Writer, Editor, Investigative Journalist
In a town where exposure is everything, bite-size videos from Instagram and the even shorter Vine prove popular and even profitable. Enjoy whirlwind tours of Los Angeles neighborhoods, eavesdrop on celebrities, drive interest in your in-progress screenplay. Just when you thought this town's attention span couldn't get any shorter ? or its … Continue »
There's no running water, no plumbing, no electrical outlets. The environment is so forbidding in this vast and dusty desert that there aren't even insects. So it's not the kind of place to expect full bars on your smartphone. Of course, that's a big part of the charm. The only thing not lacking in Black Rock City, Nev. ? the temporary city … Continue »
I slide three shiny red jelly beans together. Trumpet blast. I put three lemon drops in a line. A xylophone sounds a jingle of approval. Then I get five purple jujubes in a row, and they snap into a single, multicolored, disco-ball-looking nonpareil equipped with deadly lasers. An authoritative baritone tells me that I'm "tasty," or better yet, … Continue »
Despite the chicken-in-every-pot hype over consumer-level 3-D printers, the technology still has a long way to go to be usable, or useful, for the average Joe. Designing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional computer screen is no simple task, especially for those unskilled in computer-assisted design or software. And for most people, … Continue »
The Granada Hills institution has been KOd by home consoles and online game sites after nearly 40 years. Inside, the Family Fun Arcade is dark, even on a sunny day. In the back, there?s a counter where you can get change, buy a can of soda for 75 cents and grab a bag of Doritos or a cellophane-covered brownie. The place is noisy, always noisy, … Continue »
Eggheads are setting concepts to music and animation and uploading their videos. They are drawing eager viewers by the hundreds of thousands. Eli Cirino's high school science project was quite literally an overnight success. Students in the 10th-grader's honors chemistry class at Granada Hills Charter High School were asked to make a video … Continue »
A cancer-stricken man and his wife find a sense of community online to keep friends and family informed of his progress. Apryl Lundsten was, in her own words, "not a good Facebook user." "Facebook made me uncomfortable. I'd post something, and somebody would answer, and I'd be like, 'Oh, my God, do I have to answer them?' I just had … Continue »
The 'green' DWP's Festival of Lights is mostly off-limits to cyclists. Touring the Festival of Lights in Griffith Park is an exercise in irony. Entering the mile-long display, staged every year by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the first thing visitors see is a sign announcing that the festival is "going green." If you're driving … Continue »