Entertainment & Culture

East L.A.’s Hidden Gem

It’s a hidden gem.

From the outside there is nothing remarkable about the large building on Third Street. It’s easy to miss; it’s camouflaged in a dull beige-color and sits quietly across from the Metro Gold Line station.

The L.A. Music and Art School in East Los Angeles, Photo by JournoJames

But step inside the brick structure and it’s anything but dull. Bright paintings and drawings jump off the walls, dancers leap and spin in the studio, and music echoes up and down the halls. This is the Los Angeles Music and Art School (LAMusArt) and the place is alive. (more…)

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Chef Hong Preaches the Virtues of Hansik

Originally published Mar. 23, 2012

Near the gleaming mirrored wine bar in cozy Sebastian’s Bistro in Huntington Beach, California, a short 46-year-old Korean man in chef’s whites and black-rimmed glasses, sets up a cooking station on a large rectangular table for a demo. His compact stature, boyish looks and nimble movements make him appear closer to 30 than 50.

Chef Mike Hong, Photo by JournoJames

This is chef Mike Hong. He preaches about Korean food. Even in little Italian bistros absent of any hungry Koreans.

While he considers himself a professional sushi chef first, he says that introducing people to Korean cuisine, or Hansik, is his true calling. (more…)

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End of the World Visions

Originally published Feb. 2, 2012

I can’t stop thinking about the end of the world.

The End, Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The thought pops into my head while I’m sipping my morning coffee. Sometimes I’ll imagine “the end” while I’m on a jog. It even distracted me a few weeks ago at church.

My fiancé and I had just finished a meeting with Father Eric, our priest who was counseling us on our summer wedding plans. We were talking about how beautiful the ceremony was going to be, but all I could envision was Los Angeles crumbling into the sea.

The world will end like everything else. When? Who really knows? David Koresh thought it would happen in 1993. He was wrong. Nostradamus was wrong, too. He predicted July 1999. And poor Harold Camping, the Christian radio broadcaster and numerologist who was positive the world would end last May, is now zero for three in his apocalyptic predictions. (more…)

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