The community meal plan is providing a cozy place to eat with friends and loved ones this winter. Check out our new instagram account where we’re documenting some of the tasty dishes the grub members are serving:
The community meal plan is providing a cozy place to eat with friends and loved ones this winter. Check out our new instagram account where we’re documenting some of the tasty dishes the grub members are serving:
Los Angeles Intentional Community Meet Up
We recently participated in the LA Intentional Community Meet Up hosted by the LA EcoVillage. Thanks to everyone who came out–from about 15 communities! We have a plan to make this a quarterly event, so if you’re an IC in the area please email us and we’ll keep you posted.
Some members of the house attended the Gilroy Garlic Festival last week. With so much talk about garlic, we hosted a garlic appreciation potluck at the house. 90% of commercial garlic in the U.S. is grown in California.
We have a Little Free Library!
Come read with us..
Fun Fact: There are over 30,000 Little Free Library book exchanges around the world, sharing over 1 million books annually.
Learn more: littlefreelibrary.org
Check out our glorious new mural by Rachel Rusenko
Thanks a thousand, Rachel!Check out her website at www.rcasacas.com
Join us for a fantastical show!
Hibernation Dream Show <3 @ Synchronicityla (Koreatownish) This Saturday, February 21st Johanna Chase playing at 9pm Medicine Bear and the Herbal Remedies playing at 10:15 http://www.johannachase.com/#!recordings/c1yi7 http://www.medicinebearandtheherbalremedies.com/ Email contact@synchronicityla.com for the address!
We were in the Neighborhood News!
Our local periodical, The Neighborhood News, did a profile of our house for a recent issue:
http://theneighborhoodnewsonline.net/news/community/924-community-living-is-alive-and-well-in-mid-city
Thanks to Ms. Chelsee Lowe for a nice look at our house!
Fan Letters and Beast Nest at Sync 12/13!
Come join us for a sound art video extravaganza!
FAN LETTERS is a sound and video collaboration between Alex Nathanson and Dylan Neely, utilizing a wide range of instruments and tools, including violin, percussion, custom electronics, custom video programs, bicycle parts, and animation, to transform abstract social and psychological processes into immersive experiences that strive to provide absurd, humorous, and disturbing perspectives on contemporary life.
www.alexnathanson.com/fanletters
BEAST NEST
7:30pm
Beautiful Puppy “Frances” Needs a Lifelong Home!
Frances came to us about 1 month ago and is about 4 months old! She is mellow, obedient (has already learned to sit and lie down), and a lover! Snuggles for days. Frannie is about 20 pounds right now and we predict that she could be 40-50 when full grown. As far as we know, she’s a pit chow mix.
We’re sorry to see her go, but need someone who is looking for the long term commitment that comes with puppy love. Please email us at contact@synchronicityla.com if you are interested or know someone who might be.
Come Clean Up with Community Project “What What”!!
Meeting point is Normandie Park (NE corner of Venice and Normandie)
Sunday, Sep. 22nd, 9am-12pm, Snacks and Supplies Provided! See you all there!!
Email Comprojwhatwhat@gmail.com to RSVP or for any questions. Thanks!
We’re having an art fair this Sunday (8/4)! All the info is on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/203277719830635/.
Come by from 12-6 to nab some great handmade items produced locally!
Molly Gray, a graduate student from USC, recently visited our humble abode and wrote a wonderful article about us in her blog entitled Molly Reports. The report talks about our community and one other called Villanova. Molly is an Annenberg Fellow working toward an MA in Digital Journalism at the University of Southern California. Thanks for coming over and spending time with us Molly!
You can check out the beginning of her report below and then go to her website to see more. We also posted the slideshow and video she created.
Update! Molly’s article was just accepted to the Huffington Post, so feel free to also read her article via the HuffPost!
Artistic communities are a haven for artists in the middle of the city
by Molly Gray…posted April 25, 2012
Aside from a few small details — a bronze peace sign above the front door and a turquoise bus parked in the driveway — this craftsman house in a quiet West Adams neighborhood looks just like any other.
Once inside, the sounds of the electronic pop band Passion Pit and the smells of vegetarian Thai curry drift throughout the home.
It’s nearing 8:30 p.m. and pretty soon a hand-carved wooden whistle will signal to anywhere between 10 and 20 people that dinner is ready… all of molly’s article…
Slideshow!
Video!
