Festivals, Celebrations and Parades


11
Apr 11

Taking in CicLAvia

There are times when an idea is good. There are times when the implementation of that idea is excellent. CicLAvia falls into the latter category. To make it even better, the weather in Los Angeles was perfect for a bike ride through the city.

On Sunday, I packed up the kids and we went over to Hollenbeck Park to see one of the end-points of CicLAvia. We’ve visited the park before and enjoy it immensely. There is rarely more than 50 or so people around the park, so it was even more amazing to see hundreds of Angelenos congregating at the northern end of the park with their bikes, scooters, skateboards and feet.

LA Cyclists

According to their site:

Ciclovías started in Bogotá, Colombia, over thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets. Now they happen throughout Latin America and the United States, connecting communities and giving people a break from the stress of car traffic. The health benefits are immense. Ciclovías bring families outside of their homes to enjoy the streets, our largest public space.

Continue reading →


29
Oct 09

Pre-K Literacy Parade

Here’s some photos from today’s Literacy Parade (read: Halloween parade) for Pre-K.


7
Sep 09

NHRA Museum at the Fairplex

Did you know that there is an NHRA Museum on site at the Fairplex in Pomona? I didn’t. All these years and I had no idea. When we went to the LA County Fair on Saturday, we stumbled upon this place. It’s packed full of racing history. Admission was $1 for adults and frankly, should be more. The place is detailed in racing history, complete with roadsters, motorcycles and drag racers from the beginning of racing history on down to today.

Melrose Missle III

Melrose Missle III

Helmets

Helmets

Batmobile

Original Batmobile

P1016734

Wally Parks

Bench

Bench with racing stickers

Engine

Engine

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4
Aug 09

AUG. 8: Korean BBQ Cookoff

kbbqLet’s toss this event under Reason #873 Why I Love Los Angeles. That’s right, Yelp and the Korean American Coalition have partnered to bring us Los Angeles’ first Korean BBQ Cookoff. Some interesting details:

Los Angeles’s first Korean BBQ Cook-off will showcase some of the best dishes by top Korean BBQ restaurants. Presented by the Korean American Coalition – Los Angeles (KAC), in partnership with Yelp, the Cook-off will be judged by distinguished judges who will present the prize for best the BBQ dish on Saturday, August 8, 2009.
• 5,000 participants expected for the event
• Ten restaurants are participating in the competition including Beverly Soon Tofu, Byul Dae Po (Star BBQ), Ham Ji Park, Jinju Galbi, Mu Dae Po, Park’s BBQ, So Hyang, and Soowon Galbi.
• The restaurants will sell dishes for $10-15/plate. (It’ll be worth it….it’ll be good quality meat)
• Other food booths will include (tentative list): shaved ice, drinks, grilled corn, and more.
• Barbecue categories will include LA galbi (marinated bone-in beef ribs), galbi (marinated boned-out beef ribs), pork ribs, bulgogi (marinated sliced sirloin), and grilled intestine barbecue.

It’s no secret that I enjoy meat, eating and BBQ. I also enjoy Saturdays and ogling cute Korean boys. Needless to say, I’m going to try my best to get over to this event.

Date:
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Time:
12:00pm – 8:00pm
Location:
The Summit at 6th
Address:
3223 6th St.
City:
Los Angeles, CA

You can find more discussion on FriendFeed.

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5
Nov 08

Musings on last night’s election

the 44th President of the United States...Bara...

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

am not going to try to write a long intellectual entry on what happened last night. I can only post snapshots on we witnessed.  My feelings are still too raw.  I woke up this morning, like in 2000 and 2004, with a knot in my stomach; expecting a different outcome.  I rushed to grab my morning paper to make sure it was all real.  That today wasn’t Election Day and I just dreamt that Sen. Obama had won over 330 Electoral Votes.

It was real.

It did happen.

Senator Barack Obama is our President-Elect.

My 5 year old, who has been an Obama fan since last Spring, kept asking me this morning, “Did Obama really win?”  Through tears, I said “Yes. Yes he did.”

******

I spoke to some of my older family members last night.  The constant refrain was, “That young man did it.  He ran a great campaign and didn’t let anyone tear him down.  I never thought I’d live to see this day.” They reminisced on growing up in segregated towns in the South and Midwest.  One 92 year old cousin, in Arkansas wept as he talked about he had to keep his head down, just so he would stay out of trouble, “Today, I hold my head high, like Obama did throughout his campaign.”  I cried.

******

Sen. McCain’s concession speech, was the most classy concession speech I think I’ve ever witnessed.  Even though from July on he ran the exact same campaign Sen. Clinton did, his concession speech was exactly the one she should have given in June.

******

The first black President won this election without the Self-Appointed Godfathers of Blackness.  We didn’t have to see Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton pontificating on our TVs last night for the first time in my lifetime. Rev. Jackson was shown, tears streaming down his face, as he stood with thousands in Grant Park.

******

Scholars will study the Obama campaign forever.  Not just political scholars, but in business classes, PR majors, technological studies.  Every tool out there was used, even abused if my text messages and emails are any indication. The branding was simple and consistent, from slogan to font, to color.  The business acumen of where and how to raise and spend money, would make many major corporations jealous.

******

Social media came into its own this election cycle. Twitter broke most stories before even blogs had a chance to write up something.  This election cycle belonged to black bloggers.  It seemed that they alone were taking advantage of social media tools, not just to announce new posts, but to organize GOTV and appearnces.  It was a simple way for them to stay in contact with their readers outside the blog and get more on-the-ground reporting from around the country.

