Spring is here and time to show your faces!

With Dolores Huerta

So many things are happening the next few months.  I do a lot of work for some great non profits and this is the time of the year they are planning or hosting their annual fund raising events.

GLAD (Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc.) will be rockin’ on June 5^th at the House of Blues, hosting their 9^th Annual GLAD Benefit Extravaganza.  This year the event is a little different than in past years… an evening event, rather than the their typical Sunday Brunch.  Rachel Braver, Director of Public Relations has once again rolled up her sleeves and along with the generous help from hair stylist to the stars– Ken Paves, this years all star cast that includes actresses Eva Longoria, Marlee Martlin, and music sensation Jody Stevenson, promises to be an event not to miss! The lose of hearing or being born deaf is hard for many of us to imagine.  Our deaf and hard of hearing community needs your support.  If you able to attend great!  If you are able to provide a corporate sponsorship, or know anyone who might be able to, please contact GLAD at 323/478-8000. 

Dolores Huerta with Fr. Richard Estrada

 

 

Dr. Gabriel Buelna and Ronn Savala

Councilman Jose Huizar

On March 31^st we helped celebrate Cesar Chavez Day with Plaza Community Services.  Dr. Gabriel Buenla and his staff hosted an afternoon of food, music and education at their 1^st Street work training facility.  Community members of the Boyle Heights area took advantage of Plaza’s hospitality and were graced with the presence of labor union icon Dolores Huerta.  Ms. Huerta was gracious enough to sign posters of Cesar Chavez (provided by Diversity Graphics) as well as pose with community members for pixs.  Also in attendance was Coucilman Jose Huizar (Los Angeles District 14) and Father Richard Estrada. Children were treated to face painting, hands on planting of various seeds amongst other activities.  The staff kept busy grilling hot dogs and demonstrating their new “Mobile Workshop” which provides job training and job searches for those in need.

Lucien Fiiyer-Smith & Ms. Maiya Sykes

Lucien Fiiyer-Smith & Annmarie Macy

Colombo's Italian Steakhouse and Jazz Club was rocking in the month of March.  Tony Lunn, Irene Diaz and the fabulous Maiya Sykes with the Endangered brought some fresh new music to Eagle Rock.  Colombo’s (if you haven’t been there) is a great place to hang if you want some good food and great music.  Vic Parrino has is a true supporter of the Eagle Rock community.  He is part of what makes Eagle Rock a great place to live! 

PMS Sisters!

Spa day was held once again.  This time we were treated to have some fabulous women.  To our surprise the women who booked the event were members of Casa0101.  The PMS sisters! Miriam Peniche and Blanca Melchor kept Ronn Savala and I laughing for hours!!!  Myself, I think I gave them some pretty good ideas for some future material… I hope they give me credit damn it : )~  I told them next them they come to bring handsome Adrian Gonzalez, of course he will only be eye candy as I am married!

May is National Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), officially proclaimed "Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month" by President Barack Obama, is a celebration of the culture, traditions, and history of Asians Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Congress passed a joint Congressional Resolution in 1978 to commemorate Asian American Heritage Week during the first week of May. This date was chosen because two important anniversaries occurred during this time: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in America on May 7, 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad (by many Chinese laborers) on May 10, 1869. In 1990 Congress voted to expand it from a week to a month long celebration and in May 1992, the month of May was permanently designated as “Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.”

You can purchase Diversity Graphics 2011 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month poster for $5.00 each.  Visit www.diversitygraphics.com.

Well that’s it for now, enough Chisme until next time.

Peace

Election Time!

It’s time to elect (re-elect) our local leaders here in the City of the Angeles. We live in District 14 which cover Eagle Rock, Boyle Heights, Mt. Washington, El Serreno and parts of Highland Park . . . Mostly Latino households and many Mom and Pop businesses.

The race for Councilman has just two names on the ballet. I guess the average Joe no longer finds it in her/his interest to represent a pretty progressive group of communities. Maybe it’s the cost, maybe it’s the lack of interest, maybe our local community leaders just are burnt out. I don’t know, but its upsetting that we are given just two choices. So tomorrow March 8th your gonna either vote for the incumbent José Huizar or his challenger Rudy Martínez.

