A Step In The Right Direction

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I was just out and about in my Sunset Junction neighborhood when I spotted the new MAPHAWK GUIDE. You know, that little fold-out map hipster directory recently featured here as an Eastside sore spot and popular combustible agent.

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I picked one up expecting to see their continued misuse of the Eastside name, when I beheld something startling……

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Did they in fact decide to cease and desist from misusing the good Eastside name????

This new map now only trumpets: SILVER LAKE-ECHO PARK-LOS FELIZ on it’s cover and inside. Nowhere else does it even mention the word Eastside.

Wow. I’d call this a victory of sorts, no? Do I think we here had something to do with this? Tu que crees-Cabron??!!! Damned straight I do.

I will give MAPHAWK some credit at this point for finally taking the high road, but I’ll also state that it never should have come to this being an issue at all.

I’ll admit that it is true that Los Feliz/Silver Lake /Echo Park are EAST of SOMETHING. Heck- Santa Monica is east of something. But that’s not the argument. I say call these areas anything you want; East Hollywood, South NoHo, whatever. Just don’t call it THE EASTSIDE because that name is our historic identity and it means something to us who are from there. That’s all.

Anyway, Im glad that they’ve stopped putting “Eastside” on their maps. I’m guessing that their last marketing meeting over at MAPHAWK headquarters went something like this:

Arnold Maphawk: “…So then, what kind of graphics do we want for this new 2009-2010 Maphawk Eastside edition?”

Willis Maphawk: …”Umm, yeah, about that,……I think we’re not going with the “Eastside” theme this time around”…..

Arnold Maphawk: “What you talkin ’bout Willis????!!!

Arnold Maphawk: “Regretably, our demographic in that area is getting kinda wise. You know, their need for a hip moniker seems to have become outweighed by their sense of guilt and stigma about using that silly little Eastside name”….

Willis Maphawk: “Oh, I get ya, It’s about those people over there waaay past downtown, right?. What the heck is their problem? They’re getting a new subway line for Crissakes! How do they know about our map guides anyway?? Our maps are in English”!!!

Arnold Maphawk: “Look, let’s just cool it with the Eastside thing for now. It’s just not really working for me anymore anyway.”

Willis Maphawk: “Dude, it had a nice ring to it. Our advertisers love it! My sister in law from Michigan just bought a house in Echo Park and loves telling her family back home that she lives in the Eastside of L.A.! Come on, work with me here!

Arnold Maphawk: ….”Let’s just move on, OK?? ……..Who’s handling the TWO BOOTS pizza account”?

Willis Maphawk: “I’ve got TWO BOOTS for your ASS MotherF’R!!! And why can’t I get some good Chicago style pizza here in L.A. anyway”????”

🙂

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About AlDesmadre

Al Guerrero, Artist/Humorist. Los Angeles, CA. Born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in East Los Angeles from the age of two, Al Guerrero grew up just steps from the famous Chicano strip, Whittier Boulevard. His youth experiences include witnessing and participating in the 1970 Chicano Power demonstrations, cruising cars on Whittier Boulevard, and graduating from Garfield High School. After dropping out of UCLA (with honors), he drew upon his lifelong passion for art and cartooning and pursued a career in graphic arts. During this period, he traveled overseas and found artistic inspiration from the masterworks he discovered within the European Art Museums. His career blossomed when he was eventually hired by the Walt Disney Company in 1995, where he worked as a creative artist for a number of years. Although the artistic work was rewarding, he eventually grew weary & disillusioned with the bureaucracy of the entertainment business, and left to work briefly in the educational field. His credits include producing a feature film with actor, Conrad Brooks of Ed Wood fame, founding and performing with the Punk Rock group “The Psychocats” at numerous L.A. & Hollywood venues during the 1990’s, and in 1999 he founded and created a hell-bent puppet cabaret show aptly named: “The Puppets from Hell”. As a long time active member of the Los Angeles Cacophony Society, Al “Quaeda”, as he was known, was involved in countless Cacophony Society pranks and events throughout the city. He also produced the “Incredibly Strange Cinema” cult film series as well as themed events such as the now infamous “Pornothon Movie Nights” and the satirical “Mexican Night: Noche De Tequila & Putas” shows at local nightclub venues. Throughout his art career, he has exhibited his canvas paintings at various local galleries, and has also written & illustrated numerous comic strips and Graphic Novel stories. Today, he lives in Silver Lake, California and works as a freelance artist and writer with numerous multi-media projects under his belt and in the works. His personal hobbies include collecting vintage toys and comic books, cinema history and Los Angeles City history. Contact: alguerrero@earthlink.net Al Guerrero P.O. Box 29697 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0697 www.alguerrero.com Myspace.com/thepuppetsfromhell

17 thoughts on “A Step In The Right Direction

  1. I’d say that’s another definite victory for the Eastside Guerrilla army! Full retreat is their strategy now. The tide has turned, no doubt about it, even if there are still a few blowhards that refuse to acknowledge the errors of their ways. This lil’ site is read by more people than care to acknowledge, cuz they know they should just to get a sense of what that other LA thinks.

    Thanks for posting the body count Al, the world needs to know! Que Chido!

  2. EL CHAVO!
    July 12th, 2009 | 1:41 am

    “there are still a few blowhards that refuse to acknowledge the errors of their ways.”

