A couple of days ago a Chicken Corner reader named Tenlay called my attention to a chicken mural on Sunset Boulevard. Tenlay assumed I would know which six-foot-plus chickens he was talking about when he asked if I knew the identity of the artist who painted "the chicks." I have to admit that these chicks, of which I am a new devotee, hadn't pecked their way past a peculiar membrane in my consciousness. Lyrical and witty, they were just so much soft visual noise. But it turns out that everyone was listening to the music except me. "Oh, I love those chickens!" was the universal, immediate response I got from everyone I asked.

Jesus Sanchez says there is a second chicks mural on one of the staircases leading down toward Echo Park Lake.

My reason for seeing the mural on Sunset but not noticing it? Until now I have reserved that particular stretch of Sunset, near Coronado, for thinking about ducks and ravens. (That and the fact that I am always in my car at that spot.) But now I'll have to find a new stretch of road for thinking about ducks and ravens.

I drove by the chicks today, and, parked in front -- though not completely obscuring the chicks -- were two vehicles. One of them was a dilapidated camper that looked like it might be "permanent" housing, though most of the area "homeless" who reside in campers keep theirs down on Riverside near the river*; the other vehicle was a Green Tortoise bus, which had a large, permanent-looking sign on the side that read "POETRY BUS." This is thesame bus that will supply poets for the poetry-and-sustainable-environment event planned for tonight at Machine Project.

In the meantime, I heard back from Tenlay, who answered his own question about the chicks artist, informing me of the name, Cache. Any more information, I'll be all ears and eyes.

*In Echo Park there is also a mini-homeless encampment along the back side of Vons on Liberty Street -- I am sure the heartbreaking irony is not lost on many of the inhabitants of the boxes and tents on the sidewalk there.