I haven’t decided who to vote for and that’s a first as I usually have made up my mind months ahead of time. Huizar hasn’t really done an earth shaking job. This have been done during his term(s) but nothing to write home about. Martínez is a good businessman, but not having the experience in politics concerns me, you can run a successful business but City Hall is a whole other game. Maybe next race we will have some really good candidates that will want the voter to go out and vote!

School board District 5 race is a whole other story. You got several candidates and two of them who might be in a run off. You have the politically back Luis Sanchez which offers us nothing more than same stamp of approval that sits currently on the Board and UTLA backed classroom leader Bennett Kayser. No brainer here, I am voting for Mr. Kayser for the sole reason that if we keep on electing the same old same old, NOTHING CHANGES! Enough is enough, let’s put some fresh blood on that board! I found this funny video on YouTube of Mr. Sanchez….



Now for the fun… On February 25th my fab friend Ms. Jenny Lens invited Ronn Savala and I to her exhibit of California Punk photos over at the Subliminal Projects Studio in Echo Park. The event entitled “Too Fast to Live, To Young to Die… selctions from California Punk and featured other works (besides Ms. Lens) BY EDWARD COLVER, SHEPARD FAIREY, GLEN E. FRIEDMAN, DAVE MARKEY, RAYMOND PETTIBON, JORDAN SCHWARTZ, WINSTON SMITH was a hit!

SHEPARD FAIREY and JENNY LENS real crowd pleasers!

What a nite! Ronn and I came early as Jenny Lens was kind enough to put us on her VIP list. It was a rainy nite and the crowd was many. Because we were let in 1 hour before the opening we got to see much of the exhibit. They had a wall covered with Xerox copies of band fliers (just like the old days before fancy inexpensive printing). And the music DJ’s by Mr. Shepard Fairey made for fun memories. One of my favorite actresses, Drew Barrymore was in the crowd. She bought a pix of Joan Jertt and Lita Ford from Jenny Lens (good pick Drew!). Of course I had to take advantage of the Kodak moment so enjoy the pics!

Myself and Ms. Drew Barrymore!

The girl with the Camera Eye Jenny Lens, Drew Barrymore and a Ramone

New friend Kelly Flint sporting one of the fliers from the wall. BTW she has a fab hair do!

Jenny Lens and Rom Savala enjoying a cold one!

Super Chingona and woman about town, Josefina Lopez will be celebrating her 42n birthday on March 18th… Happy B-Day Josefina!

My neighbor Tony Lunn and his trio are playing at Colombo’s Italian Steakhouse and Jazz Club on Saturday, March 12th. Their set begins at 9:30 pm. His music is inspiring so I hope you get a chance to catch his show.

Finally, March is National Women's History Month... you can purchase my poster from Diversity Graphics and join the celebration!

2011... The Year of Success!

Christmas Day. Our friend Irene Diaz and Seung Park stopped by to meet Ricardo and Cita. They are going to be working on a project and this was the perfect time for them to meet each other as it’s rare for everyone to be in the same place at the same time! You can tell by the smile that Ronn Savala had a good time!


Starting out the New Year was not fun. I had caught a cold on December 30t and lasting until November 6th, so ringing in the new year was not a happening this year only a warm blanket and lots of Nyquil oh the joy.

December was very busy, more busy than years past. Work flow was good spent lots of time with friends and family. Since my birthday is in December (the 17th) usually there is the lunches and dinners but this year I wanted my friends to join me and do something different. It was perfect timing this year as Josefina Lopez and her troop were putting on their annual “PMS Sisters” extravaganza!

If you never ventured over to Casa0101 located in the heart of Boyle Heights, well your missing some pretty good local talent. P.M.S. “The Pinche Mentirosa Sisters” in “Kiss my Mistletoe” is just one of many plays put on last year by Ms. Lopez and her crew. P.M.S. is a fast-paced theatrical comedy featuring vignettes that unabashedly tackle society’s taboos and celebrates the camaraderie of women.

