Posts by Mark McDermott
Spyder’s Hermosa Beach Snow Fest cancelled due to lack of sponsorship
Snow will not fall on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach this year. Spyder Surf notified city officials Friday morning that its efforts to organize its 3rd annual Snow Fest have fallen short financially and that the Hermosa-based company would focus efforts on hosting the event next year: “Thank you for being such a great partner…
Read MoreHomeless in the South Bay: In their own words- Mike Hammond
Mike Hammond may be the most thankful man you’ll ever meet.
Hammond is not homeless. But he was homeless for 17 years, and he still lives among the homeless.
Read MoreCar rental-by-the-minute proposed for South Bay
A new kind of car rental service that uses “smart cars”, charges by the minute and and allows users pick up and drop off the vehicle anywhere locally has been proposed for the South Bay.
Read MoreMattel’s 12 Days of Play goes worldwide from El Segundo
The snow days began, of all places, in sunny El Segundo. Two years ago, employees at Mattel headquarters in El Segundo had an idea. The toymaker wanted to do something to brighten the holidays of children throughout Southern California whose families might not have the financial wherewithal for new toys or trips to places with…
Read MoreRace to Nowhere, documentary on “overscheduled child” epidemic, shows free in Manhattan Beach tonight
A free screening of the film “Race to Nowhere”, the documentary about stress and other negative health impacts in what the New York Times described as “the overscheduled child” epidemic, will be held at the Manhattan Beach Preschool (1431 15th St., MB) from 6 to 8 p.m. The event is hosted by Linda Sanders, the…
Read MoreWicked+: Hermosa Beach’s accidental retail store [GIFT GUIDE]
Brian and Colin Cooley are accidental retailers. Wicked+ General Store, the brothers’ storefront on upper Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, began as an office for their marketing and PR firm. The brothers were formerly based in Atlanta. They fell in love with the South Bay, and Hermosa particularly, on frequent business trips to the LA…
Read MoreMan stabs co-worker, boss, in El Segundo
A 18-year-old man stabbed and critically wounded a co-worker and injured his boss last Wednesday afternoon in El Segundo. Nery K. Ramos was captured after briefly eluding a multi-agency manhunt. As Los Angeles County Sheriffs and El Segundo, Hawthorne, and Manhattan Beach police officers established a perimeter and searched with a helicopter and K-9’s, Ramos…
Read MoreWaxman prevails over Bloomfield
Congressman Henry Waxman was elected to his 20th term in Congress Tuesday night, outdistancing opponent Bill Bloomfield 54 to 46 to represent the newly formed 33rd District. Waxman, a Democrat, was new to the South Bay after serving 38 years representing a district that hewed closer to his Beverly Hills home. The newly redrawn district…
Read MoreHenry Waxman and Bill Bloomfield battle for District 33
Saturday afternoon, Congressman Henry Waxman was in a place he’d never been before.
Read MoreThe legendary Gilberto Gil makes his Disney Hall debut
There was a time and place in which pop music was a revolution. In Brazil, in the late 1960s, Gilberto Gil was a rising pop star, the leader of the ambitious and culturally voracious Tropicália “Afro power” movement that infused traditional rhythms from the rural northeast of the nation with psychedelia, poetry, and art rock.…
Read MoreJackson’s is back, better than ever in El Segundo [RESTAURANT REVIEW]
Returning to a restaurant you haven’t visited in a while can be like bumping into an old friend at a party – you’re glad to see them and eager to relive the good old days, but in the back of your mind, you worry that either you or they might have changed too much for…
Read MoreEl Segundo TopGolf proposal comes under fire
A proposal to drastically revamp the driving range at The Lakes in El Segundo municipal golf course has come under fire from golf pros and longtime users who want to preserve the existing facility. TopGolf, a Texas-based company expanding throughout the nation, hopes to enter its patented, high-tech reinvention of the traditional driving range into…
Read MoreA toast to beer in the South Bay
Waves of Grain: the Beer Issue explores the South Bay’s emerging craft beer scene.
Read MoreSimmzy’s: good beer is here to stay
Like so many things done well, what the brothers Simms did in downtown Manhattan Beach in retrospect seems inevitable. But three years ago, when they took over the little 1,200 sq. ft. storefront at 229 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, tore down the front wall to let ocean air and sunlight in, then opened a venue called…
Read MoreSteve Roberts: the South Bay’s palate shifter
Steve Roberts goes his own damned way. Others tend to follow. Never was this more apparent than when he opened Café Boogaloo in 1995. The concept wasn’t complicated, but it was plenty audacious: a blues and roots music bar serving downhome Southern food, fine wine and beer. By beer he meant craft beer. When he…
Read MoreTwo men and a van: Strand Brewing Co.’s hard-working road to success
One day early in 2009, Rich Marcello picked up the phone to find his old friend Joel Elliot on the other end. Elliot, as is his way, was short and to the point. “Hey,” he said. “Do you want to do a brewery?” “Sure,” Marcello replied. “I’ll be there.” Marcello was working for a small…
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