Category Archives: Books

Sal Si Puedes #4 Publication Release

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I’d heard rumors oh for many, many years that at long last another issue of SSP would see the light of day. I didn’t believe it, and still don’t, but CT is so convinced of its resurrection that there is an actual “Publication Release” planned for Saturday, March 9th 2013 at 8pm over at Espacio 1839 in Boyle Heights. Seeing is believing buddy. Notice it doesn’t say Release Party? I did. O pues.

If you don’t know, Sal Si Puedes is one of the best literary magazines to come out of the Eastside. I did a review of issue #3 waaaaayyy back in 2005, you should go read it.

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See, doesn’t that sound interesting? It might take another decade for the next issue to come out so if I were you I’d hurry in to get my copy. The going rate is $10 but if you mention that you heard about it on LA Eastside, CT will let you have it for $9.99 and will throw in a free knock-knock joke. Yer welcome!

See ya there!

Check out the Facebook invite here.

Espacio 1839  
1839 1st. St (near Mariachi Plaza)
323.265.3730

Miracle Books

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A good reason to subscribe to LA Eastside’s rss feed and twitter page is that Chavo and Chimatli have some killer articles to share and instant moments on the eastside ‘you’d have to see for yourself”.

I got this cool impromptu notification from some literati  friends  (more like book lovers) who give back to the community by handing out books—free.  I love free!  They are called The Miracle Bookmobile.  “Bookmobile”–well, that’s a word I have not heard since I was in grammar school and I lived in an area with too many kids and not enough libraries.  Ergo, some funky bus used to roll up on Chollas Elementary School and 4 or 5 of us could climb aboard for 20 minutes and quickly choose books to check out—a ritual that was repeated for about 20 to 30 kids once a week.  It was a kid-friendly library, nothing in a shelf higher than 5 feet (I think).

Tonight, Saturday, October 22,  The Miracle Bookmobile will be in downtown Los Angeles beginning at 7pm in front of Exilo Studio.  Exilo is located at 435 S. Broadway, 90013.  They have a lot of great new literature from LA and Oakland  and they invite you to “c’mon out and get some!”

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LH in L&R

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From Locas II by Jaime Hernandez

Spotted in a recent issue of Love and Rockets.

A few years ago I read an interview with Jaime Hernandez, one of the brothers who created the amazing comic Love and Rockets. He mentioned he had a post office box in Lincoln Heights and was surprised by how many punk kids he’d see walking out of Lincoln High School. I don’t think there are so many punks at Lincoln High anymore nor do I think he continues to have a LH post office box, but it’s nice to know his reference to Lincoln Heights will live on.

A recent post I did on Love and Rockets here.

Anarchy Weekend!

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Saturday, June 25th
11am – 6pm
Art Share Los Angeles
801 East 4th Place
Los Angeles
anarchistbookfair.com

Some of you may be thinking “An anarchist bookfair? What is that all about?” Well, head on down to Art Share in the Arts District Downtown and find out! Radical and independent book publishers will be there selling their provocative pulpy wares including books you can’t even find in the library! (Okay, maybe in academic libraries or the Kate Sharpley Library but not in public libraries.) Publishers such as AK Press, PM Press, Tam Tam Books, C.A.L. Press and many others will entice you with their dazzling display of timely tomes on such diverse topics as radical politics, environmental issues, critical race studies, animal rights, counter-culture/subculture themes and other topics of interest to LA Eastside readers. LA Eastside will be set up with our own little puesto where we’ll have a contest going and will be giving away LA Eastside t-shirts as prizes. If you read this blog on a regular basis, the contest will be super cinchy for you.

When you get tired of book browsing, there are a number of engaging speaker panels, lectures and readings also happening at the bookfair. One presentation that looks particularly interesting is Crisis in California: Everything Touched by Capital Turns Toxic. Check out the full schedule here and plan your day accordingly.

The next day is a full day of activities happening in conjunction with the bookfair including a day-long Skill Share Free School.

Skillshare info:

Branching out from the DIY tradition of skill-sharing, this is an autonomous self-organized free school providing access to education free for all.

On June 26, 2011 the Centro Cultural Papalut along with the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Anarchist Book Fair will host a space of free knowledge exchange and skill-sharing with hands-on workshops and classes throughout the day.