******

I still haven’t received my shirts from the Obama-Biden campaign. I’m sad.

******

The ground campaign of Obama’s was probably the best of any campaign ever.  Speaking to friends who worked for the campaign and speaking to people who volunteered from the campaign, they all said the same thing, “This is the first election where people from DC who had never stepped foot in my town, didn’t come in to tell us how it is. They gave us ownership and listened.”

******

A few weeks ago, Republicans started whining about how Democrats shouldn’t have a majority because that would be dangerous for the country.  All of a sudden they despise the idea of one party controll the Administrative and Legislative branches of government.  I’m still trying to find where they were so distraught about this in 2000 and 2004.  It’s a disengenious arguement and insulting to my intelligence.  Republicans need not fear. Democrats do not govern to abuse power.  A Democratic majority will have it’s hands full rolling back and repairing the damage of the last 8 years.

******

Best quote of the night, after the election was called for Sen. Obama: “Meanwhile, in D.C., two guys named George and Dick have placed the single largest order for industrial strength paper shredders that Office Depot has ever had to fulfill.”

******

When I had heard that Fox News (!) had called Ohio for Sen. Obama, I thought I was going to faint.  When I saw that he had also won Florida, I had to sit down.  Thank you to both states.

*****

I can only hope that we never have to hear or see the hatefulness that is Gov. Sarah Palin.

******

And finally, we’ll never learn what Republican voters liked about Sen. McCain.  It’s a testament to spin, that when asked the most intelligent offering was the tired, “Obama’s a socialist/radical/communist/Muslim”.  That never explained McCain’s appeal.


15
Oct 08

Halloween

When we moved to California, I attended school in the Rowland Heights School District.  This was back in the 80s, so things were a little more lax back then.  On Halloween, the students would dress up and in elementary school, there’d be a parade.  The kindergarteners would start it walking through and picking up the first graders, then on to second grade, etc.  I didn’t think much about it until I moved to Hollywood.  I noticed that the kids at Fairfax High didn’t dress up for Halloween.  It was strange to me, but became normal in my 8 years living of Melrose Ave.  When we moved to El Sereno, I expected to see the students celebrate Halloween, but noted that last year, they did not.

At this point, I had just assumed that the LAUSD does not encourage dressing up.  I can’t say I blame them.  With all the ridiculously inappropriate and racially offensive costumes out there, it would probably be best for the kids to focus on their education.  So it was with great interest I read the paper that came home with my kindergartener the other day.

In lieu of a Halloween parade, her school is having a Literacy Parade.  The students are encourage to dress as a character from a book.  Horror characters are not allowed.  To make this all homework-y, the students also have to create a poster or bookcover of the book to carry with them during the parade.  Somehow, we parents of kindergarteners are off the hook for finding a character, they’re doing 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.  The kids will all wear little monkey ears and tails.  My daughter tells me they’re going to recite the story in English and Spanish.

I can’t wait to take pictures.


6
Oct 08

Los Angeles Meetup – Oct. 30th

Title: Los Angeles Meetup
Location: My house
Description: Los Angeles Meetup for Plurkers, Tweeters, FriendFeeds and Seesmicers
Start Time: 16:00
Date: 2008-11-01

Email me at faboomama [at] gmail for information. Be sure to include your user ID and service you use, as we are verifying identities.

Thank you and hope to see you there!


28
Aug 08

The Democratic National Convention is over

What an emotional and historical four days it has been.  There’s a lot to talk about and I’m sure the chuckleheads on cable news are babbling incessantly and stupidly coming up with vapid memes to instigate the Republican party with–that’s their specialty.

You already know how much I cried during Michelle Obama’s speech.  Oddly enough, I did not cry during Sen. Barack Obama’s speech.  I just may be cried out.  It’s amazing to me the range of emotions I feel for this candidate when this time last year I had no plans to vote for him.  I did recognize a year ago that he was going to challenge every state and the American public. That much I gave him.  But I just didn’t think that he could break through the cynicism, apathy and ignorance that is the American voter.  I’m pleased to see that he did.  Even me and you know I’m cynical as hell…I believe.

Watching my friends and family participate in this campaign has been very rewarding.  People who had no idea how our elections worked, are now precinct captains because the took the time to learn and put their best foot forward.  My husband, who was born in a Communist country and looks at our politics as theatre and a vast charade got wrapped up in this election.  Family members who were always active in their local Democratic party, devised ways to help Obama become the frontrunner in the primaries.  These people show what the American public can do when they put their minds and hearts toward a common goal. Tonight, Sen. Obama reminded us as he always does that this election isn’t about him, it’s about the people.  The efforts of these people prove that he was right.

Tonight we watched Sen. Obama become the first black man to accept the nomination for president for a major party.  That’s history and that was moving.  When Sen. Ted Kennedy passed the torch to Obama, that was moving.  And I’m even willing to admit that it was moving when President Bill Clinton, delivering the speech his wife should have given, passed the baton on to Obama.

I hope to never forget this night, this week.


14
Jun 08

It’s Flag Day

This is what happens when you mix lack of coffee and lack of sleep.


10
May 08

National Clean Your Room Day

Um…I didn’t.

Those are my clothes. My husband has a few clothes in there too, but that stuff has been sitting there for way too long. I won’t say, but let’s just say some birthdays have passed. Geesh. The luggage you see is from YearlyKos. I should probably unpack that since it’s been sitting there since August. I’m not going to share the other half of our room. There’s still paint sitting on my dresser from when we moved in. One of these days, I will finish painting that corner.