It was delightful to go out last night for @radiomorganrhodes ’s event “Let Me Speak To Your Supervisor,” which not only featured morgan explaining her approach to music who provision but she invited over half a dozen aspiring music supervisors to re-sync one of her scenes from “dear white people” that originally used the mid 70s soul single “My Dream” by Baltimore’s “Softones.” it was really fascinating. Seeing the same scene get Recall with new songs, eight times in a row, and seeing how the vibe and affect of the scene can change from choice to choice.
But outside of the workshop itself, what was really cool was to see Morgan get so many flowers from a community grateful for her accomplishments and mentorship
“Cruising J-Town: Japanese American Car Culture in Los Angeles” by Oliver Wang is an insightful exploration of the importance that automobile culture has to the Japanese American community in and around Southern California.
From the beginnings of early automotive development to the excitement of drag racing and sports cars, “Cruising J-Town” features many important stories of community and celebration alongside amazing cars throughout the decades.
Learn more about the book on our website, and pick up a copy for yourself!
Image 1: Bob Hirohata's 1951 Mercury Coupe, aka the Hirohata Merc, on the National Mall, Washington D.C., 2017. The car was displayed after being added to the National Historical Vehicle Registry. Credit: Courtesy of Hagerty Drivers Foundation.
Image 2: Left to right - Tad Hirai, Jim Kono, and Willie Morita of the Jr. Dekoiyos car club, San Fernando Valley, late 1950s. The car is a 1955 Buick Century, likely customized by Hirai, an employee at Valley Custom in Burbank. Credit: Courtesy of Bob Mochizuki.
Image 3: The first-generation Rising Sun dragster in front of Fabulous Forum, Inglewood, 1970. Credit: Photo by Steve Reyes. Courtesy of Steve Reyes.
Image 4: Cruising J-Town book cover
#CruisingJTown #AutomotiveHistory #JapaneseAmerican #AAPIHeritage #AngelCityPress
How important is car culture to Asian American culture overall? Oliver Wang explores the roots of Southern California’s incomparable car scene among Japanese Americans in Cruising J-Town, a seminal work exploring the relationship between JAs and their automobiles… and why it took so long for a book about it to emerge out of contemporary scholarship.
Learn more about @soulsides and @cruisingjtown in our full conversation on @localgodz on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Link in bio 🔗
A few scenes from this weekend’s #laabf2026 by @printedmatterinc . What was especially cool was the @emilys_sassy_lime mini-exhibit, a kind of remix from their much bigger display that was part of the California Biennial at the @orangecountymuseum . I missed that show so I’m glad to have seen this mini version. Also got to brief chat with @yaotangclan who was there with her @oogaboogastore table of stuff which had @_suspended_in_time_ issues, @newwavedocumentary book, @suede87 ’s new zine and other goodies.
The Book Fair is overwhelming but this year, it felt a bit more manageable at Art Center (and it being so close, I ain’t mad).
Went to Sierra Madre’s @thelmfla for the opening of @collagedropoutsf and @pocketstudiola ’s new show of art and photography, Mono e Mono.
Fun event with turntables set up, with music by me, Chris, @cutchemist , and Michael Barnes (lots of jazz and Latin). Show is open thru June 6th
Coming up on Saturday, May 16 at the @lapubliclibrary , #CruisingJTown curator Oliver Wang be part of the annual AAPI Joy festival where the library is inviting different folks to share stories from the AAPI community.
He'll be there to talk about several stories from the CJT project including the JA hot rodders of the WWII era and the postwar fish trucks.
His talk is from 1:15-2:15pm in Meeting Room A, inside the Central Library in downtown L.A.
Last week, I was really honored to have been invited by @elizabeth_ai to come down to LA City Hall to see her be recognized by councilwoman @mrodcd7 for Elizabeth’s groundbreaking work on @newwavedocumentary .
it was rather surreal to be standing in the city council chambers and seeing all these photos of 1980s Vietnamese American kids from Orange County flashing up on the monitors.
Community stories matter!
I also got to meet the City Librarian @biblioszabo who is the de facto publisher of @angelcitypress and he had very kind and generous things to say about @cruisingjtown
I was invited by @nowservingla to be in conversation with @nancyhachisu about her brand new book on regional chefs and culinary artisans in Japan. As I’m teaching a class on the sociology of food in Tokyo in a couple of weeks, I might need to borrow a chapter or two from here.
And since I was at the bestest cookbook store out there, I also used it as an opportunity to scoop up the latest issue of @synonym_mag which included a wholly unexpected plug for @cruisingjtown ! (Thanks to them!) And I realized I hadn’t yet checked out @dearclarissa ’s Taiwanese cookbook (I was reading her food blog from like…15 years ago!) Looking forward to digging into that as well.
Too many books, too little time, same old problem…
How has Hip-Hop shaped your life? Writer, professor, and pop culture scholar Oliver Wang stumbled into rap music via mixtape as a kid and ended up getting into a 30+ year career in music reviews, cultural commentary, sociology research, and DJing.
Learn more about Professor Oliver Wang @soulsides and his work in music, film, and food in the NEW episode of @localgodz on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Link in bio 🔗
Today, the @latimes published a story by @soulsides about @flacosoul and his new book, "The Dreamy Side: Rhythm and Blues and Chicano Culture in 1950s Los Angeles."
The profile is all about Ruben's interest in this "lost era" of Chicano music history when postwar teens were mostly listening to Black R&B and rock n' roll records in that thin strip of time after the pachuco craze of the 1940s and before young Chicano stars like Richie Valens and Thee Midnters emerged by the end of the '50s.
The book is an absolute marvel of community history in which not just records but the tags left on them form a kind of alternative chronicle of Chicano youth and neighborhood life in L.A. of the early '50s.
You can find the story via the bio links @soulsides
