Isaac Simpson

Credit: Star Foreman

Laker Girls Auditions: 10 Dancers Explain Why It's Their Dream Job

Isaac Simpson
Most of the hundreds of young women who showed up at the Laker Girl tryouts on Saturday had been dancing their entire lives. Some went to Juilliard. Some danced with world-class ballet companies. Some were professional cheerleaders with NFL teams. Since dance is not a fairly compensated field even at......
law logo2x b

How Cliff Jumping in Malibu Changed My Life

Isaac Simpson
The rock jutted out in front of me about five feet into nothing, just air and people like legos on the ground far below. I could make out my father flailing his arms. “Come down!” he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “There’s no clearance!” My girlfriend stood......
Russ Karablin and Ben Baller; Credit: Noel Vasquez

SSUR: Where Russian Culture and Hip-Hop Culture Collide

Isaac Simpson
You may not know it, but there's a tiny Russian neighborhood in West Hollywood. Spots like Bar Lubitsch, Anteka Pharmacy, Mechta Deli Market and a handful of other Russian businesses stretch across three blocks of Santa Monica between La Brea and Fairfax. There's parking signs written in Cyrillic ,and Russian......
law logo2x b

Outkast – BET Experience – June 28, 2014

Isaac Simpson
BET Experience OutKast, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, Ty$, August Alsina, hosted by DJ KhaledJune 28, 2014 The three-day convention surrounding the BET Awards is the Comic Con of pandering to "urban" youth - corporations trying to convince you just how "down" they are. More corporate names were dropped Saturday night......
Artist rendering; Credit: Clive Wilkinson Architects

KCRW Breaks Ground on Their New, Ultra-Modern Headquarters (PHOTOS)

Isaac Simpson
Recently at KCRW, a bespectacled young producer typed out names on a screen, spelled phonetically. He did so for the benefit of Warren Olney, host of politics talk show To the Point, while he interviewed John Sopko, the czar in charge of reconstruction in Afghanistan. "Lyman Graham (LIE-man)," the screen read,......
article placeholder

Dr. Dre's Beats Electronics Has Upended the Tech Industry

Isaac Simpson
In October 2003, long before Beats by Dre headphones, Dr. Dre popped in via iChat to one of Steve Jobs' classic black-turtlenecked Apple product launches. Jobs was onstage in San Francisco, unveiling the first version of iTunes for Windows. Dre was at the studio in L.A., ostensibly working on his......
law logo2x b

Blu Shows Us His Los Angeles

Isaac Simpson
Rapper Blu shops at Artform Records in the Arts District often. It's a used records store that specializes in hip-hop and is attached to a barber shop. He's giving me a tour of some of his favorite L.A. spots, chauffeured by his limo driver, Jose. Inside Artform he flips through......
house salad at Three Forks Bakery Credit: Jes Taber

Blacktop: Tyler Wells' New Coffeehouse, and Why He Left Handsome

Isaac Simpson
Blacktop, an espresso bar, opens today on Third Street and Hewitt in the Arts District, sandwiched between sausage king Wurstkuche and high-ceilinged retail art warehouse Alchemy Works. Blacktop is tiny, a 250-square-foot counter that's designed to spill out onto the street. The small size and street spillover are intentional, envisioned by......
Courtney Dasher and the famous Tuna; Credit: Isaac SImpson

Nobody Can Resist This Celebrity Chiweenie Named "Tuna"

Isaac Simpson
For all the great things the Internet is supposed to do, in the U.S., we mostly use it as a toy. We're not collaborating on Facebook to find a cure for cancer, or reform Congress, or bring down dictators like people have tried to do in the Middle East. Instead,......