News August 2010

It’s been 2 years since I worked on this blog. Blame it on me getting a car and losing the bus trips where I had time to explore my surroundings. Or blame it on my change of job which gave me less time. Or blame it on me just being lazy. Whatever the reason, I have been re-inspired to do it again.

Excuse me if I start out slow. I know I’ve already wrote about Club Chapala before, but it is local and easy to snap a pic of. So first in the news is about the new paint job the owner gave the building.

Gone is the dark green paint and the mural of the cock fight. (see previous posts). The owner said she painted it because she thought it looked ugly before. I thought it definetely looked unique. Also new is a repaved parking lot, but the best thing is a new younger crowd that enjoys music, dancing, drinking and playing pool. I have been going with friends and having good times.

So keep looking for new posts, and comment as much as you want. That will encourage me to do more.

Le Barcito’s Past

Then and Now

Sharing a building with a laundrymat (closed after this picture was taken), Le Barcito is the current name of this Silverlake bar opened in the 1960′s as The Black Cat. It has gone through many names, but has always been a gay bar, and a very important one in the gay rights movement. A newspaper article of the police raid of the Black Cat in the late 60′s is shown at the beginning of the movie Milk. I won’t get into that whole story because this post is just to show an old and new pic but you can read some pages of the Cultural Historical Monument application here. Black Cat CHC Application (partial).

Some things I want to point out: The cat sign was only recently restored after the bar gained Cultural Monument status. It was previously completely faded or painted over with white. The building was originally built as a Safeway Supermarket. The glass doors and windows were replaced with a wooden facade like many old bars. That would make a great future post. If anyone knows anything about that, please let me know.