Pole-toberfest II: Return to Pierogiville

With a proper Polish princess as a distinguished member of the wacky tacky adventure team, the opportunities for cross-cultural exploration are both frequent and fun.  Getting restless remembering our "Doin' the Dozynki" exploits of last year, we excitedly donned our butter-stained pierogi bibs and headed for  Our Lady of the Bright Mount (Southern California's premiere Polish parish) for the 2014 Los Angeles Polish Festival.

Now we know why Warsaw is the capital city.

I've said it before but it shouldn't go unstated that, as a regular attendee of our local German club, card-holder of our members-only Asian grocery store, patron of the southland's two European marketplaces, and investigator into the local Dutch club, it is clear that I am in the midst of a chronic cultural-identity crisis!  The only thing my family had that tied us in any tiny way to our Yugoslavian ancestry was "Toshka," a mac-and-cheese/mashed potato hybrid dish that my great-aunt made on special occasions (I have found zero substantiation anywhere online to verify the authenticity of the more-than-likely-midwestern foodstuffs).  With every new dip into the Polish pool, however, I feel like I'm moving in the right easterly-European direction; now an old pro on the festival circuit, I knew that my mission was to find and document the three "F's."

FOOD
The line for pierogies was so long that I could only capture the first third in the picture.
Exhausted by the wait, we soon gave up on sampling much of the Polish cuisine -
except for my preferred prune-filled Polish pastry, the paczek (it doesn't look like
 much...actually it kind of looks like turd but it is really good).

FASHION
I believe this is what is referred to as the Polish Tuxedo.
Cynthia was quickly taking style notes for next year's festival.

FOLK DANCING
Without question, my favorite Polish dances are hip-hop, the tango, and the Zorba...
Wait, those aren't indigenous to Poland?  Well, it looks like some of these dancers were
experiencing a cultural identity crisis of their own.  Seriously, there was a Polish hip-hop
number with a routine that culminated in the king of Greek dances - it was AWESOME!

As much as I enjoyed our one-day excursion to Mother Polonia, I was even more excited by the festival venue.  On the grounds of an Edwardian-era estate, I had heard whispers that the beautiful house once belonged to a Hollywood movie star.  I figured that it must've been a star of Polish descent who deeded the enormous estate to the church upon his/her death.  After doing some investigating, I learned that, rather than Pola Negri or Theda Bara, the true owner of was one of Hollywood's most infamous legends.

Fatty Arbuckle lived here (a fourth F)!!!
Clad in high-fired terra cotta block, the Vienna Secessionist-style house was completed in 1910.
Unfortunately, the only access to the interior that we were granted was the basement bathroom/library (a brilliant, if completely un-photogenic, combination).  The terraced backyard has enough remaining details to have our wacky tacky imaginations running riot thinking about the amazing parties thrown here.

This adventure was definitely a "twofer" - Polish festival and Hollywood house hunt all in one!  I was thrilled to find that the fourth "F" of our festival experience stood for Fatty; sometimes it feels good to know that you're not the only fatty waddling around.  Neither fatty, Arbuckle nor Tiny, claims any Polish lineage, but His Holiness loves us just the same.  Dziekuje, PJP II...see you next year!

Our Lady of the Bright Mount Parish

3424 W Adams Blvd

Los Angeles, CA

(323)734-5249

polskaparafiala.org

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Just Because I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi Like You Very Much

I love birthday presents.  I love Christmas presents.  It is a fact that I love presents of all varieties, but usually I protest the opportunity to be a recipient because I was raised with the notion that a gracious decline (see "no gifts please") was good manners.  No matter how much I protest, which I usually doth too much, there is no denying the joy of fiendishly tearing into the aluminum foil (What?  Everyone doesn't ensconce gifts of the heart in food-grade wrapping?) to uncover something that is meant just for me; growing up in a family of five children, there were very few things that I could claim as mine alone.  The only thing better than a birthday gift or Christmas gift, is that gift that comes totally unexpectedly at a time when a little pick me up is needed but no such expectation can be justified because the major gift-giving holidays have just very recently passed - the "just because" gift.  When that rarest species of gifts just happens to be old-timey AND wacky tacky, then you know you have hit the "just because" jackpot!

Many people will say that they were "born in the wrong decade," but I am convinced that the same people would be reticent to abandon the luxuries and basic comforts provided by the modern world.  I see it as an episode of The Twilight Zone - an unwitting protagonist wishes to go back in time but fails to read the fine print and promptly contracts polio and lives in an iron lung for the rest of his life.  Despite the obvious pitfalls of time travel, I will admit that I too have been guilty of spending an inordinate amount of time planning the clever and productive use of a time machine should such a device ever become available.  Few things make the desire to explore the flexibility of the space-time continuum more profound than a "just because" gift I recently received from my pals Jesse & Emily.  Just four words....

Don't you want to live in a time when a South American songstress was popular enough with the whole family to warrant a coloring book?  Even if you didn't want to live in 1942, wouldn't be a nice place to visit?

Carmen Miranda, having been featured previously on our blog, is a true icon of wacky tacky.  Our credo of "More is more," is a natural extension of her outlandish hats, beautiful costumes, and mile-high platform shoes.  Owning this nearly-untouched coloring book is a bit intimidating because the large pages are just begging to be colored (a favorite wacky tacky pastime) but the nagging feeling that it is somehow wrong to color a vintage coloring book can't be denied.  What do you think?

There are a few colored pages but it is obvious that the artist, Mary Ann, applied a gentle and loving hand.

All I want is a trip to Copacabana Beach - circa 1939

It is amazing to me how with just a few simple lines, the spirit of Carmen is captured in the pages of this book.

Thrown in for good measure?

The details are all there, right down to
 those famous platform shoes!

This generous gift is even more meaningful because Emily is a huge, classic movie buff; she has a beautiful blog called The Silver Screen Affair.  For her to have a little piece of movie-related history in her hands and be magnanimous enough to give it to me was a truly kind gesture.  The greatest part about a "just because" gift is the opportunity to pay it forward and make somebody else's day.

"I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi Like You Very Much" - Carmen Miranda

Thanks Emily & Jesse!!! I, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi like you too!!!

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny