Let's All Stand And Deliver For A Moment of Silence

Let's All Stand And Deliver For A Moment of Silence

One of my ex's who was from West Virginia had a film that touched a chord with her because of her roots. The movie was October Sky and it did so because it was about the story of how a West Virginia group of kids, who weren't expected to grow up to be nothing more than coal miners in the local coal miners defied the odds and became rocket scientist who ended up working at NASA.

It's a nice story and it does take the route of the whole cheering for the underdogs or those who seem to have lost all hope of ever changing their predicament in life. Besides that, it had my youthful doppelganger Jake Gyllenhaal in it. So perhaps since I get told the Donnie Darko bullshit often enough and I have my hair typically combed in that 1950's classic look, it doesn't help this case.



I can relate to this because I have my own "expected to achieve nothing but against all odds advances and surprises everyone" local story. That is, Stand and Deliver. It happened in my own back yard, after all. This is the story of Jaime Escalante who was teaching at Garfield High school. This school right in my back yard growing up and is one of the schools I could have gone to.

Mr. Escalante took a group of students who's school didn't even have the books to teach a Calculus class, and these folks weren't expected to go anywhere in life, and got them to pass with honors. Then after they passed the test the students were accused of cheating because they passed it all too well. Now this is just me getting all down with my brown self, but of course it was because they were from a poor ass school and were never given a chance. They retook the test and still passed. Jaime Escalante give them the Ganas to believe they can achieve such things.

Well, yesterday Jaime Escalante died.

The California maths teacher who inspired the film Stand And Deliver, Jaime Escalante, has died aged 79.

Escalante, a Bolivian immigrant, transformed a tough high school in Los Angeles by motivating struggling students to excel at maths and science.

The school had more students studying advanced calculus than all but three other state schools in the US.

Escalante died in Reno, Nevada, where he was undergoing treatment for bladder cancer, AP news agency reported.

Edward James Olmos played Escalante in the 1988 film Stand And Deliver.

Olmos said Escalante had proved that inner city students were able to perform at the highest level, and left an important legacy for American education, AP said.

And before you have the chance to say it.. yes, I strangled him and his body's decomposing in my locker, ese.


I strangled him and his body's decomposing in my locker.

The story of Jamie should be one that every teach should take to heart. In one of his last interviews he said this about teaching.

"Believe, believe. Believe in your kids. They will surprise you."

Just listen to the guy.



I like him for the sole reason that he illustrates how terrible the majority of the teachers are. Everyone was failing that high school, finally a good teacher shows up, they pass, he leaves the school and everyone starts failing again. It's sad but true. The Garfield High math program floundered after Escalante left in 1991 for a teaching job in Sacramento, California.

"One of the greatest things you have in life is that no one has the authority to tell you what you want to be. You’re the one who’ll decide what you want to be. Respect yourself and respect the integrity of others as well. The greatest thing you have is your self image, a positive opinion of yourself. You must never let anyone take it from you."

He's the perfect example of how a teacher should be and if you're going into that profession, you should take a few notes from him. Inspire and expect more of your kids. Believe in what they can do even though the odds are strong against them.

There will be no free rides, no excuses. You already have two strikes against you: your name and your complexion. Because of those two strikes, there are some people in this world who will assume that you know less than you do. *Math* is the great equalizer... When you go for a job, the person giving you that job will not want to hear your problems; ergo, neither do I. You're going to work harder here than you've ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you is *ganas.* *Desire.*

It's common knowledge that teachers don't get the respect they really deserve in our society. The pay level is pretty abysmal. So for someone to take the job that is otherwise thankless and to put that much of yourself into it should be respected and commended on.



So if you will, take a moment and think about the teachers that changed your life and actually told you something you retained or changed your view on education. Let's make a moment of silence that will also be lumped together with Jamie Escalante..

What A Linda Vista....

What A Linda Vista....

That translates to "Beautiful View" to all you non-spanish speaking folks. And if you're in Los Angeles I just have to ask one thing, why don't you speak the language? But no, there's nothing beautiful about this view. It's more of a scary thing.. as in Ghost stories.

