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Desde la Logan: January Happenings in Barrio Logan and Beyond

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Sometimes I take for granted the things that are happening in my barrio and the surrounding areas. I consider myself lucky to live in a community that cherishes culture in all it’s varied forms. I have Chicano Park, The Roots Factory, The Spot Barrio Logan and The Voz Alta Project all within two blocks of my apartment. My community is a living creature, alive and vibrant, with culture oozing out of it’s streets and alleys like sweat from a worker’s brow. For the most part I know what is going on around here.

Because I usually know the haps in Logan I sometimes fail to realize that others may not know what’s going on. Therefore as a service to not only my community but also the greater San Diego community at large I will regularly compile a list of cultural and activism related events that will be taking place. This list will not only feature events taking place in Barrio Logan and the rest of the Historic Barrio District but events elsewhere in San Diego that I think readers of this column and San Diego Free Press should consider attending. Most will be hosted by the places I normally frequent (and places I should frequent normally) and many will be related to Chicanismo, Native issues, lefty causes and other stuff that I’m down for. Please support these grassroots cultural happenings, spaces and organizations by attending their events and, if so inclined, throw a few bucks their way.   [Read more…]

San Diego for Free: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

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A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Locations: 700 Prospect Street, San Diego, CA 92037 (La Jolla), and 1100 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101 (Downtown)

Free Hours: 3rd Thursday of each month from 5 to 7 PM. The museum is always free to those 25 and younger and to military and their families.

Best For: The curious, the bold, the beautiful, the pensive, the happy

Website – click here.

With a building on the coast in La Jolla and downtown San Diego the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) has prime locations to display their collection. The museum has a mission of serving “diverse audiences through the exhibition, interpretation, collection, and preservation of art created since 1950”.
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12/30: Live Music and Art at The Casbah Features an Eclectic Mixture of Styles, Genres and Perspectives

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by Brigitte Taylor/SuiteBrigitte.blogspot.com

Local artists Martin Nasim, True Delorenzo and Nick Bahula will be displaying art and painting live as part of the December 30, 2012 Casbah show with the following bands: The Amalgamated, Karlos Paez of B*Side Players, The Soulfires and Steve Harris of The Styletones. Tickets are on sale at www.casbahmusic.com. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

The show will begin with Steve Harris of The Styletones performing his original soul music followed by instrumental funk band The Soulfires (formerly The Fireeaters) and continuing with the local ska act, The Amalgamated. Karlos Paez, lead singer of the B*Side Players will perform with special guests. We rarely see a configuration of musicians and artists of such varying styles and genres. The following local area artists will accompany the bands’ performances, displaying and selling their artwork:   [Read more…]

Interview with San Diego Artist Steve Harris of The Styletones

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By Brigitte Taylor

Most San Diego locals are familiar with the soulful funk group, The Styletones, and the lead singer and co-writer Stevie Harris. Harris is also the lead singer guitarist and songwriter of Stevie and the Hi-Staxx and was previously signed by Cargo Records as solo artist, touring with the group Conglomerate throughout the United States and Morocco.

In 2010 and 2011, I collaborated with Steve Harris on a few San Diego shows geared toward highlighting his acoustic work as well as his side project Stevie and the Hi-Staxx. We recently spoke about the future of his music and, since I learned recently that he also paints, I had questions about his art. With that in mind, I asked Steve to show some of his paintings at an upcoming event at The Go Lounge. What follows are insights about his music-related projects as well as his artwork.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: Día de los Muertos, We Commemorate Our Dead

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By Brent E. Beltrán

 Every year on November 1st and 2nd we remember our dead. Give them food and things they appreciated while they were alive. We build altars in our homes. We share stories. Remember loved ones, family and friends, heroes and historical figures. We go to gravesites and clean tombstones and markers. Leave cempasúchils (marigolds) and sugar skulls. Maybe a little tequila if they liked a drink in their day. For the children we leave toys and candy.

November 1 is Día de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) when deceased children are honored and November 2 is known as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) where we pay tribute to adults who have passed away. These dates correspond with the Christian holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day. Though las días de los muertos were coopted by Christianity they are not Christian holidays or celebrations. Their history can be traced back thousands of years to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl.   [Read more…]

Art Seen: Painter Ernest Silva Wants Your Attention

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By Karen Kenyon

The deer in the painting wants help — or is he saying, “are you there? Do you see me?” He’s deep in aqua water, his orange-red antlers like firelight, the house in the background seems no refuge, the slim trees are bare. He looks straight at the viewer.

