About El Random Hero

Bailo tango, masco chicle, pego duro, tengo viejas de a montón, tururú...

Bicycle Theft

I’ve had my fair share of bikes stolen. Usually it happens that one time I stray from my normal routine. Whether it’s locking it up right and in a “safe” location. Putting it inside my house because most bikes are stolen from peoples houses and back yards over night. Point is, theft happens when you fall asleep at the wheel and let your guard down, which is exactly what I did. Granted I had a few chelas and I didn’t want to ride my bike drunk or buzzed because it’s against the law. Even though I only lived a few blocks away, there is no excuse for riding any vehicle drunk. Unless you’re at someones house, then it’s hilarious.

But the point I’m trying to make, which is also a friendly reminder to everyone else too, is to make sure is that you should always secure your bike and be mindful of it. Have a nice, strong lock on it and lock it right. Don’t ride drunk or buzzed, even though I did that once from Chinatown and it was a blast, I could have gotten seriously hurt. And don’t make the mistake I made in thinking that just because you don’t have the best looking bike, no one would want to steal it. Take it from me, these bike thieves will steal ANYTHING. Putos. More and more people have been telling me that they’ve have their rides stolen too. Supply and demand I guess. It’ll take me a while to find another bike, but it’s the principality of the thing you know ? That and me being stupid for one minute, which is all it took. So, learn from my lesson and don’t get too comfortable cause that’s when they’ll get ya. And it sucks that I have to say this because I would like to have faith in people and trust them. But sadly, that’s not the way things are.

FYI ~ My bike was stolen from the front door steps of Corazon del Pueblo Friday evening. It was locked to the light post. It’s a woman’s, red Murray, 10 speed bike. Covered in taxi cab stickers in the back and various others on the frame. It had those plastic things that make noise when you ride. Only one brake on the left hand side, duct take on the left handle bar and went by the name “little kramer.” If you see it, holla at me. It occurred to me to make a report at the Hollenbeck PS, but I realized that the cops had better things to do than worry about my stolen bike.

CICLAVIA 2010

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. One day only, ONE DAY ONLY !!!!! 7 miles of L.A. streets will be closed off so people can frolic, worry free about getting hit by a stupid driver who’s not paying attention to the road. But what exactly is CICLAVIA, from their site,

“A Ciclovía is not just for recreation. It is social integration.

Ciclovías started in Bogotá, Colombia, over thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets. Now they happen throughout Latin America and the United States, connecting communities and giving people a break from the stress of car traffic. The health benefits are immense. Ciclovías bring families outside of their homes to enjoy the streets, our largest public space.

In Los Angeles we need CicLAvia more than ever. Our streets are congested with traffic, our air is polluted with toxic fumes, our children suffer from obesity and other health conditions caused by the scarcity of public space and safe, healthy transportation options. CicLAvia creates a temporary park for free, simply by removing cars from city streets. It creates a network of connections between our neighborhoods and businesses and parks with corridors filled with fun.”

It’s pretty self explanatory, so grab your bike and cruise around. I’ll be at Hollenbeck Park from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. helping out before I head out and ride. The event goes on from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. See ya there. P.S. I’ll be wearing a cape 😀

Self Help Graphics Day of the Dead Community Art Workshops

Self Help Graphics & Art is pleased to offer the following arts workshops for the whole family in October 2010.
All workshops are FREE!

All children must be accompanied by adults.
No reservations necessary!
Email: volunteer@selfhelpgraphics.com if you would like to volunteer!
Dates: Saturdays, October 2, 9, 16, and 23
Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Art Workshops:
• Paper Flowers
• Papel Picado
• Calaca Paper Mache Masks
Participants must attend 2 Saturdays to complete their calacas.
• Calaca Paper Masks
• Paper Mache Calavera Figures
Participants must attend all 4 Saturdays to complete their calaveras.
• Miniature Shoebox Altars
This workshop is only held on 3 Saturdays: 10/2, 10/9, and 10/16
Participants must bring their own shoebox.

SELF HELP GRAPHICS & ART

3802 Cesar Chavez Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90063

(323) 881-6444 / info@selfhelpgraphics.com

Yo’ mama ….

I grew up on “Yo’ mama …” jokes. In junior high and high school, being able to defend yourself verbally clowning other people on any subject with lighting quick wit meant you escaped some ridicule yourself. Being a little chubby myself, I had a good rapport because I needed to defend myself. I could always hold down my own and there’s only soo many fat jokes someone call tell before they get old.

“Yo’ mama so stupid she got hit by a parked car.”

“Yo’ mama raised you on ugly milk.”

For me, it was never with the intention of making fun of someones mom because we all love our mom’s. It was just the way immature young men communicated with each other in a testosterone driven environment. Anyone else have good “yo’ mama” jokes ? I wanna hear some good ones that I might have not heard before. What were some experiences y’all had growing up with these type of jokes and bagging ?

Spokes & Words Back to School Ride

With summer  at an end and school starting up again for students, this ride is dedicated against all the bullshit everyone has to put up with in the institutionalized educational system. After all, all we wanted was a Pepsi.

Join up with the Spokes & Words riders as we share poetry, words and stories at Self Help Graphics, Cal State L.A., East L.A. College, Salazar Park ending the ride at Corazon del Pueblo.

