Mmmmmmmnnnn…though we’re Taco people, we rocked the tamale festival, right on the border of the a-maize-ing installation It’s Not A Cornfield (we don’t actually know if it’s that cool but couldn’t resist the pun). Tamale vendors came out from all over Cali, though mostly representing the south. In addition to the normal carnival games and handcrafts being sold, were a contest for the best tamale, cooking classes and an eating contest. Some of our favorites included amongst the 100+ vendors, representing tamales from Mexico, Cuba and Costa Rica among other countries, was Mom’s Tamales from Pasadena and El Pavo from Monterrey. We had just about everything we wanted there, except more room in our bellies.

Los Angeles, C.A.

Inside Out Community arts, a highly praised and nationally recognized after-school theater arts program for at-risk teens, held its annual “Savor, A Benefit for the Senses,” party last night at The American Legion Building on Highland. This year’s theme was “Holiday in Tinseltown” and found good-looking benefactors and local volunteers enjoying blackjack and roulette, massage, psychics, a market of handcrafted goods, and a silent auction over cuisine provided by some of the town’s best restaurants and the rocking swing of Ice Age Jazztet….The Legion is truly dope, full of secret passages, ornate architectural details and a classic L.A. Raymond Chandler-vibe from its low-lit basement bar to its vaulted balconies. We found ourselves savoring the comedy of Louis C.K. the most as he riffed on married life and how stupid his 3-year old daughter is.

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El Dia de los Muertos celebration at East Los Angeles’ Self-Help Graphics was a joyfully ghoulish evening teeming with striking senoritas in half-skull fashion, evocative art commenting on past and present colonialism, altars to community mainstay who had passed, homemade eats and hand-made jewelry, sugar skulls, skeleton artwork, rock and traditional acoustic bands, children’s workshops, and a solemn, powerful Aztec fire dance. The gorgeous mosaic digs housing Self-Help Graphics look like they might stay in the world of the living for a little more time thanks to a recent generous donation, so checkcheckit out while you can. It’s exterior and the treasures it holds might not be around forever, but our memories of seeing them will linger even in death.

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Wellesley Ave. & Ohio, Ave.