Category Archives: Greater Los Angeles

Stop Right There!

Posted on by
62

oomast
STOP RIGHT THERE! FROM THIS DAY FORWARD I PROCLAIM THIS LAND “LA EASTSIDE” (The actual LA Eastside can figure out some other name for themselves, maybe “Tierra Incognito”.)

From the new LA section at Huffington Post, a renewed frontal attack on the real LA Eastside by the Bourgeoisie Forces of the “OTTES” (other than the Eastside).

$8.00 cup of coffee? Perfect setting for a Vanity Fair interview? Not anywhere on my LA Eastside.

Say whaaaaat? Ezell below on the gritty LA Eastside of her imagination.

*“Best Old School:* When it comes to coffee on the east side, *Café Tropical* is OG – original gangster – so old school it doesn’t sell any variation of its café con leche except decaf (and that will cost you extra). Their coffee is bold, strong, and hot. They sell Cuban sandwiches”

OG-original gangster? Café Tropical? Not on the LA Eastside I know.
Continue reading →

LA Gang Tours

Posted on by
27

gangtagsPhoto via Flickr

I’ve been on many tours in the Los Angeles area most of them have been usually run by the Los Angeles Conservancy. I usually expect people my age to think it is lame or cheesy to go on a tour, but I figure I get to learn new facts and history regarding my own city. The majority of the things I’ve learned on these tours most people who grew up in Los Angeles don’t even know or bother to know. I take it as an educational experience in our own backyard.

More after the jump

Continue reading →

Gentrifier Irony

Posted on by
45

wall

What annoys gentrifying hipsters the most? When other, slightly different gentrifiers show up and ruin their exclusive party.  Check out this post from that fairly new music store in Echo Park called Origami, they need your support to take back some bar:

OK, I have lived in Echo Park for about 9 years. I use to frequent the Shortstop about every other day back when they allowed dancing…The place was fucking amazing then. Lot’s of cool art kids, punks, and dub heads…Once the dancefloor got shut down, we started to frequent the bar less and less. We found ourselves hitting the Gold Room for free tacos and a shot with all the old Latinos, which was kinda sketchy at times- I’m pretty sure few white kids dared venture in back then…Once the Shorty got it’s dancefloor reopened we started to go back. But it just wasn’t the same. It had this bridge and tunnel feel to it… it just seemed to take on this USC college crowd thing.

Now how funny is that? And they even managed to throw in a “bridge and tunnel” reference, which I hear is a New York thing (nah, really?) but I wouldn’t doubt if they start using it with some more local connotations, what with all our bridges and new tunnel. I wonder if they’ll also get called out for bringing up race issues, just as Chimatli was for her story of how Echo Park had changed since before the gentrification started? Besides this brief mention, I suspect not. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly care about any of those bars and if they manage to Take it BACK, well good for them. Vanquish the B&Ts! But I think I’m just going to sit on the sidelines while they “make it cool” again, crack open a beer, and watch this comedic battle unfold. Ja. Ja.

If this wasn’t so hilarious, it’d be pretty fucking sad. Or is it the other way around?

José Lozano: Creating art of the buffoon—the darker side of humor

Posted on by
3

Jose_2156

Artist José Lozano was born in Los Angeles, but early in his life lived in Ciudad Juárez, México the birthplace of his mother.   In Juárez he was exposed to the cultural icons that are now part of his artwork—bad Mexican cinema, fotonovelas, phantasm folk lore, lucha, comic books, boleros y rancheras and the flavors of the Juárez landscape. His family core returned to East LA when he was 8, where he attended public school and began to draw.   Later, through formal art training, he captured the essence that is his personal finger print as an artist. Continue reading →

GDL/LA: books y suavitel

Posted on by
7


Promo video for the Guadalajara Bookfair

As some of you might know, The City of Los Angeles is the invited guest at this year’s La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara appropriately taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico this weekend. There will be quite a few Eastside and other Los Angeles writers and artists heading down to participate in the various musical offerings, panel discussions and lectures. In particular, the Vexing exhibition will be making an appearance and artists Sandra de la Loza and Shizu Saldamando will be presenting Eighteen With a Bullet.

