Dr. Robert "Bob" Sloves, Ob/Gyn & Moustache Afficionado

An update for you BoMoLocos out there who are participating in the 2nd Annual Dr. Bob Open. If you play with these PDFs [Doc Bob Article v2 p1 Doc Bob Article v2 p2], you can read a really nice story done on the Doc back in ’03 after his melanoma resurfaced. Don’t worry, it’s not depressing. If anything, it focuses on his relationship with his kickass wife Peggy and his political activism in the arena of women’s health.

Celebrate the Doc — Celebrate Movember — BE A PART OF THE DR. BOB OPEN  [CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP]

Enter the volleyball tourney (all levels), the bocce ball showdown (all levels), AND the moustache competition (all levels, all ages, all genders). You’ll have an awesome time and along the way you’ll raise money and awareness for two great causes – Movember USA and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Or if you’re photophobic, wait for the sun to set and join us at the after party being hosted by The Arbor Collective in their Venice showroom with free booze, food, and bands.

Hasta entonces compas – PAZ, AMOR, Y BIGOTES …!!!

In this video we see: 1. tuxedo, 2. full orchestra, and 3. a microphone that looks like a silver pocket rocket (or an improvised “incendiary” device if you’re the Russian bomb squad)

Verdict? Genius x3.

After rediscovering the musical stylings of this famed lyrical lothario, I hereby declare this day to be Day 1 of the Tom Jones Renaissance.

…para un futuro mejor.

Why? Because his impact was transformative and his game remains timeless.

The nucleus of the basketball revolution that was Showtime, Magic led the Lords of Inglewood in their quest to not only win championships but to redefine the concept of “champion”. Keepin his socks high and his Cons tight, Magic’s skill, sportsmanship, creativity, versatility, and class were and will likely remain unparalleled in the sport. As the NBA enters the 2011 Playoffs, I’d like to take a look back at Earv and some of the other iconic figures that helped him to create a Basketball Renaissance in the 1980s.

 As for Buck and and the crew, I’ll let the Chili Peppers say the rest

l.a. lakers, fast break makers

kings of the court shake and bake all takers

back to back is a bad ass fact, a claim that remains… in tact

m-a-g-i-c, see you on the court

buck has come to play his way and his way is to thwart

m-a-g-i-c, magic of the buck

other teams pray for dreams

but he don’t give a fuck

penetrating the lane like a bullet train

comes the magic blood a telepathic brain

knucklehead suckers better duck

when the buck comes through like a truck

scott stops, pops, and drops it in

on his way back gets a little skin

from the hand of a man named a. c. green

slam so hard break your t.v. screen

worthy’s hot with his tomahawk

take it to the hole, make your mamma talk

i hate to burst your bubble but triple double trouble

is coming to your town and he’s going to make rubble

l. a. lakers, fast break makers

kings of the court shake and bake all takers

back to back is a bad ass fact, a claim that remains… in tact

m-a-g-i-c, see you in purple and gold

you can swim, but you won’t get far so you might as well go home

m-a-g-i-c, in buck we trust

re–storing order to the court and justice is a must

lakers are the team that i watch on the telly

cause they got more moves

that a bowl full of jelly

the buck stops here – pops – then cheers

a roar through the forum

that deafens my ears

the one and only known, of his kind

sits in a throne

not for the records that he holds

but for being bald and bold

kareem abdul jabbar

all time great super super star

i hate to burst your bubble but triple double trouble

is coming to your town and he’s going to make rubble

does anybody want some – magic johnson!

does anybody want some – magic johnson!

l. a. lakers, fast break makers

kings of the court shake and bake all takers

back to back is a bad ass fact, a claim that remains… in tact

"Calling Dr. Bob..."

Buuuuuuenos dias compas! Hace un buen rato que no hablabamos, no? Well, good a time as any to re-enter the shade and cool comfort of our little barraca called ABAHAKA and re-ignite a stimulating dialogue based mostly on… my interests. And this November I’m extremely excited to emerge from hibernation just in time to participate in the glory that is The “Dr. Bob” Late Movember 4-Man Co-ed Memorial Classic.

But perhaps you ask yourself, what in the wide world of cacahuates gigantescos is el Dr. Bob Open?

Let’s begin with el hombre himself - Dr. Bob.

Dr. Robert “Bob” Benjamin Sloves (1932-2006) was an Obstetrician and Gynecologist who practiced in Southern California for almost four decades. If you were born in the South Bay from the late 60′s to the early 00′s, odds are high that this man’s iconic moustache was one of the first things your newborn eyes witnessed as they entered the world. A champion of women’s health and women’s rights, Dr. Bob could always be recognized by his warm smile… and his trademark ‘stache.

What is the Open?

