Category Archives: fashion

Huell Howser Visits a Lowrider Show

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I’ve seen loads of Huell Howser episodes. But a friend recently mentioned this one that I had never seen. If I haven’t seen it, maybe you haven’t either. Huell visits the old Sports Arena (now the really nice home to the new Los Angeles Football Club) for a Super Show of Lowriders. It’s an awesome episode highlighting some aspects of Chicano culture. I really like the bike at the 14:00 minute mark, with the Jesucristo wheel, some fish in the bike seat, and a live scorpion to get some attention. Enjoy!

Click on this link to see the full episode.
https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1994/09/04/visiting-201-lowriders/

Bordering on Love

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~ Gay Beauty Pageant Contestant Antoinette (TJ O’Connell) and  stylist Marilu Molina (Silvia Tovar) Photo courtesy of Xavi Moreno

The love between a straight man and a straight woman is what has always been defined as a ‘legal’ marriage in polite society. Alas, what if that same love was shared between a gay man and a straight woman ? A rose by any other name would still smell the same, so why wouldn’t their love have the same bearing as any other couples, regardless of sexual orientation ? “Bordering on Love,” the newest production at the Company of Angels deals with that very question, when that line between what is love and what is love as defined by the federal government cross each other. Playwright Evangelina Ordaz and director Armando Molina question the governments policy to only define marriage when it applies to couples who are immigrants and/or gay, “exploring the futility of attempting to regulate human need or emotion” says Ordaz.

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Cumbia Tribal and Botas Exoticas

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For as long as I can remember I’ve always been interested in global street dance styles: dance moves and trends started by small groups of folks in their respective geographic areas. Over at my chimatli blog I’ve posted lots of DIY Youtube videos of various urban styles like Kurdish Halay/Govend hip-hop, Duranguense, Tecktonik, Kuduro and Jerkin, to name of few. In this tradition, I was pleased to come across these videos of a new music style and scene coming out of Texas called Tribal which mixes Banda/Cumbia with Techno. While the music is pretty straightforward, it basically sounds like a good mixture of the two music genres, it’s the fashion that goes with this scene that’s pretty remarkable – namely, the boots. These aren’t any old kind of botas, these are the kinda boots that would make an Aladin genie or a fanciful fairy proud. The tip of the boots are long, pointy and exaggerated, so much so that I wonder how they are able to walk in them as the point stretches out sometimes two feet in front of their shoe. “How do they climb stairs?” a friend wondered. Frequently the boots are decorated in a mega-Ed Hardy style, bedazzled and often shocking pink or leopard print.


photo courtesy of Chuntaritos
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Rebel Rousers

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click on photos to scroll through pics

Last weekend, I headed over to Self Help Graphics to check out the SkaWars show put on by Evoecore. I didn’t intend to take photos but I was so impressed by the old school classic punk styles and good energy of the attendees at this all ages show (all ages equals high school) that I whipped out my camera phone and did my best with the low lighting and difficult camera taking circumstances. So yes, the photos are fuzzy, out of focus and full of red eyes but who else took photos and posted them on their blog for you to see? No one, so there ya go! Um, also I want to apologize if your photo is here and you have the wrong name and/or city attached to your photo. As the night wore on, some of the liquids I’d been drinking kicked in and I lost track of who was who. Please correct me and I’ll fix the names and cities.

Thanks to all of you for the good times, conversation and for your awesome style choices!

Oh and big thumbs down to the LA County Sheriff’s Department who not only shutdown the show early but used rubber bullets to disperse these young folks (legally children, some of them) from the area. Oh what? You didn’t know they did this? That’s because it happened in East Los Angeles and I guess it’s okay to randomly use rubber bullets on kids this side of town.

Thanks to Ana for your help!

Words that Wound, Words that Heal

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“But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do — it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. (Applause.)” – from President Obama’s Arizona Memorial Speech, January 13, 2011

The above quote by Barack Obama urges us to measure our words—because words are very powerful and we affect those around us with the words we use. A point in reference within our recent history was the affront of “bitches” used in hip hop songs, every other word. Political rappers took the stance to banish this word from their music because it disrespected and diminished woman-hood.
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What’s on Your San Marcos?

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For those of you who do not know someone on the eastside, more than likely you have never seen a plush, faux-mink blanket from Korea called a San Marcos. These blankets come in the most garish colors and eye-hurting mural prints such as wolves, elephants, Statue of Liberty, cheetahs, Raiders logo, Elvis, Scarface, pandas, zebras stripes, American Flag, Tupac, y La Virgen to name some.  One blanket can take up a whole closet when stored—but they are the warmest, snuggliest and cozy luxury on cold winter nights.
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“Fun, Guns, Alcohol, Liquor”

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Maybe its me, but given the violence throughout Mexico with the Cartel wars and the fact that more deaths related to this war have occurred (28,228 since 2007) than in Iraq—is a gun to suck on really appropriate now? “Fun, guns, alcohol, liquor” are the actual search engine words for this product on-line.  I understand that this is a commemorative limited edition tequila, meant to celebrate the 100th year of the Mexican Revolution, meant to sum up who we are as the children of that revolution–but, as represented here,  is violence and aggression our only legacy?
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