On Location: 'Train'-spotting in Echo Park

It's no secret that Los Angeles is one of the most-filmed cities in the world, whether standing in for itself or another city, but oftentimes the Militant will be watching a movie, television show, commercial or music video and go, "The Militant knows where that is!" This is the first of an infrequent series on the Militant Angeleno's blog called "On Location" that pinpoints their filming locations here in town.

The Militant has been hearing some catchy pop tune lately that makes lyrical references to Mr. Mister and Madonna, and just found out it's the song, "Hey, Soul Sister" from the alt-pop band Train - yes, that same Train that gave us "Hey Virginia" and "Drops of Jupiter" that became daily fodder on the old incarnation of Star 98.7.

Anyway, the music video for that song (window plays above) features a recognizable locale for the Militant; a little, way-off hipstermagnet corner of Echo Park embedded in the hills a half-mile north of Sunset, right at the corner of Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street. The cafe the band is playing in front of is none other than Chango Coffee.

Of course, they're not the first "Train" to show up in that part of town; the old Pacific Electric Echo Park Avenue Line ran there until 1950.

L.A. Live, Wired For 'Iron Man 2'

The Militant realizes full well that today is Earth Day, and while everyone is expecting an ecologically-themed post, the Militant asks, rhetorically, "Why only for today?" Earth Day should be every day. He recycles, rides his bike and hops on the train pretty much every day anyway, so it should be no big deal...

The Militant was walking down Figueroa today with an unspecified relative to visit L.A. Live when all of a sudden a U.F.O. (Unspecified Flying Object) shoots across Fig.

Okay, relax, the space aliens weren't turning Earth Day into Independence Day or anything. The object was being suspended by a cable that stretched from the roof of the Holiday Inn all the way to the Nokia Theatre. Whatever could this be?

Upon closer inspection, the Militant and his unspecified relative approach L.A. Live's "canyon" walkway and witness a crew busy putting up scaffolding, an archway and spotlights. What is up? Some red carpet event?

After doing some intense Militant research (okay, so the Militant just went up and asked), the activity was the construction of a movie set, and the floating object was a test weight, made up mostly of sandbags, in lieu of a camera, which would swoop down L.A. Live's canyon to capture
the scene.

"So what's the movie called?" The Militant asked.

"Rasputin," said the crewmember. "Or...Iron Man 2."

Further Militant research turns up nothing for a movie in production named "Rasputin" but there is confirmation that the production codename for Iron Man 2 is indeed "Rasputin."

So all you Tony Stark fanboys and fangirls, L.A. Live is the place to be tonight!

Fireworks On The 4th (Of April?)

Can't wait until July? We're gonna have a fireworks show on the 4th...of April that is. According to operative reports, turns out that at about 7:15 p.m. Friday night, there will be a fireworks display at Dodger Stadium.

[Reader 1: Oh great, Commando Boy's doing another Dodger-related post!]

[Reader 2: *facepalm* ]

[Reader 1: Why doesn't he just rename the blog, "Stupid Dodger Fan Boy Geek" or something?]

[Reader 2: Go Angels! ]

[Reader 1: Go Padres! ]

[Reader 2: LOL! ]

No, it's not to celebrate rookie 3rd baseman Blake DeWitt's first career grand slam (though at the rate he's going, it's gonna happen soon), as the Boys in Blue will be in Kitty Litter Park this weekend, but apparently there's some filming going on at The Stadium and the filmmakers are pullin' out the pyrotechnics.

So for those of you Center-dwellers who live within a couple miles radius of Chavez Ravine, enjoy the fireworks show and don't let your K-9 units freak out.

Villaraigosa So Far...

Call it a progress report, or some spin for this city to prove Da Mayor has been doing more than just Mirthala Salinas, but a 40-page document from the Mayor's Office entitled Midterm Report 2005-2007: Delivering Results for Los Angeles was released last week and personally handed to various community leaders from around the city at a meeting this past weekend by Deputy Mayor Larry Frank. (The Militant was able to obtain a copy, but the report is available online as a .pdf in the link above). The report enumerates various accomplishments and works-in-progress from Mayor Villar. In the report:

• Sidewalks repaired: 145 miles
• Streets resurfaced: 425 miles
• Potholes filled: 540,833
• Trees trimmed: 147, 209
• Graffiti removed: 35 million sq feet
• New parks opened: 10
• Recreation facilities opened: 20
• New fire stations & training facilities opened: 6
• New libraries opened: 6

In the works-in-progress department, the report indicated that 300 of the 1,000 new LAPD officers promised by Villaraigosa have been added to the force, and according to Frank, 98,000 of the one million trees promised by El Alcalde have been planted (They can reach their goal by re-greening Griffith Park alone). Frank also admittedly attributed the pothole-filling progress to our recent lack of rain (water helps erode the integrity of asphalt), and jokingly stated that "we might run out of potholes to fill."

But Frank mentioned some interesting factoids on Los Angeles regarding energy and the environment that were news to this Militant, mainly that 60% of Los Angeles' (population: 4,000,000) electricity comes from a coal plant in the Great Basin town of Delta, Utah (population: 3,200). Further Militant research indicated that, according to the town history, "Delta is rather unusual among the primarily agricultural towns in the state, since it was founded in the twentieth century and owed virtually nothing regarding its establishment to direction from the general hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The power plant (pictured above) is part of the Intermountain Power Project and run by the Intermountain Power Agency. Seventy-five percent of its power goes to Southern California, which, besides Los Angeles, also juices-up the cities of Anaheim, Riverside, Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale (The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, whose stadium once sold its naming rights to an energy company, has their Triple-A Minor League affiliate based in Utah. Coincidence?). Frank mentioned that the Mayor more than doubled the amount of renewable energy sold by the DWP - from 3% to a whopping 8%. Frank did mention to the community leaders (and not mentioned in the report) that the City is working out some deal with companies in China to create training and manufacturing opportunities to build solar energy panels locally. Fingers crossed...

Shield Us From Destruction!
The Militant finds humor in repetition, cliches, the predictable. So on Saturday on his way to the Pilibos School in Little Armenia for the LACommons event he spotted one of those little FilmLA filming notices posted in front of an apartment building for a shoot on Tuesday. Gee, that's cool they're filming in this neighborhood, I just hope it's anything but The Shiel...D'oh!