The Silver Lake Badminton And Adventurers Club

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[Video Link] - I've just stumbled across the pilot episode of The Silver Lake Badminton And Adventurers Club. I found it very amusing, and not just because I live in Silver Lake (a neighborhood in Los Angeles). From their brief history:

Founded in San Francisco in 1947 by Remi Boncœur, Sal Paradise, and Dean Moriarty, the organization that would become the Silver Lake Badminton and Adventurers Club was originally intended to foster team building and leadership skills amongst intrepid young adventurers through the ancient sport of Badminton.

Headquartered in the Mission, the club boasted amongst its members, Brick Bradford, known for his long toss, shorthand, and jetpack. From the Deep South came the tag team of brute strength and graceful agility, Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. Finally, there was legendary Tom Joad, who it was reputed, could handle a shuttlecock with more finesse than any player in the greater United States. Badminton appealed to the sporting mentalities of these founding members, but the exclusivity of shuttlecocks did not quench their thirst for the true bones of America. The answer came in the form of a murder, a murder that the adventurers followed down the coast.

The club is on twitter as well, where hopefully they'll announce more episodes soon! [Thanks Tara]

• [Anonymous]

  Kerouac?

• [Anonymous]

  As someone who has pretty much been born and raised in Silverlake my whole life I’ll counter the above comment and say that Sean is correct. Silverlake is on the Eastside. When we describe ourselves, it’s certainly not as Westsiders, lol. I’d pretty consider anything Eastside that’s east of La Brea. East LA is another matter and that could be viewed as being across of the river although even that only denotes certain areas directly east of downtown.

  • [tarabrown]

    As someone who was born and raised in SILVER LAKE you should know how to refer to your own neighborhood. There’s a space between Silver and Lake.

    OK, back to the awesome that is this web series.

• [Anonymous]

  :):):)

• [TelfordTaylor]

  The East LA – Eastside distinction is right. Technically, as much as we all love East LA, it is not part of the City of Los Angeles, but rather an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County. That’s why you get Sheriffs instead of LAPD in East LA. So, to review, east of Hollywood and the dudes beating the crap out of brown people are wearing blue, eastside. Dudes beating the crap out of brown people wearing tan, East LA. QED.

  • [timquinn]

    Not quite right, TT. Unincorporated areas of the eastside are called EastLA and will probably become a city in the near future. Other parts of the eastside are LA city, such as Boyle Heights.

    Eastside is a name with deep historical roots. I don’t want to get into the details since I am no expert. In my view, a ‘hipster’ should be keenly aware of this. Respect for other cultures, especially when we all live here together, especially when the distinctions are fading, especially in view of the way artists love to ‘borrow,’ especially when people in uniforms of all colors have an equal opportunity to dent the craniums of law abiding people, is a critical component of the culture warriors mind set.

• [modelmotion]

  See other Celebrate the web pilots:

  http://www.webseriestoday.com/2011/03/celebrate-web-social-media-links-for.html

• [timquinn]

  I do apologize. I should have known it was not you.

• [thegonzalez]

  I was wondering how long it would take before someone would point out that Silver Lake isn’t in East L.A.

• [Matthew Smith]

  Thanks for posting this Sean! (this is Matthew – the director) I just wanted to let people know that we made this for a competition called Celebrate The Web which you can read more about here –> http://www.celebratetheweb.com/

  We’re really excited people are enjoying it, and look forward to finishing the next two episodes. Fernando Fernando’s death must be avenged!!

• [jaytkay]

  Definition of TWEE : affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint

• [aj]

  The ironic sports just keep coming! First kickball, then dodgeball, now badminton. What’s next, shuffleboard?

• [timquinn]

  Sean, Sean, Sean, Silver Lake is not on the East side of Los Angeles, but you know that, don’t you?

  The Eastside is East of the river and is the long-time home of an enormous number of brown skinned natives. Maybe this is why you have difficulty acknowledging it’s existence?

  (Why is it the “new hipster” is so tone deaf about this?)

  Anyway, shame on you.

  • [Sean Bonner]

    I actually didn’t write that part, an editor added it after I submitted the post. As the publisher of blogging.la, I’ve known very well for quite a long time that Silver Lake isn’t the east side of LA. I don’t have any problem acknowledging it’s existence and travel east of the river, east of downtown, east of the 5, east of not east frequently.

    Please point your “new hipster” accusations elsewhere.

  • [kridje]

    I believe the area you are referring to is East LA, which is not necessarily the same thing as the eastside. Most Angelenos associate anything east of Hollywood as being eastside, which includes Silver Lake, Echo Park and Los Feliz. And yes anything east of the 5 is obviously eastside as well.

• [Anonymous]

  I don’t really get the whole turf war going on over the term “east side”. It’s not something that’s been voted on by the city council or anything. It’s just a term people use. It has whatever meaning people give it, I don’t think it’s in any way a knock by Sean on any community or group of people. It’s just a way MANY people refer to Silver Lake and Echo Park.