Location:
Centro Cultural Papalut 3201 Maple Ave. L.A. 90055 C.A.

For a full schedule of all the exciting skill share workshops (lock-picking! stilt-walking! guerrilla theater!), see here.

And for those who are more theoretically inclined, The Public School in Chinatown will be the site of a number of thought-provoking presentations also happening in conjunction with the Bookfair weekend.

First up on Friday night, join Colectivo Acratas Los Angeles for a lively presentation and discussion featuring co-editor of Anarchy Magazine, Lawrence Jarach, Friday, June 24, 2011, 8pm. Topic of the evening: What is Post-Left Anarchy? An outline and development in modern anarchist theory followed by Q&A
Check the calendar for another series of talks on Sunday.

The Public School
951 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Need more info? Wondering where to eat and drink in the Bookfair vicinity? Interested in finding out more about radical and anarchist projects in Los Angeles? Check out this nifty little website: A Radical Guide to Los Angeles.

Pictures and review of last year’s bookfair here.

Book Review: Down & Delirious in Mexico City

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Escondido, 2005, from the Mazahuacholoskatopunk series. Photo by: Federico Gama

Down & Delirious in Mexico City: The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century
Daniel Hernandez
Publisher: Scribner
Published date: February 8, 2011

By guest contributor Susy Chavez of mexiroccan.blogspot.com

There is a legend that runs through artist circles in Mexico about the surrealist French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s first visit to that country. They say Cartier-Bresson was so moved and overwhelmed with visual stimulation that he declared all one had to do to find a surrealist image while in Mexico was to point one’s camera and simply shoot. Apparently, Cartier-Bresson found the surrealist promised land in le Mexique.

I often times find myself imagining Mr. Cartier-Bresson wondering the streets of Mexico camera and western sensibilities in hand, like some sort of belated colonialist explorer encountering the totem-like mishmash of the ancient, colonial and the modern that makes up Mexico. My own voyeuristic fascination with Mexico, like all the best voyeuristic endeavors in life, is deeply personal. I am, to put it mildly, passionately in love with its fluid pump-up-the-color-volume folklorico-piñata-dance chaos. Fortunately, this love abounds and Daniel Hernandez’s new book, a quasi telenovela meets Boogie Nights love letter to the 20 plus million metropolis that is Mexico City, is a worthwhile testament.

To take Hernandez’s book as simply a non-fiction travel book or as the cool kids are calling it these days, creative non-fiction travel book, would be a mistake. Hernandez’s book is fascinating precisely because he is NOT: 1) trying to find himself by teaching English in another country 2) throwing himself into hard labor in a remote indigenous village 3) has no philanthropic endeavors 4) and NO broken heart he needs to mend through ancient indigenous practices. Hernandez is on a mission to find himself, a San Diego native, Angeleno transplant via Tijuana, Mexico whose parents warn him early on that in el DF, he’ll get his socks stolen while he’s got his shoes on. Instead of making him run up towards Canada, Hernandez, a self-described “dark-skinned” pocho mexi-gringo, decides to move to el monstruo. It is in el monstruo that Hernandez leads us through a series of hoyos funkys, underground tunnels that weave through the city coming up momentarily from time to time for brief snap-shots of a series of urban subcultures that include but are not limited to fashionista fairies, nezayorkinos, banda, grafiteros, emos and fresas.
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Feria del Libro este Weekend en el Centro!

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Your stash of Libro Sentimental running low? Stock up at the LéaLA bookfair over at the LA convention center this weekend! Maybe they’ll have other stuff too like that hard to find collection of Vanidades from 1993. Books in Spanish, authors probably speaking Spanish, some panel discussions. Plus its free. Starts tomorrow Friday April 29 and runs til Sunday May 1st.

I hope its good but I’m not gonna sell it until I see it. Maybe a report back si vale la pena. Just thought I’d let you all know. Get all the info at their website: LéaLA

Ai no vemos!

Five Points Reading Series

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Hey, finally something I want to attend at the Workspace gallery in Lincoln Heights. Actually, I never know what goes on in that space, perhaps a calendar in their window would be helpful or some kind of outreach to the neighborhood. In any case, I missed Daniel Hernandez reading from his new book Down & Delirious in Mexico City a few weeks ago and happy to have the chance to hear him read right in my own neighborhood! See ya there!
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Eastside 101: Off The Map!

