All posts tagged: L.A

How a cute L.A. Hello Kitty shop became a target for TikTok trolls

How a cute L.A. Hello Kitty shop became a target for TikTok trolls

Published by Sam Flores

The little L.A. shop was a destination for Hello Kitty fans for decades when it decided to dive into a massive new wave of e-commerce — peddling its products live on TikTok. The first floor of the JapanLA store is stuffed with stuffed toys. It houses shelf after shelf of cute Japanese characters such as My Melody and Kuromi. Upstairs is the real money maker. Employees stand in front of phones, pitching the hottest new products of kawaii (cute in Japanese) culture. While the upstairs business has brought in tens of thousands of new customers and hundreds of thousands of dollars, it has also attracted trolls trying to shut JapanLA down. The haters have hacked the store’s website, harassed its hosts, spread rumors about its owner, and threatened to show up in force in front of its physical store. JapanLA owner Jamie Rivadeneira says she has never seen cute consumers turn so ugly. “I created JapanLA 20 years ago for adults who like cute stuff, so they can feel safe and feel like it’s OK …

Classical music and dance shows to see this fall in L.A., O.C.

Classical music and dance shows to see this fall in L.A., O.C.

Published by Sam Flores

As fall draws near, we await, with timorous breath, the arrival of a Godzilla El Niño and touch-and-go midterm elections. We fret over emerging pathogens with pandemic ambitions and anything AI. Wars won’t go away. Prices rise as surely as the sun goes up each morning. Yet a prospect of a new season remains ever an agent of renewal, a reliable cause for rejoice. More so than many classical music falls, this year’s is characterized by comings and goings, reminders that nature turns, turns, turns. Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pacific Symphony have new music directors. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra prepares for a new one next year. Unlike in so many cities, old ones return as well. The only guide you need for fall entertainment. Unpredictability is also built in. We don’t know everything at the time of this writing. After a past season of regrouping, Long Beach Opera is promising new life but still nailing down details. Monday Evening Concerts, the historic new music series, along with other new music groups, are …

Curate your weekend with Shelley Holcomb’s L.A. art guide

Curate your weekend with Shelley Holcomb’s L.A. art guide

Published by Sam Flores

I wasn’t born in Los Angeles, but it’s the city that raised me. I moved here fresh out of college with a doe-eyed dream of stepping into the kind of art scene I’d read about in history books. Instead, it quickly became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to just waltz in with my Southern charm and big smile; there would need to be some sort of hack into the art world — a place rife with unspoken roles and gatekeeping — if I wanted to get anywhere as a non-nepo artist. After years of blister-inducing heels-on-the-ground gallery hopping and late-night schmoozing, I found myself falling in love with this city and slowly realizing that the best parts of L.A. were rarely found in mainstream spaces. There’s an inventiveness here that comes from the sprawl of the city — artists like myself who are constantly improvising, building their own ecosystems because nothing is handed to them. I fell in love with how “never-ending” the artist’s practice can feel in Los Angeles, how a …

Bezos, Judge Judy, Rihanna: L.A. County goes after private jets

Bezos, Judge Judy, Rihanna: L.A. County goes after private jets

Published by Sam Flores

Jeff Bezos got hit with a notice for about $244,000 in overdue L.A. County taxes and fees on his luxury jet. A private aircraft that, according to flight tracking database JetSpy, is linked to Rihanna racked up a roughly $104,000 bill for unpaid taxes. Stan Kroenke, the billionaire owner of the Rams, got dinged about $290,000 for two private planes that JetSpy says belong to him. L.A. County Assessor Jeff Prang is on a mission: Find the ultrawealthy jet owners who failed to pay taxes on their luxury planes and make them cough up. Private jet owners in California have to pay an annual 1% property tax on their plane. Airplanes are taxed in the place that they are “habitually situated” when not in flight. That means it doesn’t matter where a plane is registered or where the owner lives, but rather where the plane has spent the most time on the ground. If they fail to pay, they get charged a penalty fee. This year, the assessor’s office sent out hundreds of bills to …

1980s L.A. parents became a symbol for spoiling children. Were they really monsters?

1980s L.A. parents became a symbol for spoiling children. Were they really monsters?

