I don’t think Smokin’ Mirrors Productions and Pocho Hour of Power will not mind if I share one of their films with the LAEastside readers. Maybe it’s because I know all the locations or the players, or because I like Zul’s writing that I find this hilarious each time I see it. I’ll check it out again in 30 years to see if it stays “classic.” See if you can find LAeastside.com blogger Pachuco 3000 making a cameo in this—LOL!
In regards to this whole Eastside vs. Westside discussion, I want to restate something that keeps getting ignored and lost in the scuffle. I have said this many times in the past, but I thought perhaps, this merits it’s own post. SOME people seem to need to have things plainly spelled out for them (and even then, ‘stan pendejos sometimes!). I shall repeat this for the LAST TIME. Speaking for myself, my point of view and belief is that…..
THIS IS NOT AN EASTSIDE CHICANOS vs. WHITE PEOPLE THING!
THIS IS NOT AN EASTSIDERS vs. WESTSIDERS THING!
THIS IS NOT AN EASTSIDERS vs. NEWBIES THING!
THIS IS AN EASTSIDERS vs. A FEW IGNORANT AND/OR INSENSITIVE SCHMUCKS THING!
…THE LAST TIME I CHECKED, I FOUND THAT ABOUT 90% OF WHITES AND WESTSIDERS (and even most NEWBIES) HERE IN L.A. ARE TOTALLY COOL HUMAN BEINGS WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ALL OF THIS!
I hope this provokes some of you to rethink your oversimplistic conclusions. As for the majority of you readers who do get it, Thanks! 🙂
Al Desmadre here, reporting from Silver Lake, CA. This evening, (Wed. June 10, 2009 at approximately 7:00pm PST) at a public meeting of the SILVER LAKE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION held here in Silver Lake, 4th District City Councilmember Tom LaBonge made a stunning and revealing statement that I believe calls for an L.A. Eastside Extra! AY! Witness News Report!
But first, a little background on Councilmember LaBonge.….
Thomas J. LaBonge born in Silver Lake, Ca., he is a member of the L.A. City Council and represents the 4th district. His district stretches from North Hollywood to Hollywood and Griffith Park and Wilshire Blvd. He is Chairman of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging committee, Vice Chairman of the Public Works Committee, and member of the Audits and Governmental Efficiency Committee and the Ad Hoc River Committee for our city. Before he was councilman, Tom LaBonge was Director of Community Relations at the Department of Water and Power, Special Assistant to Mayor Riordan, and Chief Deputy to Council President John Ferraro. Tom LaBonge calls himself the Cheerleader of Los Angeles. His reputation for adding history lessons in City Council meetings is well known. A graduate of John Marshall High School, Tom LaBonge received his Bachelor degree in sociology from Cal State L.A. Some call him “Mr. Los Angeles“. Believe me, this man knows and loves this city like no other.
So, tonight, as Councilmember LaBonge spoke to those of us in attendance describing how a number of Westsiders have been moving into his and Councilmember Garcetti’s 13th District, he was heard to announce;
WOW! HA! HA! Well, you could have knocked me over with one of the empty paper cups from INTELLIGENTRIA Coffee Shop that I find strewn on my lawn every day!!!… So- I couldn’t wait to spill this news here! Requests have been made to Mr. LaBonge to follow up on his statement, and I will add any additional info from him as it becomes available. In the meantime, all of you hipster wannabees in SL/EP/LF calling yourselves eastsiders, can continue to BITE ME! 🙂
Special Art show coming up this weekend.
A tribute to the now gone Belmont Tunnel graffiti yard. This show features art by some of the first generation of Los Angeles graffiti writers.Â
The Belmont tunnel was the Toluca substation for the Pacific Electric Railway that ran in and around downtown LA starting in the 1920’s. It was left abandoned around the 1950’s when freeways and more cars started popping up. ( I guess they did not think we would need such train now huh!) Anyhow it was left alone and abandoned for over 30 year’s until the mid 1980’s when the graffiti/bombing era was coming up. It got noticed by writers as a potential place to do art. The rest is train and graffiti history it still holds a special place to many of these talented artists, and others who hung out and grew up around the area. The land was bought out and torn a few years back to make way to some boring apartment buildings lol.
