Category Archives: Media

Glassell Park on TV

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Does that look like the LAPD to you? Cast of Southland

Northeast LA on TV! First scene of NBC’s new cop drama* Southland has a gang shoot-out in Glassell Park. This is the kinda promotion that makes homeowners groups and neighborhood councils squirm. It means in some Hollywood writer’s eye, Glassell Park is associated with gun toting cholos and shoot-outs. It’s hard to shake a reputation like that.

Don’t expect a show review here, I don’t think I can stand too much more of Southland. I hated the movie Crash and don’t have enough time to waste on watching a watered down reprise on TV. Besides, I just got in a few new episodes of The Riches from Netflix.

Glassell Park shouldn’t feel too sad though, at least they don’t have a whole show named after their neighborhood that has nothing to do with the place they live. For more on the Lincoln Heights TV show debacle, see here.

*If it’s a drama, why I am I laughing? Like cholos are really gonna do a drive-by in tricked out ranfla!

Killer’s Paradise

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As many of you know, I have been an art activist against the femicides that have occurred in Ciudad Juarez.  My public activism in this has connected me to others that work to change gender injustices occurring all over the world.  In 2007, I joined Chapinas Unidas (Los Angeles Guatemalan Women’s Group) who came together to create awareness on the femicides occurring in Guatemala. Again, the international community was faced with extreme injustice by governmental, legal and social networks for victims and their families in Guatemala.  In May of 2007, we organized a press conference at Mercado la Paloma in South Central and a conference and art exhibit called “Espejo” at Sol Art in Santa Ana to discuss the femicides in Guatemala.

TODAY April 8th, at 7pm PST a discussion on Feminist Magazine (KPFK radio) about the upcoming Bringing The Circle Together film screening of ‘Killer’s Paradise’. Radio host Melissa Chiprin will speak with Indigenous activists in Los Angeles, Ana Castillo and Azalea Ryckman of Chapinas Unidas, and Olivia Chumacero of Farmlab, who have helped spread awareness about the ongoing femicide in Guatemala. You can listen in Los Angeles on 90.7 FM, on 98.7 FM in Santa Barbara and streaming live on kpfk.org. This show will also be archived if you are unable to tune in that night!   Please tune in to KPFK tonight and click more here to get data on the free screening of ‘Killer’s Paradise’ on Thursday, April 16.  Nos vemos alli. Continue reading →

Botanitas: March 30, 2009

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It’s just like a mini-mall! Oh wait, it is a mini-mall, The Lincoln Mini-Mall. The super nice Lebanese guy who ran the quality clothes (i.e. Levi’s) booth is gone. Perhaps, La Crisis took a toll on his business. I remember him wistfully telling me how Lebanon was once like Europe and how sad he was to leave his country after the war. He and his little shop will be missed.

Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!

Keep reading for quotes from the grumpy Lupe’s 12 Kinds of Burritos lady, Eastside oral history, mariachi Shakespeare, gangstas with GQ style and Eastside flavored holidays.
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Neighbors: your best source of information

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Last Sunday as I was heading home, I noticed the increasingly familiar sight of a helicopter swooping in circles around the heights area of Lincoln Heights. Things have been heating up around Northeast LA and by things, I mean gangs and related activities. They usually confine their exploits to the wee hours of the night so I was surprised at all the commotion on a Sunday afternoon.
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Wild Wild Eastside

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Quite unfortunately the Eastside (& NELA) seem to be hit by a wave of shootings. The local (il)legitimate media is pretty much silent about it. Working at a high school I have often first hand accounts of the going-downs in Lincoln Heights.  Whether it’s drive-by’s or kids I know getting beat up, things are getting crazy.

Is it La Crisis? Is it an extension of what is going down in México?

“The Big Takeover” how AIG and the Govt. got us into this mess

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from Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print

“It’s over — we’re officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far.”

That’s right he said royally fucked, the article is in Rolling Stone so they let him get away with a lot. This article really clearly, and passionately explains how and who was involved in a lot of the horrible transactions that led to taxpayers having to bailout the super rich. It is a call to arms. We should be pissed off and taking these guys down, taking their assets and locking them up. We shouldn’t be paying a dime for their money making schemes that made them even richer but bankrupted the economy.

Here is a video of the author talking about his article. I hope more people read and see this and we start doing more than paying for rich guys gambling.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#29789983

Memorial in Highland Park

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The family of Alejandro Garcia has been keeping vigil at this memorial everyday, hydrating the flowers and answering the questions of passerbys. This past Monday would have been the sixteenth birthday of Carlos Hernandez.

Last Friday, two young boys, Alejandro Garcia, 16 and Carlos Hernandez, 15 were gunned down on their walk home from Franklin High School on the busy North Figueroa corridor. Police and eyewitness reports say the incident started initially as a brawl before it turned deadly.

