Category Archives: culture

¡Sounds Like Burning: Play From Your Fucking Heart!

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¡Sounds Like Burning is about psychos, angels and psychotic angels. Who else deserves mention?

Mister Bill Hicks introduces the series because he is… Bill Hicks. He condensed the first law of all the Arts: Play From Your Fucking Heart!

The performances to be aired here are rigodamnediculous. The biblical scholar Bon Scott once commanded: Let There Be Light. And There Was Light.

Bask in it.

Can one make the unknown known? Tune in and Trip out.

Bill Hicks “Burning Issues”
[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/flag.mp3]

Ron Shock remembers:

Other than the drunken orgies… we (Bill Hicks and I and the rest of the Comedy Outlaws) were pretty wild, we did a tremendous amount of drugs and we drank a tremendous amount of whiskey, and usually we did the drugs and the whiskey together. But there was one show we did… Hicks is on stage doing his impression of Elvis where he uses toilet paper instead of handkerchiefs and he would wipe his forehead with toilet paper and throw the toilet paper into the crowd. Jimmy Pineapple who was just drunk as a skunk comes running from side stage and tackles Bill, for no reason, just to do it, right in the middle of a show, in front of 900 people and tackles him and as Bill is laying on the ground without missing a beat, keeps on with his act, he’s still Elvis…

Lucha Libre in East Los

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It’s no secret that I am a HUGE Lucha Libre fan. The sport of the working class folk. The little people that are the salt of the earth and make the world go round. This ballet of high flying, explosive acrobatics is some of the best entertainment on the face of the earth. I’m not talking about that stuff you see on American tv, even though it has its moments. No. Lucha Libre is beyond those theatrics of male soap opera and is an entity all of it’s own. Blue Demon Sr/Jr, El Santo & Hijo del Santo, El Perro Aguallo, Tinieblas, El Rayo de Jalisco, Atlantis, Octagon, Mascara Sagrada, Conan, Super Porki and Mil Mascaras are just some of the legends I grew up on because my father was a luchador in his day. I don’t care what anyone says about Lucha Libre. If you don’t have anything great to say about it then shut your pie hole !!! That goes out to all the mensos that don’t know better when they preach that it’s fake. OF COURSE IT’S FAKE !!!!! I can walk you through a whole match and explain the dynamics of this eloquent dance, but that’s not the point of it all. It’s a show. Entertainment. Escape from a weeks worth of busting your ass at some dead end job, trying to put food, clothes and a roof over your families head. It’s an escape from the realities of life because you don’t know where your next meal may come from. This is where families come to bond and share precious moments as they yell out profanities in Spanish and flip wrestlers off with great gusto. I almost lost my voice yelling my head off at the ref for cheating and helping Los Rudos win and you know what ? It’s all part of the show. The experience. The life style of the lower class. Horse racing may be the sport of kings, but Lucha Libre, that’s the sport of the working class. A class I’m proud to be a part of. All of the pics were taken by the GF who was a trooper and took one for the team because we ended up going to the show spontaneously. She has a great eye right ?For those of you interested in going to the next revancha, here’s the info. See ya there. Arriva los technichos !!!!!

M.F.W. Presents Goodrich Hall Lucha Libre

Every Sunday or every other Sunday at 5-5:30 p.m.

1239 Goodruch Blvd in the city of commerce. Entrance on Olympic and Union Pacific

Free parking. Tixs $7 Adults Kids $3

For more info (323) 812-8749 / (323) 812-8003

Continue reading →

American Social Problems

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I attended an intro to sociology course called “American Social Problems” during the second week of school at ELAC and left questioning my academic, sociocultural, and career intentions with a shed of liberal light from an episode of Michael Moore’s “Awful Truth.” Why do I really want to go to school? Am I making a bad investment with hopes of an unreasonably better return that I probably don’t deserve? If I succumb to the system, will I turn into a capitalist-driven bloodsucker whose bottom line is money?

