Adam Yauch tribute

Today was the last day of Transmission LA at MOCA, which was put together by Mike D from the Beastie Boys.

The last hour of Peanut Butter Wolf's 3-hour DJ/VJ set was dedicated to Adam Yauch. I looked around and saw a range of emotions...folks dancing, hugging, crying. Some were clearly personally close to Yauch, most weren't, but you could tell he touched the lives of many.

Aoyama tree

After driving to Compton for a look at the easy-to-miss Eagle Tree, I read up on another historic tree in Los Angeles County...the Aoyama Tree in Little Tokyo...and then took a walk over there.

Turns out I've passed by this sprawling ficus tree a dozen times without realizing its historic significix. It's in the parking lot (or I should say literally in the parking lot as the roots are covered by asphalt) next to MOCA, and the 50-footer was planted in 1920 in front of the Koyasan Buddhist Temple before it relocated to the current location on 1st Street. The resilience of the tree through the years, including the wartime internment of Japanese Americans, makes it a symbolic force to reckon with...and now even the anti-ficus crowd will leave this bad boy alone.

Seven Apple Trees Gang

My earliest graffiti memory dates back to 2nd grade at Hellyer Elementary in San Jose. The Seven Trees neighborhood was in walking distance from school, and to that point my dealings with Seven Trees involved checking out Shel Silverstein and Doctor Dolittle books from the Seven Trees Library.

I used to take the yellow school bus to Hellyer, and Dewey the bus driver would drop us off in the morning with about ten minutes to spare. One morning when Dewey let out the busload of rowdy students, I saw that a crowd of kids had already gathered on the sports field.

That's when I saw it...10-foot VST letters had been hacked out from the grass. My little mind couldn't make sense of the vandalism, and I asked this kid George (the same kid who thought his mother's name was "mom") the meaning of VST. He explained that it stood for Varrio Seven Trees, a gang from Seven Trees. Gang? At that point my point of reference for gangs was the Apple Dumpling Gang, a Disney movie with Don Knotts and Tim Conway.

Opening tomorrow is MOCA's Art in the Streets exhibition...Friday I took a look at the outdoor setup setting up...

Chiune Sugihara

There's a sculpture in Little Tokyo that's easy to miss or pass over without reading up. It's the likeness of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania during World War II. He's known for saving the lives of thousands of Jewish Lithuanians and Polish refugees by issuing exit visas to get them away from the Nazis.

I overheard some misinformed folks suggesting that the American government helps out countries in times of need more so than any other people. "And who's going to help us when we need help?"

Yes, we give billions of dollars in foreign aid, but when you look at that amount in terms of a percentage of gross national income in comparison with other countries, we rank around number 18. Number one giver...Sweden!

Well, who's to say our assistance helps anyway? We do a lot, we do what we can, and if the topic of giving has to do with Japan, I can't help but think of Mr. Sugihara and his defiance of his Japanese superiors to keep good people safe.