Ramona Gardens on NPR

Taken from NPR.org

I do listen to NPR. I know, I know…but I do. I tend to listen to the news on the radio because most music on the radio is pre-playlisted boredom any how. It was to my surprise when I heard that NPR was to have a story on Ramona Gardens that was not based on gang violence or the like.

The story revolved around the absence of healthy food options in and near Ramona Gardens. This is something that I have seen covered in other working-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles, such as South (Central) Los Angeles. It is not uncommon at all. The few choices that are available from the local ‘convenience stores’ can be summed up in this quote from Olga Perez:

“I bought sour cream that was all green inside,” she says. “I bought a gallon of orange juice that was … as soon as I opened the lid, all green with fur. I’ve bought Rice-a-Roni, and when I opened the box, it was maggots in there.”

Thankfully residents like Olga Perez, some of her neighbors with LA Voice PICO are spearheading a campaign to raise awareness and to lobby local government to bring healthful, fresh options to a part of Los Angeles that is seriously being underserviced.

You can listen or read the story in its entirety here: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/08/133506101/l-a-community-starved-for-healthful-food-options

Siempre En Domingo

I was researching a new project tonight and out of no where I started singing the opening theme of Siempre en Domingo (R.I.P. Raul Velasco) I’m thinking the root is from my cousin e-mailing this past Saturday a photo I have never seen of him, his sister and I as kids standing in from of my abuelita’s house.

As a young sprite, on Sundays two things were a given, 1. I’d watch Siempre En Domingo 2. I’d get my domingo from my abuelita and/or my abuelito.  My domingo (I guess you could say it was like my allowance from my grandparents) from my abuelita would come in either a handkerchief or paper towel that was bunched up at the top and closed with a rubber band.  Domingo from my abuelito would just be handed to me.  I liked my abuelita’s wrapping better.  They hated each other but they loved me.  (R.I.P. Sipriana Rivera Razo & Juan Rivera)

Do kids still get domingo?

My Pal, The Gas Company


(Gas man checking the gas lines. Of course he is.)

It’s a hopping Saturday Night with lots of festivity in the air: a couple of parties down the street with some loud ass Banda-Rancheras-sabra que mas playing, young mensos are tearing up the asphalt on their motorcycles probably headed to some desmadre or other, and my neighbor is going crazy dancing along to one of those new stupid “interactive” video games. Me? Break out the chelas and the checkbook cuz it’s bill paying time! Hey, it has to get done, que no?

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Rebel Rousers


click on photos to scroll through pics

Last weekend, I headed over to Self Help Graphics to check out the SkaWars show put on by Evoecore. I didn’t intend to take photos but I was so impressed by the old school classic punk styles and good energy of the attendees at this all ages show (all ages equals high school) that I whipped out my camera phone and did my best with the low lighting and difficult camera taking circumstances. So yes, the photos are fuzzy, out of focus and full of red eyes but who else took photos and posted them on their blog for you to see? No one, so there ya go! Um, also I want to apologize if your photo is here and you have the wrong name and/or city attached to your photo. As the night wore on, some of the liquids I’d been drinking kicked in and I lost track of who was who. Please correct me and I’ll fix the names and cities.

Thanks to all of you for the good times, conversation and for your awesome style choices!

Oh and big thumbs down to the LA County Sheriff’s Department who not only shutdown the show early but used rubber bullets to disperse these young folks (legally children, some of them) from the area. Oh what? You didn’t know they did this? That’s because it happened in East Los Angeles and I guess it’s okay to randomly use rubber bullets on kids this side of town.

Thanks to Ana for your help!

The Hood Taught Me A New Word

“Bookers Liquor Store” Figueroa and 59th

When I took this picture I seriously did not know what the word “Sundries” was I decided to look it up but never did. Today when my professor was discussing a topic on “Social Stratification and Inequality” the word  “Sundries” came up when he was giving us an example. I immediately thought of this liquor store in South Central where I first was curious about the word. I kind of figured out what it was when the teacher used the word in an example but after looking it up, I get it!

Do most people even know this word?? I am joking most probably do however, I did not and now I do. Here is the definition.

sundries
noun miscellaneous objects too numerous or too small to be specified.

sundry( plural noun)  things or items, esp. small, miscellaneous items of little value

Thank you for reading my rants!

DJ