To tip our hats to not only the memory of Dr. Bob but also to the spirit of his life’s work, El Pollo Rico and ABAHAKA formed a strategic partnership with Movember and Movember LA in an effort to combine a good time with the goal of raising money and awareness for health issues that affect men and women but are only in the last several years beginning to be talked about with the candor and concern that they deserve. Accordingly, El Pollo Rico and ABAHAKA teamed with Movember LA’s Stiff Upper Lips to create an event that would bring us all together during the month of Movember to raise funds and awareness for the health issues that are supported by the Movember charity and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center .

The Open takes place at Ocean Park in Santa Monica on Movember 20, 2010 at 9 a.m.

The event will include FOUR competitions:

1. Open Volleyball - The “Tom Selleck” Division

2. BBQ Volleyball - The “Burt Reynolds” Division

3. The Robert Redford Bocce Ball Open

4. The Sam Elliot Moustache Competition

YOU NEED NOT HAVE SKILLS to play BBQ ball, throw a bocce, or grow a stache. In fact, to maximize participation…

YOU NEED NOT HAVE TESTOSTERONE! El Pollo Rico ENCOURAGEs WOMEN TO ENTER THE MOUSTACHE COMPETITION! — use a sharpie, a glue-on, a facial merkin, paint some Rogain on that upper lip… just do what you gotta do!!!

To register, contact Max Sloves via the Facebook page or directly at Max.Sloves@gmail.com .

You will need to provide:

a. Your team name

b. Your individual name

c. T-shirt size (specify men’s or women’s)

d. The competition(s) you will be entering

e. $20/person to Max’s PayPal account (memo/subject: Dr. Bob Movember): BurritoSavant@yahoo.com

I am El Pollo Rico, and I approve this message

"EPR APPROVED"

El Pollo Rico and abahaka in collaboration with Beynon Design are proud to present a second run of the limited edition remera commemorating the glorious evening circa New Year’s Eve 2006, when a group of musically inclined strangers bumped into each other in a small dark bar in Uruguay and emerged sometime the next morning as the Splendido Allstars. 4 years and 6,300 miles later, en el barrio de Venice, California, the Splendidos continue to welcome new allstars to their ever-evolving quest to achieve the funnest and sweatiest moment of live blues/funk/soul/latin radness. A strictly live project, it’s tough to find bootlegs of their performance… but for those who crave tangible objects to help trigger good memories, EPR reissued what we like to call “The Herve”. As you can see, the front of the t-shirt features an image of the patron saint of all things esplendido, Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize, a man who brought so much happiness to so many people that we invented a palabra para conmemorarlo: “hervear”. Hervear has no direct translation but if you had to put it into other words, it would be fair to say that it means ”to be rad”… like Hervé… and Michael Thomas. The design is printed on super soft 50/50 American Apparel tees (Dov Charney may be a sketchy perv, but his gear is hecho en las américas, como abahaka). If you’d like one, Graham and Kim have a few at Shelter or you can always contact El Pollo Rico directly… or even better, go to a Splendido jam. And no, the super pimp couch is not for sale.

The Splendido Allstars * will hold it down at Shelter tomorrow night for the official opening of Frank Cubillo’s art display and an outdoor screening of Cyrus Sutton’s film on the Alaia renaissance. Graham and his wife always manage to blend a brilliant mix of multimedia at their (semi)monthly soirees. A very healthy and aesthetically stimulating balance of video, music, art, and cerveza.

Go. Enjoy. Be splendido.

- EPR

The glory of seeing a movie that you know nothing about! Somehow I managed to show up at the cineplex on April 16, untainted by trailers, reviews, or the knowledge that Nicolas Cage was in the film (hell, being more than a bit off the grid these past months, I kinda thought I was going to see a Woody Harrelson flick… which I’d still like to see). Verdict? It fucking kicked ass!

An extremely well crafted homage to Tarantino and his precursors, the film is like a mash-up of Karate Kid, The Professional, and Kill Bill Vol. 1.  And while Matt Vaughn repeatedly tips his hat to the smorgasbord of films and pop culture phenomena that made Kick Ass possible, the movie maintains a coherent and compelling story line that is brought to fruition by impeccable acting and an intoxicating aesthetic that walks a careful albeit playful line between the credible and the fantastic.

We could discuss how british actor Aaron Cera-Eisenberg distinguished himself from the nouveau-Brat Pack of jewfros that have dominated the teen flick genre of late, but Aaron Johnson’s true talent (aside from impregnating women twice his age… dude makes Ashton Kutcher look like an impotent cradle robber) is in his ability to let Chloe Moretz and a surprisingly authentic Nicolas Cage dominate the film. Chloe is pure genius and Cage shows us what we could have seen so much more of these last 15 years if he hadn’t gotten those nasty hair plugs and started doing shit brick films like Face/Off and National Treasure. If nothing else, you gotta give credit to Vaughn for diving deep beneath those plugs and eliciting the Cage of old. It’s comforting to know that somewhere out there, underneath a pile of misguided cosmetic hair restoration and cinematic turds, the Nicolas Cage from Raising Arizona and Wild at Heart still exists.

