CHANFLES!

Come Phat: Grand Opening!

Posted on May 14, 2006 by EL CHAVO!

I was terribly disappointed recently when I found out that Kawa market, the hands down best and cheapest supplier of tofu and other asian food stuff to LH, had been sold to a new set of people. Say it ain’t so! Ah, but it is, I found this out by surprise making my usual rounds only to see empty shelves, stuff all moved around, and no tofu to be seen. The new owners said it was only temporary and after checking a few days ago, the tofu blocks are back in full force. They’ve made some appropriate changes and have cleaned up the shelves. Even though i’ll miss the decades old dusty cans of “pickled lettuce” at least it makes room for other edible fare with a more recent expiration date. I am going to miss the previous cashier: she managed to coax her surly what-do-i-care attitude into an expression of friendliness, which is really quite a feat, and she wasn’t even an aspiring actress, as far as I know. But the new store seems like they will ably fill the shoes that Kawa left out on the porch: the Latinos are still coming in for the reasonably priced fish and other ocean items, while the Asian community has a steady source for all their staples that i wish to someday be able to cook.

Oh yeah, they’ve renamed it “Come Phat” which must mean something worthwhile and significant, but in English, it’s nothing. Huh, you say there’s a couple of double meanings to this sign? Something about weight or some dirty sexual innuendo? Shame on you, that’s a terrible thing to suppose. These are good and proper people, your sick mind has no place here!

Posted in Lincoln Heights | Leave a comment

Cheetos Reflux

Posted on May 9, 2006 by EL CHAVO!

NPR ran a story today about how Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are really popular with the inner city kids, the addictive aspect, and they focused on nearby Pasadena. Hmm, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, here. I’m not only on track but maybe somebody is keeping track of me! When you are paid to report on new stories surely there is no time to come up with them yourself, no time to stop and watch the sidewalk garbage. Yet they screwed it up by not mentioning my main point about why kids eat the stuff: it’s a cheap meal. They even interviewed a kid that was eating them in the morning before school, doesn’t that just prove the point? Well, who cares about delving into the reason for why things are, it’s more entertaining to just point out what they are.
You could at least send me a complimentary bag and a six pack cabrones.

PS. I don’t really think they took a cue from me, that would be presumptuous!

Posted in La Comida | 2 Comments

Indian Captive

Posted on May 6, 2006 by EL CHAVO!

You see some strange things on the freeways in LA, and now I have as well. A giant fiberglass Indian, roped up and being dragged along to his unfortunate destiny. Maybe to some Nazi fest where the owners will dress him up in Stormtrooper regalia just to make use of the arm in seig heil position? Or at an intersection of oversized cars, always making people stop? Whatever it is, it can’t be good.

Posted in Fotos, Greater Los Angeles | Leave a comment

May Day!

Posted on April 28, 2006 by EL CHAVO!

May Day is upon us and this year promises to be more interesting than ever! You already know why, the Gran Boicot in support of Immigrant rights is gathering momentum and it looks like it might be big, and of course, it’s the day we celebrate the introduction of the 8 hour workday. You best be celebrating unless you want the corporations to roll it back to the good ol’ days of 12-14 hours non-stop work! Despite their best attempts, the anti-immigrant forces are finding it hard to keep their hostility couched in terms of lawful migration or appropriate policy: the fangs are out and it’s becoming a straight out anti-latino crusade. How else can you explain the backlash against the new song “Nuestro Himno” a Spanish adaptation of the US national anthem? Granted, it’s a shitty song based on another shitty song, but the ire across the country, and of the president, seems to be solely that it’s in Spanish. Are they fucking serious? Unfortunately, they are. The producers were stupidly trying to suck up to American sentiments, show how much they love this country, and the country turned on them: that’s what you get for trying to appease. Just like the big march downtown, despite all the US flags, “mainstream America” (whatever that is) only saw the few Mexican ones, mostly those of the student walkouts. It’s should be clear by now that nothing this movement creates will be seen in a favorable light, yet the march organizers are busily reminding people to bring plastic bags to pick up their own trash (true!) like it’s going to matter. Even silly liberals are warning that to avoid a backlash, protesters should just pipe down. That sounds like a challenge!

