Go Los Angeles, It's Yo Birthday...The Militant's Annual Tribute On Our City's 230th

Spotted in back of a minivan in San Pedro this past April.
Classic!

Yes, today marks the 230th year since the founding of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porciuncula. Of course, if you're a frequent reader of The Militant's blog, you would have known this already (as well as the full name).

This being a decade year, The Militant is reminded of the time back in 1981 when Los Angeles was celebrating its big 200th. The City was amping up for rhe Olympics coming up three years later, and our beloved Dodgers were red hot that season, and were weeks away from winning their fourth World Series championship in this town.

Like the nation's own Bicentennial just five years prior, everyone seemed to know what was going on. It was heavily promoted with its own logo (pictured above) and its own slogan: "LA'S The PLAce!" Mayor Tom Bradley kicked off numerous festivities around town that week, and even back then Lil'Mil ordered his parents to take the family to Olvera Street on September 4 to bask in the festivities.  He just remembered a lot of people there and traditional Mexican dance performances. Legend has it that the idea of resurrecting the then-mothballed Angel's Flight Railway in a new location was started during one of the bicentennial celebration events. Took 15 years, but it happened.

Time passes by so quickly, and if you're a native, or at least a longtime resident, it's easy to take everything that's happened since then for granted. We've had great times and dark times. But stop for a second to look back and realize how much we've grown, not just in material development, but on a human scale. And not just in quantitative population figures, but how much more today than 30 years ago, we are more atune into our communities, into identifying them. Back then, you were either from "LA" or "The Valley" or "Orange County" or elsewhere. Back then, there were only two area codes most people need be concerned with: 213 and 714. 714 was Orange County, of course (though it was also 213 until 1951). 213 was everything else.

If you were to enter a time machine or wormhole and visited 1981, certainly you'd be deemed mentally insane if you boasted about riding on subways or bicycles around town, eating fusion food out of food trucks that you'd follow using your mobile phone. Or the fact that you went to Downtown for a party, a gallery opening, sporting event, or - gasp - to go home (Of course, Doc Brown will tell you not to do that in the first place, so as to not disturb the space-time continuum, but hypothertically speaking, of course...). Of course, if you're a hipster, you'll be able to visually blend in...lol.

Lastly, take a look at this Bicentennial Postcard for the most obvious visual change. Makes you wonder if a skyline as sparse as that was worth putting on a postcard in the first place.

Dude, you can see Long Beach from here.

Happy 230th Birthday to The Militant's lovely hometown! The Militant is forver proud to be your native son and product. There's so much The Militant knows about you, yet still so much more he learns about you every day.

The Militant Springs Forward...

The Militant knew something was weird when, after arriving back at the compound at 2:00 a.m. Saturday night/early Sunday morning and spending some time online, Mr. Toolbar Clock read "3:44 a.m." Did time really fly by that quickly?

Surely in this day and age one does not need to physically change one's clocks, since they seem to do it themselves (at least the ones on the computers, cellphones and whatnot).

But the greatest thing was seeing the sun shine still in full strength at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Hallelujah!!! It's over! It's finally over! Standard Time is OVER! Daylight Savings Time is here!!! No more does the Militant lull in a state of semi-depression at the fact that the sun only shines for a limited amount of hours per day (though the people of the arctic regions would not be amused). As of 7 p.m. the dusky sky still had a faint orange glow to the west, which means more time for utter Militancy (apparently Militancy, aside from mass nocturnal bicycle excursions, is not very feasible for some reason). So what if DST doesn't actually save energy? This solar-powered Militant has SPRUNG BACK! er, no wait...this solar-powered Militant will be FALLING FORWARD! ...wait...hmmm...is that how it goes? [consulting Google search for "Daylight Savings Time"] Okay, now the Militant's got it...This solar-powered Militant has SPRUNG FORWARD!

Gettin' Vloggy With It: The Militant Rides The Red Cars (And Yes, He Vlogs Now...)

The Militant prides himself on being a fairly literate person, but there comes a time in a Militant's life when sight, sound and possibly other senses becomes too overwhelming for mere words and a couple obligatory digital still photos to convey. And sometimes the Militant can get lazy. Like in the month of February. All five paltry entries worth. But hey, it's March now, so we won't talk about that anymore. Okay.

So the Militant is proud to unleash to you, the Militant blog-reading public, his first-ever vlog. He went out to Perris (no, not Paris) in The Far East (a.k.a. The Inland Empire) on Saturday to visit the Orange Empire Railway Museum and, like going through some kind of time warp, rode in a restored Pacific Electric Red Car and saw a bunch of restored vintage Los Angeles streetcars on display. He thought it might be a cool idea to videotape the experience and go vlogstyle.

Plus, you'll get to hear what may or may not be something special within the first few seconds.

Look forward to some more of these vlogs in the near future, produced along with some of his trusted operatives.

Just don't expect one every day.

The Militant is Still Stuck in 2007!!!!

While the lot of you are back to work, are already using the numbers "2008" on your checks and are going to be watching coverage of the Iowa Caucuses tonight, the Militant is...how does he explain this...he is still stuck in 2007.

It all started New Year's Eve night, which for the Militant, is still tonight, as the Militant's operatives counted down the seconds, after the countdown went down to "1," suddenly everyone vanished and it was Dec 31st again. It's like that movie "Groundhog Day," but worse. Well, not that worse, since the Militant has been having a New Year's Eve party (well the same one) for the past two nights. Which is cool, but the same stuff keeps happening. So let the Militant know how things are going there in 2008, he eventually wants to cross over to the future (or the present, for you guys). Oh this isn't good...