Machete Star Danny Trejo Mini-Doc by Estevan Oriol from SA Studios Global on Vimeo

I know that everyone is gonna go see the Machete movie when it comes out this weekend. Don’t lie, you know you are. While this may seem like shameless promotion on my part, it’s really not. Well actually it kinda is because I come out in this video Aside from that, it’s a great little video about Trejo talking about coming full circle not only with the movie, but his career up to this point and how he’s managed to stay down to earth. I met him and talked to him for a second during the Lifestyle Car Club picnic a few weeks ago at Elysian Park. Without a doubt, the man is a class act. One hard ass looking vato, but sweet as a grandpa. Here’s another video of Trejo and Mr. Cartoon talking about low rider life style rollin’ down Whittier Blvd.

Like

Related posts:

1. Eastside mathematics
2. Laugh now
3. Things You See While Driving…

Stop thief! Some developer has stolen our sidewalk! Help!

Auxilio! Se robaron la banqueta!

Nevermind the bike lane, where’s our ped lane?

No related posts.

Like

Related posts:

1. OVARIAN PSYCHOS/CYCLES.. wombyn’s cycling krew
2. Peel Here 2010 “Brace Yourself”
3. Things to do this weekend

I was mostly minding my own business out in some other parts of California when I happened upon this sight. Since  I’ve been derided as one of the agents for the Eastside Border Patrol, I decided a quick report on this particular usage of the seemingly precious term was in order. You know, just so they know that we’re still paying attention.

Turns out the magazine that goes by this term doesn’t even care about the location of the LA River, though they might have a few words to say about how their water makes its way to Los Angeles.

I gather that their Eastside starts East of the Sierras. Okay, permission granted.

At least that makes more sense than Echo Park.

Related posts:

1. The Big Move
2. Hands Across The River…
3. A Response Regarding the Eastside “debate”

During my research for the 25th Anniversary Night Stalker Walking Tour,I contacted Retired Sheriff’s Homicide Detective, Lt. Gil Carrillo for an interview. He cordially agreed and I arrived at the East L.A. Sheriff’s Station one morning for my highly anticipated meeting. Listening to the man speak about one of the most infamous criminal cases in Los Angeles history was both mesmerized and enlightening. Teamed with Det. Frank Salerno, Carrillo was the lead L.A. County Sheriff’s homicide detective assigned to the Night Stalker case in 1984. During our interview, I saw the human side of a man assigned to track down and capture one evil son of a bitch. This was his job, but it was one assignment that got under his skin like no other. By learning about the evil that men do, I also learned about the sacrifices that men make. I learned what it is to give pieces of yourself away in order for the greater society to not have to. I learned what it means to make a difference in humanity’s never ending struggle against the ebb and flow of good vs. evil.  This was a story of horror and heroism with a happy ending. Another dark player eliminated from society’s sick game. A game that never ends ands picks it’s players randomly every day. I also wondered about some higher powers at work here, and how we, as mere individuals must often find ourselves taking on battles that may seem beyond us and may require us to set aside every natural fear that makes us human. For me,…that is heroic. And it’s those singular acts that define and shape our collective fate in a world that can only hope to contain it’s fear and lust for violence. Hurray for the heroes.

Related posts:

1. L.A. Gang Tour ~ Empowerment through story
2. East Side Story
3. The Dentrimental Downer of the Digital Camera

In the spirit of creativity, Spokes & Words is focused in bringing together spoken word with bike riding. As Julio commented on facebook, riding a bike is poetry.

There are six designated stops in which anyone can share words, poems and stories. Each location will have two/three people sharing and we will ride on to the next stop.

All poets, artist, riders and anyone who has an appreciation for poetry, spoken word and riding their bike around town is welcomed. Since this is the first ride, it’ll be an easy one. We welcome input from everyone on rides, routes and locations to include in future rides.

TO ALL PARTICIPANTS, MAKE SURE YOUR BIKE IS IN WORKING ORDER. MAKE SURE TO BRING EXTRA INNER TUBES, TOOLS ETC. IN CASE ANYTHING HAPPENS.

ON THE DAY OF THE RIDE WE WILL QUICKLY GO OVER THE RULES OF THE ROAD FOR SAFETY REASONS. HERE IS A QUICK LINK,

http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm

We will meet at Mariachi Plaza this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and ride out at 7 p.m. West, stopping first in Little Tokyo by the Japanese National Museum. We will continue on 1st. stopping at the Walt Disney concert hall, then continuing on stopping under the bridge on Beverly and Glendale, in front of the long gone Belmont tunnel, riding up Glendale stopping at Echo Park Lake and riding down Sunset, finishing of at the Chinatown Gold line stop and riding bake to the Eastside.You can view the route on google maps,

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101988524258856390304.00048d6d80c30bdc35945&ll=34.060126%2C-118.238468&spn=0.031856%2C0.053902&z=14&lci=bike

Like

Related posts:

1. Interested bike riders in Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, or Boyle Heights?
2. OVARIAN PSYCHOS/CYCLES.. wombyn’s cycling krew
3. Another regular day in the barrio

Predators attack for personal gain. Parking on an Eastside street I naively thought that a city sanctioned tow company would never attack for personal gain. I now feel differently.

