Photo: Mustang Family, by Cindy Bennett

...are in danger. I've signed petitions recently, sent letters to Cali U.S. senators protesting Bureau of Land Management plans to kill wild mustangs that have been penned (around 30,000) because the U.S. doesn't want to pay for their feed. I have received form-emails assuring me that Boxer and Feinstein do not want the horses killed either. Meanwhile, the penned population is in flux, and herds of mustangs who run free are in danger of being rounded up.

The author Deanne Stillman, who writes for LAObserved, recently published Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.

And my friend Cindy Bennett, a Wyoming native, is doing her part. She has been photographing wild mustangs for years. Cindy will show some of her mustang series images at North Hill Exhibitions, opening reception Saturday in Chinatown. Ten percent of the proceeds will benefit a mustangs-welfare organization.

From Cindy's exhibition statement:

The Shoshone, the Crow, the Sioux, and early pioneers all rode them. Now periodic round-ups collect and sell the mustangs to individuals, rodeos, prisons and even foreign food markets.

Ten percent of the artist’s proceeds from the sale of this series will be donated to Friends of a Legacy, www.friendsofalegacy.org to help preserve the McCullough Peaks Mustangs. FOAL specifically works to preserve healthy mustangs and a healthy McCullough Peaks habitat. For additional information about the McCullough Peaks Wildlife Area and other endangered wildlife and habitats in Wyoming visit www.voiceforthewild.org and www.wildwyo.org.

More pretty horses, and event info, after the jump.

I have just received word from Jose Sigala that the Greater Echo Park Elysian website has been restored.

Hello Jenny, I wanted to inform you and your readers that the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council website is up and running. Since learning about the problem yesterday on your blog, we have worked quickly to resolve the problem. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Sincerely, JOSE SIGALA President Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council

Chicken Corner is glad to learn that this portion of communications has been repaired. Mending -- or widening? -- the other breaks in communication with the neighborhood...next on the to-do list?

My friend Matthew DuBois emails the following report of chickens loose in the park.

This morning I was walking my dog in Elysian Park on the closed Elysian Park Rd between Academy and Scott Ave, when I noticed two chickens sitting in a bush by the side of the road, they looked alive and well. Odd as either someone just dumped them or the coyotes are losing their sense of sight and smell.

Well, I do hope those birds -- hens? -- get to a coop quick, if they're not just out for a stroll, tourists for the day on the access road. There's certainly no shortage of coyotes round this way.

A press release sent two days ago by GEPENC (Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council) announced that the council ended review of bids to repair the Lady of the Lake statue. The Lady is getting her hand back! Happy clucks all around!

But the announcement did not mention two longtime community activists -- Suzanne Kimbrough and Isa Kae Meksin -- who have worked hard at the Lady's return to the community and her preservation, and the ommission set off a new shitstorm of vitriol (mixed metaphor approved by the Chicken Corner editorial board) -- frothing, screaming over-the-top, going back and forth on a neighborhood list serv. (Neither Isa nor Kimbrough were party to this particular discussion.) One "open letter" to GEPENC's president looked, to me, like a hoax. Since the communications were not cc'd to Chicken Corner they won't be quoted -- just noted.

Meanwhile, GEPENC's website has been unavailable. And there is confusion over when and where meetings are planned.

Sunday, and F-Yeah fest is taking place in different places around L.A. -- lots of events in Echo Park. Shows by many bands, such as No Age and Crystal Antlers. The most intriguing of the festival events was a scavenger hunt -- like the one they held last year. This year, the hunt started at the northeast corner of Echo Park Lake. Participants were instructed in advance to form teams of 2 to 5 members, and the teams had to wear outfits. So, my daughter, my dog and I arrive to watch the call to hounds, and we find a big crowd. Lots of groups of twenty- and even thirty-somethings, mostly dressed in costume. There was a group of five guys dressed in blue capes. There was a group of three wearing lilac T-shirts; the women's shirts said "Tits" and the man's shirt read "Dick" (Chicken Corner thinks he got the short end of that particular stick). There were cowboys and cowgirls, guys dressed up in suits. Everyone milling around. Old ladies hunt around looking for cast-away bottles and cans. An ice cream vendor rings a small bell, but no one's buying. When the festival organizers call out for one member of each team to line up, there is a sudden frenzied rush. Hunt details are handed out, one by one.

The list (of things that must be procured) includes:

"Menu from Ukrainian restaurant. 3 points"

"Shave off eyebrow: 25 points. Two eyebrows per whole team limit."

"In the drive thru of a fast food restaurant kiss the person at the window on the lips -- needs photographic evidence. 25 points."

Donation items listed for Union Rescue Mission -- 3 points per donation. No limit.

"Report card with F. Ask your parents. Does not need to be yours."

"Ticket stub pre 2003 -- 6 points." (Pre-when?!)

The weekend -- or something -- took a heavy toll on the ducks and water at Echo Park Lake. On Sunday afternoon, I noticed that the water looked particularly filthy with garbage on the north end of the lake (I didn't go down to the south end). I also noticed that the ducks and geese weren't swimming close to the walkway banks, as they do on normal days when people are around. This morning I received a sad report from a reader named Nick, who sent me five photos: garbage in the lake, two dead ducks and one dying. The white and tan duck, pictured below, is one I recognize. I think he was fairly young, but I will have to check with Dave Foster, who works at the park and knows all of the birds who stay for any length of time.

