About Highland Park's Northeast Los Angeles

The intersection of Aldama Street and Milwaukee Avenue in Highland Park is primarily a residential area, a mix of apartment buildings and modest single family homes.

There are, however, two small mom-and-pop style markets on Aldama. The larger of the two markets is Los Paisanos on the corner of Milwaukee and Aldama.

Until recently, Los Paisanos was painted white, and its owners, the Antonios, state it was often a target for graffiti vandals.

Then, in an effort to combat the tagging, the Antonios contracted with ALZA for a paint job and his trademark graffiti style signage. Whatever else can be said of ALZa, young taggers do seem to leave his artworks alone.

Here is the ALZA job, complete with a "Wild Style" tag message along the side of the building. (More about Wild Style Grafitti here, heck, you can even buy Wild Style fonts for your computer)

A neighbor in the area complained to the City about the new signage.

The city of L.A. ordered it painted over. The Antonios state the street- variety taggers have returned.

Local media has taken up the Antonio's cause

Read the Los Angeles Times story by Steve Lopez here

Here's the KABC-TV story

Local bloggers, walterrrrr and El Chavo, are not exactly ALZA fans, and are less sympathic.

Me? One of the remarkable things about being an "older woman" is that one can get away with a shrug and a sigh. It is what it is. :-)

The Churches of NorthEast LA present:

PEACE in the NorthEast Community March and Resource Fair

Saturday, August 16 10a-5p

Gather: 10:00am Highland Park Senior Center,

March: 11:00am

just below

Resource Fair: 12:00noon - 5:00pm Victory Outreach

http://www.myspace.com/peaceinthene

Lead by the Churches of NorthEast LA the community will meet to march against violence in the streets. The march is down

York Blvd to

and then down

to the Resource Fair. Snacks and bottled water will be served at the staging area. Bottled water will be available along the march route. Along with the Resource Fair there will be free food and Jarritos, live and DJ music and a Mini Car Show.

Continue reading "Reminder: PEACE in the NorthEast Community March and Resource Fair" »

The 100 Dollar Sale

- A fundraiser for Avenue 50 Studio -

Frank Romero, 2008 silkscreen

One-of-a-kind small works by established and up-coming artists:

Abel Alejandre, Linda Arreola, Chaz Bojorquez, Kay Brown, Irene Carranza, Peter Carrillo, Mita Cuaron, Raoul De La Sota, Judith Duran, Margaret Garcia, Pat Gomez, CiCi Segura Gonzalez, Daniel Gonzalez,Yolanda Gonzalez, Emelda Gutierrez, Roberto Gutierrez, Cidne Hart, Kevin Hass, Peter Hess, Leo Limon, Jose Lozano, Don Newton, Poli Marichal, Kathy Mas-Gallegos, Stephanie Mercado, Andres Montoya, Howard Swerdloff, Frank Romero, Sonia Romero, Victor Rosas, Herbert Siguenza, Hector Silva, Richard Valdes, Linda Vallejo, J. Michael Walker, Barry Wolfred & many others

Opening event: Saturday, August 16, 2008 from 7-10 pm

*all proceeds will benefit the Avenue 50 Studio as it rebuilds its operations

Avenue 50 Studio, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit art gallery
131 North Avenue 50
Highland Park, CA 90042
323-258-1435

http://www.avenue50studio.com

Saturday, August 16, 2008 starting at 7:00 pm

-- A fundraiser for the Avenue 50 Studio featuring one-of-a-kind small works by established and up-coming artists:

Abel Alejandre, Linda Arreola, Chaz Bojorquez, Karen Bonfigli, Kay Brown, Irene Carranza, Peter Carrillo, Mita Cuaron, Raoul De la Sota, Judith Duran, Kathy Mas-Gallegos, Margaret Garcia, Cidne Hart, Kevin Hass, Salomon Huerta, Pat Gomez, CiCi Segura Gonzalez, Yolanda Gonzalez, Emelda Gutierrez, Roberto Gutierrez, Peter Hess, Leo Limon, Jose Lozano, Don Newton, Poli Marichal, Stephanie Mercado, Andres Montoya, Jose Orozco, Howard Swerdloff, Frank Romero, sonia romero, Victor Rosas, Herbert Siguenza, Hector Silva, Richard Valdes, Linda Vallejo, J. Michael Walker, Barry Wolfred & many others....................

August 16 through September 6, 2008

Saturday, August 23, 2008 starting at 7:00 pm

The Black/Brown Dialogues: Inspiration House PoetryChoir Curated by Peter J. Harris, artistic director, Inspiration House

Featuring Music by: Maria Elena Gaitan, cello; Nailah, vocals; Curtis Robertson, Jr., guitar; & Spoken Word by: Peter J. Harris; Amalia Ortiz; Bryan Sanders

Saturday, August 23, 2008 starting at 7:00 pm

This event is the third of four Inspiration House PoetryChoir events and is free to the public

The Black/Brown Dialogues are supported in part by the Ford Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Southwest Airlines through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts

First, let it be said that Los Angeles is a city of murals. And Angelinos love their local murals.

In Highland Park, Mexico-Tenochtitlan "The Wall That Talks", is one of the largest, and one of the most striking murals.

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA) sets the date of its creation as 1996. If you'd have asked me, I've have said it's been there for 25 or 30 years. It is a fixture.

In recent years, however, "The Wall That Talks" has been marred by taggers.

And then along came ALZA. ALZA is a traveling sign painter. He sells local small business owners on the idea of creating signage for their businesses in a spray painted, grafitti style. EL CHAVO has documented some of ALZA's work here.

The thing about ALZA, he adds a little philosophy to many of his signs. Good, solid philosophy that you really can't argue with. Philosophy such as: "live to learn, learn 2 live", "respect your hood", and "art is the key".

ALZA decide to take matters into his own hands at "The Wall That Talks". He inscribed his message right on the mural. "Don't you care? Act like you care."

Waltrrrrr is enraged, and rightfully so. On, the one hand, I am also enraged, but, on the other hand, I sense ALZA's message in some strange way seems to belong there.