Archive for local

CSULA’S Giant Monument to Wasted Money

March 8, 2010 at 10:33 pm · Filed under anger, college, hate, local, odd, sex, stupid, true story

For anyone in college, you know how money is scarce and hard to come by, and has been that way for years. The rally held on March 4th was just the most recent of many, and has come to show me something very interesting.

I go to Cal State University, Los Angeles. Our mascot is the illustrious Golden Eagle. Because we are essentially a commuter college, we never really had any school spirit. In an attempt to foster some, we built this giant Eagle statue (made of bronze by the way) in front of out University Bookstore.

That statue, installed the same year as our first round of tuition hikes, cost in the neighborhood of $30-50,000. We paid almost 50 grand for a giant cement penis to stand erect in the middle of the University’s main walkway.

Yeah, a penis. Look at it again. It’s got a rounded head and a cylindrical shaft. For fuck’s sake it’s even got a ridge around the ‘head.’ And don’t get me started about the bronze jizz erupting from the tip. Don’t believe me, look at it this way:

On March 4th, students rallied around this giant phallic monument to misspent funds, and I doubt very many even knew about it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s hilarious that CSULA spent so much on a huge dick, but it also kind of pisses me off. No pun intended.

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The Most UNUSUAL BOOKSTORE in L.A.

July 20, 2008 at 7:12 pm · Filed under cool, local, odd

Walking around Echo Park (my home town) I found this poster which caught my attention. I am a bit of a psycho when it comes to book collection, and weird books are even better, so a place that claims to sell books about conspiracies, the occult, mind control, voodoo and a thousand other out-of-the-norm themes interested me quite a bit. And, when I got to the place, I was not disappointed.

You see that garage at the end? The one of the three that’s open? Yeah, that is the storefront. To be fair, it’s a tiny little garage and not actually a store front. For legal purposes, think of this as a garage sale. We all on the same page? Wonderful, let move on, and let me introduce you to the proprietor:

This is Dan. Dan’s the man. He used to run a book store on Vermont called Koma, but when the soaring Silver Lake rental prices forced him out of business, he found himself with a hell of a lot of inventory, and nothing to do with it. That’s when he set up a card table, two pine bookshelves, and a bunch of milk crates, opened the door to his garage and suddenly, the most interesting bookstore in LA was born.

Dan is a throwback to the days when people who ran business had real opinions and cared about the world and politics. He doens’t care what people think, and he advocates the use of intelligent though, not coerced or controlled by corporate interests. This can be seen in all of his decor, and the store itself is a monument to corporate rebellion.



The collection of books is amazing. From True Crime to magic, this place has everything you could possibly want. According to the fliers posted around town, Dan sells: Vintage Sci-Fi (which kicks ass by the way! Really amazing stuff) Mind Control, Malcolm X, Chomsky, Marquis De Sade, Crowley, Jung, Camus, Vintage Pulp, Sleaze, Bataille, Nietzsche, Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Exotica, Mayhem, Natas, Neuropolitics, Orgone, Parallax, Dada, Surrealism, Cults, UFOs, Freemasonry, Anarchy, Erotica, Tiki, Cult Films, Gnostic, Voodoo, Alchemy, Occult, Hallucinogens, and Illuminati.


UNUSUAL BOOKS is open every Saturday, from 8AM to 5PM, and special arrangements can be made with Dan to see more books or to buy books on special days.

The place can be found at 1144 1/2 Echo Park Ave. (Los Angeles California, 90026) about half a block South of Echo Park Ave. and Sunset Blvd.

To leave you with one final note of Anti-Corporatism, here is my favorite decoration in the entire place:
Here Here!

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