National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

Here's a couple of photos from the March 4th National Day of Action to Defend Public Education:

Rallies, marches and building takeovers popped off in cities and campuses all over the country. I took a long lunch break and hit the streets of Downtown LA:

Met up with ET and the Shining Sons:

As always, the homie Bev and the rest of the AnakBayan LA crew were holing it down:

How is the Problem-Maker the Problem-Solver?

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about Cap & Trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

I think Annie Leonard is on point with this one. How can you trust the people who got us into this mess (the entire mess - all messes -every single, pile of sh*t) to be the ones who are going to come up with a plan to solve it?

Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me twice... shamon!

-Chris G.

7th Annual Practical Activism Conference @ UC Santa Cruz

If you happen to be around the Bay this weekend, come check out the 7th Annual Practical Activism Conference on Saturday the 24th, at UC Santa Cruz! There'll be a bunch of different workshops; some topics include Justice for AB540 students, Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, the UC Budget Crisis, & one that I'll be covering on Social Documentary film making. There will also be keynote speaker, Bettina Aptheker and a special performance/ workshop held by Oaktown's own Head Rush Crew.

For more info, peep activism.ucsc.edu

Here's a little promotional video I chopped up for the conference. Directed by Arlene Park. Music by Blue Scholars.

Don't Go To The Practical Activism Conference from Chris Guevarra on Vimeo.

-Chris G.

Is a $2 Milli Laker Parade Worth It?

as happy as i am that the lakers have once again reclaimed the nba title, i can't say that this nba season (as great as it was) has gotten my mind of our plummeting economy and cali's ridiculous $24 BILLION state deficit.

i agree that LA desperately needs something that we can collectively celebrate and the lakers championship couldn't come at a better time. but $2 million for a 3 hour parade? i still don't know how i feel about this since our tax money is supposively only paying for half of the $1 million that the city is responsible for (2 hecka rich white men are paying for the other half). read more about the issue here and here.

sportswriter dave zirin gives us another reason why we should celebrate the lakers victory as he exposes the crookedness of the magic's owner and billionaire richard devos.

-tadillac

Stop Arnold's Termination Of Cal Grants!

"Grants awarded to 118,000 freshmen starting college in the fall would be canceled"

save cal grants! the governator's plan isn't to cut funding for cal grants, he wants to totally eliminate them. raise college tuition and dissolve finacial aid in order to save a failing economy? great plan dickhead! read la times article here.

-tadillac

Remember to Vote Tomorrow 5/19!

last friday teachers and community members protested LA unified school districts' proposal to lay off 5,400 teachers, staff and faculty. read the LA times article here. our education system is already shit, please support these educators in their struggle to prevent it from getting even worse.

please remember to vote yes on propositions 1A - 1F in the cali special elections tomorrow (May 19).  if these measures pass they will free up some money to start repaying some of the public education funding cuts and will help protect schools from even deeper cuts.  if both prop 1A & 1B pass it will repay $9.3 billion to state schools and community colleges.  read more about the propositions on the california teachers association website. 

Oh Daaaaaang! Hero of the Week

"this is a farewell ... you dog!" that's supposedly what reporter muntahar al-zaidi said right before he threw both of his shoes at bush's grill! thats right, dude went "eddie murphy's momma"* on that ass! that's what you get for showing up for a "suprise" visit to iraq, dumb muafuckah. read more about it here. *if you didn't get that reference please, please, please watch this:

Watch more IFILM videos on AOL Video

-tadillac

Jesus Christ & GMA 2gether like Green Eggs & Jufran

While googling some statistics on the poverty levels in the Philippines, I stumbled upon some of these paintings by an artist of the name, Joey Velasco. Although I'm not too religious, I think these pieces are kind of interesting considering the impact Catholicism has had on the Philippines (the northern part at least). I've been a bad Filipino Catholic as of late but I'm sure that will change during the time I'm home for the holidays (thanks Mommy). This one is one of my favorites. It's entitled: "I will make you a Fisher of men." Another reason why I think these are kinda interesting is that most of these pictures illustrate the Filipino youth helping out Jesus instead of the other way around. Hmm... On a more reality-based, in your face, socio-political-economic-USimperialist-Philippines puppet regime (I really needed to take this break from writing this paper) note: I betcha that what's she actually looks like too when she and her cronies count the money. -Chris G.