Hidden Los Angeles

05/24/2026

“This is G-Son Studios in Atwater Village — where the Beastie Boys wrote and recorded Check Your Head and Ill Communication, ran Grand Royal Records and served as home base for not just the Beastie Boys but so many in their orbit (Run-DMC, Beck, Biz Markie, Redd Kross).

After that, Diplo and Mad Decent took it over during one of his most amazing producing runs.

We took over the space in 2021. It needed a lot of work. It still does. But we’ve been chipping away at it, and we’re getting close to something amazing.

We haven’t posted much. But this felt like the right moment to start sharing what we’ve been doing — and what we’re building.

More soon. Follow along.



🔗 gsonstudios.com “

05/15/2026

05/14/2026

Court bans Kars4Kids ads in California for violating false advertising law

04/29/2026

04/28/2026

The First United Methodist Church has been in its ornate home in Pasadena for 101 years. For about 10 years, it has also been the home of a satellite location of the Islamic Center of Southern California, a large mosque in the downtown area.

And for a little over a year, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center has also used space at the Colorado Boulevard church. The congregation lost their worship space to the Eaton Fire in January 2025.

That means that First United Methodist Church in Pasadena is today the site of bar mitzvahs and Shabbat services, iftar meals and Friday prayers and Christian Holy Week services.

Sometimes, within hours of each other.

“I'm not aware of any other church in the country that has all three Abrahamic faiths worshiping under one roof. It's pretty phenomenal,” said Pastor Amy Aitken of the First United Methodist Church.

🔗 Read the story: https://ow.ly/GYgm50YQRJL

✍️ Yusra Farzan
📸 Yusra Farzan/LAist

04/18/2026

Can an art museum tell a non-linear version of art history and still be legible to its visitors? That’s the question guiding the David Geffen Galleries, the new Peter Zumthor-designed building for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that opens to members on April 19 and to the public on May 4.⁠
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This one-level museum eschews traditional museological hierarchies. European paintings are not given priority, Greco-Roman sculptures are not awarded long marble hallways, and art of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania is not tucked away in dusty corners. Instead, art from LACMA’s 15 curatorial departments can go anywhere in the building—no department has an earmarked space, and some departments, like the one for costumes and textiles, even have more on view than ever before.⁠
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“If this is what the future of museological display is, count me in,” writes.⁠
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Read about the 25-year process of rethinking LACMA—and its triumphant new galleries: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/lacma-david-geffen-galleries-review-1234781676/

04/17/2026

That suit tho.

Three Los Angeles County residents will spend their weekends in jail for dressing up as a bear and trashing luxury cars for insurance money.

Investigators said the suspects submitted insurance claims in 2024 that defrauded companies of $141,839, sending the CDI videos of a supposed bear inside of several luxury cars. California Department of Fish and Wildlife scientists who were shown the videos told investigators it was "clearly a human in a bear suit," according to state insurance regulators.

Details: https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/bear-suit-scammers-in-la-county-convicted-in-insurance-fraud-scheme/