Student tattoo artist finds connection and expression in ink

Loved ones and high school teachers told Leslie Young that pursuing art was unrealistic and financially straining. Nearly 100 tattoo clients later, Young has made her passion for the permanent art into a lucrative career. A rising fourth-year financial actuarial mathematics student, Young repeatedly pierces her clients’ skin with minuscule needles to produce smooth, simplistic […]

Alumnus visual designer uses projection to augment theater production

Vincent Van Gogh’s painting of sunflowers glided across the Sacred Fools Theater Company’s walls in “The Art Couple” – all because of a projector. The play tells the story of Neil Simon writing the first draft of the television series “The Odd Couple.” While leaving for his Catskills cabin with a busboy he meets at […]

Student short film hopes to expand depictions of LGBTQ community beyond US

Two former lovers circumvent their roles as prisoner and prison guard as they pass messages to each other through the inside of a milk carton in “The Carton Tongue.” The short film follows Salam, an imprisoned journalist and gay rights activist in Morocco who discovers that his jailer is his closeted former lover, Mourad. As […]

Incoming student rises above personal adversity in debut song ‘Broken Wings’

Izzy Escobar flies with broken wings every day. The incoming first-year musical theater student released her debut song “Broken Wings” on June 25, stemming from her experience of abuse from a stepparent, which she turned into inspiration for her music at a young age. The four-minute pop song, accompanied by an original music video, celebrates […]

Alumna weaves together comedy, gore in new tale of mob mentality in social media

A double doorbell notification from an app, humorously referencing “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” signals gruesome death in Gretchen McNeil’s new book “#MurderTrending.” Huddled at her desk for nine weeks, the UCLA alumna said she produced a seemingly simple narrative following a teenager wrongly convicted of murder, layering it with broader commentary about the omnipresence […]

Concert review: G-Eazy at the FivePoint Amphitheatre

G-Eazy wore socks with sandals to rap the night away. After five openers dragging on, the rapper, also known as Gerald Earl Gillum, finally took the stage at the FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, emerging from smoke at 9:45 p.m. He maintained a high level of energy and passion until his very last note, spending the […]

UCLA staff’s book explores intersection of sustainability, marketing

Nike’s “Considered,” a line of shoes made of cannabis, was released in 2005. Though the company expected the eco-friendly hemp design to attract environmentally conscious consumers, critics panned the earthy look of the shoes and called them “air hobbits.” “Considered” is one of many unsuccessful corporate attempts to market environmental sustainability that Magali Delmas mentions […]