An Ode to Anaheim

ANAHEIM - We know this city where the Mouse calls home has had its share of disturbing problems in recent years, and after some rioting, protesting and court battles these issues are slowly being addressed. Beside Mickey Mouse riots there are some other things unique about Anaheim, and in a tribute to the fair town where this publication has called home for many years we present to you, "Ten Signs You Know You're From Anaheim" right after the jump.

A 1922 photograph of downtown Anaheim, which, sans for a few more buildings, looked the same for many years until the "development bomb." You know you are from Anaheim if you know exactly what that means. No copyright infringement intended; shown for historical and educational purposes only.

1. Here Comes The Train!

When that train goes by it could be a sad sound or a happy sound, because no matter where you are in Anaheim, be it downtown or the tony Anaheim Hills, you always hear the distant (and sometimes not so distant) whistle of a train. Perhaps it all began when Jack Benny announced, "Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga."

2. Every SINGLE RED-LIGHT!

While driving along Harbor Boulevard, Ball Road or Katella Avenue you hit every freakin' single red light and mumble to yourself, or yell, "why can't Anaheim program their traffic signals!" An Anaheim traffic programmer once said, off the record, the city believes people driving in the "Resort District" area will want to stop and shop at other places along the way to Disneyland if they have a moment to see it. In reality, while being stopped at every single red-light, you feel like screaming to whoever makes the city engineers do this, "Families with a bunch of hyper kids in the car who just spent a hour or two driving here aren't gonna want to stop at some other business on the way to Disneyland, get over it!"

3. A City With A Culture and Winning Sports Teams

When friends and family from outside of Orange County think Anaheim is just another bland, uninspiring homogeneous housing-tract city in "The OC" with no culture you gladly take them along Brookhurst Street, then to the revived downtown Anaheim and exploring amazing homes in The Colony, and that is just for starters. Then you kindly mention to the too-good-for-Anaheim naysayers we have a baseball and hockey team that has actually won a World Series and Stanley Cup, respectfully, in the new century. Finally, when talk turns to their family from around the country and/or world wanting to visit them and do all the super tourist stuff remind them, "Where is that one place they always insist on going when they come out to visit you?"

4. Somebody Was Once Good Friends With Her In High School

Somebody knows somebody who once attended Loara High School with Gwen Stefani and were "super good friends with her," and was a big No Doubt fan, years before they became big.

5. You Cannot Believe Another Anaheim Resident Actually Paid To Get Into Disneyland

You try to contain your laughter, or utter shock, when some fellow Anaheim resident tells you they actually paid full-price to get into Disneyland. People in Anaheim always know somebody who can get them in for free, or at the very least find them a very cheap ticket.

6. We Have a Haunted K-Mart

Not many places in the world have this claim to fame: Local lore has it that the K-Mart on Katella Ave. is haunted, which has to make you wonder, "Ghosts haunting a K-Mart in Anaheim? Those are some pretty damn boring ghosts." 

7. Best Bowling Alley Ever!

You know we have one of the best bowling alleys in the country with the best bowling alley signage in the country, Linbrook Bowl. In addition to 24-hour bowling there is a dimly lit bar with cheap drinks and karaoke. Oh, and going bowling here is pretty cheap too! 

Linbrook Bowl sign. No copyright infringement intended; shown for historical and educational purposes only.

8. You Remember...

You remember when the Anaheim Plaza was an actually mall complete with The Broadway Department Store. You remember when Chain Reaction was called Public Storage. You remember when Anaheim had its own radio station, KEZY. You remember when Anaheim had an actual downtown with movie theaters and its very own department store, S-Q-R Store.

 

A 1978 photograph S.Q.R. Store, located at 202 West Center Street in Anaheim. Built in 1925 and demolished in 1978 as it was a victim of the "development bomb." Photograph source, Calisphere - University of California. No copyright infringement intended; shown for historical and educational purposes only.

9. You Still Can't Believe What They Did!

Thanks in part to businesses like The Lab and Rothick art haus life in today's downtown Anaheim has finally been brought back. Yet, when you are there maybe during Art Crawl Experience or having something to eat at Healthy Junk, you still cannot believe some overpaid bureaucrat thought it was a good idea to wipe out most of old downtown Anaheim, and worse yet, you are baffled that the centerpiece of the "new" 1978 downtown Anaheim is a bland, run-of-the-mill, typical Southern California strip-mall. 

10. The Best View In All Of Southern California

Sometimes you have to find the good in the bad, and the 1978 downtown Anaheim redevelopment had a lot of bad things, but there was a silver-lining in parking structures. You know the best view in all of Orange County, and Southern California, is atop parking structures in downtown Anaheim. From the top on a clear day in one long turn of the head you can view The San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, downtown Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Mountains (if you focus your eyes you can make out the Griffith Observatory and Hollywood sign), Santa Catalina Island and the curve of the earth in south county. Indeed in just one turn of the head it is one majestic view, and makes good viewing for the fireworks, both legal and illegal.

