I’m not going to front. I have never been to the Kingdom Day Parade. The times I thought about going I got this response from my bourgie black girfriends, “That’s real ghetto Browne, let’s just do brunch.â€
Girl on 92.3 the Beat float.
This year I decided I was going, but then I decided I wasn’t because I had gotten drunk the night before.
My personal predictions for businesses that might go belly-up in 2009……
1)Â Â Â K-Mart
2)Â Â Â Blockbuster Video
3)Â Â Â Sears
4)Â Â Â L.A. Weekly
5)Â Â Â JC Penny
6)Â Â Â Radio Shack
7)Â Â Â Krispy Kremes
8)Â Â Â Sizzler
9)Â Â Â Big 5 Sporting Goods
10)Â Yahoo
11)Â Clear Channel
There’s been lots of mentions on various blogs about the demise of Indie 103.1, purportedly a source for awesome independent non-corporate music. Maybe that was true, but I didn’t listen to that station so I’ll have to take them at their word. But since the corporation that gave you said Indie station is only changing the format and language, I’m pretty sure it was kinda corporate and will continue to be corporate, only this time in a language some people in Los Angeles can’t understand.
If I really liked this “indie” format, I’d probably be sad too. But as I’ve noticed when it’s happened before, there seems to be an additional undercurrent of loathing for the transition from English to Spanish, as if they could tolerate any other insipid music better if it was only in a language they could understand. Kinda like they lost one for the team. As some guy mentions:
“Yeah, because what LA desperately needs is another Latin station. Thank you, Clear Channel, for being so fucking awesome!”
Sorry for your loss ese, but damn, we are part of LA too, you know. A pretty big part, as our corporate overlords have noticed. I can understand crap music in two languages so I know that the problem with bad music is the corporate/money model and not the lengua it’s in, that’s just the way the beast works. Plus, let’s not lose the forest for the trees: you do realize that El Gato is supposedly going to be playing cumbias? I really doubt they’ll keep to that but that should be a salve for the Spanish wound. Err, you all like cumbias, right?
Now if only they could turn KROQ into a 24 hour station for Los Originales de San Juan, then 2009 could safely be declared a perfect year!
PS. The picture above has nothing to do with anything.
An enterprising citizen of Lincoln Heights gave Micro Loft living a go recently on a busy intersection of N. Broadway, but locals mostly ignored the concept, as can be seen in the photo above. With a small area for the Tupperware kitchen, a lightpost headboard, and some “facilities”, this attempt at urban space reclamation was short lived, all signs of this experiment had vanished a few days later when I went back to this corner. Even though the rent was appropriately priced, the constant flow of pedestrians thru the bedroom and the excessive banging on the crosswalk button above the pillow made for terrible sleeping conditions, even though the views were spectacular.
Click ahead for a pic of the garage!
Recent statistics from City-Data.com,
“According to our research there was one registered sex offender living in East Los Angeles, California ….”
Sounds like a good thing for East L.A. in general, but really must suck for that one guy’s neighbors!
Some of the greatest ideas in life are the simplest ones, take for example the Tamale Casserole. Being the son of a Tamalera, I know tamales and when I laid my eyes on that concoction in the aluminum pan, I questioned it and it’s taste. Low and behold I was surprised by it great taste and ingenuity. Curious about the casserole, I asked the chef about it and she told me that it was a recipe her grandmother created back in the day. Chimatli dates it back to the ’50s, but this is the first time I laid eyes on something so clever and tasty.Â
This particular casserole was of rajas and it had monterey jack and goat cheese making for a unique combination to say the least. The japalenos gave it a nice kick too and some extra flavor. Again letting my curiosity got the best of me and I asked how she prepared the casserole. In a nutshell, you take masa and put it on the bottom of the pan, add your toppings of choice and lay another layer of masa on top of that. Pop it in the oven for about 90 minutes and bingo bango, a tamale casserole. Over the holidays I’ve been exposed to a variety of tamale variations including vegetarian tamales. For years I thought that rajas, chicken red/green sauce, pork red/green sauce and pineapple and strawberry were the only ones available. My pallet is forever changed and I’m grateful to have been exposed to such culinary delights.
