LA Eastside

In charming Glassell Park! I’m just going to get this naming business out of the way and agree that its an unfortunate name for the brewery, considering its location. The owners have a reason for the name, but its kinda weak. And they say they thought about changing it, but it would have been too much red tape. That’s fair enough. But still, this should be a warning to all you would be re-namers of places: the people of Los Angeles are not so keen on such a casual re-purposing of geographical names. Seriously, take that into consideration. If I were from Glassell Park I think I’d put up a storm of protest, and with good reason. But I’m going to leave that business to others as I have enough tasks on my plate. At least it’s not as moronic as fools from Echo Park trying to claim that’s the Eastside.

Out of the way.

We found the place using math skills, cuz 3056 Roswell is on a non-descript street, and doesn’t even have a number. Not that I could tell. This be the brewery and tap room.

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On Saturday morning I had coffee with a Los Angeles city worker, who (among other of his colleagues), is disturbed at the direction city leadership is laying out the LA Game-‘o-Life board. This week Mayor Villaraigosa said regarding the economic crisis fueled job cuts, “I don’t do this because I want to, I do this because I must.” Within this “a man must do what a man must do” blanket statement are also choices. In a city of approximately 40,000 city workers, there are 10,000 police and between 5,000 & 6,000 in the fire department, making them 40% of the city workforce. LA city workers have been appraised that Villaraigosa wants to focus on public safety first, translated means that other services in the city will suffer, but not the police forces.

Across my desk this week were dialogues about student actions being planned regarding the cuts in education, the closing of more parks in the city, the dissolution of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department (I got somewhere around 50 email petitions, which helped overturned this plan—gracias artistas!), an alarming price increase menu on traffic tickets with added rules (drivers beware!), gentrification plans to mow down more eastside historic buildings, and Pearl Art Store selling everything at 75% off (looks like they are going down).

As the students have noted in their various cries for continued funding, this city spends more on prisons and those who can imprison us, than things that can uplift us as a humanity, such as community spaces, art and education. I cringe to think what sort of summer we are headed for in LA. More negative places to be pushed into, armed monitors of humans to catch you erring, climbing prices on everything, mom and pops closing all around us, polluted city drinking water, no jobs, gas that cost more than a blood transfusion and no light at the end of the tunnel. My free-thinking art friends say “let the whole thing crash, we have survived worse.” I am starting to picture myself teaching an impromptu class to eager students on the street corner where they have been locked out of their schools.

Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

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With the city on the brink of anarchy and devastation, here is your chance to do something about it. By joining your local neighborhood city council. Fellow Boyle Heightian, “Rob” notified me about the  elections that are going to be taking place from March through June all over the city. How cool is that ? Neighborhood councils act as the eyes and ears of the the City council and of the council members in keeping up with what’s going on in the streets, but from the looks of things you would think that community blogs, like this one, are the new eyes and ears of the city. Anyway, having covered council meetings at school, I have some grasp and understanding as to how the councils work, the power they have and the positive changes they can make, with the right people in place. That and having utter contempt for Roberts rules of order. I motion to stick it where the sun don’t shine. I digress from my point, which is why you should join your neighborhood council or at the very least, be more active and show up to meetings.

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The Mesoamerican Society at Cal State L.A and co-sponsor the Art History Society at CSULA are sponsoring a Maya Epigraphy Workshop on February 19-21. The three-day workshop will be taught by Dr. Bruce Love, one of the world’s main epigraphers and translator of The Paris Codex: Handbook for a Maya Priest (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994). These workshops generally cost hundreds of dollars but thanks to Prof. Love — who will be teaching this workshop for free — students can enroll for a minimum fee that will help defray the cost of workshop materials.

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(click to enlarge image)

I saw a preview of a few pieces this past Monday and there’s some amazing sh*t that is above and beyond the usual prison art. DON’T MISS OUT. If you don’t make the opening then for sure make it out to see this show before it bones out.

GO TO CREWEST.COM FOR MORE INFO

**** “ Not recommended for a younger audience, but then again neither is prison.”- Man One aka Man Uno

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This past Wednesday at the big N, we took a department wide furlough day/walkout/teach-in. We are multi disciplinary so are our actions.

I didn’t call for a furlough day because then none of my students would have gone to campus, unless they had other classes, and they would have missed the march and teach in.

The weird thing about it all was that very few of the students knew what to do at a rally or march. Most had never been to a march. They grew up in an era of grotesque lies, conservativism, fear mongering and resistance to dehumanization but had never participated or seen what people did in the streets.

I met with my later class and asked “what will it take to get you angry and into the streets?” none could answer. I hope they come back with something on Wednesday.

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Mexican American woman with her dead baby in Los Angeles 1950. This photo from the Los Angeles Public Library photo collection speaks volumes about not only a grieving mother but also about our shared humanity and a repudiation of racism and stereotyping of any ethnic or racial group as being inherently violent and immoral, as is becoming so common with xenophobes and racists in the press and on the internet blog sites, even evident here sometimes at “LA Eastside”.

This racist demonization of a people seems especially popular nowadays as the terrible Narco Wars continue unabated in Mexico and innocent people are not only being murdered and traumatized, but to top it off castigated as genetically amoral and prone to violence and depravity.

Hopefully some day, the corruption and violence visited on the Mexican people by the wealthy ruling classes, Drug cartels, arms dealers, and avaricious police and military personnel, who all worship at the altar of the almighty dollar, will end.

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It’s a bit late, and other people have covered it but here’s a few pics I took of the recent LA Anarchist Bookfair at beautiful Barnsdall Park. Yes, when we’re not burning and looting, we do take some time to catch up on the latest theories and practices to be found in print, its ammo to fuel the anger. Haz click para la rabia!

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Stop-Wake Up (Very awesome video filmed in Los Angeles and popular Hi-NRG song)

Over at my personal blog, I’ve been doing a series of posts based on a book I’ve been reading called Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco. I was fascinated to read the chapter on Hi-NRG or what I’ve come to call “Chicano Disco” (my nod to the moniker “Chicano Oldies”) and the music’s influence on a generation of Eastsiders.
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The winds of educational change are blowing, but who the heck knows what’s going on? The LA Unified School District is holding elections where people can vote on different proposed plans to let private companies or the present public administration manage 36 underperforming LAUSD schools. It’s barely in the news. Is it because it affects almost entirely only working class people of color? (KPCC, Daily Breeze, The Wave.)

These votes don’t actually choose the plans, but, they will poll the stakeholders to get a sense of what they want to see at their schools. The school board makes the final decisions.

LAUSD has a web page with all the proposals. On that list are several eastside schools: new Esteban Torres HS, Garfield HS, Lincoln HS,

What do people think about this whole thing about bringing in outside management? Have you read any of the proposals? Are you voting?

[I added a link to the proposals and clarified who will run schools.]

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