So Cal Confessions: Have You Ever...

SOMEWHERE ON A FREEWAY - Have you ever caused a traffic accident, or minor finder bender, and taken off?

Was it on a freeway? In an overcrowded Trader Joe's parking lot? At a mall? The Pleasure Chest parking lot?

We know it happens. Traffic reporters do not report on hit-and-runs on an almost daily basis just to hear themselves talk.

The Promise of A New Tijuana

This piece was originally written for another publication on October 25, 2010. This piece was meant to be a jumping off point for a larger series of a new era in Tijuana amid the drug war. What happened to the series? Well, there were some threats made on me, and advice I was given at the time by some officials on both sides of the border was to lay low. Sadly, many journalists covering the drug war in Mexico have been killed simply for doing their job.

October 25, 2010

TIJUANA - The violence that has plagued Tijuana as part of Mexico's larger drug war fell into a lull recently, so much to the point where Mexican President Felipe Calderón praised Tijuana’s improved condition. Two weeks ago the president helped inaugurate Tijuana Innovadora, a $5 million, two-week series of conferences aimed at improving the city’s image and drawing investment, which featured several high-profile speakers including the founders of Twitter and Wikipedia, and former Vice President Al Gore.

Tijuana Innovadora closed the event last Thursday with thousands of residents converging into Rio Zone to dance for three minutes in celebrating their love for their city. For those in town who could not make it to the main dance floor several dance spots were held throughout Tijuana.

Over the years the town along la frontera has been trying to wash away its image of a seedy town for Americans looking for a cheap thrill, and the effort has shown results with many areas of Tijuana looking like a modern, dynamic city. Some of the changes have involved drastic moves, such as firing the entire Tijuana Police force as the city makes attempts to do away with the police force's infamous corruption. Of course in recent times many Americans looking for those cheap thrills along with those looking to explore the real Tijuana have avoided crossing the border due to the violence, though truth be told most of the drug cartels who are behind most of the violence do not want anything do to with some random American tourist.

Probably the most dangerous place for American tourists making day trips into Mexico would be Ciudad Juarez, just across from El Paso, Texas. In Mexico's drug war, which has claimed 28,228 lives (up to that date in 2010), several deadly, brazen battles have taken place there, including 14 people being gunned down at a family birthday party earlier this month. Prior to the drug war for many years several women went missing in Ciudad Juarez and those cases still remains unsolved. With all due respect, the idea of a wild border town out of control has always been better suited for Ciudad Juarez than Tijuana.

Back in Tijuana, within the last two years stories of decapitations and mass murders have became commonplace, which surely did not help the city erase its seedy image of easy vice and corruption. Quite frankly the image of vice and corruption for many Americans was rapidly replace with that of a town full of sadistic murderers.

Tijuana resident Juan Gomez tells me as we walk across Universidad Autónoma de Baja California - Campus Tijuana, "A bunch of drunken American people avoiding our city gives us more room to better improve our image for Americans looking for a real international experience," but on the same token Mr. Gomez says, "a lot of our medical stores and other shops catering to border crossers closed, which means the families that run them are out of work."

Tijuana officials say prior to the drug war insurgency various medical shops catering to tourists looking for cheaper prescriptions, with or without a doctor's note, brought in on average over $100 million a year to the local economy. One Tijuana city official, one of many who asked to be anonymous, told me, "The medical tourism industry now brings about $20-25 million a year and this is one reason our city has been going after the drug cartel causing this problem, one of our main sources of revenue has been killed and hundreds of people have been put out of work."

Asked if such medical tourism added to the seedy image the city is trying to rid itself of the official says, "No, in fact once this war ends our medical tourism will improve and we'll be able to provide better facilities to address medical needs." When told how some residents still see such medical places as apart of the seedy image the city official said quite sternly, "Look, several places across the world have medical tourism, even Canada, and part of our new image is providing first-class medical facilities that will attract people from all over the world."

While there have been some improvements in reducing the crime rate the reality is law enforcement still has a long way to go.

The new and retrained Tijuana Police Department along with the help of Mexican troops throughout the city have helped reduce murders in the city. According to Tijuana officials the death toll this year (2010) is 638, while the death toll last year (2009) was 664, which was a significant decrease from 2008 where there were 844 homicides. Nonetheless the murder rate is still disturbingly high for a city its size.

Despite all their best efforts amid celebrations of a revived Tijuana, and all its potential, sadly within the last two weeks there have been sudden outbreaks of violence.

Late Sunday night in the Buenos Aires Sur area in east Tijuana masked gunmen forced residents onto the floor at El Camino a la Recuperacion, a drug rehabilitation center, and then sprayed them with bullets killing 13 people.

