It cracked me up when commentator hungrymomma left this gentle scold regarding my taco review--hey, I'm a wab, chula! But I also laughed because I was planning to do a re-review of El Chinaco, the iconic Salvadoran eatery whose owner, Mirna Burciaga, famously took on the Minuteman Project a couple years back. I lectured last week at UC Irvine regarding Orange County: A Personal History, and the small reception afterward featured El Chinaco catering for some strange reason--again, I'm a wab, not
A location scout for a spy movie could not have picked a better location for my late December meeting with Craig Monteilh: a table outside a restaurant in a bustling Irvine shopping center. A lensman would appreciate the shadow-erasing clouds hovering overhead on the warm winter morning. And central casting could not have found a better leading man: Monteilh is tall, intense, talkative, with a shaved head and the kind of cut body one would expect from someone who is now a fitness instructor.
Gustavo Arellano and his ¡Ask a Mexican! column was honored in the large ciculation category at last week's 2009 AltWeekly Awards presentation during the
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) convention in Tuscon,
Arizona. Arellano received honorable mention in the "Column: circulation 50,000 and over" category for his ¡Ask a Mexican! columns "Why won't Mexicans vote for a black man?," "Is It Racist to Call a Mexican Working at a Coffee Shop a 'Beaner'?" and "Cherry-Picking César Chá
I'm really excited to share this indie artist and crafter with you; Melissa Contreras of Axelhoney is one of the reasons I got into the indie craft scene to begin with. We used to work together at t-shirt company Mighty Fine--while we we designed all kinds of licensed character tees during the day, I was always really impressed with everything she had going on with her own work on the side. We shared a table as the Lady Scouts at the holiday 2006 Felt Club and Bazaar Bizarre events in Los Angele
