In conjunction with our very special June 2013 issue, Beastie Boys: A Visual History + Tribute to MCA, JUXTAPOZ brings you excerpts from some our interviews with Beastie album cover artists from Polly Wog Stew to Hot Sauce Committee Part Two!
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The two most influential people in my youth were Ozzy Osbourne and Ronald Reagan- of course, trickle down economics made perfect sense to a knucklehead youngster that smoked too much grass and drank too much Jack Daniels for his age. While my peers were playing with Transformers or trying to be “Like Mike”, I was getting my Ozzy on by biting the head off my toy doves and stealing my Grandma’s crosses and sewing thimbles for my fingers to play Iron Man like Tony Iommi. Although, my politics have changed drastically over the years, my love for the Prince of Darkness and Black Sabbath remain unchanged.
The author as a young metalhead
Today, I am generally known by most as a non-profit director of an East LA /Boyle Heights Social Justice Alternative High School for young folks 16 – 24 that have either been pushed out or aged out of the traditional school system. Yet, those who truly know me best know not to be fooled by the coat and tie! Underneath my Banana Republic shirt is usually a Maiden t-shirt and most of my lunches are spent either jamming to Sweet Leaf with my students or destroying a Jump in the Fryer Burg at Grill ‘Em All. According to my students, I’m the most Metal old guy in all of East Los! So, you could imagine how I immediately broke into my best Beavis and Butthead head bang and metal horns combo when my homie, Javier Cabral hooked me up with the opportunity to cover Black Sabbath’s 1st listening party at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood on Wednesday.
Harry & Sons Radiator Shop ~ 9344 Valley Blvd. ~ (626) 288-0644 ~ Rosemead
Harry & Sons specialize in vintage, classic and antique radiator repair. In 1938, Harry Trepanier of Luddington, Michigan, opened Harry’s Garage in Santa Monica, CA. In Michigan, he’d flown and sold old airplanes out of Trepanier Airfield, until an aggravated asthma condition sent him and his two sons packing for sea breeze and California sun. One mechanic at Harry’s, Joe, 71 years old, has worked here since he arrived from Mexico at the age of eighteen. Mrs. Trepanier, who drives a 1913 Cadillac and staffs the front office, has been married to Harry for at least 27 years. There’s no website, “but plenty cobwebs.” The family has participated in a traveling antique roadshow and loaned their collection to movie shoots, which explains the incredible car collection in the yard. A fire engine, buses, cars, and antique bicycles were paraded around with well dressed mannequins behind the wheels and seated in the vintage paddy wagon from Sing Sing Prison. Years ago, Harry & Sons refurnished cars for Disneyland. One time, Robert (Bob) Jani, legendary event producer and L.A. native, asked Harry & Sons to build a custom bicycle for Liberace to ride on the opening day of Walt Disney World in FL. Three 5′ wheels carried a piano which Liberace played and steered from a unicycle seat. It’s on permanent display at the Pepsi Cola Saloon.
The next time you are in Chinatown for the Chinese New Year Make sure you stay into the night. That is when all the colorful and interesting things happen. Not only will you find great food but some very interesting characters. Don’t forget to stop by the Art district along Chung King Road. Below are some of the shots for Chinese new year 2013.
Dr. Jerry Buss took control of the Lakers at the very dawn of my consciousness, and my entire life he was the old man I aspired to someday be. An aging, auburn James Bond in blue jeans who plied the casinos of Gardena instead of Monte Carlo, he gave Hollywood a Forum for its courtside cool, taught a Magic man how to smile, and gift-wrapped championships end on end to toddlers, adolescents, teens and grown men alike whose civic pride, like mine, centered on finally beating those bastards from Boston. And now that that glorious legacy is horrifyingly in question, a city prays that at least on some level that genius was genetic. Rest in peace, Dr. Buss.
December 2, 2012 – March 31, 2013
Under the brutal Khmer Rouge rule from 1975–79, Cambodia’s cities were systematically emptied of their population, commercial activity ground to a halt, and even the use of currency was prohibited. This genocidal reign was finally brought to an end by the occupation of Cambodia by Vietnamese military forces, who instituted a state-controlled economic system that continued to severely limit private economic activity.
Only with the implementation of the United Nations Transitional Authority in 1990 did private commercial activity begin to fully thrive. Remarkably, Cambodia’s re-populated urban environments came alive with hand painted signs advertising myriad small businesses and personal services. Painted on sheets of metal by commercial artists in tiny makeshift studios and storefronts, the signs bore lively representations of everyday goods or services—car parts, foodstuffs, tailored clothing, medical and beauty services, musical performers, and more. Today these signs provide a window into the brief period when private enterprise bloomed but had not yet come under the sway of international business interests and mass-produced advertising.
Massachusetts-based collector Joel Montague amassed a collection of this ephemeral art in the 1990s and has recently donated to the Fowler Museum twenty-two of the twenty-five hand-painted signs on display.
http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/fowler-in-focus-cambodian-shop-signs
Famed Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros came to Los Angeles in 1932 for six months after being exiled from Mexico for his radical political agenda. He painted three murals in L.A., including one at a private home in Pacific Palisades which is now on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The most important mural he painted was at the LA Pueblo, but it was far too controversial for the city’s establishment and it was almost immediately whitewashed. Because of this and subsequent paint jobs, the mural’s colors were degraded. It hasn’t been fully ‘restored’ but it has been cleaned and conserved by the Getty Center trust and you can now go see it yourself. Photo via South LA on Flickr. Read more about the history of this mural:
Some well-shot home movies showing what Disneyland was like in 1956.
ACCLAIM was blessed to sit down with the legendary Chaz Bojorquez during his time in Melbourne earlier this year. Chaz discusses his artistic origins, the special place that his art occupies in the streets of LA and demonstrates his iconic hand-lettering style exclusively for acclaimmag.com