Here’s a taste. I park a car a block from my house late one night. The next day it is gone. I report it as stolen to LAPD and wait. Three week later I get a call to call the towing company–the car has been found. Total to recover just under $900. As the clerk is doing paper work I discover that the car was found the same day it went missing on the same block where it was parked. Strange? When I ask why it toke three weeks to notify me if the car was found the same day, the clerk stares back in silence. Still strange? To make this even stranger I had locked the steering wheel with a Club, which was still attached at the pick-up yard. Strange, strange, strange? No, I think scam!

I feel violated by my city, my family attacked–emotionally raped in a way. Power makes people do deranged things. I wonder if anyone else has had similar experiences with Viertel Towing?

—
submitted by M. Saldivar Galindo

Like

No related posts.

Hopefully playing at a beach near you sometime soon.

Like

No related posts.

Say its Administrative Professionals Day and you need to get something for that annoying and loud receptionist at the front desk. You know, just so she doesn’t keep reminding you about forgetting for the remainder of the year. Or more practically, so that she might overlook your habitual tardiness. But where does one find the crap paraphernalia by which to appease the West Covina set? I’m always amazed at the mounds of trash people describe as ‘cute’ and even more incredulous that said items were available at an actual store. In the modern era. Plus I can barely believe they chose to look at these items, out of their own volition, all day long, at the place at which they toil, the 40hr cemetery, the drudgeria, all day long, can’t-wait-for-the-clock-to-tick, temple to mediocrity, the workplace,  anything but here, yes sir, no sir, thank you for calling, please hold, staff meeting at noon, a dozen donuts in the break room, performance evaluation, consider your IRA, no personal calls please, submit to your KRONOS master, donation envelope for ultra-sugary B-day cake of person down the hall, sign up for reduced price tickets to shitty local outing by noon, waiting to go home, the CFO wants to treat your dept to a “friendly” get-to-know-me-but-mandatory fast food lunch, the workload and stress piles on, yet the obnoxious receptionist expects you to join in with chatter about their stupid offspring and its impending move to some lousy college.

But yeah, so back on topic, you need to buy some junk? Let me show you where!

Alhambra Beauty Supply! Maybe you are avoiding Monterey Park because of a certain false shoplifting charge and are wary of caressing the lovely figurines at Heavenly Choice, lest temptation lead you astray. Or possibly you just want to remember your trip to Granada, thus a dip into the equally awesome Alhambra. I don’t know when or why, but at some point in your miserable trajectory of “office work” you will thank me for making you aware of this Betty Poop Resource Center. Plus 10 % off on Tuesdays!

Yer Welcome!

Alhambra Beauty Supply & Salon   626.281.2790
445 W Main St.
Alhambra, CA 91801

BONUS! BONUS! BONUS!

Seemingly done with no irony, a “Thank you for all your Blessings Lord” design competes with the Poop-Poop-A-Doopster for a bit of your emotional coinage.

Please don’t feed the pander-handlers.

Like

Related posts:

1. Exposed Cargo
2. La Crisis: Recycling Lines

Thank goodness for Random’s Rundown because if you counted on my Botanitas posts to keep your social calendar full, you’d probably end up spending most of your nights at home (like me) due to their infrequency (damn you full-time job with no internet access!)

Time to click ahead for weekend events and Eastside news…

Young Salas Brothers

SALAS BROTHERS TO HOLD FREE CONCERT AT LEVITT PAVILION MACARTHUR PARK
LEGENDARY EAST L.A. BAND REUNITES WITH EMCEE TONY VALDEZ
Saturday, August 21
Conversation with the Artists 6:45 pm; Concert 7:30 pm, “Friend Raiser” 9 p.m.

LOS ANGELES (August 9, 2010) – The Los Angeles Conservancy is proud to partner with Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park to present a free concert with the renowned Salas Brothers, one of the seminal bands from the golden age of Chicano music in East Los Angeles and founders of Tierra. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 21. At 6:45, brothers Rudy and Steve Salas will reunite with Tony Valdez for an on-stage conversation. Now an award-winning reporter for KTTV-Fox 11, Valdez emceed most of the brothers’ concerts in the early to mid-1960s. He will reprise his role for this very special performance.

Rudy and Steve Salas of Lincoln Heights were only thirteen and eleven years old (respectively) in 1964, when they recorded their first single for Eddie Davis, founder of the famous Rampart Records. Blending traditional Mexican music with R&B, salsa, funk, soul, and rock, the duo helped shape the then-burgeoning Eastside Sound, a genre unique to Chicano youth of the 1960s.

The Eastside Sound developed largely in the region’s community centers, which served as rehearsal halls and dance venues. The brothers regularly performed at the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) building in East L.A., now home to Self Help Graphics& Art. This significant building currently faces an uncertain future and is a preservation issue for the Los Angeles Conservancy.