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When I took my first trip to Europe I did what everyone does and checked out some travel books for some information and ideas. They’re useful in giving you a general sense of a place. On a whim I thought “let’s see what they say about Los Angeles” and man was that a bucket of hot water: this travel book racket is run by fools with money. Or sometimes just fools. I quickly realized that those that portray our city, in all the various ways you can, tend to do so either for money or because they have the money to do so. Its pretty messed up. My consternation to the lousy representation of our city is one of the main reasons I started my shitty website CHANFLES! (and later an even shittier blog) a decade ago. Who am I to decide to document this supposed glamorous city? I am a nobody in a metropolis that believes celebrity is a life-force. But I’ve learned through the process of experience that those that feel entitled to represent our city, no matter how many months ago they arrived, have nothing better to offer. My take can’t be that bad, can it? And therein was my mistake, trying to present an alternative understanding of LA to the ether, before becoming a somebody. Cuz nobody cares unless they care about you. Nobody cares what the nobodies think.

And then it’s time for the Cosmic Flip concept that my long lost friend Heriberto was fond of discussing : maybe the lack of importance makes it super important. I won’t delve into this serious filosophizing, but it was something to that effect. In any case, I think I’ve done my small part in describing my city. But in the end, the bastards with the money still own the bullhorn: they get to blurt out their inanities all over the place. I’ve been keeping watch.

So finally, the point of this post. I’m going to show you a sampling of travel books/guide books to LA to see how they deal with our lil’ historic community known as the Eastside. How do you think we will fare?

BTW, there’s a bunch of pics ahead, so plan your reading accordingly.

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Randoms Rundown: Mayday Mayhem

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It would seem that everyone and their mom is going to be in Downtown this Saturday for the May Day march. I myself will also be there of course, but what about after the march is over. Then what ? Well, jump on board the Goldline and make your way East of the river and indulge in a night out in Boyle Heights. Marching, chanting and holding up signs can take its toll and work up a hunger. Well what better way to end a protest than by supporting the Boyle Heights Street Vendors Association. The street vendors are officially back. All the hard work from East Los Angeles Community Corporation’s Community Organizing Department will culminate into what is sure to be a great night of some of the best antojitos in L.A.

137 N. Soto (soto st. and Michigan Ave) between 6pm and 10pm.  Help us support street vendors who are struggling to make a living and fighting for the right to work in their own community. (Bring Cash, no credit cards accepted)

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This Wednesday—Keep the LA Libraries Alive!!

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Last month a few of us dedicated library patrons gathered for a very poorly attended panel discussion at the Mark Taper Auditorium.  Did you know there is a lecture auditorium called the Mark Taper at the Central Library?  The next day and week [following that panel] there was an on-line discussion extolling the excellent people of San Francisco for both promoting and attending their library functions—in droves too!  My brother, who works at the Central Library says that there is more power in using the library and its services, than launching the biggest rally in support of keeping it open.  Many of us bloggers on LAeastside and you readers have been dismayed with the recent cutback attacks on our library system.  This week, there is a very interesting award winning author speaking at the Central Library (details below) on my favorite subject: the border wars and Ciudad Juarez.  If this is not your thing, attend one of the other FREE lectures coming up through the Aloud Series, or check out a book or video, reserve a computer, take the metro downtown and enjoy the architectural splendor and art at the Central Library.  Keep the library abuzz with our presence!   RSVPs are required to attend the Aloud lectures and it only takes a few moments to reserve your seat/s at (213) 228-7025 or online. Continue reading →

Daniel Hernandez at IMIX

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From one of LA Eastside’s favorite bookstores, IMIX:

IMIX Books Presents: Talking Mexico And Blogging With Daniel Hernandez
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 7pm
5052 Eagle Rock Blvd (@ Colorado) Los Angeles

Let’s welcome award-winning Mexico City-based journalist, Daniel Hernandez back to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles for “Talking Mexico and Blogging with Daniel Hernandez: On the narco war, the political scene, and ‘who gets to tell the story’.”
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