Did you say free?

pistolera

I don’t know of a family or couple not yet affected by La Crisis in one way or another. I may still have a job, but I’m not sure I can afford to continue graduate school with a substantial rise in fees (tuition).

Still, that’s not keeping home all summer. I may not be able to take a fancy vacation like my roommate, but I’m taking advantage of all the free activities the city offers. All you need is lawn chairs, blankets, a cooler/bag to pack up some snacks and you’re set to enjoy the outdoor concert season.

I’ve compiled some of the outdoor series I’ve enjoyed this summer or in the past. I’m sure I’ve missed some as I know surrounding cities (and museums) often plan their own “concert in the park” series. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Continue reading

Wall? We don’t need to show you any stinking walls!


Mexico Builds Border Wall To Keep Out US Assholes

How can Mexico be so shortsighted and thin skinned? Building walls is an old revered custom for sure, (see China, East Germany, The Maginot Line, and Malibu Colony), and most recently undertaken by the US on the Mexican border, but doesn’t Mexico understand the American tradition of cutting loose in Mexico?
You know, the custom of Americans who live quiet, conservative, Christian lives here at home, while providing all those “jobs” for the stateside Mexicans as gardeners, busboys, sweatshop employees, maids, and fiberglass jacuzzi laminators, (but never inquiring about anything personal in their lives, that would just be rude),  then visiting Mexico and letting their hair down by getting shit faced, throwing up all over the streets, screaming at the top of their lungs and dancing topless on bar table tops, banging the taxi driver in the back seat of his Volkswagen Thing, (but would never date Mexicans back home), haggling the merchants over a few centavos, demanding “real food” (granola and yogurt), at the local joints, getting pissed off at Mexican vendors who don’t speak English well enough. Hell these are all just good old American customs and rites of passage, building a wall is just offensive and unneighborly.
Next thing you know the people of the LA Eastside will want to build a wall too!

BABY KITTY !!!!!!!!!!!!

photo

~ Mi Gatito~ Ofelia Esparza

So I’m walking home and I’m crossing the street and I see this couple crossing and the girl waving good bye behind her. I’m thinking she’s waiving to a friend but as I make my way across the sidewalk I don’t see anyone. I get to the corner only to see a BABY KITTY meowing under a sign for rotisserie chicken. Without even thinking twice about it I pick him up and the BABY KITTY starts purring and caressing me as if I was his mom. I’m an animal lover and when I saw that BABY KITTY standing there meowing, I knew I had to pick him up. I was going to go home and drop some stuff so I could take him to the animal shelter, but something interesting happened on my way home. Continue reading

On pants

He: Babe, I don’t have anything to wear to the Death Cab for Cutie show tonight at the Hollywood Bowl.

She: You should wear my pants. I don’t need them.

He: Thanks!

4th of July 2009

4thjuly01

If you’ve ever been fortunate to spend 4th of July on the Eastside (or in the vicinity thereof) you’ll know that shit gets crazy as soon as the sun sets. Of course people bring in the always popular  “safe and sane” fireworks that are available in some of the neighboring cities (like Alhambra) but there seems to be a preference for those very illegal fireworks, the type that fly and explode into a rainbow of colors. You know, the fun ones.

Some people complain about illegal fireworks and get all worked up about it, but it doesn’t matter: I’ve yet to see a 4th without these illegal fireworks. The video above is quite terrible in capturing this holiday and you can’t really hear the non-stop rumble of endless explosions, but it’s a sorta glimpse, via the bad-but-works video feature on my camera.

Click ahead for some after the fact pics from Lincoln Heights.

Continue reading

The mural wars continue

img_1750

I see this mural and I feel nothing. No connection to the history it has, the images depicted on it and what it means to the community and t artist responsible for creating such a beautiful work of art. It’s been there longer than I have been alive and seen Boyle Heights change and grow over the years. Everything I feel and see in that mural nowadays I learned to appreciate it. I walk by it almost everyday and I understand the history behind the streetscapers and the legacy muralist are continuing since the  ’20s. My thirst for knowledge has shown me the rich legacy murals have in all of East Los and around the world for that matter, but that’s the trick. I wanted to know more about it. Then there are other residents that could careless about what they are, but appreciate it for what it is, art. At least that’s what I realized after Willie Herron III explained it to me from his point of view. He told me that even though I may not feel a connection to the images in the mural or understand it, we can all appreciate it. Murals like the “Corrido of Boyle Heights” may be the closest some residents will ever get to art. That alone merits appreciation in the murals, but mocosos still fail to grasp that. It’s the same arguments over and over again: If kids had a proper outlet they wouldn’t be doing shit like this or if the city had more arts programs for youth, taught them more history and appreciate their heritage etc. So does this post have a point? Maybe and maybe not. Maybe I just wanted to post up a picture of HOW STUPID PEOPLE ARE or ramble about a conversation I had today with Herron. Whatever the reason, the mural will survive. As Brandy Healy succinctly put it, “Well, at least its graffiti coated thanks to the restoration skills of Paul Botello & crew with support from CD 1 Councilman Ed Reyes. I hope the clean up folks come soon. Not only is this particular defacement completely void of any meaning or aesthetic, it’s just insultingly stupid.” And so the mural wars continue.

Piolin gives gas

Piolin, the excitedly animated morning radio host, loved by many and hated by just as many, picked up the tab at the pump on Monday at Pronto Gas station in Boyle Heights.

The line of cars waiting for their free prize was like the line of people waiting to get their free $1 dollar bill from that priest in Downtown on Christmas – endless and not worth the wait, but entertaining to deliberate what people would do for free things and why.

Pronto Gas Station - Soto y Wabash

Pronto Gas Station - Soto y Wabash

piolonyprontogas-014

Botanitas: July 1, 2009

eastla_playground
East LA school playground

Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!

Click below for Eastside punk podcasts, online river representation, sea monster slides, mixtapes and fun music events!

Continue reading