Dateline>City of Angels

Q: What d’ya do when you don’t have time (or can’t think of anything truly original) to post on your blog?

A: Write about all the fun tidbits to be found on other local blogs, of course. Let’s check in, shall we?

• View From a Loft swears not to be stalking local history-culture icon Huell Howser, who’s been spending a lot of time in the Arts District lately. What is it with us Angeleno bloggers and our ongoing fascination with Howser? Maybe we should all just form a fan club and be done with it.

• Kent Nichols at Metroblogging L.A. eulogizes Groucho Marx on the 30th anniversary of his death and burial here in Los Angeles. The post includes a video clip and the location of the comedy legend’s grave, in case you care to visit or leave flowers.

• Militant Angeleno offers a taste of a Labor Day treat to come: a huge ice cream social to benefit the Heritage Square Musem. The cold stuff will be free, but participants are encouraged to donate to the museum — a very worthy cause. Militant’s also been fairly prolific lately with a host of interesting L.A. experiences. (Where does he find the time for all this adventuring?)

• Curbed L.A. reports that restoration of the Ennis Brown House is now complete. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and damaged in the Northridge Quake, the landmark has languished for several years, and actually made the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of 11 Most Endangered Places in the U.S.

• Further down the page, Curbed also offers an amusing post-mortem on Mickey’s in West Hollywood, a popular gay club that just “went up in flames.” (The post is best read after the eye-witness accounts/images of the fire itself.) At least Mickey’s — which was reportedly on the block for between $7-10 million — went out in one big blaze of glory. For the past few years, a chief irritation of Silverlake’s gay community has been the relentless waves of gentrifying hipsters covertly moving in on neighborhood hotspots and turning them straight.

• Speaking of transformations, Franklin Ave. reviews the LAT feature on the Eagle Rock Plaza, a formerly dying mall that has turned itself around by targeting Filipinos. (Wow! What a novel concept: Actually taking a hard look at your community demographics and marketing accordingly…) Anyway, Franklin Ave. fills in a few puzzle pieces that the Times apparently missed.

Well, that’s the tour for today. Until next time, enjoy the reading!