Wednesday, April 29, 2009

R U Long Beach?

I was at an art show a few weeks ago, one that my friend and a Long Beach art and cultural collective put together. "R U Long Beach," name of the collective and the event, featured a beautiful display of work from various artists of LB, overfilling the warehouse venue with a mass of hipsters, college students and bohemians alike. The location, enhanced with creative graffiti wall art, skateboard-shredded quarter pipes, resonant reggae and 80s throwback music and dim twilight lighting, only made the scene better that what one would imagine in essence of any other art show.


















the brothers.


mark canto.


Yet the event didn't last for long...




Cops came through and busted the event; a lot of injustice went down. One of my buddies was cited for DJing without possessing "a DJ license" (aka a "mobile DJ business license." Yes, there is such a thing...). Another friend was arrested for "ignoring" the officer and closing the entrance's front door on him. The cop responded with an inconsiderably powerful kick, swinging the door hitting several other bystanders, surely a duty in an officer's protocol "to protect and serve." Hopefully the next function doesn't go down like this...

(Chronologically, my pictures of the police occurred prior to taking pictures of the art show. In our first encounter of the police, the show was busted but a compromise was made and the show continued. Although in our second encounter, the cops completely shut down the event. I re-ordered the chronology of the pictures for the sake of my writing composition. I also felt that explaining this in the beginning of the article would have been too complicated and discouraged you fellow viewers from reading further).

R U Long Beach 4.11.09

For more information on "R U Long Beach": http://www.rulongbeach.com/
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  1. RudyMay 2, 2009 at 4:59 PM

    So this is in a way irrelevant to the awesome pictures you have posted, but are you aware of the gold line extension opening this summer (which you are going to love!), it's first stop is little tokyo!

    Check out the map: http://www.metro.net/projects_studies/eastside/images/mglee_eastside_flavors.pdf

    Also check out the future metro transit map: http://www.metro.net/projects_studies/exposition/images/Future%20Metro%20System%20Map%20(PDF).pdf

    Not on the map, but in the planning stages is an extension of the purple line all the way to Santa Monica, and it will run through Beverly Hills, Westwood, and UCLA. The greenline will be extending to stop right next to LAX (instead of just taking a shuttle bus from the station. The gold line is also to be extended past Pasadena to Montclair (and eventually to Azuza).

    This, paired with the eventual building of the California High Speed Rail, gives me more and more reasoning's why I should not leave Southern California...though I will, because I want to travel the world as well...but still. I thought you might enjoy these maps since you are a frequent metro passenger.

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