The smoke cloud from the Station Fire as seen from Lincoln Heights.
I watched the fire dance over the mountains last night, every minute it leapt higher and moved at an amazing speed. When I woke up it felt as if there was a BBQ grill going inside my house. So is this what it feels like to smoke two packs a cigarettes a day? I can barely breathe. How about you all? How have you been coping with the smoke and heat?
Amazing photo taken from Highland Park can be seen here.
It’s been awhile since I did one of these, and I’ve bet you’ve all just been sitting around waiting to be told where to go next, eh? Well the wait is over! Warm up your engines, or pedals, or sandals, or whatever, cuz there’s a new day trip excursion around Los Angeles for you to consider. And to which exciting and fascinating spot are we headed today? To the library! Wait a minute…what?
She’s Here.
Back in late June, I learned through the LACMA blog that they had acquired a gorgeous painting of La Virgen De Guadalupe from 1691.  It was installed a few weeks ago so I went over to check it out.  I had the luxury of visiting the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe earlier this year so I was excited to see this one.  I didn’t feel like forking over 12 bucks for regular admission so I waited til the clock struck 5pm.  I gave my donation, got my ticket, and took the outside elevator right across from the Welcome Center/ Hammer Building up to the Art of the Americans Building. I opened the door and there she was at the far end, immediately tugging at my heart and drawing me inward.
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
From the press release:
Take advantage of opportunities this summer to start a new career. On Saturday, August 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the City of Los Angeles’ Human Services Department, the office of the Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti’s Council District 13 and the L.A. Derby Dolls will host a free job fair for women at the home of the Derby Dolls – the Doll Factory (1910 Temple St., 90026).
The free community fair will include job placement assistance, opportunities for green jobs and unexplored avenues for women (such as local trade unions), as well as career training for positions in which employers are currently seeking candidates.
In addition, as part of the Economic Stimulus Package, the City of Los Angeles has received funds for improvement of infrastructure to the city. This has created numerous job opportunities within the city of Los Angeles. The goal of the Free Women’s Job Fair is to help interested women get connected, trained and ready for these jobs.
For any women currently unemployed or looking for a new career, join these community organizations on August 22nd at the Doll Factory for workshops and to meet employers, recruiters and trainers that want to see the women of Los Angeles succeed
If you look at this photo you wonder what is this? And how did anyone think this was safe?
Why is the safety method on the Eastside going to be of the “pull yourselves up by the bootstraps†variety via cameras to blame personal drivers and old men in yellow vests reminding people to “be safe,†while the City of Los Angeles west of LaCienega get the “silver spoon†variety of safety with expensive barriers and elevated stations?
Why will there will be no testing out Darwinism theory of survival of the fittest on the Westside?
Only the neighborhoods with higher concentrations of poor people and brown and black people are tested with sink and swim theories.
The rail dips just one mile into the magic dividing line of LaCienega and the people on that side of LA who don’t walk or even use public transit as extensively as people on the Eastside get all of our tax dollars spent protecting them from being hit by a train that most of them won’t even take or even be near outside of driving by its protected barrier.
(This is an excerpt of a very long post entitled “Cameras Aren’t Going to Make Fewer People Die.”)
by Browne Molyneux
(Click on pic for a larger version)
I’ve spent time waiting in recycling lines before, but this one struck me as being massively long. You must take into account the other waiting people outside this frame, towards the left of the photo, whom left a gap to allow car traffic to come in and out of the parking lot. We were turning a corner and I just barely managed to turn on my camera to snap this one pic, but I’d say there were at least another 5-7 people waiting to turn some cans and bottles into a few dollars. Consider also that this was on a Tuesday around noon, not a common time for the casual weekend I-want-my-money-back recycler. These all appeared to be jobbers. Also note that is was just off Atlantic Blvd in Monterey Park, certainly not a place I’d expect this scene. Monterey Park, Montebello, and the areas beyond always seemed like neighborhoods that represented a first step beyond urban poverty, at least to me. I don’t know what’s happening out there right now but I’m seeing some familiar sights.
When the non-wino class starts getting into this less than lucrative business, that’s when you know things are getting tough.
Someone (cannot remember who at the moment) once remarked on the lack of historical memory in our city and used the example of how we’ve taken our original city name, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del RÃo de Porciúncula and reduced it down to the abbreviated: L.A. It’s sort of telling and profound, no?
At one point in my life, I ceased using the term L.A. and switched to Los Angeles. At least for myself, a fourth generation Angelena, I felt that I should acknowledge the history of the city by using the official name.
How about you dear Eastside readers? What is your term of choice for our fair city? El Lay? Tongvaville? Trafficstan? Chalinotitlan?
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
A few months ago I participated in a graffiti art show called Fin De Semana. I did a photo and written display on a place called Third World. I just wanted to share the installation in a blog version. I framed most of these photos, but I added ones not included in the show.
More after the jump
I thought I would have taken a much more active interest in some of the Westside neighborhoods since I spend an unreasonable amount of time in that vicinity, but oddly that hasn’t happened. Still, I need to occasionally share some of the things I learn over on that side of town with our gentle readers, thus shedding just a bit of light into that dark and insular world that is the Westside. The posts may be infrequent, but I hope they are packed with understanding.
In this installment I present you with a quick glimpse into the Westsiders fascination with paying people to hold stuff for them. I’m not sure why this is but they seem to love spending cash on things that most folks would just assume they can do themselves. For example: The Wino Hotel. Err, I mean wine. How much wine do you have to be drinking in order to arrive at the thought that “hmm, maybe I should put some of these T-Birds in storage”? I mean really, if you can’t fit them into your pad or into the trunk of the car, then maybe you should cut back, drink up, or just share with friends. Plus, you do realize that everyone hates a stingy wino?