Meet up at Maricahi Plaza on First and Boyle at 6:30 and ride out at 7 p.m.  this Thursday.

Make sure you also “like”” the official Spokes & Words facebook page to stay up to date on rides and connect with fellow riders.

TO ALL PARTICIPANTS, MAKE SURE YOUR BIKE IS IN WORKING ORDER. MAKE SURE TO BRING EXTRA INNER TUBES, TOOLS ETC. IN CASE ANYTHING HAPPENS. THE LAW REQUIRES ALL BIKES RIDERS TO HAVE BOTH BACK AND FRONT LIGHTS AND ANYONE UNDER 18 TO WEAR A HELMET.

ON THE DAY OF THE RIDE WE WILL QUICKLY GO OVER THE RULES OF THE ROAD FOR SAFETY REASONS. HERE IS A QUICK LINK

Here is the google maps link to the bike route

Bacon wrapped hot dog official L.A. hot dog ?

So let me get this straight, for years the city has fought tooth and nail to condemn these culinary chimeras because of health and safety reasons. Some of the reasons behind this are that the vendors aren’t licensed and governed by the health department, their grills are not safe to cook on and because you can’t be grilling out in the open, they are undermining businesses that pay all kinds of taxes and taking away their business and because it’s just against the law. blah, blah, blah, blah it’s the same rhetoric over and over again. Well, Farmer John is funding a campaign to make the Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog THE OFFICIAL HOT DOG of L.A. Hmm … I’m not sure how this is gonna work, but for every vote they donate a pound of food to a food bank, so I guess that’s a good thing. If the hot dog does become official, I guess we’ll see a “gourmet” lunch truck selling them pretty soon, offering organic hot dogs with bacon. I haven’t been to the art walk in a while, maybe there’s already one out there, who knows. But what I do know is that this isn’t gonna happen and the bacon wrapped hot dog will remain the UNOFFICIAL hot dog of L.A. If the city makes this legit, then they’re full of shit, more so than they already are. It’s just another chapter in the story of how L.A. loves, hates, loves street vendors. Give us your delicious food so when can condemn you later for selling it.

photogRAFA:365

January 1

For 2010, Rafael Cardenas set two personal goals for himself for 2010: write a short story once a week and to take a picture once a day, while learning photography techniques and mastering his cameras settings along the way. Nine months later, what started as a personal endeavor for Cardenas has morphed into its own entity. His Canon D10 is always within an arms reach, ready to seize the moment in front of him at 1/250th of a second. People going on about their day, landmarks and moments of serenity are just some of the subjects Cardenas has captured since starting his photogRAFA:365 project.

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Danny Trejo

Machete Star Danny Trejo Mini-Doc by Estevan Oriol from SA Studios Global on Vimeo

I know that everyone is gonna go see the Machete movie when it comes out this weekend. Don’t lie, you know you are. While this may seem like shameless promotion on my part, it’s really not. Well actually it kinda is because I come out in this video 😀 Aside from that, it’s a great little video about Trejo talking about coming full circle not only with the movie, but his career up to this point and how he’s managed to stay down to earth. I met him and talked to him for a second during the Lifestyle Car Club picnic a few weeks ago at Elysian Park. Without a doubt, the man is a class act. One hard ass looking vato, but sweet as a grandpa. Here’s another video of Trejo and Mr. Cartoon talking about low rider life style rollin’ down Whittier Blvd.

Spokes & Words

In the spirit of creativity, Spokes & Words is focused in bringing together spoken word with bike riding. As Julio commented on facebook, riding a bike is poetry.

There are six designated stops in which anyone can share words, poems and stories. Each location will have two/three people sharing and we will ride on to the next stop.

All poets, artist, riders and anyone who has an appreciation for poetry, spoken word and riding their bike around town is welcomed. Since this is the first ride, it’ll be an easy one. We welcome input from everyone on rides, routes and locations to include in future rides.

TO ALL PARTICIPANTS, MAKE SURE YOUR BIKE IS IN WORKING ORDER. MAKE SURE TO BRING EXTRA INNER TUBES, TOOLS ETC. IN CASE ANYTHING HAPPENS.

ON THE DAY OF THE RIDE WE WILL QUICKLY GO OVER THE RULES OF THE ROAD FOR SAFETY REASONS. HERE IS A QUICK LINK,

http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm

We will meet at Mariachi Plaza this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and ride out at 7 p.m. West, stopping first in Little Tokyo by the Japanese National Museum. We will continue on 1st. stopping at the Walt Disney concert hall, then continuing on stopping under the bridge on Beverly and Glendale, in front of the long gone Belmont tunnel, riding up Glendale stopping at Echo Park Lake and riding down Sunset, finishing of at the Chinatown Gold line stop and riding bake to the Eastside.You can view the route on google maps,

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101988524258856390304.00048d6d80c30bdc35945&ll=34.060126%2C-118.238468&spn=0.031856%2C0.053902&z=14&lci=bike

DREAM Act Town Hall meeting this Thursday

In order for this post and semi-rant post to make sense, please watch this clip from Democracy Now, in which the documentary, “Yo Soy El Army: America’s New Military Caste,” a film about the military targeting Latinos, is discussed. You can watch the first part of the clip by clicking here. After you watch the first part, play the video at the top and skip to 3:55 in which the discussion shifts to the DREAM Act being a back door military draft.
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