A Field Trip Through The Hills of NELA

Last Friday I was scheduled to assist on a field trip to Mt. Lowe. A peak near Mt. Wilson in the Angeles Forest. After the school bus slowly made its way up Lake Ave.’s steep incline we found that the trail head was closed. After a call to the Forest Service we learned that the whole forest was closed as a precautionary measure with all the recent fires.

 

Efficiency

…is not everything. After having been reading much blogs about congested LA roads, the cries for better public transporation, and all about global warming I’ve come to the conclusion that folks have to realize that efficiency is not everything. Of course, when it comes to certain things it is, but for others it isn’t.

Example: Driving as fast as possible, through cross-town traffic, may seem efficient but is not always the best idea. As I’ve come to learn, it is nigh impossible to go that much faster than the rest of the traffic; it just makes your commute that much more unsafe & stressful. And when you get there the problem of parking. The finding of parking, the art of parallel parking, and the deciphering of the Street Parking signs.

I know that using the bus, the rail, going by foot or bicycle may be slower, and not as efficient but I would much prefer it (even in this rain). Walking to your post office box is so much more rewarding than hopping into your car & saving yourself 20 minutes that one usually ends up wasting on the inane and pointless.

So…get out there with your bus pass, bike, or your chevro-legs and be inefficient.

 

Café

I adore a black coffee in the late afternoon, no matter the weather or the circumstances. Be it Ethiopian, Columbian, or even Australian.

All the chronically frappuccino-drinking fools would never know the beauty of that brown foam that tops a truly great coffee-pressed cup.

I adore a black coffee.

 

Veteranos & their advice

The other day while waiting for the green light to make a left from Griffin Ave. onto Main St., some veterano crossing in front of me told me:

“Hey man, you should ride on the side, you’re gonna get hit man.”

I responded: “Well, I gotta ride in the street…it’s more fun.”

To which he gave me the thumbs-up and responded gingerly: “That’s right man, that’s right.”

—————-
Now playing: Devendra Banhart – Cristobal
via FoxyTunes

 

LHS & Lincoln Heights

Working at a high school has its perks, its cons, and its very close-view of youth culture. At Lincoln High, as in most schools, the students are by-and-large cut by ethnic lines; mainly Latinos, Asians, and some Black students. It is also composed of different cliques. The cholos, the wanna-be cholos, the recent arrivals (whom don’t fit into their own ethnic groups because they’re not as assimilated, or don’t speak English), the metal-heads, the skaters, the punks, the stoners, and the more geeky among them.

Watching the kids everyday you realize how much technology is imbued into their lives. Most kids almost always have headphones on, inside or outside the classroom. Some do have the real iPods and others have the $50 ones you can get in the alleys in Downtown LA. There are kids that may not read well in class but always know the newest website to bypass the LAUSD proxy that blocks MySpace and Email sites. I still don’t know how they do it.

Another observation is how poorly funded schools really are. During summer school the LAUSD claimed it didn’t have any money to rent a bus for a field trip for my ESL, yet they recently spent $95 million on a payroll system that doesn’t work (plus I only make $10/hr as a TA).

 

Verano

As the summer sets in to be the zenith of this the driest year in Southern Californian history I say, it’s time for those who feel ‘global warming’ is all a whole lot of brou-ha-have to quite literally step outside and feel the heat yourself. I know that around this time of year the sun does hit harder but we should still be able to see the green, rolling hills of North-East Los Angeles; though a quick look and you’ll see they’re not there. Just bare, dirty-yellow hills ripe for wild(or arson) fires.

 I keep reading here and there about all the melting and the heat being felt around the world. Recently I watched “Jesus Camp” with my beloved and I was horrified to see a boy being indoctrinated that a change of a few degrees in global temperature isn’t really that big of a deal. Apparently his evangelical ‘home-school’ textbook completely glosses over that huge impact such a global change can make. How evangelical christians such as the US ‘president’ can ignore this is beyond logic, reason.

Even in its most basic sense being ‘green’ make sense. All the things that can cause global warming are also VERY HARMFUL FOR THE HEALTH OF ANYTHING ON THE BIOSPHERE; and that biosphere includes us. You, your friends, your lover, your kids, your neighbors.

What a summer this will be.  Wave ‘hi’ if you see me riding around in your neighborhood.

- ciao

 

Feral(?) Hills

After a conversation in the cool evening with my dad I decided to once again venture into the hills of North-East Los Angeles, as when I was a kid.

Compared to other neighborhoods in L.A., NELA has many barren hills where no development has been allowed or has actually been stopped by neighborhood folks. This giving the possibility of wandering through these hills where old roads still abound. My dad told me that there’s even a lake, somewhere up in them hills. If you have GoogleEarth, here are the coordinates to get there: 34° 5′40.00″N 118°11′43.85″W

It’s not a big body of water but I was told you could see the ocean, as the sun sets from this vantage point.

 

Los Angeles, the newly winded

We’ve been having quite ridiculously windy days in Los Angeles.

I wish I’d taken photos of the debris littered across this part of town.

Nothing like getting wind burn while riding your bicicleta against wind, avoiding zig-zagging palm branches.

And once again, the illusion that American Life is patched up to the walls with security has been undermined. I guess we’ll all just have to suck it up and live.

 

That fresh feeling.

After a couple of long days of being without pay I finally received a check from the bureaucratic nightmare that is LAUSD. Even though I did have to endure 4 hrs in a waiting room just to get it.

 

por fin!

I am finally going to start my job as a T.A. @ Abraham Lincoln High School in beautiful Lincoln Heights. Let’s see how those mocosos y mocosas deal with me.

Now if only my financial aid contract would arrive already!

In other news: The coffee beans from Coffee Fool have arrived. Tonight we are heading out to the So.Pa. Farmer’s Market.

Now Playing: “All Fires” by Swan Lake