Opening reception Saturday June 6, 2009
6 p.m. to 9 p.m
110 Winston St
Los Angeles, Ca 90013
Closing Reception
Saturday June 27, 2009
6 p.m to 9 p.m.
Video of a typical afternoon at the Belmont Tunnel graffiti yard, the gente used to enjoy it too playing Aztec ball games, singing making carne asada, and drinking some brews.
Also Check out old school graffiti writer “Make” on his personal Belmont memories.
Chavo was so pressed for time that I didn’t even run into him after I got to the fiesta. I ran into everyone else and their mom, but not C. He’s sneaky like that. But yes I was able to get into the shul and get the quick 15 minute tour everyone was waiting for in the baking sun. I quickly sign a waiver and headed inside wanting to see the inside of the building I have live around and seen, from the outside all my life here in East Los.
[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/get-your-baby.mp3]
Once upon a time, during the late 50’s to the 60’s, weekend nights at Eastside gyms, halls, and youth centers were taken over by dances featuring a young breed of musicians who got on stage and beat out the rhythms of Soul, Blues and Rock & Roll to frenzied crowds of teens making the scene.
That era and that music that became known as “The Eastside Sound†is woven into the historical and cultural fabric of Eastsiders. It has an identity, and a flavor that comes through in a rich shade of brown better heard while cruising in a Ranfla, or by spinning some scratchy 45s and dancing with your Háina.
There have been recent noteworthy chronicles about this Eastside musical heritage such as the book “Land of a Thousand Dances†and the recent video documentary “Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los Angelesâ€. Nevertheless, I have always felt that the Eastside scene was worthy and deserving of something much more in depth. There were overlooked people, places and details that I wanted to help discover, chronicle and preserve for posterity. And, since it doesn’t look like Ken Burns will be undertaking that project anytime soon, I decided to take some steps in that direction all on my own.
I sought someone from that era who could tell me more about it from a front lines, first-hand perspective. “Who could paint a mental picture for me of what those times were like?” I asked myself. Then, I came in contact with Mr. Mark Guerrero.
Continue reading
Alright folks, eleventh-hour call to action here…
 If we’re serious about doing something to save Golden Gate Theater—the only remaining movie palace in East LA—we need to drop whatever “urgent†matter we’re dealing with now (like updating our Facebook statuses or, even more mundane, working), and figure out which of the following two actions we’re going to take between today and tomorrow.
A)Â Â Â Plan on attending the hearing tomorrow (May 13, 9am) and expressing your reasons before the LA County Regional Planning Commission for opposing the destruction of this invaluable cultural jewel.
OR, if nothing else…
B)Â Â Â Â Write and submit by 6pm TODAY your comments on this matter. You can send your remarks to agutierrez@planning.lacounty.gov
Hopefully, you’ll decide to attend the hearing. Below is the address. It’s the first item on the agenda, so be on time!
Health Services Auditorium
313 N Figueroa (corner street: Temple), Los Angeles 90012
Points to remember…
 * The 1927 Churriguerresque-style theater is one of LA’s most significant movie palaces and the only one remaining in the future city of East LA…
 * Even if Latino and working class, doesn’t East LA deserve the enjoyment of historic and cultural preservation as much as some Westside neighborhood? The restoration of a beautiful old theater in the community could potentially house emerging cultural/arts organizations on the Eastside and serve as the anchor for an East LA arts district on Whittier Blvd. Why squander this opportunity??   Â
* If we don’t save the Golden Gate Theater now, the real estate development firm that holds title to it, the Charles Co., will gut the building in order to lease it to CVS Pharmacy—hardly a friend of the community (read all about CVS and their crimes at www.curecvsnow.org…
The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. We’re a country that in some parts uses the test scores of third graders to figure out how many future prison beds we should be building.
So I guess that means if you’re not scoring high on test, you’re not going to get a job, since you live in America you have two choices: homelessness or crime.
