The Bus Bench

Easter Egg Hunt for New Transit Ways

Last Wednesday, Pam from Santa Monica wasted our hump-day lunchtimes with pleas to give unpaid ideas about transit funding (while those wasting the money in the first place were content to sit back and plan for more ways to waste public monies, eh, Roger Snoble?) even as she granted we little people naught but canned answers and ludicrous excuses. Thanks, Pam; feel free to stay in Santa Monica next time, seeing as you have too little time to offer Metro between your SM city council agenda and the occasional month in Australia.

Anyhow, this weekend I were invited to pop over and help hunt Easter Eggs. being a person of considerable impatience, I elected to accept the invitation as well as introduce a scheme to just get through with it. (I found out that the kids—and especially their parents!—did not shar emy appreciation for using a backhoe to find easter Eggs.) Along the way, I realised that, just as it will be an emergency thoroughfare for military ground forces should a county-wide crisis occur that renders inoperable the infrastructure, the L.A. River is a viable alternative to the Freeways as well as where the trains do not run and the buses no longer run.

 

(Cheers to Browne for being on-hand with the little cam!)

Boyle Hotel Goes to The Birds. . .

...for the present. The Fat Cats that are already buying up the area are sure to be swooping in as the Gold Line's Soto Street station nears completion.

The Boyle Hotel, situated between two Gold Line construction sites at teh corner of E. First and Boyle Ave., was in 2007 purchased by the nonprofit organisation East L.A. Community Corp., which claims that high costs have prevented refurbishing the building even as the group alleges to be saving the tenants from slumlords. The residents have complained about the deteriorating conditions and are in fear of being removed; the Gold Line, they maintain, is sure to gentrify the area. They feel they will be the first to go.

Across the street, encroached upon by one of the MTA sites, Mariachi Square is populated by what appears to be an equal volume of musicians and pigeons. No one is in the pagoda, and the thick carpet of bird-shit is the reason.

Nevertheless, there is a beauty in the dilapidated Boyle. It is sad that the 119-year-olde building's brilliance may not be brought out until the present tenants are expelled and the rents have been raised exponentially.

The nabe has more than a few great places, too. The laundromat offers free coffee and fortune cookies in the morning; there are several great places to eat, and there are a few other things that I refuse to disclose because I feel one should either visit or miss out. I am afraid the time is short for everyone there.

The unflattering photos in today's L.A. Times (in print and on line) are artless, so I decided to show some photos I took some time ago. (One will note that the street is not only NOT closed off but that the sun is just coming up.)

   

-BusTard

Artist arrested held on 100k bail. Los Angeles. 1/5

Entitled - Tagger Krisis
Industry sheriffs deputies and transit police raided a Long Beach apartment early Thursday and arrested what they described as "one of Southern California's most prolific taggers:" Carlos "Krisis" Perez, 23, of Long Beach.

Perez, a suspected member of the East Side Longos sureno gang is being held in a county lockup in lieu of $100,000, sheriff's Deputy Brian Sanford said.
Krisis was targeted for arrest after tagging a soundwall on the 60 Freeway near Wilson High School, Sanford said.

Part of the investigation involved locating Krisis' MySpace page then monitoring the IP address of its owner (probably with MySpace's permission). Then tracking down the IP.
There's no court date set for Krisis yet.

Frank Girardot Crime Scene

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So his bail was set for 100,000 dollars. I wonder what the bail was for Phil Spector or OJ Simpson or Paris Hilton. I wonder how big of a percentage was their bail in comparison to the amount that they are worth?

This artist is in jail for writing on a wall owing to his Myspace page. So I guess the whole privacy thing doesn’t apply when it comes to a Rupert Murdoch networking space.

When will you kiddies learn? Free networking sites are never actually free.

I find it outfuckingrageous that they can bust you on an alleged crime by prying into your personal account. I'm sure Krisis is NOT a threat to the nation.

Now this kid paints on a wall and he goes to jail. I am sure it was ugly before it was painted on, so what difference does it make. Oh yeah he didn’t have a permit. If you get a permit you can draw such groundbreaking images as a topless elf girl (cause whose seen nude anime type chicks before, I know I haven’t) and have everyone talk about how groundbreaking you are and anti-art everyone else is.

I wonder how will the “oh my god, you can’t kill art, because art feeds the birds and the universe” people feel about this kid’s art?

Rich “underground” artists who fly in from Europe to write on a wall and everyone runs to their defense. Slumming “underground” artist rich kids get article after article on how they are oppressed by the “man,” but the man is Latina and their underground status in my opinion is pretty fucking questionable.

In my world Coca Cola doesn’t commission underground artists and underground artists don’t accept commissions from Coca Cola.

But hey my world is pretty wacky.

Anyways I wonder will there be any outrage as there was for the LA River artists?
Christmas vacation is over. Will the ACLU help this kid or do you only get help if you play the counter-culture game with the 1970 rules of lots of fucking and plenty of drugs, but as soon as it becomes Altamont then everyone runs back to the suburbs.

You want to talk about travesty. $100,000 bail for writing on a wall, is total bullshit, more bullshit than some artless poseurs writing their website addresses on the LA River and it getting erased.

I wonder will the “underground” art community all chip in to help get this real guerilla artist out of jail?

I’m assuming not, since he’s not part of the rich kids slumming crew.

“Well he’s part of a gang (according to the police a group we can always trust,)” supporter of the arts.

What do you think underground art means? 

If it was fun and nice and happy it would be mainstream art.

Besides we're all part of a gang, just some people's gangs have better PR and get to be called clubs, fraternities, companies...

I wonder how does Crewest differentiate between gang artists and “real” artist at it’s gallery which sells aerosol paint and Cocaine Mule bags. Cocaine has nothing to do with gangs, the 18th Street gang has nothing at all to do with crack or cocaine.

Yeah I get it. It’s satire. You’re just playing underground street artist.

Don't feel as if I'm judging, because I'm not judging on a basis of morality. I love drugs, if I had lots of money I would do drugs everyday, but I'm responsible. I'm too poor to go to the blackjack table I have to sit and play the nickle slots. I'm judging on the basis of hypocrisy and rampant classism.

If they feel their poseur “graffiti” art with objectified images of women is the same as a mural with Molina with birds and trees then why is their art any different than that of an alleged gang member?

Oh yeah, because their parents are part of the status quo and they have expensive degrees.

I guess Krisis should have gotten a permit, been born middle class, and should have traveled in more media savvy circles.

Or maybe he has them and he’s just going to be used as a sacrificial lamb. A demonstration to show, “We’re not down with the poor writers, we’re only down with the people who can drop hundreds of dollars in paint for one session.”

I guess the only way to get back up from their gang is to get properly jumped in by getting a degree, a commercial contract, and a middle class background.

Personally I think graffiti art in general is sexist and in general not something I like, but this class based, "these people can do it and are legit, but these people can't" drawn by some arbitrary line that seems strictly drawn with money is complete bullshit.

Browne