Rockabilly infects Claremont in Public Spectacle...

Late Breaking Announcement. La Bloga learned only today from John McDonald of the Claremont Universities Library about a Latino Student Union event, its 4th Annual Rockabilly Festival.

The event begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 26, 2011. Get there earlier than 5 p.m. when the music and car show call it a day.

Per the organizer's press release, five bands take the stage:

Don Juan y Los Blancos
Jonny Come Lately
Gamblers Mark
The Wiseguys
Omar & The Stringpoppers

CAR EXHIBITION
VENDORS (Art, Apparel, Music, etc.)
FOOD & MORE!!


The 4th Annual Latino Student Union Rockabilly Festival is a celebration of an aesthetic movement typically called "Kustom Kulture." Kustom Kulture is a term encompassing artists who work with different mediums, including metal fabricators, tattooist, pinstrippers, photographers, filmmakers and performance artists. Kustom Kulture is often synonymous with "lowbrow art" and "pop surrealism." Popular Kustom Kulture artists include, Von Dutch (Kenneth Howard), Ed Roth, and Robert Williams. Yet, the most pioneering Kustom Kulture artists were the metal fabricators who radically transformed classic American cars into rolling sculpture. It is little wonder that one of Tom Wolfe's most memorable essays was devoted to these artists and appropriately titled, "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby." Today, Kustom Kulture is alive in many Latino barrios throughout the Southwest. With their fusion of Aztec-Catholic-Pachuco-Chicano-Greaser-Lowrider imagery and the styles and art of Ed Roth and Von Dutch; these artists are redefining Kustom Kulture in contemporary America. Come see barrio art and the artists on March 26th on "The Mounds" at Pitzer College.

*This year's poster features Sonja Serventi, one of the few female car builders in the kustom kulture scene. She is the owner of a kustom car shop in El Monte and her creations have been featured in many car magazines. Sonja is a member of the Black Widows; the oldest and largest female kustom car club in California.

Details: lsurockabillyfest@gmail.com .

RSVP to this event on Facebook.