Upscale Comes to LH

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There are many sad, sad people in Lincoln Heights that think this little part of town is meaningless until we get some upscale shops or cafes to move in, as if that somehow meant your hood has finally arrived. I disagree; LH is a nice place on many fronts, and the shops here cater to the needs and price range of the neighborhood. The bad omens of fancy boutiques are still at a minimum, but I thought I’d share this sighting of some fancy Velvet Ropes on N. Broadway in front of the Airliner Club, just to get the upwardly mobile crowd excited.

Oooh, Aahhh!

Maybe someday, at the expense of being a real and livable community, LH will be full of expensive and “tasteful” junk, sure to please the wannabe yuppies. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Posted in Analysis, Fotos, Lincoln Heights | 8 Comments

Some Tortas de Camaron Signs

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Y siguele con eso, Mr. Fake Vegetarian. Ah well, que se le puede hacer? If you read my posts over on LA Eastside, you’ll know that I’ve been looking forward to lent just because of the appearance of a certain Mexican dish. It’s pretty easy to find in Lincoln Heights, and I assume most of the Eastside, but it’s hard to find over in that other LA. I work west of the river, called some of the Mexican joints nearby to see if they would have comida de cuaresma: 5 out of 5 said no. None of them even mentioned old standbys like Chiles Rellenos, enchiladas de queso, etc. That was kinda surprising, but I guess it makes sense since they cater mostly to a non-Mexican crowd. One person had to put me on hold to go get a Spanish speaker, oops! I guess I shoulda asked in English. Eye kan espeek en engleesh tambien.

In Lincoln Heights, finding tortas de camaron is much easier. The hard part is deciding which places to hit up on Friday. I tried to samples the ones from La  Llamarada, but they’d already run out by the time I got there. Darn. Oh well, there’s always next week. Click ahead for some more exciting pics of Cuaresma signage!

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Posted in Fotos, La Comida, Lincoln Heights, This Chicano Life | 2 Comments

Huevos Rancheros: La Abeja

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I’ve never understood why some people are so crazy over La Abeja, a Mexican-American eatery with a fanatic following. I always thought it was kinda whatever. I used to volunteer at Flor y Canto just a few doors down, and only ordered from La Abeja maybe 2 or 3 times, and that was within a 4 year span! Yet, people would always come in and mention how lucky it was the place was so close by, but I never told them I didn’t eat there.  A few years ago I ordered the HR’s during a sidewalk sale, they come in a plastic plate covered in saran wrap. I was surprised that they were pretty decent and had made a mental note to check them out properly sometime in the future. Well, the future was a few weeks ago, click ahead to see my review!

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Posted in Fotos, Greater Los Angeles, Huevos Rancheros, La Comida, This Chicano Life | 4 Comments

Sidewalk Emotions

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It seems that someone is going around LH leaving cryptic statements of sentimentality on the sidewalks, in some seemingly arbitrary places. It certainly beats looking at boring concrete. Are these the building blocks of real poetry in the streets? Let’s hope so!

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Posted in Fotos, Fun with Words, Lincoln Heights, Pendejadas | 3 Comments

Mutual Aid

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One of the first things I noticed about the Westside – many, many years ago- was that they rarely helped each other out when one of their own had car troubles. Imagine my surprise to see some mutual aid being doled out a few days ago on my way to work.

As a driver of used cars, I’m well accustomed to shit going wrong: inevitable flats of the $15 retread tires, alternator going crazy and blowing out the electrical system, starter sticking and refusing to turn over, manual transmission exploding on the 710 (I was driving but it wasn’t my car, phew!), carburetor points going bad at the worst time on a Ford Pinto, brakes completely failing on the wrong side of a hill on the way to a job interview for a damn mortuary, and sometimes just running out of gas, which happens often when the gas gauge doesn’t work. Yeah, they’re things that should be fixed before they break. But financial precariousness, a symptom often associated with those buying crappy old cars, nudges those repairs until that mythical later when you’ll have just a few extra dollars to take care of things. It doesn’t matter anyways since those repairs will choose their own day and time on which to demand attention, regardless of where you need to be.  That’s just how it is.

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Posted in Eastside, Fotos, Greater Los Angeles, Shit I love | 16 Comments

Como El Agua

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The rain has come. The people are not prepared.

Shorts and a hoodie. Not very water resistant. The walk home is a frigid affair, no time for veering off the path.

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Paletas on a cold rainy day. Not in high demand. Dreams of Summer, wanting to be wanted.

Solito, me como el agua.

Posted in Fotos, Lincoln Heights, Musica, This Chicano Life | 4 Comments