I would normally save this sort of thing for the October time frame of blogs, but maybe I'll bump it up again later so it hold some seasonal theme or something. The main reason why I wrote about this now is that there was some Ghost Adventures episode about this place. Hmm, perhaps you should watch some of it in order to get the point of reference. Here you go;









Boy, wont this blog post look silly when and if Youtube ever takes those segmented clips of Ghost Adventures off their site. Whoops, there wont even be a ghost of them left behind to yell at them like they do on the show.

But it does lead to a couple of questions. First off, is the guy a moron? How can you be serving South Central Gang members when the hospital is located in EAST Los Angeles. South Central has its own closed hospital; King/Drew Medical center which has been closed for a while now.



You see, I actually have been into Linda Vista. Many times, actually. I was the first to post a review about the place on Yelp. Suffice to say that this place is really creepy and it's about 5 minutes away from me. I would often go into there for urban exploration. Those broiler room and insinuators were still down there and looked as if they weren't ever cleaned out. The file room was covered with full patient records. It really was one hell of a creepy place to be... but it was in EAST L.A. and not in SOUTH CENTRAL! God damn it.

On a side note, a lot of television shows were filmed here and still are filmed here. It's a very popular location for a lot of movies to use this as an exterior shot and the pilot episode of E.R. was filmed here. I had a couple of gigs in here and I have known other people who had to work there for a couple of days on various productions. All of them have agreed that there's clearly some unearthly feeling in the place.



My advice is that anyone who lives in the Los Angeles area, you should make it a point to come out to this place at least once in your life in your stay in this fine city. It's really a trip to see this building still standing and a couple of years ago it was going to be taken down to build condos. Imagine how fucked up it would have been to live in one of these "high end" condos that would have been built on literally ghost turf. Now that would be some scary shit right there.

So there you have it. Linda Vista. Through the eyes of some morons on some Ghost Hunting show and through someone who grew up not more than 10 minutes away from this place.

Riot In The Streets

Riot In The Streets

April 29, 1992, there was a riot in the streets - where were you? I can tell you where I was. I was in school in East Los Angeles. My 12 year old ass wasn't sure what the fuck was going on. I wasn't in the heart of it all. I can see smoke from my house though. That was a trip. I can't say I was all that old to really remember it all. Even then, I may not recall a lot of my childhood but the day that the riots broke out, I for sure damn remember.

What caused this? The easy answer would be that four police officers who were charged with a beating a black motorist where acquitted of their crime and people went ballistic over this whole thing. Civil unrest broke out and for days the streets of Los Angeles were a war zone.



In all actuality this tension was there for years in the LAPD with their abuse of power and clear signs of racism. It only took a spark to ignite such a race war. The economic situation and friction between minority groups all around South Central didn't help in getting all this going.

Rodney King was beaten and the city saw it fit to release the officers. Can I say that no blame lays on King for this? No. I can't. But I don't think for a second that anyone deserves to get beat by the fuckin' cops. So when they were let off on charges there was a full blown riot that blew out.

L.A. Riots Video

Utterly insanity unfolding

The madness that unfolded over the course of those five days can't even be taken in even 17 years later. Whole city blocks went up in flames. People were carjacked as if it was some precurser to Grand Theft Auto 3. People of various colors were taken out of their car and beaten. The most famous of these folks beaten was a single driver just passing through at the wrong place on the wrong time. Reginald Denny at the now famous intersection of Florence and Normandie.

Things got so bad that the National Guard had to show up and try to maintain control. Crewfews and other preventive measures were taken. When it was all said and done over 1,000 buildings were destroyed, 10,000 people were arrested, $1 billion in damages were caused and this simple NOT GUILTY cost 53 people their lives.

Wll, I guess I can be silly after all. Here. Enjoy NPH's take on what happened during the riots in the classic episode of Doogie Howser M.D.

Joking aside, here's to hoping that sight isn't seen any time ever again.

I'm not saying police are bad people. Anyone could grow a power trip after enough time. Hell, I know a lot of great cops. Doesn't change the fact that most police are poorly-paid ignorant wage slaves employed as thugs by the same system that keeps them lower-middle-class. Fuck the police for the opression they are ordered to help bring down, you have every right to NOT like them. But at the same time, don't hate them for being accidental pawns.

To Live And Die In (The City of) L.A.