I’ve talked alot of shit about some of our suburbs to the east in my past, and though I wish I could stop my bashing to save friendships and to not create any more hostilities with some friends and family members that live in these and nearby ‘burbs, it’s impossible for my sense of decency to keep quiet. The suburbs create odd behavior patterns, maybe perfectly reasonable within the context of their own reality but utterly absurd when exposed to the light of reason. Take for example this xmas tree spotted on a cul-de-suck in Hacienda Heights earlier today: even before 5:30pm somebody has managed to get rid of the holiday tree, leaving it out for the trash truck, even though this was still Christmas Day! Is the trash pick-up coming early in the morning? Are they scared of the fire dangers of a pine tree in the home? I have no idea, but whatever the “logic” that led to such an early curbside disposal, it just points to some warped thinking happening inside these homes. Fucking wasteful thinking. I almost considered bringing it home for that sweet piney smell, but neh pollos, I can barely tolerate the trappings of Christmas, so why push it with the decorations?
If people can build opinions about Lincoln Heights from some cholo getting shot and killed, isn’t it appropriate that I be able to form an opinion from some random sighting on my way out of a fun X-mas party in HH? I think the notion of justice demands I create a similar prejudice, just to be fair.
“Pastor Rick Warren to Speak at the King Memorial
The service is scheduled for Jan. 19 at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and is included in the official program of the 10-day King Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, which begins on Jan. 10.
The Reverend Mark Whitlock, senior pastor at Christ Our Redeemer AME Church in Irvine, said Obama’s invitation opened the door for positive communication between the conservative movement and the civil rights movement.â€
By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
From Keith Knight's K Chronicles
I always get knowledge reading the Field Negro. Rick Warren  is speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church!! This truly floored me. How did this happen. Well I know how this happened. Years of backdoor dealing by the UnGodly megachurches have finally come to this. This is what the Civil Right’s Movement has been working for? Acceptance by a bunch of racist, homophobic, closed minded jerks?
Continue reading
Panel on Anarcha-Feminism
This last weekend, on Saturday I went to the first annual Los Angeles Anarchist Bookfair at the Southern California Library. I’ve been to a few Anarchist Bookfairs up north in San Francisco, so I was very interested in seeing how this would turn out. I couldn’t make it to all the workshops/panels but I did make it to a few.
More after the jump.
Newport coast, it turns out, has become even less black and brown. Newport Coast was so undiverse that in 2001 it attached itself to Newport Beach as to not look so oddly white in a quickly changing multicultural world.
You can’t even find out how white it is, because it’s not only white, but rich and rich people don’t want you in their business.
A lot of us Angelenos take Orange County for granted. Continue reading
Image from Amor Y Resistencia!
It’s that time again, when custom dictates you give friends and families “gifts” comprised of trinkets you go out and purchase, but this year you can’t even figure out how the hell you’re gonna make the rent on the first of the month, so what is to be done? You could hit the 99¢ store and try to scrounge up the best looking items that DON’T look like they came from the 99, but who are you kidding? Economists and Politicians keep repeating the mantra that we must buy-buy-buy to save the economy but that’s getting a bit boring. Besides, they messed things up anyways, let them fix it. They’re already tapping into our wallets for those stupid bailouts of banks and car companies but I don’t think we should help them any further. Thus I give you the practical suggestion for saving lots of money this season: Don’t buy anyone nothing! (Sticklers for grammar can substitute that last word with “anything”.)
Why not rethink the concept of the gift? It doesn’t mean much anyways when you give or get random STUFF at the end of the year, maybe save your gift and turn it into a nice surprise in May? Skip the credit card debt-spree and do something corny but nice for your pals, like a nice homemade meal or some help with the garden. Besides, if all they want is some plastic crap from you then maybe they shouldn’t be your friends or family. You might have to make an exception for your significant other or somebody else but the idea is to feel free to NOT give things this year. Run with it.
Man, that sure was a crappy post. But I really just wanted a reason to share that picture above with you! Enjoy!
Dear Gloria Molina,
Remember Measure R, the county-wide tax increase measure you tried to prevent from reaching the November 2008 ballot by refusing to support the measure with a ‘yes’ vote? If I remember correctly, you said it didn’t spread enough money to projects in your area, though East L.A. is getting the Gold Line and passing Measure R would help pay for it to be extended further east and increase mobility throughout the Metro L.A. area.
Do you remember Measure R?
Look at that! The heaviest support came from Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Gateway Cities in your district! Bell, Maywood, Huntington Park, Bell Gardens, Cudahy all voted in support of Measure R in excess of 77%. South Gate was one percentage point away from the so-coveted deep red, and I blame the disconnected Hollydaleans.
Your district supports improved mobility for people, not so much money and projects in their districts. Most of these cities have bus lines that connect with the Blue Line. What more do we want than increased mobility once we get to the Blue Line?
Keep this in mind the next time you abstain from supporting or opposing a measure. It didn’t bid well for you here.
Peace and love,
SEM
See map in full size here.