La Caida de Edgar

Six years later and watching Edgar fall is one of the most hilarious things ever !! But then again it is pretty mean to laugh at someone else’s misfortune, but you just can’t help it. Which got me to thinking as I was laughing my ass off again watching the video, where is Edgar now ? Is he still mad at his friend for making him fall ? What happened after he fell ? Did his mom get mad at him or what ? Do people still clown on him for the video ? While I may not have answers to these questions, I do know that his video is one of the most watch and parodied videos out there. On youtube it says that the video was uploaded on May 8, but I just couldn’t wait that long to make this post. Where ever Edgar might be today, I hope he learned to laugh about it and take it with a grain a salt. You just can’t be mad about these kind of things all your life, it’s too short so enjoy it and laugh. Thanks Edgar.

Dream + Act: Film, Videos, and Activism on Immigration

(To see a larger pic click here.)

In the on going discussions about the Federal Dream Act, Freewaves, Self Help Graphics & Art, La Causa and The East LA Society of Film and Arts (TELA SOFA) are convening artist, activist and film makers in a sort of free for all that discusses the issues around the Dream Act, immigration in the U.S., the connections between art and activism and the affects they all have in communities. These are all pretty broad topics as it is, but the panel discussion, which I’m on, the screening of short films and the discussion with the film makers will narrow down the conversations and encourage healthy dialogue that is lacking at times because of the strong passions Dream and immigration bring up. I won’t go into much detail about what is going to be discussed because even I don’t really know, but I know it’ll be good conversation none the less.

Continue reading

Eat. Pray. Love?

Saturday April 16 was the free community viewing of the long anticipated first Mexican-American museum in Los Angeles called La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, which is located next to Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles church at Calle Olvera.

As a younger and inexperienced artist, one of my dream goals was to have my art displayed in a museum. I thought that would be the ultimate place where my ideas, voice and craftsmanship would be appreciated and cherished. I attended all the great museum exhibits–Van Gogh, Picasso, Tamayo, Siqueiros, Da Vinci, Kahlo, Warhol and so many more that I love— standing in front of their work (where they once stood), so hungry to see how they saw. Some of those artists were never even appreciated or successfully exhibited during their lifetimes.

Afterward, when a museum bought my work for a permanent display, instead of feeling accomplished—I felt like an oddity, a curio. I know it’s the nature of me, as an artist—I’m never satisfied, always looking for the next thing. As a producer/curator, a job that was imposed on me due to the lack of opportunities for my art genre,  I enter every exhibit with a critical eye.

In truth, museums began as cabinets of curiosities and collectibles that turned into rooms filled with stuff, which people were willing to pay admission to see. All these museums started as personal taste collections that were cherished by those who had the resources to give them importance.  I am not sure this system has even changed.

Continue reading

Toques

icpiticayotl caja de audio toques transitio mx festival from arc-video on Vimeo.

The ancient Mexican tradition of electro (toque) therapy, once thought to have disappeared, is making a come back and is much needed in these dire times.
Toquero in Mex

A friend recently called me about info on Toqueros. I don’t even know if that is the correct term for men who would carry a small electric generator, and for a small fee, you can hold on to two metal bars connected to the generator and get an electric shock. My homie had looked around and didn’t find much. I told I would ask around. Then he sent me this site.
Continue reading

Rambling On My Mind: Final Daze in Medellin: Like A Walk In The Park

Part I
Part II
Part III


2 homies still asleep in hostel. whole place is quiet. i leave and at 945 i’m on the metro, not packed. get to vegetus in downtown, across from this parking lot. small spot, kinda cramped. they tell me it’s all vegan. hells yeah! get lasagna and it’s alright. yes, lasagna at 1030! even got some ice cream made of avena. i take some pics of menu and a woman kindly asks me why and i tell her, just for memories. she goes over to the counter and brings me a menu and says, “you can keep this one.” here it is

i split and it’s noon and hit up a net place and write some shit. walk around and at a corner, in front of shopping center, is a long-haired metal head selling the latest in death and black metal. i walk over and we talk. i dabble in the metal arts, i say. i favor the traditional heavy style a la trouble. push play, sucka, and let the dark riffs remind you why ozzy and tony are seers. and no that is not ozzy. as if.
Continue reading

The Xentrification Situation in Boyle Heights

I like Cinthia Gonzalez because in her recent “Gentrification in Boyle Heights” post over at the rough rider blog, she broke down how she see’s the changes going on in Boyle Heights. Esos pinches hipsters !! So, La Curbed picked up on it and some pendejos started talking shit. FTP. So, then Southern California Public Radio picked up on it as well asking readers to chime in on whether BH is getting gentrified. And now everyone, including myself because when I hear BH mentioned my ears ring is talking about it. I think the L.A. Times just sent someone over to write a story too.  So, what do people think ? Is BH officially gentrified or as I have come to say Xentrified ?

Funny thing is that I have been working on a post to talk about xentrification but Cinthia beat me to the punch. Great job !! She has an awesome journalism teacher over at Roosevelt that encourages and pushes the students to write reactionary stories like this. As for what I think about the xentrification situation, well the place is pretty much going to those who have an active voice at community planning meetings, elders. I go to all these meetings about what streets are gonna get lights, speed bumps and stuff and all I see is elders. They want safe, nice looking streets for everyone.

