On Sunday evening March 5th, 2022 at Banc of California Stadium the Los Angeles Football Club came back from a 1-0 deficit to tie the Portland Timbers 1-1. The tie follows LAFC’s resounding season opening victory over the Colorado Rapids where star Carlos Vela scored a hat trick to lead his team to a 3-0 victory. Carlos Vela did not score this last game and was substituted at halftime by new coach Steve Cherundolo for Kwadwo Opoku. LAFC controlled the ball most of the game but it was the Portland Timbers’ Yimmi Chara who scored first at the 18th minute. LAFC responded to the goal with persistent play that created several opportunities to score but they could not get the ball past the Rapids’ net after 90 minutes. However, in the 93rd minute Brian Rodriguez sped past a Timbers defender and centered the ball to a waiting Mamadou Fall who kicked in the tying goal just feet from the center of the goal.

https://www.lafc.com/

Photographer Roger Martinez and I met at the National Orange Show Events Center on the evening of Friday December 10th, 2021 in San Bernardino, California to begin our coverage of Rolling Loud California 2021. The three day festival was very entertaining, well organized, and brought together fans from all over. We met people from Atlanta, Miami, North Carolina, Houston and many other places. Immediately after entering, we walked to the Punx stage because it was the closest one. We got near the stage as Action Bronson was closing out his show with DJ Akademiks by his side. The crowd was very animated but quickly dispersed when Action Bronson left the stage. The winter cold came in as the sun set on the crowd and remained through the entire weekend.

https://www.rollingloud.com/

I interviewed the talented artist Tristan Eaton on Friday July 16th, 2021 during the opening reception of his “ALL AT ONCE: 25 Years of Art and Design” in the Long Beach Museum of Art located on the coast of Long Beach, California. The art will be exhibited by the museum through October 3rd, 2021.

https://tristaneaton.com/

https://www.lbma.org/

The United States women’s national soccer team defeated Canada’s team to win the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament on Sunday, February 9th, 2020 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The Americans were already qualified to the 2020 Japan Summer Olympics after defeating Mexico’s national team on Friday, February 7th, 2020. The Americans dominated both games in Carson as most writers expected they would.

Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico- The second annual Baja Beach Fest was held from Friday, August 16th to Saturday August 17th, 2019 just meters from the crashing waves of Rosarito Beach. The lineup for Friday included:  Ozuna, J Balvin, Brytiago, Cazzu, Dj Luian, Jowell y Randy, Natalia & Esther, AJ Kallejero, DJ C, DJ Africa, DJ Freddy Fresco, and DJ Dynamiq. The Saturday lineup included: Bad Bunny, Nicky Jam, Becky G, Alex Rose, Amenazzy, De La Ghetto, Lyanno, Sergio Elias, Dynamik, AMPZ, Dj Nano, DJ Freddy Fresco, and DJ Susie. The tens of thousands of fans who attended shared the excitement from great performances by the most popular artists in music and other emerging ones. The Baja California sun and the constant ocean breeze combined to create an ideal backdrop for the Latin trap and reggaeton thundering from the stage.

Goldenvoice produced an impressive Latino celebration with their Dale Fuego Music Festival on Saturday August 10th, 2019 on the Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach, California. The lineup included Malu Trevejo, Lary Over, Rauw Alejandro, DJ Alex Sensation, Anitta, and Ozuna.  This group of artists represented Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Spain, and the United States.

Rey Vargas successfully defended his WBC super bantamweight title against Tomoki Kameda on Saturday July 14th, 2019 in Carson, California at the Dignity Health Sports Park. Tomoki “El Mexicanito” Kameda is from Japan but has trained in Mexico since the age of fifteen. The champion Rey Vargas is from Mexico and trains with the legendary Nacho Berestain. The fans, fighters, and some in the media joked that the real Mexican would be the boxer that emerged victorious.  The fight was ugly throughout because Rey Vargas’ length and boxing ability allowed him to keep Tomoki Kameda too far for Kameda to inflict substantial damage. The judges ruled unanimously 117-110 for Rey Vargas.