Then nearly a little over a week ago two days of sudden violence left 13 people dead, which included the discovery of a decapitated head in a black plastic bag with a note attached to the forehead left alongside a busy street.

Unfortunately Mexico's drug war has no immediate end in site.

Currently there are no powerful drug-trafficking organization currently maintaining control over Tijuana since the once-dominant Arellano Félix cartel had been broken-up. In fact the Baja California’s Attorney General’s Office believes this latest outbreak of violence is led by Fernando Sánchez Arellano, who commands the remnants of the Arellano Félix cartel.

While the remnants stir-up some trouble and perhaps look to take over their boss's old drug-pushing haunt the Baja California's Attorney General's Office believe another group is also leading this latest outbreak of violence, the followers of the detained drug leader Teodoro García Simental, who law enforcement authorities say have been receiving support from a Sinaloa-based group led by Chapo Guzmán.

A Tijuana law enforcement official, who asks to remain anonymous for his/her safety, tells me the latest violence, "is probably the two groups fighting for dominance and until the troops and police can get a hold of the masterminds of both cartels I have a feeling we're going to see renewed bloodbaths."

That sentiment is shared by Baja California officials along with U.S. officials who believe outside groups and members of the Félix cartel have begun fighting over control of the region.

So what is so special about Tijuana that cartels are willing to slaughter people over it? Well, the region is a major transitory point in supplying U.S. drug dealers and users with cocaine, meth and other hideous drugs.

The outgoing portal of drugs from Tijuana to America is Interstate 5, which supplies Mexican drug cartels an easy, if not perfect link to the West Coast suppliers and buyers, in which hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands. Upon changing hands the money quickly goes back south and ends up in the hands and pockets of the cartels and their people.

It is a vicious circle that is going to require drastic measures on both sides of the border.

Until there is action with both the U.S. and Mexican governments with their drug policy the people of Tijuana are going to be under the gun, and even so, there is no quick solution that will immediately free Tijuana of its problems.

Hopefully with changes within Tijuana and action by the Mexican government, and help by the U.S. government, Tijuana will become a dynamic world city that it is destined to be.

Four Things To Do Beside Watch The State of The Union

LOS ANGELES - It is that time of year where President Barack Obama will give his State of The Union address on Tuesday to a rather catty, cliquey joint session of Congress. The State of The Union has turned into the equivalent of a high school pep-rally with all the cliques bringing all their "cool friends" trying show up everybody else. After all, invites to this year's affair include Fort Lee, New Jersey Mayor Mark Sokolich, Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson and Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity.

Let us face it, most of the president's speech has leaked out and most of it will be things he has been said before. About the only real revelation is Mr. Obama will likely announce he will use his Executive Order privilege to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 a hour for government contract workers.

Adding to the high school pep-rally feel are some lawmakers clapping at everything the president says during the speech, and at times looking around awkwardly wondering if they should give the president a standing ovation. Then there are other lawmakers who refuse to clap sitting there acting like an angry child. Surely the reaction of some lawmaker during the State of The Union speech will get the attention of the news cycle and trend online with some catchy hash-tag.
 
This whole thing has turned into a bunch of theatrics, and so here are four other things to do beside watch the State of The Union:

1. Go To The Record Store!

Support your local record store. In fact, if you have not got around to it check out Jungle Beat Records in Montebello. A lot of great records at great prices, and the owner is an awesome guy.

Jungle Beat Records
2461 W Whittier Blvd
Montebello 90640
Dial (323) 725-0940

2. Go To This Show at The Detroit Bar

Go see Let's Drive to Alaska, Robot Work and AtariSUNSHINE at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. If you have not heard of these bands then go check them out, because you will not be disappointed. Also, the show is free, but it is 21 and over.
  
Detriot Bar
843 W 19th St
Costa Mesa 92627

3. Go Volunteer!

This of course does not have to be during The State of The Union, but consider volunteering and making your community a little bit better of a place (let's see some sour face lawmaker not stand up and applaud that). A lot of people want to do this, but not too sure where to even start. Well, Volunteer Los Angeles, One OC and Volunteer Match: Riverside-San Bernardino Volunteer Opportunities, are very good places to start.

4. Go To This Art Museum

Go to The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College (yes, that Vincent Price). Among featuring work from many up and coming artists the museum also features a collection of artworks from ancient civilizations in Central and South America. This museum is one of these hidden gems in Southern California and it is highly recommended you check it out. The museum is open until 4 p.m. and admission is free.

The Vincent Prince Art Museum at East Los Angeles College
1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez
Monterey Park 91754
Dial (323) 265-8841

As for The State of The Union, you can always read the transcript of it at the White House website. If you really want to torture yourself you can listen to the cable news noise channels and what the many pundits believe the speech really meant.

Whatever you decide to do, hopefully you have a very good day.

