Hispanic Heritage Month began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week. We never learned about it in my schools which prided themselves on being among the most progressive in the country. Every year we celebrated Black History month which began, amazingly, in 1926 as Negro History Week back when the Ku Klux Klan enjoyed its peak membership of 4 to 5 million people (or a whopping 15% of the nation's eligible men). Anyway, we students always raised the same questions. Is it in February because it's the shortest month? Where's Asian or Latino History Month? Where's White History Month?
I don't recall my teachers having the answers except that we learned plenty of white history year-round and Black History Month was a time to recognize the contributions of a people to American culture who'd been systematically ignored.
     So, this year I found out about Asian Pacific American Heritage month which began in 1978 and which I had NEVER heard mentioned. Some Asians I knew had. They said it was marked by more documentaries about Japanese Internment Camps being shown on PBS. At the same time I found out about Hispanic Heritage Month which I mentioned started in 1968 and which I'd also never heard about. 
     When I first moved to Los Angeles, I thought (educated mostly by Los Angeles' films and TV and music videos) that it was going to be 50% plastic people living in palatial homes, 25% Crips and 25% Bloods. I don't know any of those people except  O.G. Crip Greg "Batman" Davis who's one of the patron saints of Amoeba's Black Cinema section.
But that's pretty much what we were fed. And I thought, given it's famous palm trees, it would be steamy and sub-tropical like my former home in Florida.
     I got to Chino (which I figured was pretty close to the ocean) and drove to Pollo Loco in Chino Hills because I'd seen an ad in Spanish for it with a chihuahua that said a lot more than "Yo quiero Taco Bell" which piqued my interest.
     My friends in Chino and Pomona whom I'd met in Iowa showed me around. I flipped the radio stations and heard bandas, Vietnamese talk, ranchera (on the am), Korean music, norteñas and freestyle. The people I saw everywhere didn't look like the people I'd been led to believe I'd see. And it was dry and cold at night. I still get annoyed when (invariably white) people characterize Los Angeles as a soulless botox world of corporate chains and cultureless (and invariably white) people. It's almost as if you're not black or white, then you're invisible. The truth is that Los Angeles is probably the most ethnically (and culturally) diverse spot on the planet and possibly the universe. 46.5% of the population is Hispanic and/or Latino. Los Angeles was founded by the Spanish and then became part of Mexico with its independence. Following the rebellion of illegal American immigrants in Mexican Texas and it's subsequent secession, they tried the same thing in Mexican California. Maybe that's why some people are afraid of immigrants from the south. Maybe we/they have this cultural memory about when white people moved illegally to the area, refused to assimilate or even learn the language and then revolted with guns because the creator of the Universe always had this plan for white people to settle on the Pacific which he communicated to Andrew Jackson in a vision, I suppose.

I was wondering whilst whiling trying to fall asleep the other night why I haven't ever looked up any Pulp videos on Youtube before. Then I remembered that I had a divda called Hits so what else could there be? A few seconds later a vacuum tube in my mind sparked to life and I recalled (to myself) that Jarvis is pretty ambivalent at best about the early years so I was excited to find two early videos.

Pulp was formed in 1978 by 15-year-old Jarvis Cocker, a student at Sheffield's City Secondary School.
In 1980 they, amazingly, recorded a Peel Session and I only just found out that it's available on CD so I haven't heard it but it's supposedly pretty in-line with Sheffield's reigning synth-rock sound of the time.

In 1982 the still virginal Jarvis recorded It

The record reflected a change in direction toward a folky, jangly sound with wide-eyed lyrics about love and being shy all sung rather off-key but kind of managing to sound like early Leonard Cohen.
The following year saw the single "My Lighthouse."
 
And, at the encouragement of someone at the label to record more commercial stuff in the style of Wham!  they followed it with the rare, and not half-bad "Everybody's Problem"

Two years later, frustrated by unfulfilled dreams of success, Jarvis grew rather gloomy and Pulp entered their "arty" phase.
    
