Sam Slovick

Best Film School as Incendiary Device: Inner-City Filmmakers

Sam Slovick
Schmuel Gelbfisz would sit up in his platinum casket and the ghost of Jimmy Stewart would run down the Walk of Fame screaming, “It’s a wonderful life” if they could see what was popping off at Inner-City Filmmakers. Ol’ Schmuel (a.k.a. Samuel Goldwyn) never imagined this. I promise. ICF is......
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Best Fitness Guru: Harley Pasternak

Sam Slovick
Isn’t it time you finally took on the bloat that’s been dogging you since you turned 25? The one that’s been keeping you out of the water at pool parties for countless summers? The one that makes you wanna move to Portland? Sure, Portland’s an option. It’ll be great. You’re......
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Best Yogi Rock: Vinnie Marino

Sam Slovick
We’ve all heard the story before: Drug-addicted East Coast guido flower child gets clean, migrates to Los Angeles and emerges as Venice Beach superstar yogi. It’s as obvious as a Jerome Robbins musical. Back in the early ‘90s, Marino substituted for a vacationing yoga-teacher friend, brought his Rolling Stones CDs......
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Best Lost Art Found: Aardvark Letterpress

Sam Slovick
Luis Ocon is 71 by now. He mostly just comes in and spins the machines, and tinkers around sometimes. But back in the ’60s in Mexico City, he was setting slugs with the best of ‘em. Then, the California-dreaming linotype operator made his way to the USA and pressed on......

Miracle On Skid Row

Sam Slovick
“He didn’t know nothing about it, but he wanted to be part of the hair industry,” Kidogo remembers. “I didn’t know he was setting me up to take my business. I’m a man of God, but I don’t forgive him. Maybe I can lean into that.” Kidogo means small in......
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The Fil-Am Invasion

Sam Slovick
{mosimage} A pimpin’ young MC wearing a black hoodie and jeans hanging so low he could get a citation lies in wait just outside the door of Zentro Bistro, a homogenized faux-Parisian club and restaurant just across the street from the garish fete of multiethnic consumerism known as Los Cerritos......
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Hearts and Snow Cones

Sam Slovick
{mosimage} Everybody loves Annie Hardy, the gutter-mouthed indie rock poster girl of the Silver Lake scene. Her band, Giant Drag, has been the subject of rumors since Annie’s sidekick, multi-instrumentalist Micah Calabrese, abruptly cut out of the picture. “No, he didn’t go to rehab,” Annie says, putting the kibosh on......
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Hearts and Sno-Cones

Sam Slovick
Everybody loves Annie Hardy, the gutter-mouthed indie rock poster girl of the Silver Lake scene. Her band, Giant Drag, has been the subject of rumors since Annie’s sidekick, multi-instrumentalist Micah Calabrese, abruptly cut out of the picture. “No, he didn’t go to rehab,” Annie says, putting the kibosh on the......