I think America is inflicted with an at-large social cancer that is slowly (or quickly, depending on how one interprets time and space) detiriorating the human spirit and his/her pursuit of true happiness. This cancer is so detectable, it’s undetectable. I cringe when I see my neighbor’s toddler children eating corporate-made candies with their silver capped teeth. My heart aches when I see jobless, injured, disabled people loitering around Downtown LA, in front of LA County Hospital, at Hollebeck Park.

Will I change in a semester? Where is the hope in a deteriorating society?

More American social problems:
– Prescription drug addiction
– Overprescribing people
– Overdiagnosing people
– Inhumane conditions in American city/county jails and state prisons
– Close-minded Americanism
– American greed
– American obesity
– Corporate takeover on food
– Lazy, apathetic government employees
– American apathy
– Under-representation of day laborers who live month-to-month
– Corporate education


**http://halfenough2.wordpress.com/

Antigua Coffee house is open again

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I never got to see Antiguas old spot and I heard about it closing down wishing I could have gone to check it out for myself. So, that’s why I made my way with fellow blogera Vicki-chan to their new spot in Highland Park on Figueroa. I had a vanilla ice blend and a chipotle-turkey sandwich. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Since I never experienced the old location I can’t really do a comparison but the fact that Antigua is open again is something worth noting. So go check it out and enjoy a great cup of joe. Ahhh the simple life.

Antigua Coffee House

3400 N. Figueroa street Los Angeles, CA 90065

(323) 379-6148

Plaque honors forgotten Chinese residents

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The city has installed a plaque so current Boyle Heights residents can honor and pay their respects to Chinese residents who were not given equal burial treat meant back in the 1800’s. The plaque is in English, Spanish and Chinese and it gives a little history about Evergreen Cemetery, some history on some of the more prominent deceased Chinese residents resting in the cemetery and why the plaque was placed there. Which is to acknowledge the wrong doings of the past so that the bodies that were found during the Linia de Oro construction can also rest in peace as well. I came across it yesterday evening walking my dogs. They should be finished by today because the plaque still had pieces of wood holding it in place. As I stopped to read it most people didn’t bother to read was on the plaque and only guessed at what it was. Then there are those who just say stupid, racist things and choose to completely ignore the importance of such a plaque. None the less, it’s good to see that they’re getting the respect they deserve and that even though racism and classicism are still around, they’re not as bad as they use to be back in the day.

Botanitas: September 1, 2009

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nbroadwaycrash
Just another day in Lincoln Heights photo by Mecatli Acatl
(see what happens next at the bottom of the post)

Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!

Keep clicking for artistic Eastsiders, punk podcasts, East Los radio, businessmen on bikes, forgetful fires and slanguage!
Continue reading →

Cumbia Is The New Reggae.

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By next summer there will be a cumbia show at Hollywod Bowl. Mark my words.

With the popularity of Very Be Careful, Santa Cecilia and Buyepongo among MANY other groups, LA is shaping up for cumbia to be the next flavor to blow up.

I know cumbia clubs have existed for a while, so have their artists, but the above mentioned are not playing in exclusive cumbia spaces. They are playing to billingual Chicano/a crowds at local hip spots as well as Grand Performances. On the radio Jeremy Sole on KCRW drops a cumbia like he does at his weekly party, deep in the westside, Afro Funke. The beat is easy to catch, most anyone can dance to it and its plain fun.