If there’s any disappointment in the film, I’d point to Christopher Mintz Plasse. He doesn’t suck, but Red Mist is little more than a caricature of his previous roles in Superbad and Role Models. He’s a talented kid but you get the feeling that he’s starting to run up against the limitations of his acting chops. Although, in his defense, it seemed a bit like Vaughn and his team might have run out of steam when it came time to explain how and why CMP’s character shifts back and forth from semi-sympathetic rich kid to semi-likeable d-bag/nemesis. They knew they wanted some McLovin in the film but didn’t really have the patience or the space to tease out his transformation during some of the movie’s darker moments.

But whatever. That was the most fun I’ve had at a movie in a long time.

El Pollo Rico gives Kick Ass: Dos pulgares para… ARRIBA!

Aviso: While EPR loved this film, the violence is pretty brutal and gratuitous. Not for everybody. Por ejemplo, le dije a mi mamá que no le gustaría … y ella está de acuerdo.

A vision of the past - The moustache has made a comeback, but the activism? Not so much...

With the steady gentrification of public higher education in California, perhaps it isn’t at all shocking that students at the United States’ most prestigious system of state-run universities have responded with a collective yawn to the ever-increasing tragedy that is the administration of the UC system. In a matter of months, we have borne witness to 32% fee hikes and a growing movement to eviscerate those academic programs that are not deemed “revenue generating” — or as most of us call them, the humanities. However, as Yudof et al. flail their arms in a feeble attempt to keep the UC’s from becoming glorified trade tech’s, not everybody is taking the matter so lightly. Last week at UCLA, a mass of 300 students mobilized a sit-in to protest the failure of leadership, lack of imagination and general cowardice displayed by the administration in the face of difficult times. The number of participants was inflated in part by students who were also expressing outrage at recent racist incidents that have transpired at the UC San Diego campus and the general decline or stagnation of under-represented minorities in the UC system.  

…for a moment, El Pollo Rico felt a twinge of inspiration. Maybe this next generation has its priorities straight. In an age where our value systems have been commoditized, warped and repackaged into Happy Meal soundbites, perhaps the tipping point had been reached and the kids were getting it right. But then I made a fatal mistake and did what no idealist should EVER do… I did the math.   

After weeks of publicity and news articles and outrage, the protest garnered the active support of 300 students. Technically that allows us to say “hundreds…!” But as of Fall 2009, UCLA had an enrollment of 26,687 undergraduates and 11,863 graduate students for a grand total of 38,541 (not including 1,434 residents and interns). 300 then represents a mere 0.7% of the student population. Zero… Point… Seven. That fucking blows. EPR gets that these are times of apathy and ennui and that the brave 300 should — like King Leonidas and his band of skinny-ripped compadres — be lauded for their courageous stand. Except for one other number that keeps flashing in my head… 8000.      

A vision of the present - Hand in hand... we SHALL overcome... finals week... and abstinence!

8000 is the lowball estimate of the number of students who participated in the last official UCLA undie run. Designed for students to let off steam in the middle of final exams, the undie run is a celebration of the strive for balance between healthy intellect, healthy body and healthy soul. Relax your noodle by running around in your chonies and emerge a karmically pure being. It’s kind of brilliant – and it’s kind of radical. There is an undeniable element of protest in the run – a rejection of the prescribed norm, a redefinition of the status quo, a bending of expectations, a peaceful undermining of authority through athletic expression and sartorial subversion – ALL while students are the most busy, the most preoccupied, and the most stressed out. So why can’t the future of public higher education garner the same support from those who have the most to lose?   

The answer is two-fold: Focus and Flesh. The undie run is successful in part because its purpose has been refined (or limited) with a laser beam precision: strip to your chonies and jog. No more, no less. Focus. Of course, its success is also due in large part to the fact that 18 to 24 year olds generally enjoy being half-naked around each other. Flesh.     