Participating in the Gift Economy
Yes! Magazine put out an article entitled “37 Ways to Join the Gift Economy.” I love thinking about an economy that is thriving without the addition of what most people think economies need—money. So I took a look at the list. It turns out that our little house already participates in many of the suggestions!
To see all of the suggestions, check out the original article.
Here’s how we bring the gift economy home:
“1. Start a dinner co-op. Rotate among the homes of friends and neighbors for weekly or monthly potlucks.”
We have group dinners four nights a week! People from our house as well as neighbors and guests cook for each other and eat together.
“3. Put up a traveler.”
Guests come through our doors all the time. Already this year we have hosted strangers from Texas, British Columbia, and Idaho.
“5. Harvest wild or unwanted fruits and vegetables.
6. Grow your own, and give some of it away.”
We have fruit trees in our backyard we eat from and give to our neighbors.
“9. Buy food or supplies in bulk and share with friends.”
We buy all of our food as a group and often share food with friends and neighbors. Though not everything we buy is bought in bulk, we try to get rice, beans, and other items in this way.
“10. Form a home-repair team to fix your own place and others’.”
This effort has recently taken the form of work exchangers – offering housing in exchange for special projects around the house, which has brought us lovely additions such as our table and outdoor shower!
“18. Throw a block party.”
Happened two years ago… I might try to make it happen again…
“19. Show up at a soup kitchen and ask to volunteer help.”
We have volunteered off an on at our local food bank.
“21. Convert a duplex, apartment building, old nursing home, or seminary into a cohousing community.”
Though our home is not any one of these cool locations originally, we did convert an old, early 1900’s home into a cohousing situation.
“22. Convert a barn or warehouse into a space for artists and start-up businesses.”
Our studio! Also, Andress Yourself = start-up business.
“23. Create a space for neighbors to keep and share infrequently used tools and extra garden supplies.
32. Exchange lessons, for example, cooking for carpentry.”
We have recently begun to share more tools on the block through a skill/stuff share. If you live nearby and would like to exchange skills, email us about it.
“25. Hold a monthly clean-up of a beach, park, roadway, river bank; get coffee houses to donate goodies.”
Royce, a friend from the block, had the idea to clean up the street once a month. We’ve done a street clean up twice now and hope to continue it and to get more people on the block involved!
“28. Share a car.”
We share cars a lot as many of us bicycle goers have random long distance trips to take to see family or to get home safely late at night. Thanks car people!
—
And last but not least… a couple of ideas we should consider…
“35. Work with your neighbors to develop a vision for your neighborhood’s future.”
We are still dreaming of making the lot for sale at the end of the block into a park. Looking into it right now. I think there is a lot of potential for involving neighbors in this as well as more group activities such as in street cleaning, food growing, and skill sharing.
“36. Hold talent shows. Give kids lots of recognition, and everyone opportunity to discover their hidden talents.”
A local talent show?! Yes! I think we could pull this off with our Salon experience. Spring talent? Where would it be located? I’ve always wanted to make use of the parking lot at the end of the street by Washington.
Oh and this one…
“15. Give co-workers neck and shoulder massages.”
Tin just got back, so… gift economy…?
-Ariel
Two singer/songwriters (Johanna Chase and Tin Santos), an Illustrator (Andress Yourself), a filmmaker (Ryan Maxey), and friends are taking to the road on The I Heart People Tour, a tour with stops at 7 cities along the West Coast that aims to share music, art, and spread the word on urban intentional community living!
“On a veggie oil/solar powered bus, our crew will depart from our home in Los Angeles: The BLVD, a community of more than 30 friends in 5 houses, including Synchronicity LA. Recently featured in an article in GOOD Magazine, Synchronicity LA is part of an intentional community in LA that focuses on ‘generating community through hospitality, intentionality, artistic action, and a dedication to the reduction of harm.'”
“We hope to share the spirit of community by hosting bus-side potlucks in each city before each gig played by Johanna and her band. Bring some food to share, and join us around the bus for music from Tin Santos, live screen printing (tour shirts) by Andress Yourself, photo booth portraits on the front of the bus provided by Maxey Fish and Sea Reels, and you can add some color with your paintbrush skills to the community mural on the side of our bus! Underlying all of the fun, we want share community and original expression!”
….Learn more about this incredible tour on its Kickstarter page!
After four months of lag time, we’re finally back on the webs with our .com v 2.0! The site may seem a little sparse at the moment, but we’re working on it :)