Live Requests and Dedication

I have a foreign friend who recently moved to Los Angeles and one of the first things he wanted to do was check out Hollywood Boulevard, the last place anyone who has lived here for more than 30 minutes wants to go. Okay that's not true there's always the valley. You can also approach the boulevard in that artsy resigned way where every hideous grotesque building/shop/tourist/street impersonator has a special kind of beauty. In regards to the street performers you can angle it as if there is a touching poignency to the gap between the reality of the situation and what they are trying to achieve. Their physical/monetary/mental limitations and constraints become endearing and winsome. Think Harmony Korine who has made an entire career out of exploiting that sensation. [For the record, I quite enjoy his work, even Julian Donkey Boy!]

N-E ways, sorry for that deep moment, hope no one drowned! After trudging past Marilyn Monroe's star in front of McDonald's [it don't get more American than that!] I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of this

That is neither my foot nor that of my friend, just a random passerby caught in the cell phone pic crossfire.

The Art Laboe Connection is definitely one of my favorite radio shows of all time, up there with The Quiet Storm After Hours with Sean Andre and the now defunct The Lockdown Hour with Michael Baisden where people would call in and talk about their own experiences of being incarcerated or of a close family member/friend and then request a song. What is pleasing and amusing about Art is not just the mild camp aspect of a 80 year old man fielding shout outs and dedications from all the working class homies out there in Norwalk, Whitter, La Mirada, etc, etc,
No, it is much simpler than that. The reason I love the Art Laboe Connection which airs on Hot 92 Jamz is that they play the same exact 4 songs EVERY night without fail and luckily I'm obsessed with two of them so I can get my fix daily. Now I know what you're thinking, stupid you can just listen to them on youtube if they're so great. NO, there is something magical and ephemeral about hearing the song you like come on the radio. Stop BUMMING me out with your cynical have everything now if you want mentality! Here are the songs that make me perk up and raise the volume.

Honey Cone- Girls It Ain't Easy. I fell in love with this song back when I was in third grade and I would watch the 15 second preview of Mi Vida Loca on Pay Per View because they would loop this song throughout the promo and it was instantly catchy and when accompanied by the image of a chola crying and dramatically shaking her friend over the hood of a baby blue vintage convertible chrysler, well its not something you forget easily.


Spanglish Version of Angel Baby- Rosie and The Originals. I prefer this to the original. I can't help but thing of the doomed lesbian sexlove from Mulholland Drive.