I recently returned from a trip to Guadalajara and have a warning for those heading down for the events. The GDL airport does not have x-ray equipment to search your checked-in luggage on your way back. Passenger luggage is picked through and examined by young, tough women with immaculate eye make-up who dig and pull your items from the suitcase in full view of everyone in the airport lobby. Be prepared and don’t end up like the poor ranchero who made a whole line of people gasp when a large homegrown camote was discovered and pulled out from the recesses of his bursting suitcase.

In case you are wondering what Guadalajara and Los Angeles have in common (that is, besides the hundreds of thousands of people that consider both of these cities home) you can buy Suavitel in both places. The guy who tried to bring his camote to Los Angeles obviously didn’t know this because the luggage examiner also pulled out a large bottle of the laundry detergent from his suitcase only to have the line of Tapatio-Angeleno passengers tsk tsk his ignorance. Hey, these things are good to know, right?

Just came across this blog following some of the LA folks in Guadalajara: Blogalajara, Vexico.

The Fifth Ecology: Los Angeles Beyond Desire

Posted on by
7

TheFifthEcologyImage

I love L.A. and there is nothing I would change about this beautiful city, except maybe peoples attitudes but that’s another story. Gallery 727 and Department of Architecture at the Royal University Collage of Fine Arts in Stockholm and the Latino Urban Forum present what will be a great show on how L.A. can survive without fossil fuel.

Continue reading →

Trick or Treating in Patzcuaro

Posted on by
6

IMG_1236

I missed out on Halloween in LA again this year, but I ended up getting a bit of a taste of it down south in Mexico. Like WALT! I’ve always been a fan of the holiday, mostly for the trick or treaters, and until just a few years ago, the trick or treating! Yeah, I  was older than the average TOT and people laughed at me, but it has always been fun getting a chance to pester people at home and harass them for some goods. I was once chased off a porch by some old fart with threats of calling the police. He thought I was too old for candy and didn’t see the humor of me cursing his home and hexing the family with a year of bad luck. Serves him right. Then there’s that lady in Lincoln Heights that deliberately makes her house seem open for trick or treaters every year only to trap people with some BS about “Jesus injections”. My tirade against her was even more special, but let’s just leave it at that.

Now it must be said that many proper Chicanos and Mexicans see the spreading of the Halloween tradition down south as a form of Cultural Imperialism, and they claim it will displace the traditional practices of Dia de Muertos in the country. I disagre. Mexicans have taken the holiday and interpreted it in ways that fits their needs, making it their own. If anything the two different traditions have mingled to make it a season that the whole family can look forward to, instead of just the adults. Anyone that claims they “enjoyed” Dia de Muertos as a kid, which basically means going to the cemetary and  watching the grandparents do their thing, is a fucking liar. Yeah, you heard me. I can appreciate it now as an adult but someones gotta stand up for the bored kids!

I’m gonna get some shit from the Chicano Militants about how wrong I am but they’ve been telling me that for a long time, y me vale. Halloween has made its way to Mexico and its going to stay. Make your piece with that aspect of a changing culture and your traditional practices will only get stronger. I’m more worried that it will disappear in LA with it becoming more of a party night for adults that want to play dressup WITH ABSOLUTELY NO TRICK OR TREATING INVOLVED! Or worst, just another consumer holiday where you buy all your props and costumes, and go to safe environments like the Shopping Maul to pretend to participate in an ancient tradition.  Now that’s the sort of cultural imperialism I worry about. If you can’t be creative on Halloween you are hereby ordered to soap your own windows.

Ok, all that useless text just to show you some pics of some Trick or Treating in Patzcuaro, Mexico.  A little late, yes, pero que se le puede hacer?

Dinero, dulces o trucos: queremos nuestro Halloween!

Continue reading →

Day of the Dead in Queretaro, Mexico

Posted on by
5

laquere

Some random dude walking near the Plaza de Armas, looking his ugly Angeleno best. I took this about 15 minutes ago, and posting via the free public wifi provided by the city in the plaza. And some people think Mexico is backwards.

I’ve got some more pics to share, I’ll do that later.  I just don’t feel like sitting in front of a computer just now.

My ride on the LA EASTSIDE Linia de Oro

Posted on by
22

photo 3

All I have to say is, eh. That’s right eh. But I’m being to harsh,  so let me take you along for a ride and let you form your own opinion about the new line. All aboard !!

(Editor’s Note: I uploaded all the pics on here through my phone the first time around, but I fixed it now and everything should show up. Sorry for the glitch.)

Continue reading →