Ernest Hardy

Medusa

Ernest Hardy
Medusa was born twice. The self-described gangsta goddess of hip-hop was first born in the city of Los Angeles, and then spent her childhood in Pomona and Altadena. After a yearlong stint in prison almost 15 years ago, she was reborn ? creatively, spiritually ? in the heart of the......
(Photo by Kevin Scanlon)

Jim Nicola

Ernest Hardy
Longtime Nuart theater fans remember when the concession stand had an old-fashioned wooden till in lieu of a cash register and workers behind the counter had to calculate snack totals and change all in their heads. Tickets were bought from the near-dilapidated booth that, upon peering inside, revealed itself to......
(Photo by Kevin Scanlon)

Peter Woods

Ernest Hardy
{mosimage} About five years ago, some artist friends of Peter Woods were telling him how hard it was for them to get into the galleries here in L.A.“Either they had no exhibition experience or not enough name recognition,” says Woods. “Since most of the galleries were rather pretentious, we decided......
(Photo by Kevin Scanlon)

Medusa

Ernest Hardy
Medusa was born twice. The self-described gangsta goddess of hip-hop was first born in the city of Los Angeles, and then spent her childhood in Pomona and Altadena. After a yearlong stint in prison almost 15 years ago, she was reborn ? creatively, spiritually ? in the heart of the......
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Nothing's Shocking

Ernest Hardy
Open the CD booklet to Timbaland’s new Shock Value CD, and there’s a close-up shot of the man himself, looking very much like Quincy Jones. That makes sense, as Jones’ assorted all-star albums (Back on the Block, The Dude, Q’s Jook Joint) provide the template for this attempt at hip-hop-based......

Small Town Gay Bar

Ernest Hardy
There’s no groundbreaking crafts­man­ship or technique on display in director Malcolm Ingram’s nonetheless very well-made documentary, Small Town Gay Bar, although Jonathon Cliff’s cinema­tography is often quite lovely. What makes this stylistically unassuming festival favorite so powerful is all that it reveals through understatement. Centered on the lives in and......
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Tracy Thorn: Out of the Woods

Ernest Hardy
TRACEY THORN | Out of the Woods | Virgin Records At their mid-’90s peak, Everything But the Girl turned out albums and remix singles of sterling house, drum-&-bass and electro-based music. Steel-strong melodies and sharp-eyed lyrics anchored production that was increasingly attuned to the shape-shifting sounds of underground club life......
(Photo by Gregory Bojorquez)

Amy Winehouse, Beehive and All

Ernest Hardy
Monday, March 19, at the Roxy Performing to a sold-out Roxy, Amy Winehouse gave a hilarious intro to the confessional song “You Know I’m No Good”: After she had betrayed a lover, he asked if she even loved him. “I told him, ‘I do love you,’ ” she recounted —......
DarkBlueAlmostBlack

Recent Spanish Cinema XIII

Ernest Hardy
The opening moments of Fernando Colomo’s identity-politics comedy The Near East, which screens as part of the American Cinematheque’s 13th annual survey of recent Spanish cinema, are a delight: a swirl of skin tones European, African and Asian nestled inside burkas, Adidas gear and shopkeeper aprons. This quick sketch of......
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Let's Get Lost

Ernest Hardy
When he debuted 11 years ago, Lewis Taylor was anointed as the Man Who Would Save Soul. The singer-songwriter/producer responded with an album of pop tunes heavily influenced by the Beach Boys, among others. His record label promptly shelved it. Lewis Taylor hasn’t found life in the music industry particularly......