The Echo Park Craft Fair happened right up the street from us this past weekend. This is a bi-annual event at the home of Rachel Craven. It was a very intimate setting in Rachel’s backyard, her son sold lemondae, a local taco stand was on hand, and dozens of individual makers and quality brands including David Scheid, Me & Arrow, Le Feu De L’Eau, Jo Abellera of Kkibo, Beatrice Valenzuela, and more.

This hill of Echo Park is called Angeleno Heights, known for its high concentration of Victorian era homes in Los Angeles. I’ll save some of the grand Victorian homes for another post… some of them are incredible with carriage homes where they used to keep the horses, now turned into second homes and studios. Love this part of Echo Park, it feels like another world.

We love LA’s streaming radio station Dublab. The DJs are all LA, they play what they want with the sole mission to share beautiful music with the world. You’ll hear world-class Djs, musicians, and artists including Daedelus, Andres Renteria, Carlos Nino, The Gaslamp Killer, Kutmah, and Kozyndan- these are just a handful of folks that are part of the Dublab crew.

Our friend Frosty is one of the founders of this truly eclectic radio station. He started this in 1999 and it’s been going strong and getting stronger since day one. Dublab is about bringing community together for the arts, film, and of course, music. Every time I run into Frosty, there is always something new… it could be a film project that is touring the nation, Friday night music events at the Natural History Museum, Djing at the TED conference, or producing and making records by some of LA’s finest. Frosty and Dublab have got their hands in everything…and, it wouldn’t be what it is without the support of Dublab’s global listeners and fans.

Introducing Creative Cultivation 2012, a dinner-music-party fundraiser for Dublab radio. Frosty has lined up Cut Chemist, Julia Holter, Anenon & Yvette Holzwarth, Carlos Niño, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson & Dexter Story. Drinks from Lagunitas Beer, DRY Soda Co., and food from one of our favorite restaurants, Starry Kitchen!

You can support and be part of this event, by buying tickets here. Dublab is a 501(c)(3) creative non profit, so the proceeds go directly to funding their mission and operation…. and of course purchasing a ticket is 100% tax deductible.

More info on the event at Dublab.

The latest show at MOCA. Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist currently living and working in New York. Do you remember the 2008 Beijing Olympic? He was the visual director for the opening and closing ceremonies… That puts the grandness of his work and these pieces at MOCA into context, doesn’t it? Cai Guo-Qiang made these large-scale drawings at MOCA from exploding gunpowder on canvases. In the past few months, MOCA has invited the public to view these site specific pieces being made first hand… a spectacular event, to say the least.

This is awesome detail of the gunpowder residue.

This is his first exhibition on the west coast and the night of the opening, he exploded a piece on the outside walls of MOCA. It was insane, the explosion was so loud and big, most everyone in the crowd actually ducked and screamed. Our friend Lana Kim was the video producer for the event, the video and a shot of the aftermath is below.

All the info for Cai Guo-Qiang’s Sky Ladder at Moca.org.

CicLAvia is here again, closing 10 miles of LA streets to cyclists, skaters, walkers, skaters… essentially anything without a motor. If you haven’t joined in on this FREE event in LA… I urge you to do so, it’s so much fun! You can ride to your hearts content, no worries about cars. Other things that may be a distraction are bicyclists in crazy costumes, DJs set ups on the side of the road, life size chess matches, local eateries, shops, and bars all open to celebrate this awesome event.

This year, just like last, you can pick up the exclusive Poketo x CicLAvia wallet! There will be bike stations with tee shirts, bags, bottles, and our wallets. Stop by and pick one up to support! Proceeds go to CicLAvia and their mission for a bike friendly city.

For more info, check out this interview we did with CicLAvia organizer Joe Linton. The event is April 15th, 2012, from 10am to 3pm. Here is the route, you can start in Downtown and ride all the way to the Melrose.