It is a philosophy that is fantastic in its simplicity. It worked at Thermopylae and it worked for American Apparel. Keep the mission simple, keep the people (almost) naked. For King Leonidas, the mission was to stop Xerxes and the Persian invasion. Equipment? A shield, a sword, and leather chonies. Result? Leonidas was immortalized as a hero and historic icon. For Dov Charney, the mission was to sell lots of t-shirts. Equipment? Urban hipsters and cotton chonies. Result? Infamy as a groping perv… but tremendous success for the company. So why can’t the same strategy save the present and future integrity of the UC System? There’s no reason it can’t. The problem is that thus far, the protests have been plagued by the perceived need to appeal to different constituents in different places at different times: 8 a.m. meeting to weave unity lanyards in South Campus; 9 a.m. finger painting protest signs at the freshman dorms; 1 p.m. march to Bruin Plaza for rally and discount apparel at Ackerman Union; 2 p.m. sit-in and burrito bar at Kerchoff Hall; 5 p.m. disco dance marathon for lower fees… no, no, NO, NO! Divide and conquer is what you do to your enemies. The well-intentioned yet myopic itinerary of summer camp activities that has defined the recent demonstrations only serves to dilute and defuse the impact of the protest.     

Solution? Again — Focus and Flesh. Unity of effect / Nudity of effect. Keep it simple. Keep it sexy. One event, one place, one time, one set of chonies. A peaceful congregation of thousands of students in Bruin Plaza — in their underwear — would be powerful, symbolic, well attended and would garner unprecedented media coverage. Performed in conjunction with coordinated publication of print and online statements from student groups, academic departments, and all those with the courage, imagination and vision to seek solutions instead of retreating to save the clothes on their back, the event would serve to galvanize and propagate the spirit of unity that those who value education should all share.   

A vision of the future - Que sigue la lucha ...para un futuro mejor!

Pin the tail on the jackass

Yesterday the Regents of the University of California voted unanimously to raise undergraduate fees 32%, effective immediately (NOTE: the lone vote in opposition was cast by the token “student regent”, hence EPR still considers the vote unanimous).  I repeat, 32%…effective immediately.  While El Pollo Rico could carry on ad infinitum as to why this was a tragically flawed and myopic decision, EPR will limit himself at the present moment to the following comments and save further analysis for a later time and place, preferably with incriminating photos of the Regents engaging in some sort of deviant porn.  Then again, who wants to see a Regent naked?  THAT would be deviant. 

So what really gets EPR’s huevos in a supertight nudo is that by voting to increase student fees (i.e., place the burden of poor fiscal management on the students), the Regents have demonstrated they are entirely lacking in the sort of courage and imagination that is required to responsibly solve serious problems.  Rather than being heroic, innovative, and in a word “leaders”, they have chosen the most cowardly solution they could possible find: shift responsibility for their  failure of leadership to those who depend on that leadership for guidance and protection.  The Regents’ job and the job of California politicians isn’t to resolve budget crises, it is  (1) to AVERT them, and (2) to protect the fragile academic and economic interests of students while they study and train to become revenue generating members of the economy.  You don’t compound the failure of Job 1 by proceeding to abandon Job 2…!

If you don’t think the decision is morally and ethically bankrupt, imagine your reaction if your landlord increased your rent 32% mid-lease.  First, many tenants would be de facto  evicted.  Second, it would be a violation of the lease.  Third, rent control in many neighborhoods caps dooshbaggery like this at 10%…why? …because it is good public policy!  What EPR is trying to say is that under this model, the Regents are essentially criminally corrupt slumlords.  By jacking fees, they are de facto expelling low income students.  They have violated the reasonable expectation that fees will remain stable throughout the school year and have pissed on the basic tenets of public policy that dictate a steady change in fees (if any) to keep costs in line with fluctuating economic indicators such as inflation and the cost of living index.

[Have I bored you yet? Maybe. Is the landlord-tenant deal a sexy analogy?  No.  But other than the students getting totally fucked, this has nothing to do with sex, so stay with me.]

Dr. ...Yudof?

But someone  is doing something  right…   right?  Well, yes …and no.  In times of great crisis, there is nothing like a charismatic, innovative, and inspirational gesture to settle people’s growing anxiety.  It is how great leaders show their true mettle – they dig deep and provide both strategic and emotional leadership.  So no surprise that chief punk, UC President Mark Yudof, today sent out an email to all students announcing Project You Can.  Pursuant to the stated goals of Project You Can, the university will be raising ONE BILLION dollars in private funds to help students pay the costs of higher education.  Thank you Dr. Evil.  An awesome idea… if you’d done that BEFORE boosting fees 32%…!

And don’t act like this was some unforeseeable catastrophe.  By Yudof’s own account, “State per-student support has shrunk by half in the last 20 years.”  Really.  And it’s just now occurring to you and the other Regent punks to seek alternative funding.  For twenty years, the UC has been letting the goons at the Department of Corrections and other union muscle and bureaucratic turds steal its share of the pie, watching the financial support for its most precious resource – the students – shrink like Costanzas nards when he got out of the pool… but now…NOW it dawns on you to look for some loose change under the couch cushions?  That is some true vision Costa… er… Yudof.  True vision.  You and Costanza might have more in common than you think.