Seven McDonald

Face in the Hip Crowd

Seven McDonald
The white felt head of a snow tiger bobs up and down on the black vinyl dashboard of Dylan Haley’s 1987 Volvo. An unsigned San Francisco folk/rock band, Dame Satan, plays on his Sony. He picked up the CD a few months ago at a Spaceland show. “I don’t think......

Fairy Lust

Seven McDonald
Do you believe in fairies? Snowlake does. In fact, back on Elphinstone Mountain, along the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, where she lived for 15 years, the sparkly-eyed blond was fairy royalty. “I was living in Roberts Creek, a small logging community in the forest,” she says in a voice......

A Not-so-Bleak House

Seven McDonald
It’s a cloudy afternoon and “Peter Crowley,” as we’ll call him here, is walking through the mock forest of Douglas firs at the Delancey Street Christmas-tree lot on Glendale Boulevard. The 39-year-old, dressed in a black cashmere sweater and Levi’s, is a little amped up, most likely from too much......

Rocking Horses

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Illustration by Alie WardIn 1978, Lester Bangs wrote a review of Patti Smith’s Easter album that opened with the declaration “I hate Patti Smith.”Bangs, who inspired Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, went on to admit: “Horses changed my life.”Last month, at the Troubadour’s sold-out 30th anniversary......
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Behind the Garb

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Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley is in the basement of the Evidence Room theater holding up a little orphan “Annie dress,” as she calls it, made from bright-red plastic tablecloths reinforced on either side by clear, glossy packing tape. With a sweet Peter Pan collar made from coffee filters, the 3-foot-tall......
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Young American Grows Up

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Weaned on a combination of Broadway musicals, Lawrence Welk, and classic rock, director- choreographer Ken Roht spent several years globe-hopping with the Young Americans (alongside Desperate Housewives creator Mark Cherry) before moving on to work with Iranian theater provocateur Reza Abdoh. Over the past four years, his annual 99-cent-store extravaganza......

The “No New Underwear” Rule

Seven McDonald
Photo by Jon HuckIt’s Monday and 30-year-old Chloe, dressed in a denim miniskirt and Converse All-Stars, is walking around the Silver Lake Reservoir with a girlfriend who has just started a new relationship. “Whatever you do,” Chloe warns emphatically, “don’t buy new underwear!!”There are some things about sex and dating......
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Cash, Grass and Ass

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Photos by Elizabeth Perrin“We were in the south of France and what were people wearing?” asks designer Kellie Delkeskamp in her sunny, 3,000-square-foot garment-district studio. “Jeans and T-shirts. Everyone looks to L.A.” Delkeskamp was in France with her business/design partner and best friend of 20 years, John Cherpas. In just......

A Short Shorts Story

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Photo by Jon HuckIf Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan had never so intriguingly turned fat-gone-thin — or is it thin-gone-anorexic?— blond, blue-eyed Kristine Johnson might never have gotten her shorts company, Johnson Clothing, off the ground. Because wherever those two starlets go, the paparazzi follow, and it just so happens......

Nature Boy

Seven McDonald
Has anyone ever told you that you look like Vincent Gallo? “No.” Hmmmm, do you think you look like Vincent Gallo?[Pause.] “I don’t know. . . . I’ll have to look at a picture of him again.”Wild-haired Mario Zamarripa has weighed almonds, granola and other dried organic and raw goods......