To Live And Die In (The City of) L.A.

L.A is a strange place. It has a lot of wide variety of places. Some high brow, some not so much and a bit south. Me, I'm in East L.A. I wasn't actually born there. I was spewed into this world on Sunset across the Scientology building. I suppose that explains why I'm such a strange person.

I did grow up in East L.A. though and somehow managed to come out of it alive and relatively upstanding. So it can't be all that bad. Well, I guess it can. But it's what you make of it. I don't think something is entirely the product of their environment. Besides, what if instead of an incorporated part of Los Angeles, East L.A. was actually an actual city?



The L.A. Times usually doesn't report much good, but they are Reporting that East L.A. wants to become a city.

East Los Angeles is proudly known as the community that sparked a Mexican American civil rights movement, gave birth to Los Lobos and jump-started low-rider car culture.

But for all its notoriety and close-knit feel, East L.A. has never been a city. Rather, it's an unincorporated area governed by the county Board of Supervisors.

But on Friday, the community took a major step toward gaining independence. County officials announced that backers had gathered enough signatures for the cityhood process to formally begin.

Boosters hope residents will cast ballots on the question in 2010. First, a major study has to confirm what a much smaller, earlier study asserted: that the neighborhood of 140,000 can sustain itself economically as what would be L.A. County's 10th-largest city.

On Friday, supporters who were gathered along Whittier Boulevard said they were confident of victory, even as they prepared to go door to door to raise $100,000 to pay for the study.

"We the people of East L.A. have not only stood up, but we have delivered," said state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), referring to the movie "Stand and Deliver," which was set at East L.A.'s Garfield High School. "What a vibrant community, what a vibrant city East L.A. can be."

Calling the neighborhood an internationally known "icon" of Latino culture, Romero said that with the Gold Line rail extension coming soon, the time is now for East L.A. to become a city and control its own destiny.

Now you're probably confused by all this. Don't worry, L.A. is full of strange Cities and Non-cities. Growing up here you'd still be hard pressed to know what exactly is a city and what isn't.
Santa Monica - City
Studio City - Not a city
Burbank - City
Panorama city - NOT a city
City of Industry - City
East Pasadena - Not a city
Pasadena - City
Culver City - City
Silver Lake - City

So you see, it's very strange what exactly is considered a City and what isn't.



The History of Los Angeles is pretty interesting. This was once a Jewish community. In fact, you can still find the remains of the Jewish culture all around between taco trucks and other ethnic areas. Unlike Israel, it seems that the Jews don't want East L.A. back.

How do I feel about this? Well, I would be up for it only if East Los can actually support itself. We don't have any sort of major shopping area that isn't some Mexican mercado. I'm not sure how well tourism will be other than to visit the Cheech and Chong historic museum or come for a day of the dead celebration. As long as the Police force stays as good as they are, I'll be happy. Why am I all of a sudden interested in the health of the police state? Well, that's a long story that caused my Saturday night to feel like I was a character out of Gran Torino.


Don't get me a big button phone. ggggrrrrrr

You see, my Saturday night was going pretty well. Getting some downtime and just relaxing, it was a nice change from the long work hours. Some time to write and hell, I wrote a lot of pieces which will be up during the coming weeks. The last thing I expected I would be doing was getting into an altercation with some taggers.

My place.... has been a constant state of fixing, It's a fixer-upper and has been that way for some time, but that's a blog for another time. There's already a lot of ground to cover in this story alone so I'll save the construction and constant improvement on it for another blog when I can bore you to tears.



Around 1:40 I heard a thump on my window. I wasn't sure what the hell was going on. I walk out to the living room and I see a backwards S go up through the window. I turn on the lights and bang on the door to scare them away. I have enough common sense to not jump out there and get into it, right? After that they seem to go away and I go out there with my windex, past experience has taught me that if you get it on the graffiti quick enough, it comes off with ease. The cops were called by this point so they can come and do their rounds around the neighborhood.

I open the door and sure enough, taggers are just slightly down the street tagging the curb. Fuckin' kids these days. I felt like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.

I'm no hero. I was just trying to get that babbling spics off my lawn!

