on the path…in the neighborhood part 1
Monday, November 27th, 2006A new vibe I noticed in Echo Park is a barrage of honking.
This polyphony of sound occurs between the times of 5 and 7 pm at the corners of Echo Park and Lemoyne.
I believe there is a trivial pursuit question that asks “what pitch is a car horn tuned at.”
I believe the answer was F or Bb. Either way, even if it was tuned to this interval, it’d be wrong.
Itjust sounds like lots of honking.
Fortunately I live on top of a hill, so to hear the honking I actually need to be on Sunset blvd.
Other neighbors who live closer to Sunset get to hear the honking throughout Friday night rush hour.
Why all the honking, I wondered?
Signs.
The honking was in response to signs to stop the war in Iraq. A group of people go down and hold big signs that say “bring the troops home” and “Honk to stop the war” and other short slogans that are in a 2 foot point font.
A recent Friday night I was at “Jumbo Bargain” to buy fresh radio batteries for a clean reception of coast to coast. “jumbo Bargain” is a Korean owned dollar store. 4 AA batteries for $1! They also have religious paraphanelia: a set of Buddha & Ganesh figurines as well as Blessed Mother candles. You know the tall skinny white ones.
I digress, I dig the Jumbo Bargain.
Yes, Larry, I admit it is the Echo Park version of Wal-Mart.
AS I enter the sidewalk I look down Sunset to where the honking is and there is a cat holding a sign with one hand and playing accordian with the other. I’m amazed that he’s able to pull it off at all. I offer to hold the sign so he could use both hands to play the accordian. He was with a woman getting Lots honks, of course from holding her sign way up in the air.
Their names were Bart and Lisa. Or that’s their sign holding names anyway. And we had areally nice conversation about living in Echo Park, Pre-Katrina New Orleans, and L.A. traffic.
Thanks for checking in
Stephen A. Thomas