Pour a 40

I don’t normally report on other blogs, but I feel that this bit of news is of importance to many of our readers. One of my favorite bloggers out there in Blogtitlán, the Militant Angeleno, seems to have gone the way of the L.A. City Nerd. Yep, the Militant’s blog is now readable by invite only. It’s odd because his last post was on Election Day and didn’t leave a goodbye. I was looking forward to a celebratory post from the Militant on Measure R and Prop. 1A, but his silence was deafening. His YouTube and Facebook pages are still up, though, with a simple “…” status. Maybe the Militant felt the need to go undercover after the election?

Whatever the reason, I’m hoping to see the Militant’s pixels once again. If not, let’s pour a forty for a fallen Militant.

The LA Times’ Institutional Racism. Black peoples public lynching courtesy of the LA Times.

 

My figurative image of what the LA Times is doing to the Black Community.

Feelings on Prop 8.

I’m upset that it did pass. Gay rights is a civil rights issue. I am not surprised that it passed, but that doesn’t stop me from being pissed about it.

I’m also angry about how the LA Times focus in regards to this seems to be just on black people. Just in this wide swath. Why aren’t we divided into different demographics like educated or Christian or blue collar? Why are we not individuals like how white people are viewed as individuals in the LA Times?

Kevin Roderick LA Observed (a long time comrade of people at the LA Times) makes a point to say 70% of the black population voted for Yes on 8 (over and over and over again), but fails to point out that we are six percent of California.

But on the other hand he doesn’t link one blog by an African-American writer (I’m pretty sure that was on purpose), though he does link blogs that talk about African-Americans celebrating, in African-American sections of LA after the Obama win.

If the black issue was such a concern to him then why not at least do that.

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Doomie’s Home Cookin’: A New Veggie Option in Chinatown

I read about this new veggie spot called Doomie’s recently at To Live and Eat in LA and was quite surprised to find out about some veggie/vegan options in Chinatown, that’s a pretty close by. On the way back from the LA Archives Bazaar we took a detour to check out this new veggie spot, and I’m glad we did because this is going on my short list of regular joints to visit!

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The Heroes of East LA

In Quantum Physics, there is a Law of Attraction in which similar objects are attracted to each other. Since we humans are also part of the physical world, that theory would also apply to each of us.
I am fortunate to meet many great men and women during my usual week. They work quietly and diligently in the background, always steady, always faithful—adding more than their share towards the whole. It is not then surprising that two such similar beings should succumb to the Laws of Attraction even on the eastside.
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A Response Regarding the Eastside “debate”

I told Chuy90023 that his comment on Daniel Hernandez’s post regarding his flip-flop on the Eastside definition was worthy of it’s own post, and being the typical humble Eastsider, he put his response in the comment of a previous post. Vato, you need to learn from these paid journalists; the only thing that makes their words more meaningful is that they act like their words have more meaning. And since I know Chuy’s words really do mean more than those of guys that get paid to write, I’m reposting his comment here as its own post, on a website that doesn’t rely on web traffic as a source of revenue.

I posted the comment below on Daniel Hernandez’s Intersections yesterday but el Chavo and I thought I’d repost it here since probably not a lot of LAEastside.com readers visit the other site:

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Unlocking an Old Memory with Discarded Keys

One of my fondest memories growing up was going to the movies with my parents. Even in San Diego, we had our version of the Million Dollar Theatre, but ours was in Logan Heights.“El Coronet” was where Mexican cinema was a weekly Mecca for the culturally starved and homesick. It didn’t matter if I had a small Spanish vocabulary, at 8 years old I began to understand the tension between women and men giving into love, keeping their principles and resolving their differences to come together. All this visual-audio negotiation took place in a spectacular romantic Ranchera Musical, with fabulous costumes, handsome leading men and strong principled women. It was there that the emotionally charged scaled notes began to send chills up my spine, at the same time made my heart well up with cultural pride. My friend, John Santos an Afro-Cuban drummer told me he feels the same deep emotion when he hears bagpipes, because he is part Irish. Makes me wonder if sounds are also part of our genetic make-up. Denise Chavez’novel Loving Pedro Infante reaffirms that we Chicanitas learn about our ideal hombre through these icons of Mexican cinema.

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“La Vida Pronto Se Acaba”: Some Blog Posts On La Vida


(Horse riders on the San Gabriel River. Photo by permission of myself.) If you want a soundtrack, click play on the video below.
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There’s nothing like a tragedy to remind us that we are all on borrowed time, and hopefully we’ll try to make the most of the remaining stretch. Here’s a few blogs and posts I’ve been reading that put things into context.

Moon over at French Benefits writes about missing the 111 Metrolink train yesterday, that same one that hit a freight train and is now a fatal wreck. She worries if some of the fellow passengers she’s come to recognize are okay.

Miguel of The Los Angeles Eastside Scene sent out an email announcing that “life has gotten in the way of my blogging” thus he will no longer be hosting the monthly Latino blogger meetups. I know his site recently slowed down but I hope he doesn’t stop posting for good.

Alice Bag is putting her autobiography in process online over at her Violence Girl blog, and she’s up to her Stevenson Jr. High days. Retracing your steps to see where you have been in this life must be a good way to estimate what it’s all about.

On a similar note, Evil Chavo (no relation to yours truly!) recounts his experiences about life in City Terrace, casting himself as a “Survivor from the streets of ELA“. It’s sad that surviving your childhood neighborhood is such a common thread when Eastsiders write about their life stories, but that’s just the way it is. Still, I’d like to see more Eastsiders jotting down some notes about life on the Eastside, it definitely helps to fill in the wide gaps in the missing history of our part of town.

whewww

So its been a while since I’ve ventured into bloglandia. A ton of stuff has happened.

First and foremost, like I mentioned before, I went on vacation to Puerto Rico.

It was beautiful but I know for sure I am not a tropics guy. Hot and humid is not for me.

I did try to catch as much Olympic volleyball as I possibly could on vacation and when I got home, LOVE ME SOME VOLLEY BALL!

If I were to go back it would be to kick it in Cuelbra a small island next to PR. (for extended vacation pics and story go to pachucoville)

As soon as I got back the new semester started at CSUN. They enrolled a record 4,000 something Freshmen. Usual numbers were 2,500, but since there is an average 60-65% drop out rate by Junior year, and because of the recession, gas prices and the overall sad state of things I think the university thought they should bring in more Frosh to make up for even higher drop out rates in the future.

I got all freshmen course this semester and they are too cool. They are open to putting down the iPod and learning about the historical era they are living in. I hope I can keep their interest and not scare them too much.

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Attack on Salsas!

First they came for our raw tomatoes. Then they came for our chiles, lumping jalapenos in with serranos, just cuz some fools can’t tell the difference. And now, in a total assault against Mexicans and their salsas, they’re setting their targets on molcajetes, that ancient and simple kitchen tool used to grind down ingredients by hand.

When will the insanity end? At what point do we take up arms to defend our simple condiments? I wonder if right after they ordered the planes into the towers, the Ketchup Lobby planned this war against salsas? I better tune into KPFK to find out.

(Thanks to Burro Hall for that hilarious link to the terrorist lava rock bowls!)