Dark Crossing finally hits the theaters today! Never heard of it? Me neither. But hey, it has Miklo of Blood In, Blood Out fame so its got to be good. Showing in select theaters only, the nearest one seems to be in Texas.
Or you could wait a few weeks and check it out at your local library.
Action Packed!
Click ahead for some classic Miklo clips. You know you’re gonna.
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I am ecstatic to report that Boyle Heights is in the process of finally getting a place for food vendors to share their fabulous foods with the people once again. Harmony between the vendors, police and people calling the police on the vendors is one of the key problems that the food vendors faced when they were doing it alacart on Breed and Chavez. East Los Angeles Community Corporation and it’s amazing organizers have done an amazing job in helping the vendors get this market going, meeting requirements that will give it the final ok from the L.A. City Council. Can I have my pancakes with cajeta now ?
Waiting for Zooey Deschanel
Matt Lucas
I left as the sun set. The steering
wheel was in my hands for 7 hours. My foot hovered over the gas petal
alternating a heaviness with a light touch. The speedometer measured
my rate of progress. The tires of the automobile took me further down
the forever highway to my destiny.
The banality of work was too much for
me. I’d seen her image everywhere, in everything. I was enraptured,
enthralled. I couldn’t think of anywhere to meet her that would be
more appropriate than in Los Angeles, the city of angels. I left
work, and home, to sip a moment of time with her.
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Well it’s started, the state of Arizona has just passed the most stringent, anti democratic, anti immigrant, anti Latino, anti worker, most repressive, ethnic profiling law that’s come down the pipe since the Japanese Americans were rounded up and put in concentration camps for being Asian looking, during world war 2. Being Mexican looking in Arizona has been dangerous for quite a while now but with this new law in effect looking Mexican can get you detained, locked up, and maybe deported.
Should someone start a little negocio in say Blythe Ca. that sells blond wigs and white pancake makeup for Mexican Americans who have to cross the Arizona border on Interstate 10 heading east? It might help in combating racial profiling by Arizona cops who are now mandated to check peoples papers if they meet certain “criteria’sâ€, you know, looking Mexican for example. Illegal trespassing in Arizona without proper papers can get you in trouble now, be cautious.
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Last time I reported on the Breed Street Food Vendors, I was telling everyone to show their support by signing the petition to get an evening farmers market going here in Boyle Heights. Well I’m ecstatic to report that not only were there enough petitions turned in, but the L.A. City council approved the motion to get this farmers market up and running. Whether you agree with this move or not, it doesn’t really matter because you aren’t the one’s that are struggling to make ends meat, hiding from police and wonder when you will be able to make a living selling your home made dishes and sharing them with everyone else. So, come to Corazon del Pueblo and find out what the future holds for street vendors.
Cops and Nazis
For a long while, I’ve been questioning the intended efficacy of public protests. I often wonder if the days of marching and holding signs and the persuasive effect they used to have on those in power is long gone. Public protests still serve a purpose though, they create a sense of solidarity with other like-minded folks, walking on empty streets with thousands of other people is an interesting way to take in the city, creative sign slogans are entertaining and inspiring, and protests can sometimes turn into riots. With these things in mind, I headed Downtown this weekend for the Anti-Nazi Protest with a Bay Area friend in-tow. I wanted him to experience Los Angeles style oppositional politics, a sorta intro to “This is how we do it.”
Last month a few of us dedicated library patrons gathered for a very poorly attended panel discussion at the Mark Taper Auditorium. Did you know there is a lecture auditorium called the Mark Taper at the Central Library? The next day and week [following that panel] there was an on-line discussion extolling the excellent people of San Francisco for both promoting and attending their library functions—in droves too! My brother, who works at the Central Library says that there is more power in using the library and its services, than launching the biggest rally in support of keeping it open. Many of us bloggers on LAeastside and you readers have been dismayed with the recent cutback attacks on our library system. This week, there is a very interesting award winning author speaking at the Central Library (details below) on my favorite subject: the border wars and Ciudad Juarez. If this is not your thing, attend one of the other FREE lectures coming up through the Aloud Series, or check out a book or video, reserve a computer, take the metro downtown and enjoy the architectural splendor and art at the Central Library. Keep the library abuzz with our presence!  RSVPs are required to attend the Aloud lectures and it only takes a few moments to reserve your seat/s at (213) 228-7025 or online. Continue reading
Last night I was hanging out at a youtube party, where various folks pick a music video to share with the gathered crowd. It’s all the rage these days, didn’t you know? Vicente from the bay area shared this ridiculous video that had us busting up for minutes, which I thought was the stupidest video ever. A paletero without a properly insulated cart? Not even a damn ice chest? Plus no bells or horns either on the shopping cart, nobody’s gonna know the paletero is coming around. Even the poorest and dumbest ambulante in LA knows that this shit ain’t gonna work. What’s wrong with them fools from Frisco? At least they paid a visit to the laundromat, otherwise known as the functional local plaza.
This morning I can’t remember any of the other videos so I guess this was the best one of the night. Enjoy!
Little known random fact about me, I use to be a raspado vendor. I kid you not. This was when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life after graduating high school. You know, taking a year off or three from school to get my head on straight. I worked as a street vendor and I learned some life lessons that cannot be learned anywhere else. Even when I was a kid, the raspado man would be a sight for sore eyes when school let out. My favorite all time flavors are rompope, vanilla, strawberry, then all three combined with some lechera on top Mmmm, mmmm.
El Chavo’s L.A. Live Post Here
El Chavo is usually talking sense, except when he goes blasphemous by throwing some corporate cheez in tamales. But, on the subject of that staples center concrete wonderland, he has never been more spot on. his cold, calculating description is muzak to my eyes. Shiny cement cesspools. Is there any way around that? Parks and libraries getting shut down and these commercial camps get ballyhooed. But those are public, this is private! Huh? Just so cold and sterile. Remember when De La Soul said, “neighborhoods are now hoods, cuz nobody’s neighbors…” Well I do. It’s a brothel without the “fun,” even though patrons do get fucked one way or another. L.A. Live. Music, dining, sports, living? Whateverz, as RHS students say. The grey buildings and grey walls and grey floors and those giant televisions. “OMG, they put Christ Miss lights on the bald trees. What a nice detail.” I dont want my trees trimmed, or anything else trimmed. Let’s keep it real. “Hey, where you going?” Oh, to go watch television. Outside. Television? Outside?
Acerbic naysayer? What are the solutions? What would you replace it with? What am I now, a city planner? Those assholes should be losing their jobs. Solutions? For starters, don’t be calling a concrete commercial center (or as their site claims, “a one of a kind entertainment campus,”) a haven. I’m not the one lying. Fuck you very much.
Who runs that dump? The Dutch East India Company?
I hope the Lakers and Kings lose. Everyday! Enjoy the video.