I’m a bit late in mentioning this story because I was out of town when it happened but I’ve been wondering, what excuse does the Los Angeles Times have? All they’ve got on this tragic story is a small blurb on one of their blogs. That’s pathetic. People have left comments on the LA Now blog expressing similar sentiments. There have been more shootings in the area and still no coverage. Well, at least the Times wasn’t posing outrageous questions to their readers, like whether or not they felt safer with the deceased gone.
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The Rough Rider

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Get your mind outta the gutter you freaks !!! This is a family site. Ok. So last week I paid a visit to the staff of the Roosevelt High newspaper, The Rough Rider. And lemme tell ya, these kids have moxie. I’ve ran into a few of them here and there, mostly at the classic because as a reporter, we can smell our own kind. The nature of my visit was to talk about how the media portrays undocumented residents and how I, as an undocumented resident, use the media to champion my crusade. That’s what I should have talked about, but when I get the spot light I tend to trail off. In fact, the whole time I was there I spent it talking about my life experiences, how I hustle my writing and other adventures I’ve lived through. 

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La Crisis: The hemorrhaging of jobs!!!

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While some people may not get in regards to unemployment numbers how bad it is out there. We have other indicators that are in my opinion better indicators. And to me unemployment numbers are not a good statiscal visual for the average person (at least not in the beginning,)  jobs have been going away since 2007 and some people have just stopped looking, so how do we see how bad it truly is? Continue reading →

LA Eastside Outings: Taking Over, Part Two

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photo by Cindylu

Welcome to Part Two of the Taking Over reviews. A couple of reviews are still making their way through the LA Eastside digital transport, so please revisit this post in the next few days. (New review from Pachuco 3000 below!)
Part one can be found here.

Cindylu:

I’ve lived just a few minutes away from Downtown Culver City since 2000 in Palms South Robertson*. Despite living here for 8+ years, I only recently started spending any significant time (and money) in the area. Previously, there was nothing to do after 5 pm and a dearth of any other sorts of entertainment.

That’s all slowly been changing. The Kirk Douglas Theater playbill featured an article about the “revitalization” (aka gentrification) of DCC in recent years. In a small area you can find several architecture firms, art galleries, a couple of theaters, and several restaurants. On Tuesdays, local growers set up a farmer’s market on a 1-block long Main Street. If you go during a weekend night, you’ll find the 5 or so blocks between the Trader Joe’s and Kirk Douglas Theater quite busy. Now, I regularly shop at Trader Joe’s, buy fruit and vegetables at the farmer’s market, watch movies at the Pacific Theater and eat at some of the restaurants. I’d never gone to a production at the Kirk Douglas until last week. And yes, I can see the inherent contradiction of watching a play on gentrification in my neighborhood due to the gentrification in the area.

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LA Eastside Outings: Taking Over, Part One

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A play about gentrification? Sounds like an outing for LA Eastsiders! We made our way across town to see if the play would live up to the hype. Did it? Read on…

First, a short summary of the play from the Kirk Douglas Theater website:

OBIE Award-winning solo artist Danny Hoch returns to Center Theatre Group with his riveting new work, Taking Over, a show that brings to vivid life the residents of his Brooklyn neighborhood.

In rapidly changing Williamsburg, the melting pot is boiling over with strained ethnic relations and economic tensions—and the threat of gentrification, which threatens to crush the city’s diversity. Hoch masterfully depicts this community in transition with compassionate and hilarious results.

Read more at the Danny Hoch website. Taking Over ends February 22, that’s Sunday! Oh, and don’t bother watching the opening night video clip on the Kirk Douglas website, lame.

Reviews below, more coming tomorrow…

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On the LA Times Map and Patt Morrison

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On the LA River, a tear in the fence.

There’s been lots of mention today of the LA Times map, a work in progress that attempts to define the various neighborhoods in this city. Of particular interest to many of us on this blog, and of course, many people East of the river, was their designation of the region known for a long, long, time as the Eastside. I have to hand it to them, they did the smart thing and stuck with a safe approach, with only Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, and Boyle Heights making the list. Mind you, we all know that East Los Angeles (the unincorporated part of the County) is also part of the Eastside, but it’s not part of the city proper so that makes sense. But Eastside it is, through and through. To the map makers, I raise my glass and toast you some light praise.

Even though Highland Park and some other nearby neighborhoods were appropriately placed in the Northeast region it could be open to some interpretation of it sorta being on the Eastside. I don’t really think so, but it’s possible. But the Northeast and Highland Park are not having an identity crisis, so there’s really no need to figure out if it is or isn’t.

But speaking of identity crisis…

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