Sophia Kercher

Princess' Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum; Credit: Photo by Piper Ferguson

Prince Is a Fan of Princess, Maya Rudolph's Prince Cover Band

Sophia Kercher
Between rehearsals for an upcoming show at Largo, actor/comedian Maya Rudolph’s bandmate Gretchen Lieberum admits that the night she saw Prince’s Purple Rain for the first time was also the night she started puberty. When Rudolph saw the epic ‘80s movie in Westwood at age 12, her life was forever......
Moogega Cooper earned her Ph.D. at 24

Moogega Cooper: The JPL's Space Engineer

Sophia Kercher
One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2014 issue. Check out our entire People 2014 issue. Somewhere on Mars, the initials of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, J-P-L, are written in Morse code spanning hundreds of meters across the red planet. It's this kind of detail that thrills......
Kim Barrios-Thomas

Kim Barrios-Thomas: Marmed and Dangerous

Sophia Kercher
At 9 o'clock on a crystalline Saturday morning in South L.A., more than a dozen 16-year-olds are in perhaps the last place you would expect — drilling algebra equations in a classroom. Education honcho Kim Barrios-Thomas charges through the door. "Mind on math," she announces. "Where are our minds?" "Math!"......
Paul Zak

Paul Zak: How Do You Medulla?

Sophia Kercher
At conferences it’s not unusual for Dr. Paul Zak to have people lining up to hug him. The neuroeconomist is a leading expert on the hormone oxytocin, aka “the cuddle chemical.”   Along with his preference for hugging strangers, the Claremont Graduate University economics professor is known for discovering that......
Tanked up: Frank Kozik’s contribution to “Art of Rebellion”

Outlaw Art at Bergamot Station

Sophia Kercher
On February 7, the same day Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston on outstanding warrants stemming from tagging charges, approximately 150 people lined up outside Bergamot Station’s Robert Berman Gallery to nab limited-edition Fairey posters. Hours after the show opened it was still difficult to squeeze through the doors of......

In-Flight Husband

Sophia Kercher
I’ve always found travel on a plane romantic, sexy even. There’s that whole idea that you can be anyone, going anywhere. But after four-and-a-half hours at J.F.K., surrounded by travelers desperate for home, I realize that desperation is far from sexy. “Whiskey, I need some whiskey,” my aisle mate is......