It’s been awhile since I did one of these, and I’ve bet you’ve all just been sitting around waiting to be told where to go next, eh? Well the wait is over! Warm up your engines, or pedals, or sandals, or whatever, cuz there’s a new day trip excursion around Los Angeles for you to consider. And to which exciting and fascinating spot are we headed today? To the library! Wait a minute…what?
(Click on pic for a larger version)
I’ve spent time waiting in recycling lines before, but this one struck me as being massively long. You must take into account the other waiting people outside this frame, towards the left of the photo, whom left a gap to allow car traffic to come in and out of the parking lot. We were turning a corner and I just barely managed to turn on my camera to snap this one pic, but I’d say there were at least another 5-7 people waiting to turn some cans and bottles into a few dollars. Consider also that this was on a Tuesday around noon, not a common time for the casual weekend I-want-my-money-back recycler. These all appeared to be jobbers. Also note that is was just off Atlantic Blvd in Monterey Park, certainly not a place I’d expect this scene. Monterey Park, Montebello, and the areas beyond always seemed like neighborhoods that represented a first step beyond urban poverty, at least to me. I don’t know what’s happening out there right now but I’m seeing some familiar sights.
When the non-wino class starts getting into this less than lucrative business, that’s when you know things are getting tough.
A highly customized paint job on a regular looking old van. The best thing about this type of detailing is that you can get yours for free as well, just make sure to keep your ranfla parked in the same spot for a long enough time. Eventually people will notice and you will be signed up for the treatment. It’ll be ready for pickup before you know it!
I thought I would have taken a much more active interest in some of the Westside neighborhoods since I spend an unreasonable amount of time in that vicinity, but oddly that hasn’t happened. Still, I need to occasionally share some of the things I learn over on that side of town with our gentle readers, thus shedding just a bit of light into that dark and insular world that is the Westside. The posts may be infrequent, but I hope they are packed with understanding.
In this installment I present you with a quick glimpse into the Westsiders fascination with paying people to hold stuff for them. I’m not sure why this is but they seem to love spending cash on things that most folks would just assume they can do themselves. For example: The Wino Hotel. Err, I mean wine. How much wine do you have to be drinking in order to arrive at the thought that “hmm, maybe I should put some of these T-Birds in storage”? I mean really, if you can’t fit them into your pad or into the trunk of the car, then maybe you should cut back, drink up, or just share with friends. Plus, you do realize that everyone hates a stingy wino?
Are you one of our fans on Facebook? Make sure to click that link over there to your right, yeah, a little bit lower, cuz yer bound to find some good laughs. Like the exchange above. Congrats to Charlie Brown for being the first one (that we know of) to hide us from their profile views. Here’s to many more to come!
Join in on the giggles here.
(Animal friendly tacos!)
Do you all remember when The Great Taco Hunt went dark back in August of 2007? Well I do. Even as a vegetarian I loved following his excursions into the taco culture. But I guess Bandini waited until Summer since just the other day he came back to life announcing that he’s gonna be doing his taco thing over at Daily Taco.org but I think it’s kind of a group blog now? He even has a proper respect for the Eastside! You can register an account and post your own taco adventures, I think. I’m about to try that out.
Welcome back Bandini!
In other Taco News, LA Taco reports that Eastside taqueros are being robbed. Scanless.
(One can dream!)
I’m going to keep mum about what I really think, mostly because I never cared for Bratton. Politicos and most media sources are falling over themselves to heap more praise, which is to be expected. But La Crisis is intensifying, not diminishing. Crimes of necessity are going to come back in style. And I bet that pesky little narco war is going to spill over into LA sometime soon. Rich folks need their supply of fun.
But this is what I really think: he is leaving now because things are about to get really bad. Better to leave before the stats turn negative.
Discuss.
First they came for our taco trucks. Then they deported some family members, a few friends, and some other paisas that lived down the street. On the weekend they went to TJ and had some fun, it wasn’t so bad. Yeah, One Love. Then they paid us to mow the grass and wheel out their fucking trash cans. Sometime way before any of this they threw out some po-mo ramblings and tossed the Eastside moniker up in the air, up for grabby grabs, but I just remembered so this timeline might be off by a month or two. Afterwards they demanded we bring them the food already, cuz they’ve been sitting here for 10 minutes. Right around this time some asshole ran for mayor under the English Only/ Down with the Wetters platform. But the chittichangas were good with guacamole and they decided to forget that foray into the Old Ways. Then they decided that taco trucks were actually a good idea, maybe even kinda cool, and the proper people also liked them, so yeah, lets not enforce that arbitrary law. Then they wanted to do that whole 187 thing against children of immigrants again, you know, for old times sake. It’s part of that grab bag of ideas they put into rotation when things go bad; they’re just not that creative.
And now, dipping back into said bag, they want to ban roosters, again. This shit has got to stop. No pasaran. Stand for California. The buck is in the sand, the line stops near here, or something of the sort.
Let the chickens be.
Tired of all those soap, egg, and gelatin concoctions you keep trying to perfect those liberty spikes? Well say hello to moco de gorila, imported from Mexico this is “el producto para todo tipo de peinados exagerados.” I got myself a bottle of “estilo punk” but haven’t tried it yet, I’m waiting for the weekend to turn into a punk. Cuz everyone loves weekend punks.
I’m sorta amazed that someone rubbed some gorilla snot in their hair to find out it made for a strong gel. But what I really want to know is how they collect the stuff! Now available at your local Big Saver for $2.50, in the dripping moco shaped bottle.
It didn’t take long for the remarks of an old timey cop to bring back an old timey word. Spotted the other day on my usual dumpster diving route, a remarkably timely sticker pasted onto my favorite bin in which to find tuxedos in need of some creative care: all it says is KNUCKLEHEADS. I’ve been involved with crowds that end up on the wrong side of media opinion enough times to know that media opinions are worth squat. I wasn’t at the recent festive Lakers celebration that got so many people bent out of shape, that got them all a twitterin’ and a facebookin’ as if they’ve only just discovered Los Angeles has a vast populace that could care less about certain things. In the interest of letting people believe a certain fantasy about this city, I’m gonna leave it at that for now.
But yeah, FYI, the Knuckleheads are out there. Or maybe they’re just ordering stickers online?
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.
It’s about time. Piñatas finally achieve a structural advancement that is worthy of note for all Party People and Pachangeros alike. Maybe this has been around for some time but I didn’t get the memo, I found out about it by accident and by paying attention to all the significant things that happen in the world around me. Err, maybe it wasn’t an “accident”, let’s just call it approved-but-focused-violence. Above we see some weak kids crying about the fact they are going to have to bash and destroy their piñata friend, cuz that’s how they learn to grow up to be strong individuals that can take on the world. Rites of passage, they just need to be done.
Oh yeah, click ahead for the break-through (har har!) innovation that will turn parties upside down!