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Letitia Ivins
Sprung from a quirky couple in pre-cosmopolitan Culver City, Letitia Fernandez Ivins surrendered to the lure of the glam-less yet genuine non-profit visual arts field upon her return from a moment in NY. With a background in art history and currently working in public art for the gov'ment, Letitia offers a particularly unpretentious critique of contemporary art – distilling it from the hyper-theorized to celebrate the simply evocative. She keeps her nails tidy and makes a hobby of futbol, hiking, hissing at men on the corner, and metalwork.
Interview with Gary Garay
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Decades ago Harry Gamboa, Jr., a forefather of Chicano conceptual art, wrote about the “phantom” culture of America, condemning the conspicuous absence of Mexican-Americans. Then, in 1972, the Chicano art collective Asco executed the guerrilla “Spray Paint LACMA” performance that mocked the museum’s blatant exclusion of Chicano artists Continue reading →
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Sylvia J. Adams
Sylvia was born in Texas, lived for 2-years in Korea, then for a briefer stint in Germany, before returning back to the States. While attending UC San Diego, she met Rickey Kim, the Founder of Evil Monito Magazine, started off as their Music Editor and now holds the position of Editor-in-Chief. Sylvia is an avid cinephile, whose taste ranges from Yakuzas to Nouvelle Vagues. She has a predilection for Scrabble words and succulents from Madagascar.
Editorial
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Welcome to the neighborhood of Echo Park. A visual reference point for consciously clad hipsters, flanneled Cholos with a penchant for paint markers and at large, a time-honored community of heterogeneous social and economic backgrounds. The unique makeup of its inhabitants represent a microcosm of Los Angeles’ ‘niche culture,’ Continue reading →
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Kevin Biggers
Kevin was born and later abandoned in Seoul, South Korea in 1985. Shortly thereafter, two kind merchants from northern New Jersey adopted him, hoping he'd one day play professional football. So much for vicariousness and big dreams! As punishment, Kevin's parents forced him for extended periods of time to watch L'Avventura on loop, which became more pleasure than punishment. He graduated from University of Southern California in 2007, and now spends his weekdays developing and doing strategic marketing for kid-oriented websites. He is writing a novel about solipsism. Facebook Friend him, if you have a heart.
Interview with T. C. Boyle
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For many a novelist, personal geography can be an unwanted poetry. Suffused with lived-in details, sensorial charm, and familiar beauty, localism bears a wealth of literary attraction scented by the sensual schoolroom aphorism, “Write what you know.” The works of Borges, Murakami, and most notably, Joyce, all enthusiastically find mischief in the reality of their creators’ surroundings. Continue reading →
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Sylvia J. Adams
Sylvia was born in Texas, lived for 2-years in Korea, then for a briefer stint in Germany, before returning back to the States. While attending UC San Diego, she met Rickey Kim, the Founder of Evil Monito Magazine, started off as their Music Editor and now holds the position of Editor-in-Chief. Sylvia is an avid cinephile, whose taste ranges from Yakuzas to Nouvelle Vagues. She has a predilection for Scrabble words and succulents from Madagascar.
Interview with Mulatu Astatke
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Mulatu Astatke, 67, as an extraordinary multi-instrumentalist, composer, and community builder; he is one of those rare individuals who used his incredible talent as a tool to elevate social consciousness in the little-known neighborhood of Addis Ababa. Among tight circles of the well informed — i.e., the beatmakers, musicians, and vinylphiles — Mulatu’s oeuvre, which spans four decades, Continue reading →
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Ethan Holtzman
Ethan Holtzman moved to Topanga Canyon when he was two years old. During his childhood years, he caught blue-belly lizards and foraged for edible fungi. He grew up singing folk songs with his family around the potbelly stove, the sole source of heat. Eventually he bought an accordion and studied under the late master, Milton Mann. He currently plays a Farfisa in the band, Dengue Fever, and tours the world.
Interview with Chicha Libre
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Surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes, I wiped the jet lag off my brow and took a moment to catch my breath—a belabored process due to high elevation (a staggering 7,700 feet above sea-level). It was my first night in Arequipa, Peru and I sat down to a sumptuous three-course meal for two, which amounted to about the mere price of a deli sandwich back in Los Angeles. Continue reading →
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Phil Chang
Phil Chang enjoys watching Gary Busey clips on YouTube and earnestly wishes he could do the Roger Rabbit. The internet has taught him not to publicly write things that he will regret, or of things that won't apply in a week. Life has taught him to value the people behind great ideas.
Interview with Blue Scholars
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Keeping it local is a whole different ballgame when you call Seattle home. The clash and melding of America’s titanic super-corporations with our nation’s most organically nurtured independent art scene has birthed a culture as diverse as it is unique. This is the state that rears its children on Nirvana and sends them off to work at Microsoft when they come of age. Growing into one’s own identity, to say the least, is a sophisticated quest for Continue reading →
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Erin Barajas
Erin Barajas, loves Los Angeles. Born and raised in the city, she's lived everywhere from South Central and the LBC to Venice Beach and her home in Silverlake where legend has it, the cult flick, “Heathers,” was written. Now living in Eagle Rock, Erin writes about fashion for California Apparel News as their Manufacturing Editor. Until she strikes it rich with a million-dollar idea, she spends her time reading novels in her tub and making up names for fictional bands. She has a very rich interior dialogue.
Interview with Mario Gonzalez
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Downtown Los Angeles is home to a new kind of turf war, the likes of which hasn’t been seen here for decades and – as is fitting in the world’s most cinematic city – the stakes are high and the opponents poorly matched. On the one side are the developers, the police, and the hipsters whose skinny jeans and cool bars have become emblematic of Downtown’s shiny, new exterior. Continue reading →