Published by Sam Flores

High on coke, the blond beauty of a certain age cradles an Oscar statuette and addresses the academy from the mirrored dressing room of her Beverly Hills estate. It’s a fantasy acceptance speech she will never give in real life. Her words are not of gratitude but resentment, bile and narcissism. And she saves the cruelest treatment for her own offspring, a glamorous, popular coed at L.A.’s most elite private high school. “To my daughter watching tonight, you are the disappointment of my life,” she says with satisfaction. Welcome to the early 1980s of Bret Easton Ellis, the novelist who over three decades has left an indelible mark on the way we think about our most privileged hillsides and canyons. TV viewers are getting a taste of his twisted take on the era — including that dark fantasy acceptance speech — this summer with the FX series “The Shards,” which is based on an Ellis novel and follows a group of rich high school friends through a maze of sex, drugs, dancing and murder. The …

This L.A. mall was dead longer than it was alive. Then Taylor Swift and Beyoncé discovered it

This L.A. mall was dead longer than it was alive. Then Taylor Swift and Beyoncé discovered it

Published by Sam Flores

Even in a region known for its dead shopping malls, Hawthorne Plaza holds a unique distinction. It has been closed longer than it was ever open, and the sprawling property in the center of the South Bay suburb has been the subject of debate and fascination for decades. It opened along Hawthorne Boulevard in 1977, at the height of the mall-boom years, as every city wanted its air-conditioned main street anchored by department stores and plenty of parking. But Hawthorne Plaza faltered earlier than most, shutting down in 1999 and remaining eerily preserved. The mall still has huge signs for the Broadway and Montgomery Ward, two once-famous department stores that went out of business decades ago. The mall’s abandoned status has made it a setting for movies as well as urban adventurers, who have broken in and taken YouTube videos of what they found. But the days of Hawthorne’s “haunted” mall are numbered. On a recent Friday morning, at least three large dump trucks filled with rusted metal debris exited from behind security gates, the …

How Josh Kushner became the newest owner of the L.A. Lakers

How Josh Kushner became the newest owner of the L.A. Lakers

Published by Sam Flores

When news broke that Mark Walter’s insurance businesses were under federal investigation and that the Lakers and Dodgers owner might be in financial trouble, Josh Kushner sensed a business opportunity. The New York venture capitalist called former Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger — his partner in a bid for a new Las Vegas NBA franchise — wondering if they might instead snap up Los Angeles’ marquee basketball team. The two quickly agreed, Kushner contacted Walter and within 72 hours the deal was done to avoid a bidding war. And with that, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, was thrust into a media spotlight he has largely shunned. But while Kushner may be relatively unknown compared with his politically active brother, he has rapidly and quietly risen to the upper echelons of business, with an estimated net worth of $16.7 billion. His Thrive Capital, which he founded in 2010 while attending Harvard Business School, has more than $65 billion under management. Its investments include some of the world’s top young companies, including OpenAI, …

L.A. Phil offers Hollywood Bowl tickets for Medi-Cal, EBT users

L.A. Phil offers $10 Hollywood Bowl tickets for Medi-Cal, EBT users

Published by Sam Flores

Imagine a Saturday night “spectacular,” under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing as fireworks explode in the night sky — for $10? Not a pipe dream. The L.A. Phil has taken a major step in expanding its accessibility. The organization announced this week that it will offer Los Angeles County residents with active Medi-Cal or EBT cards $10 tickets to L.A. Phil performances at the Hollywood Bowl starting with the 2027 season. It will offer at least 100 of these tickets at each of the orchestra’s Hollywood Bowl concerts. Tickets will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. The L.A. Phil didn’t say exactly how eligible residents could secure such tickets. It plans to announce that process in spring 2027 before the season starts. L.A. Phil Vice President of Community & Government Engagement Cynthia Fuentes said in an interview that the organization has been “prioritizing accessibility for a very long time.” “When you create accessibility programs, they have to be very intentional,” Fuentes said. “Folks are really struggling to …

How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Dave Franco

How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Dave Franco

Published by Sam Flores

In reality, Dave Franco has a strict routine for Sundays, one he takes very seriously. He and his wife, actor Alison Brie, stay in bed all day, watch four movies and Postmate every single meal. But for the sake of Sunday Funday, the actor, director and screenwriter gave us a hypothetical Sunday where they actually leave their house. In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends. The couple have lived in Los Feliz since 2012 and have bounced around to a few different spots in the neighborhood during that time. “We love that there are certain pockets that feel tucked away in nature where you don’t feel the buzz of the city,” Franco says, “but when you’re in the mood for a great meal or a night out, you’re still only a five-minute drive from all the action.” Franco and Brie have collaborated on multiple projects, including the horror …