Rain!

IN SOME PARTS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - Holy jumping Jesus, it actually rained late Sunday night into Monday morning in some parts of Southern California. It was a very light rain, but it was rain nonetheless.

It will probably be the closest we have to any kind of rain for awhile, and so hopefully you enjoyed it.

California is headed into a very horrible drought, and so this little mist of rain was really nothing. 

To recap this news, precipitation has fallen from the skies and landed on various streets throughout Los Angeles and Orange County, and possibly causing minor inconvenience.

This is otherwise called something that should happen during winter time.  

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2014

LOS ANGELES - Today, January 27, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. If this is the first you are hearing of it, well, you probably are not alone. This is a rather new remembrance day as this day came about following a resolution after a special United Nations session held in 2005, which the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust. 

This otherwise came about following UN Resolution 60/7, which urges every U.N. member nation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide.

Perhaps you have some new people in your life and they are at that age where they need to start understanding some not-so-pleasant moments in our history, or maybe you still need to figure out what this was all about (it is a lot for even the best of scholars to attempt to wrap their head around). Well, if you have a moment during the day, or perhaps sometime during the week, please go to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

Aside from the unique aspect of the museum the L.A. Museum of the Holocaust is the oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, or so they claim. Whatever the case may be it is a very important place to visit as they have an impressive research center and library, and in 2010 the museum moved into a new building at Pan Pacific Park.

On the note of the library and research center, if you are searching for a family member, or curious if you had a family member if lost in this obscene tragedy, this museum is a wonderful resource to track down lost family members.  

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
100 S The Grove Drive (Across the street from The Grove at Pan Pacific Park between Beverly Boulevard and 3rd Street)
Los Angeles  90036
Dial (323) 651-3704  

Museum hours are:
Monday through Thursday: 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 
Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Along these same lines another important place you should go to at some point, especially if you have never been, is the Museum of Tolerance, which is run in conjunction with the the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

There is a lot of injustice here in Southern California and in the world, and if you maybe want to try to help these are two good places to start.

On this day take a moment, please, to remember what happened then, and to remember what is still going on in the world today.

Go To This Thursday: L.A. Art Book Fair

DOWNTOWN L.A. - Barnes and Noble may be dying, and Borders is long dead, but books are not dead, much less art books, or zines, or the independent publisher, and especially the independent bookstore owner, and proving this point that books are still alive and will never, ever die is the 2014 L.A. Art Book Fair.

Opening this Thursday at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Downtown Los Angeles the L.A. Art Book Fair will feature, according to the press release, "a unique event for artists’ books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines presented by over 250 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers."

If you love the arts, love the independent press, and love Los Angeles, then go to this on Thursday.

Expect to see, according to MOCA, "Featured projects include a Queer Zines Exhibition curated by Philip Aarons and AA Bronson, The Classroom series of talks and lectures curated by David Senior, K-CHUNG Radio with live coverage of - and broadcast from - the fair, and a number of special project rooms. In addition, MOCAtv and the LA Art Book Fair team up to bring you a series of curated screenings, panels, and performances by some of our favorite artists and performers, and the CABC comes, for the first time, to the west coast for a one-day conference."

Of course if you cannot make it Thursday to the opening the show runs at MOCA through Sunday.

Hopefully this will inspire you to support the arts, or perhaps have your very own zine or printing press. Or maybe just a little bit of both.

Other highlights of the weekend show include, We Want to Talk About Feminism, Laura Owens in conversation with Wendy Yao, FEAR, by Karl Haendel Belvedere, by David Hartt, Johan Kugelberg, Suppose and a Pair of Jeans, by Anna Sew Hoy, and XE(ROX) & PAPER + SCISSORS, among others.

There will also be a lot of people signing their books at this event, too.

Here is a complete list of events.

If you have been wondering, "how can I support the locals arts, and crazy zine makers, and all these indie bookstore owners," well, this is your answer, and so go to the L.A. Art Book Fair and help support part of what makes Southern California great.

Here is something really cool about all the L.A. Art Book Fair, it is free! So go!

Cannot make it Thursday for the opening, well you have until Sunday. 

The 2014 L.A. Art Book Fair.

Opening: Thursday, January 30, 6–9 pm
Friday, January 31, 11 am-5 pm
Saturday, February 1, 11 am–6 pm
Sunday, February 2, 12 pm–6 pm  

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles 90012
Dial (213) 626-6222
Moca.org

Free free to take The Gold Line to the show.

The After Party!

What would a good show be without an after party, and there is quite an after party MOCA and Burger Records have planned.

The L.A. Art Book Fair will be presenting the L.A. Art Book Fair After Party at The Church on York on February 1. Over there and up there on York Boulevard will be performances by Colleen Green, La Luz, White Fang, and Wyatt Blair.

So go!