Club Atletico River Plate defeated Chivas de Guadalajara in front of several thousand fans on Friday, June 28th in San Diego, California at SDCC Stadium. This was the inaugural match for the Colossus Cup. The tournament consists of four friendly matches between the two most popular teams from Mexico (Club America and Chivas de Guadalajara) and the two most popular teams from Argentina (Club Atletico Boca Juniors and Club Atletico River Plate).  River Plate dominated throughout the entire match and the 5-1 score reflected that.

https://colossuscup.com/

Jennifer DeLia is an American film director. She wrote and directed Why Not Choose Love: A Mary Pickford Manifesto. We interviewed her at the film’s debut in The Theatre at Ace Hotel (the original United Artists theatre) on June 12th, 2019. The debut marked the inaugural launch event to the Hollywood Women's Film Institute’s 2019 International Film Festival.

Adam Fergus is an actor from Ireland. He plays Owen Moore in Jennifer DeLia’s Why Not Choose Love: A Mary Pickford Manifesto. We interviewed him at the film’s debut in The Theatre at Ace Hotel (the original United Artists theatre) on June 12th, 2019. The debut marked the inaugural launch event to the Hollywood Women's Film Institute’s 2019 International Film Festival.

WE RISE is a project of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. It is located at 1262 Palmetto Street in Los Angeles, California and will be open through May 27th, 2019. According to their website, “WE RISE is a 10-day pop-up immersive experience that brings together LA’s diverse community to explore our collective power to live lives of purpose and engagement. Through powerful programming, performances, immersive workshops, and a world-class art exhibition, we seek to embolden individuals and families to find help, reach out to help others and demand systemic change in order to address the critical need for early intervention, treatment and care for mental wellbeing.” We attended the WE RISE opening night celebration and spoke with several artists who will have their work displayed.

https://werise.la/

The Ukranian Vasiliy “No Mas” Lomachenko successfully defended his WBA and WBO World Titles with a fourth round knockout of Englishman Anthony Crolla in front of thousands at The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Friday, April 12th, 2019. Both boxers wore gold colors on their trunks as acknowledgement of fighting in the home of the Los Angeles Lakers; Lomachenko complemented the gold with purple while Crolla wore black.

We interviewed Salvador Santana in his home studio in Los Angeles, California. Salvador Santana is a Grammy Award winning musician who describes his music genre as “Life.” His father is the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana. We discussed music, his father, and his new single, Panic Mode.

Jose Ramirez successfully defended his WBC Junior Welterweight Championship belt against Jose Zepeda in front of over 14,000 boxing fans on Sunday, February 10th, 2019 in the Save Mart Center of Fresno, California.  Jose Ramirez did not only fight against his opponent, he also fought for the Community Cancer Institute of Clovis, California.  Ramirez’s fight attire was auctioned and a portion of ticket sales were donated for the benefit of the institute.  Jose Ramirez continues to be a favorite of California’s Central Valley because of his continued victories and support for the community (water rights, immigration issues, and now the Cancer Institute).

Founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif brought their Rolling Loud musical festival to the Banc of California Stadium Grounds and Exposition Park in south Los Angeles, California. The two-day festival started Friday, December 14th, 2018 and ended late into the night of Saturday, December 15th, 2018. The relatively cold LA temperature did not keep the sold-out crowd away. The crowd, primarily young fans, kept coming onto the stadium grounds all night, with many of them sprinting toward one of the two stages for a better view.  

http://www.rollingloud.com/

Mateo Berry hosted a launch party for “THE SOUND THAT WAS NEVER HEARD” from his Reserved Essential clothing brand on Wednesday, December 12th, 2019. “THE SOUND THAT WAS NEVER HEARD” is the autumn and winter collection for the brand. The party was held at RSVP Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, California. Mateo Berry’s signature color is named “Reserved Gold” and can be seen on much of his clothing line.

http://reservedessential.com/

Rafael Navarro is an American illustrator, animator, and comic book author. He is the winner of a Daytime Emmy award and has recently completed Guns A’ Blazin!, a comic book series, in collaboration with Mike Wellman. Additionally, he is the creator of the Xeric Foundation Award winning Sonambulo comic book series. We interviewed Rafael Navarro at Long Beach Comic Con 2018.