Category Archives: Rant

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios

Posted on by
5

IMG_0152

~ Pics from last year ~

It’s that time of the year again where everything that is evil is fun again. That also means that Universal Studios Hollywood is ready to scare the crap outta you with their horror nights. There’s nothing like some pig faced, seven foot goliath scaring the crap out of you with a chain saw buzzing over his head. Yes, Halloween is the most wonderful time of the year. I know this has nothing to do with the Eastside, but stay with me on this one.

IMG_0171

Last year the scaremazes based on the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St and Texas Chain Saw Massacre movies gave everyone a good scare. We can all use a good scare or a good laugh from watching people get scare. For this year, the movies Saw, Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, Shaun of the Dead and Child’s Play. They’re also including some lives shows based on the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure. Not only that but you’ll be able to go on all the regular rides at night with special twist to them and walk around the Halloween’ed out back lot while riding the terror tram. This will all be ongoing every weekend starting this Friday until Halloween. Event dates are: October 2-3, 9-11, 15-18, 23-25, 28-31. It starts off at 7:00 p.m.; closing hours vary by night throughout the event. You can also get discounted tickets by going to goldstar. Man I love that site :-) If anything else, it’s a great date night because chances are your date will get freaked out and run into your arms. Strangers will also be running into your arms too. trust me on this.

Make up your mind people!

Posted on by
16

I find it funny whenever I see a converted Wienerschnitzel location because no matter what they do to it it will always look like a Wienerschnitzel.

This old Wienerschnitzel location in Long Beach has been a couple different businesses.  I guess the last one was  a Mexican resturant which did not last long  either I wonder why?

w6

More after the jizump…

Continue reading →

No

Posted on by
7

No. How can someone think of putting pancakes into a BURRITO!?!?!? Puras locuras. I could not belive my sleepy eyes when I went to Denny’s with the GF this morning. Her choice to go there. I wanted a torta after reading Chavo’s post. So you can believe my shock when I saw this on the menu. And the price !?!? Pfft tan locos. I was THIS CLOSE to actually giving it a try and not being close minded and judgmental about it. But after I saw the syrup trying to be salsa, I took a stand and said NO. Denny’s, I’ve enjoyed the 3 a.m. breakfast and pumpkin pie in the winter, but this atrocity against burritos has gone far enough. All I have to say is NO.

¡Sounds Like Burning: Play From Your Fucking Heart!

Posted on by
7

¡Sounds Like Burning is about psychos, angels and psychotic angels. Who else deserves mention?

Mister Bill Hicks introduces the series because he is… Bill Hicks. He condensed the first law of all the Arts: Play From Your Fucking Heart!

The performances to be aired here are rigodamnediculous. The biblical scholar Bon Scott once commanded: Let There Be Light. And There Was Light.

Bask in it.

Can one make the unknown known? Tune in and Trip out.

Bill Hicks “Burning Issues”
[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/flag.mp3]

Ron Shock remembers:

Other than the drunken orgies… we (Bill Hicks and I and the rest of the Comedy Outlaws) were pretty wild, we did a tremendous amount of drugs and we drank a tremendous amount of whiskey, and usually we did the drugs and the whiskey together. But there was one show we did… Hicks is on stage doing his impression of Elvis where he uses toilet paper instead of handkerchiefs and he would wipe his forehead with toilet paper and throw the toilet paper into the crowd. Jimmy Pineapple who was just drunk as a skunk comes running from side stage and tackles Bill, for no reason, just to do it, right in the middle of a show, in front of 900 people and tackles him and as Bill is laying on the ground without missing a beat, keeps on with his act, he’s still Elvis…

Jack in the Box Accepting Food Stamps

Posted on by
27

ebtjack1

I saw this sign at my local Jack in the Box and instantly though WTF? How come they are taking EBT at a fast food joint? (EBT is the new electronic food stamps, for those not in the know.) Shouldn’t they be encouraging healthy eating instead? And this from someone that might have traded a food stamp or two for some Sierra Nevada Porter, back in the day. Apparently this is not some freak thing, this place just participates in the Restaurant Meals Program which actually seems like a good idea. It’s intended for the elderly and disabled that have a hard time cooking, and the homeless who might not have access to a kitchen. Most of the places on the list of participating restaurants seem to be fast food places but there’s a few that might be a mom and pop type of restaurant. There’s tacos, pupusas, burgers, hot dogs, Teriyaki, pollos, pizzas, and dragon locos, BBQ, and even soulfood. It’d be easy to complain about this use of public funds for fast food, but fuck that, poor folk have it hard enough as it is. Better yet, why not call out some of the “healthier” establishments for not participating in this program?

