Does Mencia represent Eastside humor?

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=36149&title=carlos-mencia-katrina

http://www.aprilwinchell.com/wp-content/cache/supercache/www.aprilwinchell.com/2009/02/05/barack-obama-is-tired-of-your-motherfucking-shit//index.html

It’s said that humor like art, or huevos rancheros, is subjective and that one’s taste depends on one’s own persona and upbringing, economic class, ethnicity, and politics.

I kind of fit into the category of a typical Eastside native. Attended the local schools, descendent of immigrants (although as my Grandmother used to tell us, “our people were Mexican hillbillies from New Mexico”), working class family, large family background (the oldest of nine children), I could go on but essentially pretty typical of an Eastside native.

But I have trouble finding Carlos Mencia funny. I know he claims he is from the Eastside and is a typical Eastside native as I have described, but in my opinion his humor has a mean, biased, nasty streak to it. IMO he comes off as a pissed off, politically conservative, self-hating Latino.

Click on the Comedy Central website above for a “bit” of Mencia’s and all this becomes apparent. He somehow thinks his take on the African Americans who suffered and died in the Katrina fiasco are to blame for their own suffering. It’s the old line spouted by racist Bush/Cheney apologists and isn’t funny whatsoever IMO.

On the other hand, the website above that has President Obama reading from a story and using some pretty rude epithets is very funny to me.

In fact I wish he would use the same voice and language when addressing those wealthy executives with the sense of self-entitlement who are still living large on we the taxpayers dollar.
“You ain’t my bitch nigga, buy your own damn fries”!

But as they say, humor, like home is where you find it. Whaaaa?

Scenes from a Murder

Chimatli mentioned this murder in a previous post, I decided to drive by the scene the morning after and take a picture. As you can see, everything looks normal on this street, except for the chalk mark near the sidewalk, no doubt circling a bullet case, and some shattered glass going the other way. I think we can make out a trajectory. Every media outlet said it was in an alley, but it wasn’t. Which proves that the media is no longer doing it’s job of actually reporting, keep that in mind for future reference.

The night of the incident, police quickly speculated it was “gang related”, yet they still haven’t figured out her hometown. I’d like to know why they use this “gang related” term before they have all the details, why don’t they instead just call it an unsolved murder? Or do we not deserve that much? It may ultimately be true (Lincoln Heights is no stranger to gang violence) but that moniker is used too often as a code for ‘don’t worry about this one, there’s a good enough reason.” The name of the victim, a young woman of 25 years, was released: Breanne A. Hanna.

R.I.P. young lady, no matter what social group and stats sheet they finally decide is your proper place.

Win a Dream Date with El Random Hero y otros. . . .

[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/love_serenade.mp3|loop=yes]

Calling ALL Singles! If you are interested in playing the dating game and are looking for some real hombres from ELA—-stop playing roulette with your love life—get in on this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet a REALLY NICE GUY or two. Continue reading

La Crisis: A list of all the companies that have laid-off this year (the last six weeks.)

 

A Margaret Bourke-White Photo

A Margaret Bourke-White Photo

Here is a volunteer information list of all of the companies who are or who have given people notice that they will no longer have a job.

After the company name is the layoff date and the number of affected workers

Just so you can get a feel of how bad it is this is just for the first two months of 2009 (and February just started.) There are 19 pages of companies.

In 2006 there were only 24 pages for the entire year.
In 2008 44 pages.
At this rate we’ll have 120 pages of layoffs by the end of 2009. At about 40 companies per page the amount of job losses would be staggering.

H/T to LoveandHateLA

AUTOBYTEL IRVINE 5 1/2/09
AT&T, WORLD WIDE CUSTOMER
SERVICE
SAN RAMON 37 2/27/09
AT&T, NATIONAL CUSTOMER
SUPPORT
SAN RAMON 16 2/6/09
AT&T , ADVANCE SOLUTIONS INC MONTEREY PARK 81 3/24/09
ANESIVA, INC SOUTH SAN
FRANCISCO
62 1/9/09
AT&T COMPANY PLEASANTON 16 1/30/09
AT&T COMPANY SAN RAMON 55 1/23/09
AT&T COMPANY PLEASANTON 27 2/6/09
ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED SAN JOSE 191 2/3/09
ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED SAN FRANCISCO 75 2/3/09
ALZA CORPORATION MOUNTAIN VIEW 29 3/20/09
ADVANCED MEDICAL OPTICS MILPITAS 61 1/17/09
ACTIVISION BLIZZARD LOS ANGELES 4 1/31/09
A FIRSTGROUP AMERICA CO DBAFIRST
TRANSIT
LOS ANGELES 177 2/28/09

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Public workshops for the Boyle Heights community plan

I attended one of the workshops held by the city to, and I quote, “share preliminary draft recommendations with stakeholders and to seek public input on the Boyle Heights Community Plan - this is your opportunity to help shape the physical future of Boyle Heights!” And believe you me I did. I ended up meeting two other people who wanted to share their two cents in what the future of Boyle Heights maybe and what planners are thinking of turning BH into. Shout out to reader Rob who was there and offered some nice company. 