Some Cumbia has an electronic element to it which is being played in tracks such as this one by Zizek

Eastside Clothiers

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So this is what it looks like when the Eastside becomes a demographic. I first spotted this campaign in a men’s magazine and I was like “Whoa, finally representing the kind of people who actually wear Dickies!” Thanks to LA Eastside reader Perry who passed on the video link, much appreciated!
When I was a teen, I was into the hardcore punk scene and interestingly our fashion wasn’t all that much different from the vatos in the neighborhood. We’d wear Dickies, those canvas shoes you could buy at Woolworth’s or Thrifty’s (both stores now defunct) and plain black cotton jackets. The difference was, we were all a lot scruffier looking and had colored hair. I’ve shopped many a dime store aisle with a vato/vata next to me.
Nowadays, my friends will head to Cesar Chavez, North Broadway, Figueroa, Huntington Park or swapmeets for their Dickies wear. You can cut them off at the knee for the classic vato look, wear them to work a la your favorite mechanic or even pass them off as dress slacks. I remember once Dickies even had a “Working Class Hero” contest which I thought was hilarious! As for me, I’ve since moved on to girlier clothes.

Bone-shaking volume

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CDs by Mr. Sánchez. Mexicans know him as a valiente, a brave one: armed, dangerous and doomed (he was ambushed and executed after a concert in Mexico in 1992). Comparisons are superficial, but you could think of him as part Billy the Kid, part Bill Monroe. Photo: Eric Grigorian for The New York Times

Photo: Eric Grigorian for The New York Times

This past weekend, the N.Y. Times‘ Travel section revisited Los Angeles, focusing on narcocorridos and venues that play an important part in its spread throughout Los Angeles. It went better this time than the last time they visited L.A.

Narcocorridos, and by extension, any form of Mexican music that is born and nourished in Los Angeles, are not covered much in the United States. Almost every time narcocorridos are mentioned in media, it’s tied with the current Mexican Drug war fiasco and spoken about negatively. I once sat in on a discussion with a well-known Mexican journalist at a university and she all but blamed the whole situation in Mexico & the Americas on narcocorridos. The whole time I sat there, I shook my head, unable to comprehend how someone could explicitly blame corridos for the “drug war” in México.

Coverage of narcocorridos in the U.S. is much different than in México. The United States is much less subjective than México in its coverage of narcocorridos. Mexican journalists have bought the Mexican government’s argument that narcocorridos are to blame for the drug trade and must be banned from radio play. American journalists have gone further into narcocorridos, documenting its rise and popularity among Mexicans in the United States and the constant airplay in radio. It’s a musical form that allows the children of Mexican immigrants to become immensely popular, though the singing is sometimes sub-par. Continue reading →

Imagining Revolution, 2019..what do you think?

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installamblt
Originally posted at www.therevolutionwill.blogspot.com
 by Sandra De La Loza

Imagining Revolution, 2019..what do you think?

Some quotes from responses to what a revolution in Los Angeles, 2019 (the year the film Bladerunner, was set in), might look like…

We find the cop inside of us all… hold onto him as if he were the mouse in the trap and than we fucking kill him.
..cops that manifest in judgement, in self criticism, I would kill the cop inside of me and hope that everyone else could to in the name of revolution.


Raquel Gutierrez
The process is already in place to screw out any dissent and to starve out creative thought. That combination of creative thought and action poses a great threat to a fascist lifestyle.

To be successfully revolutionary one will have to internalize it, and live with it as a concept as a way of life, while participating in daily life.

Harry Gamboa
I think of olmstead’s original plan for the LA river as this greenway that connects the city. The freeway may be that, and each little pocket park along of olmsteads plan for the la river is the neighborhoods along it and the neighborhoods could travel up and down the river trading food and fruit with each other… that’s a green vision for a radical revolution that could totally redefine the city.

It’s just amazing to imagine this city that’s just so defined by its freeways actually to be defined by its little neighborhoods and its pockets and as the freeways begin to erode like the New York City skyline, the freeways themselves begin to erode, the freeways themselves become garden passageways for the local neighborhoods to flower and feed themselves.

Robby Herbst
For more info on architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s 1930’s vision of a green LA check out: http://www.cityprojectca.org/ourwork/olmsted.html

For more: http://therevolutionwill.blogspot.com/

-Sandra De La Loza