Editorial

Sep 23, 2014 Save Music in Chinatown 4: The Bicycle Thief, Evil Hearted You, My Revenge

by Martin Wong

The upcoming Save Music in Chinatown show on Sunday, October 19 will be the fourth DIY benefit concert that my wife and I have organized to raise funds for the defunded music program at our daughter's elementary school, so I'll try not to repeat everything for a fourth time. Like how L.A.'s Chinatown has had...

Editorial

Sep 16, 2014 Conversations in Place at The Rancho Los Alamitos recap

by Martin Wong

On Sunday I visited The Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach to check out an installment of its Conversations in Place 2014 series. The topic of discussion was "Should Our Future Cling to the Past?" and in addition to my friend, Imprint's own Julia Huang, there were professor of urban planning and author Joel Kotkin...

Editorial

Sep 10, 2014 Lightning Shot

by Jerry Hsiao

I've been posting lightning photos on my instagram for every storm I catch, since I purchased the Sony RX-100 a few years ago. With the growing audience of my photos, I have had a lot of people asking how I take them. As a self-proclaimed amateur fanboy of photography at best, I believe everyone can shoot...

Editorial

Sep 09, 2014 Spot Check: Downtown L.A.’s Piñata District

by Martin Wong

Visitors often complain about how Los Angeles is sprawled out and there's no transportation system that takes everyone everywhere easily. They're right. But I love that I still discover neighborhoods and areas that are new to me decades after moving up from behind the Orange Curtain. That happened this weekend when my wife and I...

Editorial

Sep 02, 2014 #imprintpresents Jan Chipchase at the Downtown Independent recap

by Martin Wong

Imprint's Jeffrey Ng introduced Jan Chipchase as a guy who specializes in gathering impossible-to-get information for clients. Chipchase is famously able to extract data from the most insular communities around the world, ranging from the very richest to the most poor. His #imprintpresents talk at the Downtown Independent on Tuesday, August 26, was a rare...

Editorial

Aug 26, 2014 That time I caught Dengue Fever

by Martin Wong

It was way back in 2002 but I vividly recall driving from my home in Silver Lake to the Giant Robot garage off Sawtelle, listening to KXLU, and hearing what sounded like vintage garage rock from Cambodia. The LMU station is rightfully famous for championing all sorts of great punk rock, post punk, and noise...

Editorial

Aug 19, 2014 #imprintpresents John Maeda and Friends Recap

by Martin Wong

After being introduced by Imprint Culture Lab's Julia Huang at last week's #imprintpresents event, John Maeda said that he wanted to make sure his presentation wouldn't simply echo one of his TED talks, conference keynote speeches, or anything that one can easily stream online. He added that he has been giving a lot of speeches...

Editorial

Aug 18, 2014 8 Questions with: Ed Lin

by Martin Wong

I'm thankful that I’ve been able to cobble together some sort of writing career by sharing the great stuff that my friends and future friends do. But while it’s a purposeful form of communication--and possibly even a mutation or mutilation of journalism--I don't consider myself a "real" writer. My friend Ed Lin is a real writer....

Editorial

Aug 12, 2014 Paul McCartney at Dodger Stadium

by Martin Wong

When I was a junior high student who was just starting to buy records, I wasn't a fan of The Beatles. I thought it was weird for classmates to wear T-shirts with John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Why didn't they support more current, more local music, more underground music? No Elvis, Beatles, or the Rolling Stones,...

Editorial

Aug 05, 2014 Three artists, one night in Los Angeles

by Martin Wong

Saturday night in Los Angeles was atypical. It was unseasonably muggy all day and eventually it started to rain. Weird but good, especially during a seriously long drought in the Southland. My social calendar was atypical and good as well: I was able to visit three of my favorite artists and friends back to back...