Staring and written by Josefina Lopez, Miriam Peniche, April Ibarra, Blanca Melchor, with the participation of Adrian Gonzalez and directed by Hector Rodriguez. P.M.S. once again had us rolling in laughter and leaving the show with big smiles. Next time the gang brings out the P.M.S. gang make it a point to get your bootie over Casa0101.

After the show Josefina was kind enough to invite us to her after-party-xmas party just down the street from the venue. There we eat, drank and all had a festive jolly good time. I usually am in bed by 9:00 but this was my special evening and having had such a great time at the play, it was a pleasure to be amongst the cast and guest of Casa0101. Dancing into the nite I got my weekly shot of exercise. At one point the DJ span “Dancing Queen” at which point I noticed Josefina dancing away and decided to show her what a real dancing queen dances like!

A few days before x-mas our gang got together here in Eagle Rock to make some Tamales! This time of year never goes by without us getting down and dirty in the process it takes to make them delicious corn meal delights! Ruthie from Buena Vista Furniture had to be the chingona of course, nothing will be done unless she has the final OK. So I thought we were going to do them on a Friday, so I got everything ready… no one came so I put everything away then I get a phone call from Ms. Buena Vista telling me it was Monday… Ayi Dios.

Monday, Eagle Rock, California 9:00 a.m. I am waiting for the ladies to call/come by. I had all my meats prepared, my masa ready to go, my olives, my drinks…everything. Time kept ticking, ticking, then I get a phone call from Sandra Ponche asking if Ruthie was there, I told her no and it’s now 1:30… so she called and so on and so forth and finally Juana Medina shows up at 3:00! The first of many who eventually got her. So the group was all together by 5:00 and we started tamaling away.

Needless to say, making Tamales this year with an all women crew was a lot of fun and I can’t wait till next year to do it all again… this time I will trick them with them time so they get it right!

Christmas Eve. This year was different than most as it’s the first time I was not with my whole family for many, many, years. My sister Rosa moved with her family and my mother to Buckeye, Arizona a few years ago. Last year we drove there, this year because of the rain we all stayed home. My sister Alice and my nephew Richard though were here and come over to enjoy the Tamale eating and drink. Joining us were Cita and Ricardo our two musically gifted and stars of “La Victima”, and our very, very good friend Steve Rodriguez. It was a fun nite as we sat around and enjoyed enough other’s conversation and had some damned good food.

Christmas Day. Our friend Irene Diaz and Seung Park stopped by to meet Ricardo and Cita. They are going to be working on a project and this was the perfect time for them to meet each other as it’s rare for everyone to be in the same place at the same time!

After some chatting we all ventured into the van and headed over to Clifton’s for some good ole Christmas Day breakfast. Pancakes and sausage, Menudo, Chilicillias, eggs, food, food, food!!! Well it was worth the extra pounds. Downtown is so beautiful and it was nice to spend Christmas morning there with friends.

Well as I opened with, New Years I was down with a cold. I am concentrating on finishing up projects, starting new projects and making 2011 a joyful, healthy and successful one. So here’s to the New Year. May we all find peace and success!

Finally, February is National Black History Month...

Black History Month is an annual observance in February, celebrating the past and present achievements of African Americans. In February 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, proposed the establishment of "Negro History Week" to honor the history and contributions of African Americans to American life. Dr. Woodson, known as the "Father of Black History", chose the second week of February because it commemorates the birthdays of two men who greatly affected the African American community: Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). Negro History Week became Black History Week in the early 1970's. In 1976, the week-long observance was expanded to a month in honor of the nation's bicentennial.

Black History Month is sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The Association was founded in 1915 by Dr. Carter Woodson--historian, teacher, author and publisher. Each year the Association designates the national theme for Black History Month. In 2011, the association's theme is "African Americans and the Civil War” in honor of the efforts of people of African descent to destroy slavery and inaugurate universal freedom in the United States.

Please visit Diversity Graphics and browse through our website and select the many materials that will help your business, school, place of work, or organization celebrate Black History Month!

Diversity Graphics National Black History Month Poster [BP11] 13" x 19" poster are $5.00 each.