They see me and yell "Get back inside, you pussy!" Which I suppose in hindsight wasn't the best time to yell about them tagging on my window. But even more so that once they responded with "I got a gun, nigga! You want to die?" I'm not sure in calling his bluff because really, if you have a gun, you let the gun do the talking and actually pull it out without ever having to mention having one. So my "You're going to shoot someone over graffiti? Fucking morons." wasn't the best course of action but I was pissed off.


Worthless fucks!

Well, the two morons were odd and even. The more sensible one was trying to get the douche bag to get going. Like any tagger would when they see someone looking. You run. How hard is that? Well, douche bag starts running towards me, I back up and get into the apartment again and close the door. Douche bag starts banging on the door calling me a pussy. I hear the sensible one talk the douche bag to walk away and I hear them walk some. I open the door to check to see how far they are and sure enough, they aren't that far away. Douche bag comes running at me but this time I can't close the door in time. He's literally pushing his way inside, drops his spray can, I kick it inside.. why? I have no idea and I grab the Darth maul lightsaber that has been sitting next to the door waiting to be tossed out for a while now and start beating him with this this toy.

"Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have mess with? That's me."

Yes. You heard that right. I was beating him up with a lightsaber. He lets go of the door and I slam it close and lock it. I think this is the end of it and it seems like the sensible one is actually getting him to walk away. No dice. I hear constant "Where's my spray can!", "Where the fuck is my spray can?" answered by "I'll buy you a new one, dawg." Douche bag comes back and bashes on the door more. This time kicking in the glass panel on the door. Thankfully the doors backing was boarded up from a while back as I need a new door. He kicks the door constantly to the point that the bottom locking was jolted.


Seriously scary shit.

Slams on the door more and then bashes on the window kicking through it. By this point they've done too much damage and start walking away. I still maintain hope that the cops show up in time to see all this and I jump out when their a "safe" distance away. Keeping them in yelling distance. Douche bag acts like he's coming back for more and I pick up a shard of the broken glass and he stops in his tracks and they start walking away leaving me with such lovely parting words.

The thing that haunts a guy is the stuff he wasn't ordered to do

All through this I felt like Walt Kowalski. And if you don't know who he is, you must be an Oscar voter since you fucks snubbed Gran Torino badly. Cops eventually show up a couple of minutes later, take down my report and then they ask me if I can identify them. Sure enough, they had two squad cars converge on the area and find them. I jump into the back of the car and they take me to an impromptu line up and I remember them since they were double bladed lightsaber distance away from me.


Shattered nights.

I'm given the DA slip for whatever case they are going to pursue on them. A couple of felony charges and hopefully they're going to be spending a good time in the can. I spent the morning putting up boards to cover up the damage and start the whole process of fixing the place up. In hindsight, this whole situation could have gone far worse. Seriously though.. What the fuck was I thinking being out there?

Time and time again, we hear about well-intentioned people being murdered when they speak up against someone doing graffiti. Case in point, it happened again this week in Hollywood.

"Based on preliminary information, detectives believe that Perez saw gang members vandalizing property with graffiti," the LAPD said in a statement. "Perez decided to confront the gang members about the graffiti. In an apparent response to the comments about the graffiti, one gang member pulled out a gun and fired into the car killing Perez and injuring his passenger."

We hear this from police at community meetings all the time. If you see someone tagging, don't hesitate, it's a 911 call.

Perhaps opening the door to peak out only to follow it up with smacking him with a toy lightsaber... maybe not my finest moment. But who among us can say they ever did that with a lightsaber toy?

Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age

Later the officer told me that if they rolled up when that was going down they would have beaten the shit out of the guy. The humanitarian in me wants to think that it would have been wrong of them. The victim in me would have been all for it.


Eat your heart out, Starwars kid!

I just remembered that there is bug spray near the door that I got at CVS for free after some sale. I really wish I thought of that shit before. Seriously. Nothing like a blind tagger walking the streets at night.

It's rather interesting though. The amount of choices I made in a quick matter of time at night. I really needed a stiff drink when it was all said and done and I really needed to calm my nerves. Hell, since I already marked out as a geek, I might as well go the full tilt. After last night I think I earned a couple of Green Lantern rings.

Red - Rage
Green - Willpower
Yellow - Fear


"I'm used to going out at 3AM and doing something stupid."

Indeed...