The politics of appeasement are a dead end. There is no point in worrying if the country is going to like the next move, it’s a given they’re not. Instead of worrying of a backlash, I say we lash back! The momentum for May Day has truly been building from the street, from the average worker that wants to make a statement against the constant attacks against them and their families. The Latino “leadership” is trying to scramble their way to the front, to guide this mass of energy into a designated program, yet they are still playing catch up. Piolin saw the writing on the wall and made a U-turn to keep his cred; instead of being opposed to the boycott now he’s joining it. So no matter how hard Villaraigosa and Mahoney try to stop this moving train, it’s full steam ahead towards the station, wherever that may be. Get on board or get out the way!

So that being said, I encourage everyone to put their granito de arena in support of the May Day General Strike. Take the day off. Walk out of classes, or better yet, don’t show up. Call in sick-you know you want to! Tell your boss you were abducted by Aliens (the E.T. kind) and couldn’t make it in. Buy your groceries on Tuesday instead. You don’t have to go to a march or protest (I’m not!) but you can do your part by not showing up to work, school, or shops. Go to the beach, have a BBQ at the park, stockpile some dvd’s to watch, clean your house, replace that faulty alternator, download some music, bake a cake, take a walk, read Armchair: Shirkers of the World Unite!, or just relax. Whatever you do, take the day off and enjoy it! Or you can go to work like usual and be bored out of your mind, just another day to forget: the day you could have remembered had you chosen to plan an adventure!
If you’d like to get in on the action and do some propaganda, check out this link here for some flyers and posters that you can print up.

Posted in Greater Los Angeles, La Politica es un desmadre.. | Leave a comment

Dead Kids

Posted on April 26, 2006 by EL CHAVO!

Just a stain now...

A few posts ago I semi-joked about the occasional shootings we hear about in LH and though that may hint at my becoming a bit callous, I can say with confidence that I am still well aware about what that means. Tuesday night at about 10:30 pm Romen Cabral, a resident of Highland Park, was gunned down in a walk-up shooting, he was 14 years old. KABC is saying it may be gang related but more important than that, this was a person.

I heard the round of gunshots, they didn’t make the usual pop-pop sound but were more of a thud-thud, and like any angeleno, I dropped down for cover. When I managed the courage to check things out, expecting to find nothing as is usually the case, I witnessed the wrenching sight of a woman crouched over a body, at first looking confused then frantically screaming for someone to call 911, while another lady and her child hurried to get some help. The body, lying face down on the cement, showed no sign of movement and it was clear that this guy, whom I had assumed was older, would not be seeing another day.

I’ve seen many dead people (I used to work around corpses, more on that some other time) but something about this incident had more of an impact on me. Maybe it was the fact that there was no scrambling to get away, that there was no immediate flurry of activity and no instant screams, it almost seemed as if the woman was unsure of how to respond. The overwhelming stillness at the center of her attention just exuded permanence and tragedy. What struck me most about the scene under the dim street light were the clean white soles of his tennis shoes: almost ghostly, they stood there, toes pointed down, flopping sideways, immobile, now of no use. After a few minutes when a sister of the boy showed up, wailing and cursing the circumstances with screams of “Motherfuckers! I fucking told you!” that’s when it really set in: this dude is really dead. And all I could think was que lastima.

After awhile, all the neighbors got back to doing their thing, one more tragedy in the city, luckily its somebody elses. I don’t know him, just like I didn’t know the last casualty or (hopefully) the next one, so we move on. Just as we do everyday with the news from Iraq, dead American soldiers or Iraqi civilians, it’s somebody elses tragic problem. Be it the racket of the neighborhood gang or the really big gangs of Nation-States, it’s all a numbers game: eventually, if you play long enough, yours will come up. Cholos and Soldiers are alike, they both play up their bravado, join a dedicated “family”, and commit to a cause that is often meaningless, the consequences of which are usually felt by others. Romen may have been a budding cholo and for many, that’s going to take him off their sympathy list. But no matter what the circumstances, to someone he was a son, a brother, and a friend. The deep pain that his people now feel is real. I’ve yet to know that sort of pain and don’t pretend to understand, but the sight of it on another human being, that alone is a pretty fucked up feeling. And i’ll place my bet that we’ve yet to see the last of it.

Later Homie Romen.

Posted in Lincoln Heights, Shit I hate | 20 Comments