I recently viewed this painting (Deer, Falls, House) and others by Ernest Silva at Double Break Gallery on 5th Avenue in San Diego. Owners Louis Schmidt and Matt Coors opened their gallery 1 1/2 years ago, and are thrilled to now feature Silva, an artist they have long admired, and who is also their former professor at UCSD (both were in the MFA program in Visual Arts at UCSD).   [Read more…]

San Diego For Free: Amazing Campus Art at The Stuart Collection at UCSD

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A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

The Stuart Collection at UCSD

Website: http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/
Neighborhood & Address: La Jolla; 9500 Gilman Drive, San Diego, CA 92093
Best For: All ages, modern art fans
Hours: All day, every day, always free

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) sits on 1,200 acres above the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles north of downtown San Diego in the neighborhood of La Jolla. UCSD is the highest ranked university in San Diego, ranked #38 among national universities in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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Desde la Logan – The Grand Orchid of Our Barrio: Chicano Park

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By Brent E. Beltrán

On Thursday, October 11 the architecturally aware people of San Diego got together to celebrate the annual Orchids & Onions awards at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. This annual event of architecture snobs serves as a fundraiser for the San Diego Architectural Foundation.

Local TV personality Sam the Cooking Guy MC’d the ceremony that hands out Orchids to new architecture projects that the foundation likes and Onions to those they think, well, suck. This year’s program received 149 nominations. Of which 134 were for Orchids and 15 for Onions. Nineteen awards total were given out.

What makes this year’s event worthy of writing about in a column about Chicanos and Barrio Logan is that the foundation’s Grand Orchid, the top prize of the ceremony, was given to Chicano Park and the Mural Restoration Project. Normally they recognize buildings but this year they stepped outside their narrow box and gave the award to a public space. A Chicano one at that!   [Read more…]

San Diego for Free: Museum of Photographic Arts

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A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free!  We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Balboa Park is known as the crown jewel of San Diego.  Continuing this analogy, the many museums located in the park would have to be the rubies, sapphires, and emeralds that make the crown shine in splendor.  Most of these museums are free to visit for San Diego County residents each Tuesday, on a rotating basis.  The full schedule for the Resdents Free Tuesdays program can be found at http

The Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) is free on the second Tuesday of each month.  My first visit to MOPA was for a mayoral debate about environmental issues that was held on Earth Day (April 22) earlier this year.  The auditorium in the building was lovely, but I had been looking forward to a return visit to view the exhibits.
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Have You Heard of the “Wailing Wall”? The “Widder’s” answer – “The Reading Fence”

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It is hard to believe that during the last presidential election my husband was alive and protesting the Bush regime. We first made contact with the OBRag because of posters and/or pictures we had depicting our feelings.

As the anniversary of his death of three years approaches, (September 21st) I feel it is only fitting to construct a “Reading Fence” of the current posters being circulated on the Internet. (Of course it must be realized that I am selecting only those that he would have approved of – which means that some of you will not approve of them). Oh well….he wouldn’t care – nor do I.   [Read more…]

Reader’s Response: Living Artists, Zombie Redevelopment, Community Pushback

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Editor: This is a Reader’s Response to Jim Bliesner’s article, “Whatever Happened to Downtown Artists? The Experiences of Three Creative Souls Who Survived .

By Remigia Bermúdez

I take my hat off to Jim Bliesner for all that he has done and continues to do for humanity, including but not limited to, the Arts (locally and globally), job creation, non-profits creation, financial institutions’ re-investments into our communities, higher level educational institutions and a host of other avaunt-guard ideas and ideologies that enhance our livelihoods in the San Diego-Baja California transnational region.   [Read more…]

Whatever Happened to Downtown Artists? The Experiences of Three Creative Souls Who Survived

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By Jim Bliesner

It is a familiar story to hear about how artists settle in unwanted areas of major cities, occupy unused space, and begin to create excitement and a sense of uniqueness and a creative spirit. Eventually developers arrive to capitalize on the aura. What happens to the artists who were the urban pioneers? I interviewed three artists who are downtown or were there in the past. Their experiences cover a period of twenty or thirty years and provide lessons for artists today.   [Read more…]

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