Westside 10A: Storage

storage1

I thought I would have taken a much more active interest in some of the Westside neighborhoods since I spend an unreasonable amount of time in that vicinity, but oddly that hasn’t happened. Still, I need to occasionally share some of the things I learn over on that side of town with our gentle readers, thus shedding just a bit of light into that dark and insular world that is the Westside. The posts may be infrequent, but I hope they are packed with understanding.

In this installment I present you with a quick glimpse into the Westsiders fascination with paying people to hold stuff for them. I’m not sure why this is but they seem to love spending cash on things that most folks would just assume they can do themselves. For example: The Wino Hotel. Err, I mean wine. How much wine do you have to be drinking in order to arrive at the thought that “hmm, maybe I should put some of these T-Birds in storage”? I mean really, if you can’t fit them into your pad or into the trunk of the car, then maybe you should cut back, drink up, or just share with friends. Plus, you do realize that everyone hates a stingy wino?

Continue reading

The Thrills of Facebook!

snoop

Are you one of our fans on Facebook? Make sure to click that link over there to your right, yeah, a little bit lower, cuz yer bound to find some good laughs. Like the exchange above. Congrats to Charlie Brown for being the first one (that we know of) to hide us from their profile views. Here’s to many more to come!

Join in on the giggles here.

The Sky is Falling, for real this time.

theskyisfalling

Today is my favorite time of the month. Today is August 7 and  it’s the day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out who got fired aka the employment situation, economic news release. This is where all of the media gets the numbers that they spin. Why don’t they just provide the numbers with no commentary? I guess that would be boring. Here is my entertaining spin on the pieces of clouds that are hitting me on the head.

Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 247,000 jobs (we needed 100,000 jobs a month to continue to employ the job market BEFORE La Crisis, so don’t let the corporate people lie to you and let you think everything is ok now since last month it was higher, it’s not ok, it’s nowhere near ok.)

“Another way of looking at the above task is to determine how long it will take the nation to return to full employment — basically an economy in which everyone who wants to work can find a full-time job to match their skill set and experience. It’s no minor task: the U.S. economy has to create about 200,000 jobs per month — a roughly net 100,000 job gain over the monthly gain needed to keep unemployment from rising — for the next 5.5 years to replace the roughly 6.8 million jobs lost during the recession.” Joseph Lazzaro, Daily Finance.

Also there are now 796,000 discouraged workers up by 335,000 over the past 12 months.

And there are now five million people who have been unemployed longterm (longterm is more than 27 weeks.)

On Chart A12 section U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached   workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.. is now 16.3%.

The Employment Situation for August is scheduled to be released on Friday,
September 4, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).

Edited by Browne Molyneux

Taco Hunt Lives!

asttacos
(Animal friendly tacos!)

Do you all remember when The Great Taco Hunt went dark back in August of 2007? Well I do. Even as a vegetarian I loved following his excursions into the taco culture. But I guess Bandini waited until Summer since just the other day he came back to life announcing that he’s gonna be doing his taco thing over at Daily Taco.org but I think it’s kind of a group blog now? He even has a proper respect for the Eastside! You can register an account and post your own taco adventures, I think. I’m about to try that out.

Welcome back Bandini!

In other Taco News, LA Taco reports that Eastside taqueros are being robbed. Scanless.

re: Bratton

anarcoming
(One can dream!)

I’m going to keep mum about what I really think, mostly because I never cared for Bratton. Politicos and most media sources are falling over themselves to heap more praise, which is to be expected. But La Crisis is intensifying, not diminishing. Crimes of necessity are going to come back in style.  And I bet that pesky little narco war is going to spill over into LA sometime soon. Rich folks need their supply of fun.

But this is what I really think: he is leaving now because things are about to get really bad. Better to leave before the stats turn negative.

Discuss.

What is your favorite beach?

beach_blog
Redondo Beach, Summer 2009

Okay, I’ve been meaning to ask this question since the beginning of summer but work, parties, conferences and all sorts of other life events have gotten in the way of posting. And although summer is sort of almost over (at least for the academic crowd), Los Angeles summers really don’t start kicking in until mid-August and sometimes into September. There have been 100 plus degrees days in October too.

When I head to the beach it’s usually Hermosa, Manhattan or Redondo. Getting there is not too bad, 110 south to 105 west and then a short drive down the coast. There’s also a freeway bus that heads in that direction from Downtown Los Angeles. When we were kids, my dad always took us to Manhattan Beach. Lots of sand, fairly clean, nice vistas. And I admit, I’ve always appreciated the many bathrooms and showers. I prefer Hermosa for the ability to park quite close to the sand but the bathrooms are far and few between. In fact, are there any restrooms at Hermosa? Redondo is also nice, easy parking, lots of restrooms, lots of sand but the walk down the ramps can be hard for older folks (sorry, mom!) This area also has lots of places to eat but I’d stay away from the bars. Once I went with a group of Eastsiders to a Hermosa Beach bar and I thought we were gonna get lynched on the way out… I’m only sort of kidding.
Continue reading

Facebook and Twitter are down this morning! The horror.

This is an outage for everyone, so if you think it’s something personal, don’t be so vain. There is no way that the gov’t thinks you are important enough to shut off your computer ONLY  just because you looked at some questionable porn a few times.

We’ll now have to go outside and talk to people face to face. Darnit, I was getting used to not showering.

Though you can go to friendfeed, but I think you would have to be a pretty sad person to have facebook, twitter and friendfeed, I mean really, that’s just excessive unless you’re 16 and then I would completely understand.

Browne

El Verde: Viva La Frita

Go see El Verde. Why ? Because I said so. That’s not good enough for ya ? Well how bout if I told you that you are going to have a great time at the show ? That you’ll end up loving the show and laugh your ass off from all the jokes and skits in the show. That you’ll love the way it is cleverly written by play right Anthony Aguilar and has a star studded cast that will amaze you and make you feel like you’re watching a major production in Boyle Heights. Did I mention that El Verde is hilarious ? Because it is. It’s playing all month long Friday through Sunday you none of you have any excuse not to go see it. Not only that but Boyle Heights residents get a discount too. Go see it. You will not be disappointed. It’s a great date night and a great opportunity to see a Casa production at its finest. RESERVATIONS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BECAUSE THERE’S ALWAYS A FULL HOUSE.

show-flier

August 7 – 30, 2009
Fri- Sat @ 8pm
Sun @ 2pm
General, $15
Students / Seniors, $12
Boyle Heights, $10
Group Discounts available
Purchase your tickets at
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/69294

Or make your reservations at
elverdereservations@gmail.com
For more information on the show please email us at
elverdeshow@gmail.com to join our mailing list!

August 11-18. RAM LA. Free root canals, glasses, pap smears, minor med procedures (including cataract surgery,) blood lab work and MORE!!

ram_la1

*Dates:*

August 11-18, 2009

*Location:*

The Forum
3900 W. Manchester Blvd.
Inglewood, CA 90305

*FOR PATIENTS*

*How to Receive Treatment:*

All of our services are free and are provided by volunteers. The doctor is
free; the dentist is free; the eye doctor is free. Please arrive early,
bring a snack, and be prepared to wait. Your wait may be long; chairs will
be provided for your comfort.
Continue reading