www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySX9XByKSuE
Some of the giants of Jazz and Blues with the great Billie Holiday, don quixote is feeling it tonight
Blues for the Eastside on a Saturday night
5
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Don’t Bother Going…..
All that’s left in the store is PURE CRAP!……………….
Whittier Activists Protest Unfair Treatment by Stater Bros
Last weekend we chanced upon this small collection of protest signs against Stater Bros Market in Whittier, so we stopped to find out some details. Basically, if you look poor or “different”, then you might get harassed. Something many of us already know but I think it’s worth some attention.
Sidewalk History
Lincoln Heights
When I walk around my neighborhood, tiny details abound – things I would never see driving in a car. Strange concrete figurines hiding in gardens, small shrines to saints, interesting vegetables growing in unlikely places, variations in litter and refuse, charms protecting doorways, tools put down and forgotten and fifty year old advertising plaques clinging to old chain link fences with names of companies long gone. Stamps in the pavement, which I’ve only recently noticed, firmly document the history of the streets.
Proyecto Jardin
Located in the center of an urban wilderness, Proyecto Jardin is a community garden that has been helping residents in Boyle Heights get in touch with Mother Nature. Located behind White Memorial Hospital, Proyecto Jardin is operated by community residents who donate their time and unique skills to the garden.
Dr. Robert Krochmal, a doctor at White Memorial, came up with the idea to use the plot of land behind the hospital that was a community eye sore full of decrepit houses. After the hospital reviewed and approved the plans the land was cleared out and prepared so that construction for the garden could take place.
Volunteers and community members helped build the garden, preparing the land for a future of bustling community activity that promotes healthy eating, exercise and self-sustainability.
Validation required
I once made a list of the pros and cons of living on the Westside. Parking was definitely one of the negatives along with several other complaints. I had one or two items on the pros column. Since then, I’ve added a few more:
- I have a short commute to school/work on the Big Blue Bus. It would be shorter if the area was less congested. Oops. I was trying to stay positive.
- It’s cooler in the summer. I don’t need a fan or air conditioner to get through July, August and September.
- I can find restaurants and shops in my area reviewed in magazines, newspapers and mainstream blogs.
- I don’t have to challenge perceptions about my neighborhood being unsafe or dirty.
- The city won’t dare run an at-grade light rail line through this side of town, unlike in poorer, blacker, browner areas
- Transplants with no respect for history are not trying to rename other areas as the new Westside.
It’s not so bad. Just don’t forget to validate your parking. Or better, spend a few minutes looking for a spot on the street.
Memories of A Lost Boulevard; Ghosts of the Eastside
The character of the E.L.A. that I knew growing up is long gone. Everything changes, evolves.
Those who lived there before me surely must have cherished their own “good old days†as much as I do mine. And twenty years from now, others will do the same.
We are beings that exist in that sliver of time between our past and future. Yet, if we were to somehow erase every memory from the past out of our minds, who would we be? The sum of our experiences, the memories of what we have lived before, are essentially the totality of who we are at this moment. So have my experiences and present memories of growing up in E.L.A. formed this person that I am today. E.L.A. is in my DNA.
It now brings me joy to reminisce, because I can relive those times. Many thanks to all of you out there who join me on these little journeys to memoryland. So let’s take another trip….
LH Monolith
Here it is:
Why it’s on a block with no businesses is beyond me. Need to move it down at least 2 blocks. Also, we have «districts» in LH? Man, I want to be in naming on the districts of LH!
¡Qué ridÃcules!
But otherwise, it’s pretty nice looking.
[on Broadway between Thomas St. & Gates St.]
Sheriff Joe Arpaio goes Hollywood
A new and scary low for humanity, Sheriff Joe marches shackled immigrants through selective neighborhoods of Phoenix to heighten the impact and gain some publicity for himself.
Does the right wing want Mexicans to be tattooed with an ID number and have to wear a symbol of their ethnicity? Maybe a star of David like the Nazis had the Jews wear on their clothing in Europe?
Last year in Maricopa county Arizona during Easter Sunday Sheriff Joe set up roadblocks in Chicano neighborhoods surrounding churches and stopped and questioned every “Mexican looking†family on their way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Could this happen here? If Walter Moore gets elected Mayor he already has his “Jamiel’s Lawâ€, written up to “legally†profile Mexican Americans. It seems the failed right wing is looking to scapegoat the Mexican American population and use the issue of immigration as a wedge issue since they have nothing else to whip up enthusiasm for their “causeâ€
It can happen here!
Sheriff Joe goes Hollywood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGx4ke9eeBo
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Marches Immigrants Through Public Square
New America Media, Commentary, Douglas Rivlin, Posted: Feb 05, 2009 
Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio marched shackled immigrants through the streets of Phoenix as a show of force and to promote his Fox Reality Channel television program. Meanwhile, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, has called for a review of Homeland Security immigration enforcement measures, including 287g, which allows local police to enforce federal civil immigration law. Maricopa County has entered into a 287g agreement with the federal government that gives Sheriff Arpaio greater latitude to go after immigrants, whether or not they are accused of committing criminal offenses. Douglas Rivlin is communications director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
La Crisis: Jardineros okay for now
El Jardinero by Los Originales de San Juan
The Wall Street Journal had an article on how paisa gardeners in Los Angeles don’t seem to be suffering as much their compatriots in construction and other blue-collar jobs. Despite La Crisis some of them seem to be doing remarkably well.
“Gardening isn’t like working at a factory, where you depend on one employer,” says Manuel Quezada, a 54-year-old veteran gardener, as he and his team put down sod in the front yard of a house here. “If I lose one house, it doesn’t hurt that much.”
For immigrants, gardening has long been a stepping stone to prosperity. Japanese immigrants with a background in agriculture pioneered residential gardening in California in the early 20th century. The physical labor didn’t require education or fluent English but it lifted them into the middle class. In the mid-1960s, Mexican peasants began flocking to the U.S. Southwest in large numbers. By the 1980s, they had come to dominate the residential gardening niche, Mr. Ramirez says, and some have thrived financially.
I can see how this industry would continue to do well. Some neighborhoods are required to have a certain amount of landscape maintenance and most of these folks that live in these areas are not going to do it themselves. However, if water rationing is implemented (California is currently in emergency drought conditions), I wonder how long it will be before gardeners start feeling the pinch.
On a related note, I’ve been hearing anecdotal tales about immigrants moving back home or at least away from Los Angeles. Anyone have friends or family affected by La Crisis that have decided to move on?
Scene from the River
Hopefully, a few Eastside residents auditioned for Cornerstone Theater Company held auditions for “Flow,” a Julie Herbert play about the Los Angeles River and surrounding communities.
When CTC called for anyone who live, work, or loves the LA River to try some acting, El Chavo commented “I’m gonna see if I can be the shopping cart somebody threw into the water.”
I saw this on Sunday. So I took a photo.
ADD: A play worth writing is one that talks about what the Eastside is.
Pictured: Under the Sixth Street Bridge, Â a shopping cart is sitting in the Los Angeles River (or it’s El Chavo doing some method acting for “Flow”)
Dream Drums
I went to my monthly drum circle that hasn’t met in several months due to rain and stuff.
My homie La Bruja Mafufa gave me a drum last year. I have gone to a few circles this is one of the better ones.
Today a few very good drummers kept the beats solid.
For more info go here