Category Archives: Pendejadas

The Eastside of Town

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Melinda Marx-The Eastside of Town

Hold up, I am here to right a wrong, inform you of a great historical overlook – this is a song about the Eastside and yet, has never been heard on any Chicano Oldies compilation. How did this happen? Please don’t tell me it’s cause the song is no good, that the chick can’t sing (or dance) or that the lyrics are insipid. This is a song about the Eastside! Thankfully, a random Youtube click lead me to uncover this early example of Eastside oldies. True, it has no soul but it’s catchy in it’s own way. Someone please inform Art Laboe…

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Look Cool Pooping Your Pants

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What do you get the modern hipster baby that still poops his pants? Why, fancy designer diapers to distract you from the wafting aromas! By the time you’ve snapped out of the temporary yet recurring horror that humanity is being flushed into oblivion by the same gaggle of fools that control most of the production of our necessities, the squishy bottomed baby has been removed from your work counter, with maybe a few unseen specimens left behind. But the baby looked cool.

Yup, the tagline really is “the coolest you’ll look pooping your pants” and the jean label reads “little bowel movers” or something like that. Oh haha, let’s all laugh at the cuteness that is yet another reason why our society doesn’t work. Giggle, Giggle!

If you’re a parent, you better not buy these. Don’t make me have to mock your baby.

A few yards from this fine example of Modern American Living…

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The new *Cool* for Eastside kids?

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Yes, I ride a track bike. I have for 3 years now. I’d rather have a nice ten-speed these days but I don’t have the money for that kind of purchase right now.

But interestingly enough I have noticed a surge in “fixed-gear” bicycles (and bicycles in general) in the Eastside in general; and being that I live in El Sereno & work in Lincoln Heights, my perceptions arise from these neighborhoods. I have been a bicycle-commuter (& bus commuter) to get to work & school pretty steadily for almost 5 years now. As a young kid I used to get around by bicycle & bus too, but typcial of Los Angeles kids, I started driving as soon as could! Once I grew tired of driving and became aware of the social, environmental, health repurcussions due to car culture I sought to abandon it (though I am no anti-car evangelical!).

At work (a local high scool), I would often be asked why I did not drive a car; most students would see me walk onto the campus with my bicycle. I would say the usual environmental, social, political, and economic reasons: still most 16 years old are baffled when an adult doesn’t drive. I get the same response when I tell them I don’t have a TV at home. For them a car is equated with freedom of movement: anyone that has driven in Los Angeles for a few years knows that this myth slowly erodes…

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Eastside Name Controversy Ends

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Beware of false Eastsides. As the pretenders to the Eastside name and identity fade into the West…A new question arises for those who may give a shit,..what to call the neighborhoods of East Hollywood, Los Felix, Silver Lake and Echo Park now? As a recent article in la.curbed suggests,..If the already existing names are not trendy enough for you,..add your name suggestions and try to start your own buzz.

Here is my new name suggestion,……the following song says it all and it’s a catchy tune with just a hint of irony. 🙂
[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Funky-town.mp3]

We Spoke Up

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Cops and Nazis

For a long while, I’ve been questioning the intended efficacy of public protests. I often wonder if the days of marching and holding signs and the persuasive effect they used to have on those in power is long gone. Public protests still serve a purpose though, they create a sense of solidarity with other like-minded folks, walking on empty streets with thousands of other people is an interesting way to take in the city, creative sign slogans are entertaining and inspiring, and protests can sometimes turn into riots. With these things in mind, I headed Downtown this weekend for the Anti-Nazi Protest with a Bay Area friend in-tow. I wanted him to experience Los Angeles style oppositional politics, a sorta intro to “This is how we do it.”

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MEXICO MEMORIES: CANICAS

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Man Uno and I were at a corporate lunch last year and were asked to share with the table a childhood memory.  A memory from Tijuana entered my mind immediately. Man Uno went first and his memory was about being in Tijuana too.  I realized at that moment we all have Mexico memories to share.

Here’s one of mine:  Canicas

I grew up in San Diego, South Bay to be exact, 2 exits away from the border.  When I was about 4 years old my abuelita still owned apartments in Tijuana and we’d go down a few times a week.  They were more like shacks that she rented with dusty wood floors, some with out houses and those with indoor toilets had to pour a bucket of water in them to make them flush.

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The Big Move

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The Big Move: a new path and a new identity? -graphic courtesy of LA Creek Freak

It was inevitable, some folks just can’t stand to be wrong or admit their mistakes but luckily in our modern and hi-tech world, these things can be fixed. I’m talking about the latest in the Eastside name grab debacle. You remember all those poor confounded souls, new arrivals, Echo Park hipsters and journalists who somehow believed neighborhoods west of the Los Angeles River were part of the Eastside. The Eastside issue is a moot point now, discussion and debate are needless. Thanks to articles in the Los Angeles Times and the numerous posts on this here site, EVERYONE knows where the Eastside begins: East of the Los Angeles River.

However, some folks are not so easily deterred, oh no! Some people will stick by their story, even when they are so very wrong. They’ve told us: “History and geography in Los Angeles are fluid” “Eastside east of the river? Essentialists!” and other cute put-downs created to entertain the post-modern sense of wit so popular with residents of hip neighborhoods. The problem is they know they were wrong but have grown tired of deflecting the truth. So they put their resources together, gathered their connections and called in favors to make things right. That’s how it’s been done in the past – contracts, paperwork, legalese and the proper connections have always made things “right” for the privileged in this country, so why let a little thing like geography stop them? The solution was simple: make the west, east!
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