Continue reading →

Hollenbeck Police Station party

Posted on by
19

>

Did you ever want to see inside the NEW Hollenbeck Police Station as a vistor and not a guest !?! Well this Saturday there is going to be a public dedication ceremony. Tony V., Huizar, Reyes and Bratton are gonna be on hand kicking off this little shindig.

It’s from 6-9 p.m. and it’s free to the public. They are going to be giving station tours, food and have police exhibits on hand. So if you have nothing to do this Saturday check it out. You know you’re going to end up there anyway.

American Social Problems

Posted on by
7

I attended an intro to sociology course called “American Social Problems” during the second week of school at ELAC and left questioning my academic, sociocultural, and career intentions with a shed of liberal light from an episode of Michael Moore’s “Awful Truth.” Why do I really want to go to school? Am I making a bad investment with hopes of an unreasonably better return that I probably don’t deserve? If I succumb to the system, will I turn into a capitalist-driven bloodsucker whose bottom line is money?

I think America is inflicted with an at-large social cancer that is slowly (or quickly, depending on how one interprets time and space) detiriorating the human spirit and his/her pursuit of true happiness. This cancer is so detectable, it’s undetectable. I cringe when I see my neighbor’s toddler children eating corporate-made candies with their silver capped teeth. My heart aches when I see jobless, injured, disabled people loitering around Downtown LA, in front of LA County Hospital, at Hollebeck Park.

Will I change in a semester? Where is the hope in a deteriorating society?

More American social problems:
– Prescription drug addiction
– Overprescribing people
– Overdiagnosing people
– Inhumane conditions in American city/county jails and state prisons
– Close-minded Americanism
– American greed
– American obesity
– Corporate takeover on food
– Lazy, apathetic government employees
– American apathy
– Under-representation of day laborers who live month-to-month
– Corporate education


**http://halfenough2.wordpress.com/

Artists Not Paid by Villaraigosa’s Summer Night Lights Gang Reduction Program

Posted on by
9

img_2581

I was copied on the following email by east-side artists who have been working on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Summer Night Lights project, now in its 2nd year.  A week ago the Mayor visited the Jordan Downs housing Project (pictured above) for a press tour.  Artists have worked diligently to provide what they could with their own resources to children who have no other summer alternative.  I took this picture above and witnessed how crucial art is to inner city youth who are starving to learn and desperately need patient mentorship.  –Victoria Delgadillo

FROM: Community Artist, Apprentices, and Master Artist/SNL 2009

RE: Summer Night Lights (SNL) Contract

DATE: September 2, 2009

To Whom May It Concern,

We the artists of the SNL Gang Reduction Program demand immediate payment for our services.  Many of us turned down other work to be a part of this important effort. The SNL programs success is majorly due to the arts component that is present at all 16 parks.  We all depend on this – this is our work, we have committed ourselves not only to our craft but to our community to provide the services they all deserve. Likewise we deserve to be treated as professionals in our field of expertise.  The Arts community is one of the most effected groups from the current economic downturn and continue to be disregarded by this neglect on the part of the City of Los Angeles.

The experience working hands on with the community has been remarkable. Many of us artist have gone through various lengths and have over exceeded in order to sustain the art, music and dance workshops for Summer Night Lights. For example, asking our colleagues, friends and organizations to donate materials, paying directly from our pockets, swiping our credit cards, borrowed money for equipment and materials. Although we have been partially reimbersed for materials, we have not been paid for our time and professional experience.  There has been a significant amount of preparation, time, planning and effort to make SNL a success. Our efforts have over exceeded our expectations and requirements. Continue reading →

Who hid the Mexicans?

Posted on by
16

fandango

From the great blog Mex Files the question is asked “Where are the Mexican or Mexican American Chefs on the Food Channel Network cooking or explaining or visiting Mexican Restaurants and kitchens?” Always a sous-chef, never a chef

Paul Campos (Lawyers, Guns and Money) on U.S. television celebrity chef, Rick Bayless.

“… it struck me that in a country where the actual cooking in high-end restaurants is dominated by Latin Americans in general, and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in particular, the “celebrity chef” doing the Mexican cooking against his French and Italian-American competitors was a very WASPy-seeming fellow. Nothing wrong with that of course — it’s not like you have to be a member of an ethnic group to be a great cook in that genre — but it also reminded me of the point Anthony Bourdain makes in Kitchen Confidential that almost none of the thousands of superbly skilled Mexican and Ecuadorian and Peruvian etc, cooks manning the lines ever seem to end up as head chefs or sous chefs at the fancy places they work, let alone with TV shows on the Food Network.”

Rick Bayless is a good Mexican cook and very respectful of the cuisine but he’s not a Mexican.


Continue reading →

Los Angeles: What’s in a name?

Posted on by
21

cityofla

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 Río 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?