Nick wrote:

I was doing a lap around the lake today when I saw this sickly duck gasping for air in the polluted shallows where the lotus plants used to be. It was just sitting there isolated from the other ducks, showing no signs of movement except constantly opening its mouth as if to quack, but no noise ever came out. The duck was clearly having trouble breathing and I'm sure he/she will be dead soon.

Walking around the lake, I noticed another dead duck buried in sewage and another dead one floating against the walls. I couldn't help but wonder if the high number of deaths was related to the pollution in the water. ... Parts of the lake are a complete cesspool. Maybe it's time for the city to clean the water and/or impose steeper fines for littering.

It's strange that the lake should fare better during the battlefield onslaught of July 4 and days surrounding than it did on Labor Day Weekend.

Sunday evening just as lovely as can be. Small kids from six neighbor house families hanging out in the front yard of my friends/neighbors across the street. Most of the parents are there, too. It's golden hour, six-thirty-ish when I hear gun shots. I go outside. My husband is talking to some neighors, my daughter is wrapped in an orange towel, wet from playing in the slip-'n-slide. No one looks worried. No one appears even to have heard the shots. By the time I get across the street, I have forgotten about them. The adults are talking about a possible sink hole that is reported to be developing under the driveway of a nearby house.

Then this morning, I receive two emails asking about/telling about a shooting in the 1900 block of Echo Park Avenue, not too far from where I live (sound carries oddly in the hills here). A 34-year-old man shot in the back of the head while sitting in his car. The L.A. Times has a brief report.

Copyeditor's note: In response to a recent Chicken Corner cluck-and-flutter about Machine Project's use of the name "South Central" instead of "South Los Angeles," I received the following from Laura Britt Greig of the Black Cloud organization:

Dear Jenny, I'm Laura, a member of the Black Cloud team. ... The "South Los Angeles" comment you made struck me. I read in Wikipedia that this was the preferred name when we moved down there. I thought my boss was being old-fashioned (or just trying to drum up publicity) calling it South Central. I was hesitant to use either name for lack of knowledge, but I asked the students at MAHS [Manual Arts High School], and they all call it South Central. Everyone living there does. You say calling it South LA is respectful, but I think in the end, it's more respectful to let the people who actually live there call it what they want. Maybe reclaiming the name is essential to reclaiming the neighborhood.

This reminds me of the "African-American" vs. "black" dilemma/subtleties. All of the black people I know call themselves black. So I do, too. But in writing I often use the term "African-American," and in editing, I cross out "black" and replace it with the hyphenate ... unless it's a quote of course, or not appropriate to make a change. It's a case of riding currents, treading water and not trying to dominate the language. At the same time, I've noticed more white people speaking of European-American culture and people. It's all fluid and it doesn't flow in just one direction. Likewise, when part of Canoga Park became Chatsworth I'm sure many of the folks continued to call the place by the old name. But most went with the powers of name change. If someone asks you to call them by one name, it's rude to call them by any other. So I guess it's a question of who owns the name. Isn't it always.

Speaking of the Black Cloud Project, results will be presented this weekend at Machine. Details after the jump.

Photo: Echo Park Historical Society

The Lady of the Lake is a long story. The Deco statue symbolizes many things, not the least a renewed sense of dedication to restoration and revival for landmarks in Echo Park. The Echo Park Historical Society explains, "Sculpted in the Art Deco style by artist Ada Mae Sharpless, the statue’s official name is 'Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles' (Queen of the Angels). But most people refer to the statue as the 'Lady of the Lake.'"

In the 1980s, the city dumped her, graffiti marred and broken in places, into a box in a stockyard. But, in the '90s neighborhood activist Suzanne Kimbrough began an effort to bring her back. With the help of EPHS, among others, the Lady was repaired and returned to a pedestal at Echo Park Lake, where she has been appreciated ever since. As well as mistreated. Last year, she lost her hand, as Dakota reported in May on Curbed LA.

So, okay, our Lady lost her hand. She needs repairs. And it's up to us, the neighborhood, to see that done. Simple enough. Unless you have a neighborhood council at war with itself as well as with vocal groups in the neighbohood. Racial divisions, class conflict, historical perspective -- all of this had nothing to do with the Lady's hand, until very recently when her hand became a new item of contention over at the neighborhood council.

I missed (until today) Friday's Curbed LA post about the construction ongoings at Chicken Corner. Dakota's post declares the future site of many condos a negligence lawsuit in waiting. And, yes, it does look rather sloppy over there, now that you mention it. On Friday, same day the post went up, I happened to be trying to enjoy myself at Chango coffeehouse, with my daughter, Madeleine, and our good friend Mary. But there were trucks going back and forth, spewing yuck in the air and making so much noise fluid conversation was not completely possible. We stuck it out for over an hour. There was one troubling but semi-comical bit of business related to the construction. While we sat at our table, a street-cleaning truck -- one of those Athey vehicles with round brushes and little jets that spit water onto the street -- went by on Echo Park Avenue. Then two minutes later it came back. Then it came back again. And so on, for the complete hour. Driving from one end of the block and then back again. And then again. Sometimes it had the water spray on, sometimes, not. Sometimes, the brushes whirred around, sometimes not. That was about 10 to 11 a.m. Then, at 1:30 p.m., I drove back down Echo Park Avenue and the street cleaner was still at it. This time, I chased the truck in my car. "Why?" I asked. The answer was dust. People had complained about dust. So, all of that toxic emission, noise, and the weird circling for dust? Yes, for a handful of dust.