon a documentary about Juanita Bynum.  I had never heard of her before, and maybe you haven't either:  She is a wildly popular Prophetess and Minister and she often speaks particularly to women's issues.  She's apparently a huge figure in the Christian scene, and has even got her own magazine!

Watch a portion of her No More Sheets Sermon, which vaulted her to fame.

I just have not seen intensity like hers in a loooooooong time.  It's interesting to me, this evangelism.  I can see why people find strength in her sermons and at the same time I am not a religious person AT ALL, and cannot say I agree with her views.  She has a very powerful presence though and it's exciting to watch her careen through the riled audience while they jump up and down and scream with their arms raised:


I don't know why exactly, but the documentary I saw piqued my interest.  I might even be slightly obsessed with Juanita now.  Maybe it's because her life is so different from mine.  Maybe it's because the amount of confidence and strength it takes to get up in front of people and go off like that is way beyond me.  Maybe it's because to me, she seems a little nuts.  I just can't get enough of Dr. Juanita right now!  Watching someone preach is pretty foreign to me, and, as someone who reads an awful lot of media, it's interesting to realize that there's people out there who are famous to millions of people who I have never even heard of.

In recent years in many US and European major metropolitan areas various eco-friendly and anti-consumerism organizations have been staging fully legal acts of protest. One example is the above "awareness creation mechanism" in which once a month in the UK a group of anti-consumer activists all pushing deliberately-empty shopping carts ("trolleys") form a human chain of sorts as they push these symbols of consumerism in a zombie like fashion around the megamart. Thanks to Adbusters for this video posting. Incidentally, the music playing as the background soundtrack is Goldfrapp's "Lovely Head" off the CD Felt Mountain (Mute). For more information on this Whirl-Mart project click here.

Several years back I went to a Halloween party dressed as Groucho Marx, specifically as his character Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the eccentric and barmy president of Huxley College from the classic 1932 film “Horse Feathers.”  I wore the cap and gown, a pair of baggy trousers, an ill fitted shirt, worn leather shoes; I painted on the moustache and the eyebrows. I did it up right. When I arrived at the party I found myself milling around the bar looking for some whiskey. Nearby was a crowd in their late 20’s or early 30’s dressed to the absolute nines. I suspect “glamorous perfection"  (rented perfection?) was the concept behind their costumes, whatever it was, they hit it right. I sort of knew them from another party; I also knew they worked as grammar school teachers. I said hey and hello, they said hey and asked me about my costume.  

One of the saddest and most preposterous nights of my life, right at that moment I knew there wasn’t going to be enough whiskey or conversation or beautiful women to keep me at this shindig for long, or this pin-brained world. Soon I said my adieus and I wandered back home dazed, stunned by it all … and I wonder why I’m depressed sometimes!

Anyway, today, October 2nd, is the birthday to a comic cultural icon, and the inspiration behind those novelty glasses, Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx.  Happy 117th birthday Groucho!