Last Friday some of the L.A. Taco crew met up at Mariscos Jalisco and Guisado’s to deliver their Taco Madness 2012 awards. Many great tacos were eaten, Jamaica and Horchata drank, and good times were had by all. Congratulations to both of the deserving winners, and many thanks to all who participated in this year’s competition.
K L Chouinard, a blogger who covers the Milwaukee Bucks just posted this graph comparing every NBA team’s twitter following. Before even looking, you knew the Lakers would be #1, but did you realize just how dominant they are on Twitter? Too bad this doesn’t help them at all in tonight’s matchup against OKC.
LA’s King Taco is an institution, home to some of the world’s favorite red salsa, location of Hillary Clinton’s taco fiesta in LA, and the favorite taco of thousands of Angeleños. Today Grubstreet reports that the chain has filed suit against Boston’s “King Tacos”, a transparant attempt to give Boston some LA taco shine. It wouldn’t be the first time that Boston takes one of our own to use against us.
Is the real King Taco planning to expand to the East Coast? They should– while King Taco can’t claim to be the very best taco in the world, it’s leagues ahead of most east coast taquerias and would be one of the few current taco shop businesses that have the opportunity to go national.
The Boston Imposter
King Taco photo by Cyan79.
Yesterday the arts community in LA was angered and disappointed by the art critics at the LAPD deciding to buff a mural created by NYC legend COPE2 and two rising stars from LA, Vyal and Sand. It’s actually not the first time that Sand’s work has been destroyed on the very same wall– back in February of 2011, Sand did a beautiful mural that was approved by the property owner and supported by the area’s local businesses including Conart, MonicaMichelle, 1000bikes.org, and Legends Barbershop. It was only up for a short time before the wall was returned to an unsightly beige. Apparently, the Sheriff’s Department told Sand that her mural was “offensive to the community.”
Palomino Beige is the color of the New World Order – Saber
For those who don’t understand the issue, the problem isn’t just that works of art are being destroyed, it’s that some works of art are being destroyed. Who decides what is “offensive to the community”? The job description of the city’s graffiti abatement crews does not, and should not, include art criticism. The fact that some murals catch the buff and others don’t brings up many issues that the city really shouldn’t want to delve into– such as, is the City threatened by images celebrating women who aren’t the Virgen of Guadalupe? Are COPE2′s bubble letters provocative while the abstract forms of another artist are not? Would a mural by Chaz Bojorquez be allowed to stay up as long as one by Kent Twitchell? Selective enforcement of an already unclear and unjust law hurts even the legitimate cause of keeping neighborhoods clean and consistent with neighborhood values.
Photo by Ericka Jimenez.
Filmmaker Jason Warow sends depressing evidence that the city’s war on art continues unabated. This legally produced mural, done with the support of the building owner, teamed up local stars Sand and Vyal with the legendary Cope2 of the Bronx for an NYC-LA collaboration. The priceless work of art was destroyed by a city worker this morning. Reached via Twitter, Sand One says “I’m traumatized already, I went to sleep scared about the damn wall being buffed and sure enough…”
L.A.’s leaders talk about wanting to be a world-class city, but it will never happen if they continue to pursue a strategy of destroying important works of art by world-class artists. If you care about LA, contact councilmember Jose Huizar. He’s on Twitter as @JoseHuizar and his website is here: http://cd14.lacity.org/index.htm
Askew AKA Elliot O’Donnell is most likely LA’s favorite Kiwi, and has been painting in LA and collaborating with artists here for the past few years. His latest project, a mural created under Daniel Lahoda’s LA Freewalls Project that coincides with the inaugural exhibition for contemporary art space LALA Gallery this weekend, will be honored with an official city proclamation on Saturday, April 21.
It’s much more likely in this city that a graffiti artist will be arrested than be recognized for positive contributions to the community, so congratulations to Askew and thanks to LA City Planner Tanner Blackman who will present O’Donnell as a Cultural Stewardship Ambassador to the historic Sister Cities program. More info available at http://www.lalaarts.com.
Here is a list of List of LA Sister Cities, which includes Askew’s hometown of Auckland, NZ.
Because there needs to be a crosswalk on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, CA — between N. Gardner St. & N. Poinsettia Pl, according to the filmmaker and local activist Adam J. Choit. Features great interviews with a wide variety of locals.
Eric Garcetti is an LA Native, Echo Park Resident, and one of the front-runners to succeed Antonio Villaraigosa as Mayor of Los Angeles. He also knows his tacos. We reached out to Garcetti through his active Twitter account to find out his favorite taco. Unlike Mayor Villaraigoso, who reached back into his youth and selected the Taco Inn, Garcetti selected his current favorites, categorized by the type of taco he likes there. Impressive in 140 characters!
So, Eric Garcetti, what’s your favorite taco?
#1 Cochinita Pibil – Yuca’s, #2 Shrimp – Baja Ensenada, #3 Carne Asada – Tacos Delta, #4 Potato – Villa Corona, #5 Chorizo – Ariza.
Thank you, Eric. In the interests of equal time, we invite all the other mayoral candidates to email or tweet us their favorite tacos. We’ll also consider all of the candidate’s choices for Taco Madness 2012.
Photo by Waltarrrr.