In 1973, the brothers formed the powerhouse Latin funk band, Tierra. The Salas Brothers and Tierra continue to make new music, packing performance venues now just as they did school auditoriums forty years ago.

On August 21, the Salas Brothers will take the stage at Levitt Pavilion in historic MacArthur Park. Music lovers from all corners of Los Angeles will converge on the park for an evening of picnicking, reminiscing, and discovering – or rediscovering – one of the great sounds of Los Angeles.

At 9 p.m. following the concert, a “friend raiser” will take place at the historic La Fonda restaurant at 2501 Wilshire Boulevard, a 1926 landmark designed by the renowned firm of Morgan, Walls, and Clements. Admission to the event is $25, and all proceeds benefit the nonprofit Friends of Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park. For reservations, call (213) 384.5701 or e-mail info@levittla.org.

The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts is located in the northwest corner of MacArthur Park, near the intersection of West Sixth Street and South Park View Street, across from the Park Plaza Hotel.

More info at the Los Angeles Conservancy website.

That Sneak!

A collective of 25 LA artists will open their new interactive performance piece, SNEAKY NIETZSCHE, to the public on August 21, 2010. The event is an immersive theatrical party and concert, set in an urban forest underworld that has been built within a 6,000 square foot Downtown LA warehouse. The environment is an Exploratorium of sound, lights, music, dance, costume and homemade brews, and will feature an original live music set composed and performed by a fictional band of real musicians, dancers and actors.

Show dates are August 21 – September 11, Saturdays only from 9pm – 11pm.

More info at www.sneakynietzsche.com.

Boyle Heights Paranormal Project

The ghost catchers of the Eastside are putting together outdoor film screenings in creepy places and inviting their fans. The first screening is taking place at Linda Vista Hospital this Friday, August 20 and is already sold out. They promise future screenings will accommodate more attendees. Check their Facebook page for more info.

Fright Night in the Heights Film Fest this Friday at Linda Vista Hospital. Future locations to be announced.

Metro Eastside Phase 2

Metro Eastside Phase 2 project meetings: September 1st and September 2nd, 2010. The meetings will provide the public with information Metro has received during scoping and on-going station planning efforts and the next technical steps of the project.

The following are meeting dates and locations:

Wednesday, September 1, 6-8pm
Montebello Golf Course, Cannoneer Room
901 Via San Clemente
Montebello, CA 90640

Thursday, September 2, 6-8pm
Town Center Hall, Social Hall
11740 Telegraph Rd
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670

This information is also available on the Metro Eastside Phase 2 Facebook Page.

La Crisis

Hey did you know La Crisis is still in effect? In case you didn’t, I always make sure to remind you of the grim economic forecasts in every Botanitas. You can’t claim ignorance (unlike the talking head economists).

Without more jobs, consumers will not feel secure enough to spend much money, further slowing the economy. The grim outlook has economists lowering their estimates for growth in the second half of the year. And on Thursday it led to a sell-off on Wall Street led by investors worried that the United States could tumble back into recession.

“Today’s news on the economy has been nothing but awful,” Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients. “The recovery is clearly slowing.”

Jobless Claims run to highest level in nine months

Ruben Salazar Files to Finally be Released

Well, only some of the files:

The county counsel’s office said records such as those that deal with witness statements, facts and circumstances involving incidents and diagrams of incidents should be disclosed, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Times.

Confidential report says some Ruben Salazar files should be released

Land of a Thousand Dances

Sad news, Richard ‘Scar’ Lopez lead singer of one of Eastside’s most famous bands, Cannibal and the Headhunters passed away yesterday.

Born May 18, 1945, in Los Angeles, Lopez grew up in the Ramona Gardens housing project. He earned the nickname “Scar” at 13 when he received stitches on his head after a gymnatics accident at the Boys Club.

Inspired in part by a black doo-wop group at Lincoln High School, Lopez and Robert Jaramillo decided to start their own singing ensemble. Joe Jaramillo soon joined the group, which called itself Bobby and the Classics and practiced in a converted chicken coop in the Jaramillos’ backyard.

After Garcia joined and was made lead singer of what later became known as Cannibal & the Headhunters, they auditioned for Davis.

Richard ‘Scar’ Lopez dies at 65; founder of East L.A. vocal band Cannibal & the Headhunters

All together now “Na nanana na, na na na na nanana nanana, nana nanaaaa…”

No word yet on memorial services but we will be sure to keep you updated with any information.

Homeboy Industries

Positive announcement regarding Homeboy Industries courtesy of EGP News.

Homeboy Industries recently announced a $100,000 grant from Chevron, presented to the organization to help fund job training programs and services for former gang members and at-risk youth.

Chevron presented the grant to Homeboy Industries founder, Fr. Greg Boyle and several homeboys and homegirls at a small ceremony held at the organization’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters.

Homeboy Industries Receives $100,000 Grant from Chevron
::::::::::

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Related posts:

1. Botanitas: August 20, 2009
2. Botanitas: July 2, 2010
3. Botanitas: February 10, 2010