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From White Memorial to Self Help Graphics ~ Murals in Boyle Heights

On January 11 I attended the “Resistance and Respect II” forum on murals in Los Angeles. Having missed out on last years, I made it a point to attend this one and I was not disappointed. From the press release, Panelists include: L.A. mural pioneer and founder of the Social & Public Art Resource Center, muralist/professor Judy Baca; pioneer muralist/painter/professor, Yreina D. Cervántez; muralist/painter Noni Olabisi; co-founder of pioneer mural collective, East Los Streetscapers, painter Wayne Alaníz Healy; godfather of LA Graffiti art Chaz Bojórquez; Graff artist/muralist Man One (Director, Crewest Gallery). The panel will be co-moderated by Elizabeth Morin, Director, Youth Arts & Education Program for the Dept. of Cultural Affairs, L.A. and former teen Graff writer/muralist and renowned poet/author, Luis J. Rodríguez.

These are all great people who I’ve met or heard of before going to the forum, so to be able to hear all of them speak and chime in with the current state of murals in L.A. was a rare treat and opportunity. It was there where I learned about the Siqueiros mural on Olvera St. and where the future of murals in L.A. might go. The discussion got me thinking about some of the murals in Boyle Heights and their conditions. Murals are integral parts of any community and I for one can’t picture a world without them. It’s also part of my Chicano heritage that I’m learn more and more about everyday. I’m currently reading “Diary Of a Brown Buffalo.”  I also realized that during the forum that graffiti is having growing pains because of the wording in city laws that make it a target for politicians who wanna make a name for themselves by going after them.  

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La Crisis: 99 cent Lives


photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times website

If you didn’t live in Los Angeles during the early 90s, count your lucky stars. It was a rough time to live in my beloved city, there was a crack epidemic, people were in dire straits and I knew folks that were either getting shot or doing the shooting. And then there were the riots…I’ve been thinking a lot about those times lately, the economy is bad and that means people start getting desperate. Two events today are reminiscent of those dark times.

I was at Figueroa Produce today on York and Figueroa stocking up on my veggies and Mediterranean products when the police rush up in a patrol car, sirens wailing to the nearby 99 cent store. An employee or guard has a guy on the ground outside the front door. The police order him to stand up and to put his hands on his head. There’s an ambulance there. Did he shoot someone? And two firetrucks. Could one man cause so much trouble?

I remark on the drama to the young clerk at Figueroa Produce, she shrugs and says “You know the economy’s getting bad when they start robbing 99 cent stores.” Ah, from the mouth of babes, indeed.

Tonight in the industrial section of Lincoln Heights, a woman was found shot in her car. Her life was worth a 41 second clip on KCAL news. The story was being reported from a helicopter. Women in our neighborhood are not worth a newsvan.

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Botanica de Amor or How we do Valentine’s Day on the Eastside

This Saturday, February 7, noon to 5pm come to La Botanica de Amor and find that someone special you have been looking for. You’ll have to start off with a limpia para el amor, a sangria punch, poetry for inspiration, Continue reading

El Gallo Bakery: 60th Anniversary Celebration

LA Magazine recently did a story on the “top 20” bakeries of Los Angeles. As usual, their tastes run a bit skewed from mine and squarely on the side of the American taste for desserts and sweets, so no Mexican Panaderias made the list. I had a friend who was crazy into baking and she didn’t “understand” pan dulce, since she was comparing it to cakes and pies and thought it wasn’t sweet enough. I tried to explain the concept and offered her some fresh examples from El Gallo, but it was of no use. I’d offer some to LA Mag but I expect the results might be the same.

It’s okay though, I don’t make my eating decisions based on that magazine. And for 60 years, neither have many East Los residents that have considered this the go-to bakery for pan dulce and a good source for teleras, that required pan for a proper torta.

I stopped by today for a quick look at their 60th year celebration. Click ahead for a few pics.

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Awkward moments in Los Angeles


My grandmother, her mother, her sisters, my grandfather (in the baggy pants), friends and neighbors at their first Echo Park home. The home no longer exists and the neighborhood is now called Historic Filipinotown.

I wrote this a couple of months ago but was hesitant to post. But as a friend of mine (a prolific emailer and a notorious drunk – a bad combination) once told me “just close your eyes and press enter”

My friend and I tried to go to the Stories Bookstore opening in Echo Park. We walked by 15 minutes before the opening party was due to start and got a handful of stares from the young guys silk screening in the store window. Hmmm, no sign of opening party anywhere and the sign on the door says “open next week”. Perhaps it’s a private party, oh well.

We walked into the Time Travel Mart, I’d been curious about the place. It looked cool in photos. My friend walked in with me but leaves immediately because he cannot tolerate pretentious irony and the store was chock full of it. I thought the place would be more interesting somehow but it wasn’t. It could be me, I just didn’t get it.
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