Amanda Lewis

Mistress Cyan

Mistress Cyan, the Most Respected Dominatrix in Los Angeles

This piece is part of our series on the L.A. dominatrix industry. See also: *How a Dominatrix Does Her Taxes *Inside the L.A. Dominatrix Industry *The Perils of Dating a Dominatrix Mistress Cyan first encountered BDSM at a party in the early '80s, following months of correspondence with the hostess,......
On their first date

The Perils of Dating a Dominatrix

This piece is part of our series on the L.A. dominatrix industry. See also: *How a Dominatrix Does Her Taxes *Inside the L.A. Dominatrix Industry Smack. Slap slap slap. Thwack. Professional dominatrix Mistress Tetra pauses her spanking to press her breasts into the bare bottom of a woman clad only......
Mistress Justine Cross has a B.A. in Literature and a B.S. in Psychology. Reading 50 Shades of Grey saddened her "as an academic and intellectual."; Credit: James

Inside the L.A. Dominatrix Industry

This piece is part of our series on the L.A. dominatrix industry. See also: *How a Dominatrix Does Her Taxes "Chains and whips excite me," Rihanna sings. "You're a dirty little whore, and I'm going to send you home to your parents covered in cum," Lena Dunham's love interest tells......
In the opening credits of "Louie

Cooper Black: The Story Behind Louie's Typeface

An overweight balding man exits a subway station and, as he walks, up pops his name in bold, cartoonish, dropshadowed white letters: Louie. He stands alone in the doorway of a pizza parlor inhaling a slice, his eyes searching and expressionless, watching people pass by as people watch him, an......
Janna Fisher

A Guide to L.A.'s Jewish Street Art

Most Angelenos wouldn't associate Jews with spray paint and wheat-paste, but what about murals? Twenty years ago, before the city began a war on street art and pushed murals and graffiti underground, targeting artists with lawsuits and jail time, the city's diverse communities embraced a flourishing mural culture, often under......
Elle (left) and Blair Fowler

Elle and Blair Fowler Make Us Beautiful

Check out our entire YouTube issue here. Remember when you were 13, and all you wanted was a cool, beautiful, older friend to show you how to be cool and beautiful, too? For teen girls everywhere, beauty gurus Elle and Blair Fowler, aka AllThatGlitters21 and juicystar07, are those friends. Each......
Does this bunny look happy? Or like he's hanging from a noose?; Credit: Amanda Lewis

When Did Power Lines Become Gallery Space?

First came the birds. Gallery owner and guerrilla street artist David Browne covered the city's telephone wires with whimsical plywood "berds," as he called them, in 2008. Then came the celebrity heads, encased in giant arrows; the bicycling robbers; the foam letters adorned with mustaches; the tiny glow-in-the-dark plastic bears;......