When I was elementary school I live about a half mile from school. My buddy and me would walk it everyday. There was a house a few blocks down from mine that was always avoided. Always. Not just on our way to and from school, either. Weekends… when ever. At all costs. It was something that every kid in the neighborhood took stock in. It wasn’t because it was old house and run down or looked haunted. The lawn was well kept, flowers always in bloom — It looked like any other house in the neighborhood. There were signs saying to keep off the lawn and beware of dog, no soliciting. The one difference was that the old guy who lived there hated kids. He hated all of us. Noise was his enemy. If you did happen to walk by and cause a disturbance you’d better be in double time or in a full-blown sprint. Even on a bike you’d just cross the street when you came to that section of the block. The old man was caught in a pickle, though. Because of his reputation of hating kids, he was constantly teased. His house would get egged. His trees toilet papered. Every nefarious thing kids do was done to this old man. It got to a point where you didn’t even have to make noise to get his attention. The old man would hideout in his backyard peeping through the knotholes in his fence just waiting for his next target. If he did happen to catch you in a close proximity to his property, you’d get a big bucket of warm piss thrown on your head. I saw it happen many times.

No idea whether or not Dove Charney, the man behind American Apparel, throws buckets of piss at the kids while they pass though his Echo Park neighborhood, but this giant sculpture in front of his Echo Park house sure says, stay the fuck away.