                       
Little Girl With Blue Eyes            Dogs Are Everywhere (1986)       They Suffocate at Night (1987)

September 3 is Labor Day. Everyone else in the world celebrates on May 1. In April of 1856, stonemasons in Melbourne protested in favor of the work day being reduced to 8 hours as suggested by the "8 hour movement" (8 for rest, 8 for work, 8 for leisure). Previously, working 16 hours per day, 6 days per week was perfectly normal.
On May 1, 1886 over 400,000 workers protested in favor of the adoption of the 8-hour-workday in the U.S.A. Government troops responded by opening fire, killing 7 in Milwaukee followed by the Haymarket Riots in Chicago 3 days later. In that, a cop was killed and at least 4 workers when violence flared up between cops, scabs and protestors. 8 activists associated with the rally were sentenced to death. One commited suicide in his cell and four others were hanged. In 1893 the 8 were pardoned. Of course most had been dead for six years so...
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So, taking a page from the Christian Church which successfully co-opted countless heathen holidays by re-branding them feast days and religious observations (e.g. Easter... in which a breeding rabbit carries eggs that symbolize... Jesus, and his, uh, hatching from the tomb-metaphorically speaking); Labor Day in the U.S.A. was moved to to September. 

Grover Cleveland didn't really like the idea of Americans feeling solidarity with the rest of the world's Reds and bomb-throwing anarchists. Besides, it's the last day when you can wear white! And if we want to express solidarity with other people, can't it be with Australians on their Flag Day? Or Qataris and Tunisians on their independence days? No harm there, right? You want to be a rebel, wear white after Labor Day and leave the molotov cocktails at home, ok? For the rest of you, grill and maybe take advantage of that furniture sale.
It's interesting that with late 19th century workers' newfound free-time resulted in growth in popularity of sports and motion pictures shown here:

BLACKBURN ROVERS V. WEST BROMWICH 1898

And, since it's a three day weekend, here're are a couple of high-spirited, modern-ish Labor Day rebels keeping their clothes white year-round.
 
The Rubettes "Sugar Baby Love" 1974

The Lookout was written and directed by Scott Frank. It took ten years to get made and is a labor of love... and a big piece of crap.

It's set in Kansas City. Why? Scott Frank  says, "I spent time there, but mostly what I loved was that there was an urban environment right next to a rural environment and they're very close together. He can live downtown but work two hours away in the middle of nowhere and I really liked that." That is true, if you drive two hours outside Kansas City you're in the sticks, or another city. So, the setting is very important obviously. Kansas City is like a character in the film, you might say. Of course, his observation applies to nearly every city in the country between the east and west coasts. Obviously Frank had a window seat on a cross country flight or maybe a just layover at Kansas City International. And the in-flight entertainment, I'm guessing, was Memento.
 
"I really didn't know why, but I just loved where it was. I loved that the mob was no longer there, that it was sort of a dying mob city and more of a "sons and sons of" place now. I just thought it was kind of interesting. I ended up doing a lot of research." Apparently meaning he watched lots of old movies with Kansas City in the title because Kansas City has a very high crime rate most gangs there don't look much like the Lookout's. 


Note to Frank. If you'd googled "Kansas City" and "mafia" you'd have learned this:




 Despite being in prison in 1995, Anthony “Tony Ripes” Civella was seen as the new crime boss. In 1992 he had been convicted of a scheme to divert pharmaceutical drugs from traditional sellers on to the gray market. He was convicted and sentenced to 4 years. Since 1996 he has been free and very active. The remaining Las Vegas interests fall under power of Kansas City LCN Family member Peter Ribaste. His underboss is William Cammisano, Jr. In 1997 all three were placed in Las Vegas’s Black Book and are barred from casinos in that area. Today the Kansas City LCN [la Cosa Nostra] Family is reported to have 20-30 “made” members and is a very tight knit group controlling many street-level rackets.

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Creamsicles are made by Unilever, a company formed when British soapmakers Lever Brothers merged with Dutch margarine giant Margarin Unie in 1930. 
At 5 cents a pop, it doesn't matter that creamsicles taste like children's aspirin dipped in triaminic.

Legend has it that if you you truly believe creamsicles taste good and you leave out creamsicle fudge, drinks or cakes on August 13th (The Eve of Creamsicles Day) Creamor  the Snake will swing by your house in his creamsicle mustang and leave you gifts in your creamsicle gloves which you've left by the driveway.