LAAAA hosted its second Silverlake Jubilee street fair this past weekend. I was there and took photos for Remezcla which you can view here.
Author: Ivan Fernandez
Afroxander is the nom de guerre for writer/photographer Ivan Fernandez, based in Southern California.
Ladytron Seduces With New Single “White Elephant”
I may not be as excited for every new Ladytron release as I was in my college days but I’m always happy to know that the Liverpool quartet continues to create solid electronic-pop music. Case in point, “White Elephant,” their first single off their upcoming fifth LP Gravity The Seducer:
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Name-checking Sole’s Latest Video, “I Think I’m Noam Chomsky”
Lost in the hoopla of Cinco de Mayo was independent hip-hop star Sole‘s video premiere for “I Think I’m Noam Chomsky:”
Sole (real name Tim Holland), a founder of hip-hop label Anticon, recorded the track for his upcoming mixtape Nuclear Winter 2. The track is filled with enough political references to make Zack De La Rocha want to tell this cat to take it easy.
It’s easy to get lost among them all so, after the jump, is a brief explanation of the people, events, etc. mentioned in the video:
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Nortec Collective’s Bostich + Fussible at CSULA’s Luckman Arts Complex
I was at CSULA this past weekend and caught a performance by Bostich + Fussible. Click the photo below for the slideshow.
The duo also released a new video the day after:
As Fussible (Pepe Mogt) explains in the video’s description, the video was filmed as a joke. They had their masks and camera in the trunk of their car and shot the video in no more than 15 minutes with less than an hour spent editing it.
No Es El Grito: Cinco de Mayo History Cheat Sheet
Let’s skip past the obvious sombrero/sarape jokes and get straight to the point: far too many people have no clue what Cinco de Mayo is all about nor how it came to be. For the sake of brevity, I present a brief history cheat-sheet on the history and development of the Cinco de Mayo celebration.
From Francine Prose’s article, Savoring Puebla for Smithsonian Magazine:
Like the rest of Mexico, Puebla has had a troubled history marked by war, invasions and revolutions. Several important military confrontations took place there, most famously the Battle of the Fifth of May, Cinco de Mayo, commemorated in a holiday that has assumed great significance for Mexicans living outside their own country. At the battle, which occurred not far from Puebla’s center, on May 5, 1862, the Mexican Army defeated the French with the aid of local troops. Unfortunately, the French returned a year later and smashed the Mexican forces and occupied Mexico until they were defeated by Benito Juárez in 1867.
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They Came for the Fight, They Stayed for Mannequin 7
My friends in Mannequin 7 played a set at Stingers Bar in San Bernardino after the UFC fight this past Saturday. Below are my favorite photos from that night. The entire set is on my flickr.
Kinky, Molotov and Cinco de Mayo Fun with Remezcla!
Two updates to start the week:
I shot photos at the Kinky/Molotov concert at the Nokia Theatre for Remezcla. Click the photo below for the link.
I also wrote the introduction to Remezcla L.A.’s Cinco de Mayo events guide (click here). Lots of great ways to party!
Pacheko and his Venezuelan Bass Machine
Check out my first official piece for REMEZCLA feat. Producer/DJ Pacheko (he’s GOOD!).
Carla Morrison Sings for Every Broken Heart
Count Carla Morrison among the current crop of Mexican artists whose fame has exploded seemingly overnight. The singer/songwriter has won over millions of fans in her native Mexico and is slowly repeating that performance stateside.
The young starlet grew up in Tecate, Baja California (yes, that’s the city where THAT beer is brewed in) and studied in Mexico City and Phoenix, AZ where she performed with various musicians, most notably Babaluca.
Morrison (no relation to Jim) released her debut EP, Aprendiendo a Aprender (Learning to Learn), in 2009 and followed it up with Mientras Tú Dormías (While You Were Sleeping) the following year. She most recently wowed audiences at SXSW and at her album premiere show at Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s “Day of the Dead” festival.
“So what’s the big deal?,” you ask. At this point I must admit that any attempt at describing her music will fall flat despite the fact that she is armed with nothing but a guitar, an incredible voice and an enormous heart worn on both sleeves. Instead, I’ll let her music speak for itself.
Una Salida (An Escape) – acoustic version
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Barack Obama is Definitely Not a Socialist, Says Joseph Kishore, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party
Socialism returned to the United States in an odd way three years ago when pundits took to the airwaves to scream about gulags and breadlines, but the talking heads never actually explained what Socialism as a political ideology stood for. What better way to find out than to ask a real socialist, which is what we did this weekend when the Socialist Equality Party met at King Hall on the CSULA campus to discuss “The Fight for Socialism Today.”
We spoke with SEP National Secretary Joseph Kishore about his organization, the USA’s favorite taboo word and what an actual socialist wants for the country. (Hint: It’s a little different than what Barack Obama wants.)
Read the full interview at LA Weekly.
*This is my first story of LA Weekly’s “The Informer” news blog.
Afroxander (aka Iván Fernández) 