Another reason for TGIF: The Echo Park Farmers Market, which now has a Time Bank vendor-stand.

Yes, the Echo Park Time Bank does more than bank just hours. It bottles and trades in all kinds of skills and products -- love letter writing, dress-making, handmade robot heads. These things and more can be acquired at Echo Park's Farmer's Market, an institution that week by week is growing to represent the community it serves. Food stands accept food stamps, there are two gourmet cheese vendors -- and, of course, Time Bank dollars.

Here's an internal memo from the Time Bank:

Stop by the Echo Park Farmer's Market on Fridays from 3-7PM. The Echo Park Artisan Co-op will be there selling their wares. All sales will directly benefit the Artists and The Echo Park Time Bank. Megan Hobza will be selling hand made robot heads, Nyenye will be writing love letters, Orchid will be selling her beautifully designed clothing and Gretchen and Autumn will sell their upcycled bottle cap necklaces. We will also be making produce bags out of t-shirts inspired by Leslie Van Keuren's workshop last month. ... Drop by the market and listen to the Jimi Hendrix impersonator with us for a while. Foxy!

Chicken Corner luvvs recycled Hendrix. She also loves that at least one of the food vendors -- in beans, I believe -- sometimes abandons his tent to jam on the sax for a while. It takes a good time to know a good time, as they say at the market.

Meanwhile, New York City knows a good thing when it sees it: the NY Daily News reported recently that the big apple's big cheese (AKA Bloomberg) has directed the city to invest in a time bank.