Pull yourself up by your boot straps or we’ll lock you up.
In America that seems perfectly reasonable.
America is a perfectly reasonably barbaric country. Continue reading
So I braved the poetry and the “wine bar” scene and came away quite energized by this gathering of Eastsiders; people that mostly come from a history of having land stolen, not willing to accept our name be taken as well. It’s late at the moment and I have to get my feo rest but I wanted to post this video so you can all get an idea of what went down in BH. (I hope to post more on this event tomorrow.)
It seems some people have had issues with the title of the event, as they think it might be inappropriate. Where you from? – that inescapable loaded question of my youth. What they don’t understand is the reality of how non-gang members experienced the question, having to say “I’m from nowhere” just to avoid getting beaten up, or worse. Intimidated to being from nowhere. Which is no different when newcomers to the city tell me, not ask me, that the term that has defined our reality is suddenly their domain, that they’re gonna tell me about some “fluidity” and their new logical reasons why I’m, yet again, from Nowhere. Yeah, fuck that.
I was especially awed by Dewey’s piece because the last time I spent much time with him was at Hollenbeck , where we were friends cuz of our fondness for Heavy Metal. I’m glad that all these years later we still have something in common: an understanding of where we come from, and pride for our Eastside. Nothing like shared experiences to teach you the value of something as simple as a term.
Eastside, presente!
This Saturday, I will provide artistic mentorship to a group of Orange County Latina high schoolers who have taken on the ambitious endeavor of creating 3 murals dedicated to 3 important women in California history. The 3 historical figures are Dolores Huerta, Judith Baca and Modesta Avila (pictured above). With the cutbacks in creative arts in California public and private schools, I think it is important to continue to provide training and creative dialogue with students. I feel very privileged to be able to give of my time to such important work. Often I wish there had been such exciting projects to work on in my teen years, then I step back and remember that our time as an artistic movement had only begun to sprout back then.
Now that you are intrigued by Modesta’s picture (above), I will tell you Continue reading
Anyone here obsessed with Japanese culture (i.e. anime/manga, cherry trees, samurai, kendo, taiko, karate/judo/aikido, sushi, teriyaki, Kurosawa, “Beat” Takeshi Kitano) and things related to it (Little Tokyo, Comic-Con) and consider themselves or have been called a Japanophile?
I find America’s rising obsession with Japan so interestingly ironic. 20 years ago in elementary school and throughout high school, anyone who looked remotely Asian was called Chino or China.
My mother and other Japanese tenants in nearby apartment buildings in Boyle Heights were and still are called Chin@ by neighbors.
Nowadays, elementary and high school students carry “manga” (Japanese comics) books with them and are fascinated with Japanese culture. Some high school students I’ve worked with are so obsessed with Japan that they are studying the language via podcast and the internet on their own so that they can one day travel there.
An American Caucasian friend of mine who now lives in Tokyo with his Japanese girlfriend has told me that he feels most at home when he arrives to Narita Airport. Another Mexican American/Chicano friend has told me he believes he was Japanese in his past lifetime because of his deep interest in Japan and the culture.
Oh, how I wonder what it would have been like to be “cool” for bringing salmon and riceballs to school in my pink New Kids on the Block lunchbox while envying my classmates who had normal sandwiches and bags of pepinos.
An article by Oxy professor, Morgan Ptelka. http://www.discovernikkei.org/forum/en/node/1709
JonSons Market
4820 Whittier Boulevard between Fetterly & Fraser Avenues, East Los Angeles
Brooklyn & Matthews Avenue, East Los Angeles
Whittier Blvd. & Lorena, East Los Angeles
Whittier Blvd. & 20th Street, Montebello
Every payday my dad would give my mom her expense allowance for the week.
I recall that it was about $25 for all the groceries and necessities our household might need. My mom would grumble about what a cheapskate my dad was and she’d have to always supplement that allowance with her meager earnings from her seamstress job at Jod’is Sportswear sweatshop factory on Whittier Bl. & Vancouver Ave…. Continue reading