Off-Ramp

RIP Bobby Espinosa, and Viva El Chicano.

By John Rabe | March 1, 2010 | 12 comments

How sad. I just heard that Bobby Espinosa, of the band El Chicano, is dead. He was only 60. Listen to the Off-Ramp interview with Espinosa – featuring the wonderful Jesus Velo of the band Los Illegals interviewing his hero – and you get a sense of why Espinosa and El Chicano made a difference.

And watch them play Viva Tirado on YouTube, and get a sense why their music filled the air and the airwaves in Southern California:

Please leave your memories of El Chicano below in the comments section; I'd love to share them with listeners this weekend on Off-Ramp.

(Check out John's weekly show Off-Ramp.)

The TV Giveaway marches on! More free tv’s in Cypress Park and Lincoln Heights.

By John Rabe | March 1, 2010 | 4 comments

Some photos from Monday morning.

They’re part of my continuing photo essay on the discarded televisions in my neighborhood, the working class area around the confluence of the LA River and the Arroyo Seco.

So far, no calls from Taschen or the Annenberg photo center. Maybe because of the glaring lack on conflict or even the vaugest narrative thread. No arc, as they say. Although this one kinda looks like a giant Darth Vader helmet.

Here, for your viewing convenience, are the previous entries in the photo essay, in reverse order …

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Sorry I’ve been away from the blog for a few days. The fundraiser demands singular focus. But on my way in this morning, I spied the latest entry in my ongoing series on discarded television sets … and it’s a two-fer:

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I still don’t know what to make of the junked tv’s. (See previous blog entry.)

In my neighborhood, if something still works, people leave it gently by the curb, which discounts the theory that people are replacing their old tube tv’s with LCD or plasma models and tossing the old ones. The question remains: why so many broken tv’s?

This one (below) graces an already problem area - the old Cypress Park library, which has been boarded up for about ten years now:

This one is on the way to the Bilingual Center for the Arts on Avenue 19:

And my neighbor Oscar is pretty pissed about this one, on the verge fronting the lot he uses for a garden. This is just the latest junk others have dumped here:

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I took this photo this morning. This is only the latest trashed tv in my neighborhood. For the last couple weeks, I’ve come across easily a couple dozen big tube tv’s in the trash or – usually – on the verge.

Why? Was there a big sale at Costco? Did all the analog/digital converter boxes suddenly stop working at the same time? Did someone tell everyone in Cypress Park that there’s a tv fairy who will leave $20 under your pillow if you dump an old tv?

Please leave your answers below and meanwhile, I guess I’ve found the topic for a new photo essay.

(Check out John's weekly show Off-Ramp.)

“Family Circus” marks 50th anniversary by being actually funny … in a rerun.

By John Rabe | March 1, 2010

Nowadays, Dad’s only job in the daily panel comic strip “Family Circus” is to act the foil for his kids' treacley naïveté, and cartoonists Bil and Jeff Keane’s only hope seems to be that we will cut out the strip and tape it to the fridge. “How cute! That’s just what Tiffany said!” … or … “That’s what Timmy said to Grandma that time at Old Country Buffet when she ate prunes! Let’s send it to Grandma for her refrigerator!”

The strip also used to be called “Family Circle,” until the magazine of the same name complained. They used to drive around in a Volkswagen Beetle; now it’s a Chrysler minivan.

And Dad (“Bill,” née “Steve”) used to smoke and drink. Check this one out:

The only fridge this would get taped to is the mini-bar in a Vegas hotel room.

The strip debuted on February 29, 1960, making this its effective 50th anniversary, and Keane is rerunning old strips to celebrate. It’s a bad idea because it just highlights how unfunny and formulaic “Family Circus” is now.

(Check out John's weekly show Off-Ramp.)