    I’m guessing we’ll be hearing from them soon on this thread. I look forward to their usual lectures about creating dialogue instead of insulting people. “Hipsters” are not only pioneers in modern day city dwelling, they’re also a moral authority.

  3. Rob, you will find that in regard to hipsters who misuse the Eastside name, most of their explanations are invariably self-serving, with reasons skewed favorably towards excusing their actions and self-centered sense of direction.
    They are also quite adept at casting us, the true Eastsiders in negative roles in all this, presumably for having the audacity to speak up and defend the little we’ve got thereby making them feel crappy and self-conscious about calling themselves Eastsiders and spoiling their pretentious fun.

  4. The guerra continues Maj General Desmadre, from todays New York Times this article on “The New Culture in Highland Park”.
    “The York” as “new culture”?

    Surfacing – Highland Park – A Culture District Annex in Los …
    Highland Park: A New Culture District in Los Angeles … HIGHLAND PARK in northeast Los Angeles holds many honors: the first town to be …
    July 12, 2009 – By JAMIE BRISICK – Travel

  5. Just read the New York Times piece. How can a New York paper identify a “Highland Park” neighborhood? Is it a special assignment where the writer lived in the neighborhood for a week and is now an expert, or is it a Oh-isn’t-it-interesting-that article? What makes these few blocks on York culture, now, while a few years back just a ghetto? Is it hipsters, gentrification, higher real estate prices, the historic Occidental College connection, maybe the Mr. Obama alumnus factor? On a sociological level is is definitely something to have a beer over–Stella or PBR of course, not Tecate or Corona. Ay güey!

  6. I just started reading the NYT article, and it’s full of shit. Thanks for the link.

    Highland Park has been cool and trendy for years. It’s been walkable ever since it was built. Just because a street is full of stores that the NYT national target demographic doesn’t visit doesn’t mean it’s not walkable… especially if people are walking to them already.

    NYT, a rag from such a great old town. Did Brooklyn not exist before the rich white people from Manhattan move in? Is that the attitude of the new NYT?

    And that NYT title: a culture district? There is culture everywhere in LA. It’s one of the most cultural places around, even in the clone-land of suburbia, culture keeps growing through the cracks in the concrete. Some suburbs even look different and distinct.

    Then the article caps it off with: “I mean, where else in L.A. do people honk as they drive past?”

    Well, in some parts of L.A., people will wave to you from their car if they recognize you.

  7. New York is bell-jar culture. Nothing exists unless some authority names it and gives it borders and a corporate logo. There should be a ban on NY journalists writing BS stories on LA.

  8. The New York Times loves to print stories that bash LA, especially in regards to its “walkability.” Quotes like “The landscape has changed significantly. Now, everything is centered on one street. It’s rare to find a walking culture in L.A.”

    It’s not rare to find walking culture in LA. It’s maybe rare on parts of the the West Side, but Highland Park is older than many New York neighborhoods, and equally as walkable.

    The worst thing is the dismissive tone it takes towards Highland Park before the hipsters “discovered” it. As if it didn’t matter before.

  9. That whole article read like a “Stuff White People Like” parody.

    Think of it this way: the “white” ethnic groups in the U.S. now know that it is okay to like Highland Park and to know about it. Commence the clueless complaints about Sunday morning bandas and elote ladies on other blogs.

  10. Wow, people burning maps because they misrepresent an area of Los Angeles? Of all the important battles you could have picked, this is the one you chose? It has got to be one of the lamest. A victory because you aren’t included in a demographic? A victory? Really? Sounds like there are just as many douche-bags in Boyle Heights as Silverlake from here.

    People need to get their priorities straight and stop trying to point out how different they are from one another, and start figuring out how they are similar. This is not my opinion, this is a fact. I think it’s painfully obvious Angelinos are different from one side of LA to the next, so much so that they don’t even know what part of town they live in evidently. Way to segregate LA a little bit more tough guys. I hope you choke on those self-righteous tongues, East Side & West Side alike.

    This ego driven territorial cock fighting was the norm when I was living in Los Angeles 10 years ago, I’m sad to see that it is not only persisting but thriving. Just depressing. Burning some hipster maps? I mean what are you, Nazis? Bravo Los Angeles. Bravo.

  11. no manches,
    What a unique and insightful perspective, we’ve never heard that one before. Now that you’ve set us straight on what our priorities should be, I will begin by following your excellent example. Whatever that is.

  12. The whole point of the NYT article is that HP has peaked. Nevermind how wrong the author got it, being in ignorance of HP’s 100 year tradition as an Arts neighborhood, being unaware of HP’s main main drag (Figueroa), focusing on pretty much a single block on York between Ave 50 and 51.

    But still, a shout out to Amy! You were in the frikkin’ New York Times! How cool is that?

  13. “no manches” wrote:

    “People need to get their priorities straight and stop trying to point out how different they are from one another, and start figuring out how they are similar.”

    There it is! The Jerry Springer final thought lectures from these pro gentrification guys is the best part of their comments. I swear.

  14. Yes, we can debate this amongst ourselves till we are blue in the face, or we can put our rebuttal IN the NYT so all those writers and even new yoorkers who may or may not believe that bullshit,can see that we and our cities are NOT what “THEY” think they are!!

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