the murals of east los

i took a trip over the bridge to boyle heights for some good old fashioned mural hunting. my parents came along for the ride (actually they were the ones who wanted the tour as they had just watched La Misma Luna (highly recommended by yours truly; takes place in los angeles and features some murals in that neighborhood.)

sadly, many of the murals we saw were defaced by taggers. damn those taggers! if only we could keep the shitty taggers off the streets i think more people would embrace graffiti artists for brightening up our city.

walking in boyle heights is such a sensory experience compared to the sterile environment of beverly hills or brentwood. the buildings are painted bright colors, you smell delicious things from street vendors and taco trucks, you hear fun music blasted from stores. way more vibrant than over the river.

my parents, although born and raised in california, live in north carolina right now. while nc has its fair share of latino immigrants right now, it’s still nothing compared to walking down the street in boyle heights, which my mother described as feeling like actually visiting mexico. since they had planned on visiting oaxaca earlier this year but their plans fell through, miguel and i took them to guelegetza later for dinner.

so my mother was telling me about how some people in chapel hill are rethinking the free fare for all city buses program that has been in effect for several years. apparently crime has risen in parts of the city that were prior to this program relatively crime free. so they are blaming free buses. i told her that was just like people in beverly hills not wanting the subway going through there to the ocean because it will bring “unsavory” individuals into their neighborhood. even if the studies in chapel hill are correct, perhaps they should look into solving the problem of poverty and lack of jobs instead of taking away free bus fare.

boyle heights used to be a jewish neighborhood, and you’ll still see remnants of its history on the street from the old names of the avenues (brooklyn which is now cesar chavez ) at the bus stops to this old jewish synagogue. you can see pictures of the renovation (which looks to have stopped around 2006…who knows what’s going on now) here.

here’s a picture of dot for your pleasure.

a while back in san francisco

i love san francisco, it’s such a treat. last month i went to hang out with my grandpa while he was being honored for his service to a charity in chinatown. we found parking on the street (which in chinatown is kind of a feat of great proportions), but he made me wait with the car until the parking spot was legal. HA HA. thanks, grandpa.

anyways, my cousin, merri, and her boyfriend, alex, came by after a bit to hang out with me.

i was trying to describe my location on the street to her but all i could come up with was, um, i’m surrounded by electronics stores and cheap crap.

anyways, we went to the banquet. it was disco themed. i would have dressed the part if i had known ahead of time. as it were, you can see me here in my cute party dress.

guess who was sitting at the next table over? kim jong il.

here’s my grandpa with other honorees. he’s the one with the gold platters. my old boss is directly above him. he takes pictures of everyone he meets. literally. the best part of that job was working across the street from washington square park and watching the valet guys run around. literally run. but then i left my vintage (read: thrift shop) velveteen blazer on the bench one day. sad jams.

so anyways, that was friday. i forgot to tell you how i got to sfo from my house in la. i had to take two buses to get to union station (it’s about 2 miles from my house). then i had to take the flyaway bus to lax. then a flight to sfo. for the record, that’s 3 buses to get to the fucking airport. considering all of that and the lines for airport security, it might actually have taken me less time to drive to san francisco.

then on saturday, i hung out with merri and alex. have i mentioned how cool my cousin is? she lives in nopa. which means north of the panhandle…apparently this area is “ghetto” but “gentrifying”.  merri, alex and i walked around their neighborhood, alamo square and japantown taking stupid pictures.

in front of the full house house. ha ha, house house.

then we went back to their studio to eat korean sushi, drink beers and try the miracle berry which makes things taste funny. alex’s parents showed up and i felt like i was doing drugs in front of them. but then they partook as well. i ate lime, tangerine, grape and lemon. they were all as sweet as candy. so was the beer. they really should use that berry as a sugar substitute. so then we took the bus downtown where i got on the bart to go to my birthland, oakland. where my brother, david, now lives.

he and his house full of roommates had a great bbq party full of other pomona alums all younger than me. i am a loser. or just old and creepy!

anyways, as you can see in this blurry picture, the party featured the most delicious sausages of my life. and i’ve had a lot. i mean, one of my interests on myspace is “hot dogs and other processed meats in intestional packages” for god’s sake. those sausages rocked my socks off. ask david to tell you the story about how when they tried to order both the spicy italian sausage and the bbq sausage at this store in oakland, the sausage monger told them they were the same thing except black people call them bbq and white people call them spicy italian. well, that’s pretty much the whole story.

the party also featured homemade peach almond and mint chip ice cream to go along with michela’s birthday cake, of which i will only show you the candles.

i should have taken a picture of katie’s (david’s girlfriend) garden. she’s an awesome gardener. this party also featured david’s old roommate, jarrod, who used to wear harry potter glasses and he’s so great.

here’s a picture of katie with another party goer. she totally got katie’s digits before leaving the party. ha ha. katie is the blond one.  they’re kind of making the same face in this picture.  

sorry for the blurry pictures. i think i was drunk. cuz i then proceeded to spill an entire beer down my pants and on david’s chair. fortunately they got all their furniture for free on craigslist. maybe you’d like to see a picture of my brother. here he is in profile right before i spilled the beer.

so the next day i barted back over to sf in time for dim sum with grandpa before my flight back home. what a lovely weekend. too bad i didn’t get see my friend anya but she was too busy getting trampled at the great outside lands festival at golden gate park. and danielle and brutus, her chihuahua. i didn’t get to see them either. guess i’ll have to be back soon. by the way, in case you’re wondering why there’s no pictures of the banquet food, the korean sushi, or any of the other food i ate on this trip…so am i.