At the same time, not to put anyone on blast, but any xentrification that is going comes directly from “people” like me. Yes that’s right, it’s an inside job. I tell hipsters about how awesome BH through this very blog and what do they do ? Blog about it as well and tell soo many people that we can’t have street vendors around anymore. But who are “people” like me you ask ? Well pretty much anyone that goes to art shows, goes to primera taza, drinks at eastside luv, goes on bike rides from mariachi plaza. You know, Xikano Hipsters.

No Rush Hour Turns on Soto/1st street

Part of me feels bad that I didn’t do this post the first day I noticed these new traffic signs last year. A bigger part of me could care less about people getting tickets for not paying attention to road signs. Now, another part of me started feeling like ok, maybe I should say something about the new “no left/right turn” during rush hour signs. And now another part of me is hungry, there’s just no winning. Continue reading

24 Hour Party People


Lynwood Ditch Party

“Tonight, Fox Undercover shows you what is clearly one of the most objectionable acts of the party crews, the ditch party…”

Thanks to LA Eastside reader DJ Mr Ed for recommending this link. We posted it on our Facebook page last week and were surprised when some of our readers said they recognized people in the video. Do you?

As exploitive as Fox News was of Latino youth and our subcultures in the 90s, it’s kinda nice, 20 years later, to have some documentation of the DIY Eastside and Southeast LA backyard party scene. Interestingly, they never infiltrated the punk backyard gig scene of the same era, maybe it’s cause punks are a little smarter. Yeah, I stick by that statement.

This video also confirmed my suspicion that the “rebel” look (only a few guys in the video below have the rebel look – there’s more in the above clip) was just one incarnation of an enduring style on the Eastside, a gradual morphing of 80s rockabilly into rebel into swing/rockabilly into psychobilly and finally, into present day greasers. The look never really died. In the 90s, the pompadour and James Dean chic was a style reference to artists like Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode. A quick aside, everyone talks about the prolific “Mexican Morrissey fans” but in the 90s, it was Depeche Mode who sold out the Rose Bowl. They were more famous here than anywhere else (“These guys are god over here!”) and even inspired a riot at a local album signing. A huge part of their fan base were Latino/Chicano kids. Naturally, young folks would emulate this look and these folks were called “rebels.”

How about you? Do you know someone who has rocked a pompadour and creepers for more than twenty years?


The Rebel Party Scene

“It’s a Saturday night house party in Huntington Park. Strobe lights color an evening of dancing, drinking and dope smoking. Here, boy comes to meet girl in a ritual as old as time…”

Rambling On My Mind: South American Edition: Medellín, Colombia 2: Feints and Jabs aka The Feeling Out Process Continues

part 1 here

brazilian guys in hostel were loud sleepers. snoring bastards woke me up once or twice. i had packed my suitcase real tight, so no one would mess with it. just to be safe and not sorry. i had a long day but the brazilians left to party. it was about midnight. i scribbled some more and then went downstairs and spoke with a different guy from brazil, curitiba to be exact. i asked him about the famous fighters from his city. he was surprised that i knew about his city’s reputation, since i had never been there.
Continue reading

Cumbia Tribal and Botas Exoticas

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
Continue reading

Free Bike Mechanics Workshop

This Saturday come to Corazon del Pueblo and pick up on some useful skills for your bike, such as basic maintenance and mechanics. Presented by Bici Digna, this workshop will help riders both new and experienced familiarize themselves with some of the basic steps to maintain a working and safe bike. This includes things like being able to adjust your brakes, gears, wheels, tires, how to fix a flat etc. For most experienced rides, skills like these are biking common sense, but as more and more riders are taking to the streets, there are those who may be intimidated and unfamiliar with the workings of their bikes. I know a few people who still haven’t grasped how to fix flat tires and it’s ok, we all gotta start some where right ? This will be the first of what will hopefully be one of many workshops on bike mechanics and how to ride on the streets safely that Bici Digna and City of Lights will be coordinating in the East Side.

Ramona Gardens on NPR

Taken from NPR.org

I do listen to NPR. I know, I know…but I do. I tend to listen to the news on the radio because most music on the radio is pre-playlisted boredom any how. It was to my surprise when I heard that NPR was to have a story on Ramona Gardens that was not based on gang violence or the like.

The story revolved around the absence of healthy food options in and near Ramona Gardens. This is something that I have seen covered in other working-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles, such as South (Central) Los Angeles. It is not uncommon at all. The few choices that are available from the local ‘convenience stores’ can be summed up in this quote from Olga Perez:

“I bought sour cream that was all green inside,” she says. “I bought a gallon of orange juice that was … as soon as I opened the lid, all green with fur. I’ve bought Rice-a-Roni, and when I opened the box, it was maggots in there.”

Thankfully residents like Olga Perez, some of her neighbors with LA Voice PICO are spearheading a campaign to raise awareness and to lobby local government to bring healthful, fresh options to a part of Los Angeles that is seriously being underserviced.

You can listen or read the story in its entirety here: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/08/133506101/l-a-community-starved-for-healthful-food-options