Echo Park 826la

"Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley has made a rare Los Angeles appearance. On Sept. 26, some 150-odd years after her demise, she dropped by 826LA's Time Travel Mart in Echo Park -- that Sunset Boulevard purveyor of leg warmers, bottled "robot emotions" and soon a fragrance timeline (a whiff of history from caveman to Studio 54) -- as part of the Dead Authors series to report back from beyond. As channeled by Jen Kirkman, a stand-up comedian, writer for E!'

At the grand opening of the Echo Park Time Travel Mart on Dec. 15, the Robot Emotions were going like hot cakes (happiness and schadenfreude were the top sellers). The mystery product Chubble, on the other hand, available in more than 50 different varieties, wasn't really moving. A worker dressed like a cowboy shrugged. "It's really hot in the future."