The Brief

What does it take to make it in music? In Los Angeles, it's a competitive and challenging industry to figure out.

From booking a concert venue to building a fanbase, young performers often have to do it all themselves. That’s why on a recent Tuesday, Queer LA explored what it was like to navigate L.A.’s music scene with LGBTQ+ indie artists at the Crawford, our events space in Pasadena.

We had live performances and an honest conversation. Follow below to meet our special guests and watch the recording.

Watch the performances

Mermaid

Brittany Campbell and Candace Quarrels are the engaged couple behind Mermaid, a Los Angeles-based music group that isn’t tied down to a particular genre. Their music dips into quite a few, like soul, R&B and a combination of alt-rock and jazz.

The pair have been all over the country. Campbell was raised in New York and Quarrels grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas. While they met in the Chicago production of Hamilton, L.A. was calling their names.

Candace Quarrels and Brittany Campbell of Mermaid.

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Courtesy Mermaid

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In 2019, they moved out here to see what could happen for them with the television and film industries. But there was another motive to the move: music. In that same year, they started getting their feet wet with Mermaid by putting out a few songs and playing at open mic nights in L.A.

Lately, they’ve performed at popular LGBTQ+ music events, like Queersound and Out of Mind Fest. They recently released a debut album called Iridescence.

Quarrels had only done Broadway before Mermaid. Campbell is a signed songwriter under Warner Chappell Music who writes for artists and shows like Rise of the Pink Ladies on Paramount+. While Mermaid isn’t a signed band yet, they enjoy the autonomy that creates for their musical identity.

“I think it was important that we were like, ‘no, Mermaid is Mermaid,’” Campbell said. “There's really no input you, anyone, could ever give us except for signing a check.”

That confidence is clear in Iridescence, which crosses multiple genres, while keeping tone and voice distinctively defined. Campbell even creates custom animations for their music videos.

“The doodles, the animation, it ties stuff together,” Quarrels said. “It's like with the genres. Even though we’re bouncing through these genres, we always, always sound like us.”

Campbell and Quarrels joined LAist on Jan. 30 to perform new songs and give us a larger peek into their musical ethos: To leave no stone left unturned and break out of societal boundaries.

“You were born into this vessel, and yeah, that comes with lots of things because of many different gazes on you, but it’s important to push out of that so you can really reach the fullness,” Campbell said.

Danielle Lande

Lifelong Angeleno Danielle Lande is a crooner at heart and creator of Queersound, a monthly queer music showcase at the Silverlake Lounge. They first got into music as a choir kid, but as they got older, it became an avenue for navigating life.

“It’s like a journal entry equivalent for me,” Lande said. “It’s helpful for sorting out my emotional life.”

While they’ve been writing for years, Lande began performing live in 2018. Part of the late-blooming is because growing up, Lande says artists couldn’t self-release music in the same way that they can now with streaming.

Danielle Lande, an artist and creator of Queersound.

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Courtesy Danielle Lande

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“One really cool thing I think especially for queer artists — and other artists who might not be cherry-picked by the old men on top —it's cool that we can [self-release], without anyone telling us what we can and cannot do.”

Lande wants their style to be soothing to others, just like it is to them. They do ballads, explore jazz (with some scatting) and dig into that crooning music aesthetic.

“People started saying Carole King a lot when I first started playing out,” Lande said. “I do think there is a little bit of a quality to my writing that evokes like the ‘70s singer-songwriter.”

Lande wears multiple music hats as the creator and producer of Queersound. When it began in 2018, there were only a handful of recurring LGBTQ+ events that were not geared toward gay men. It stopped for a bit and came back in 2023.

“The return of Queersound has come at a time when there's a very different queer scene than there used to be. I think a lot of it is just that we were so starved for community,” Lande said, referring to the rise of LGBTQ+ events after COVID-19 closures.

They make sure talent is booked, venues are safe and that social media gets the word out. While it keeps Lande very busy, they enjoy creating a way for LGBTQ+ musicians to get stage time without the stress that comes with it.

“Every artist is expected to produce their own shows every single time, so it’s a relief as an artist to be asked onto a show,” Lande said. “Normally, an artist is doing a million things and it’s a steep learning curve.”

But the idea for Queersound goes a little deeper. At one point, they wished for a music night to go to where they would meet other queer artists and play for a room of people who would be more excited about what they’re doing. Lande joined LAist on Jan. 30 to perform and explore the makings of Queersound.

DJ Funky Caramelo 

For Graciela Lopez, who goes by DJ Funky Caramelo, music has always been a safe haven. She immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico City at 11 years old and settled in the Historic Filipinotown area. Music has been a part of Lopez’s life since she was very young.

“I always grew up with the love of music,” Lopez said. “My mom used to always work and I used to always listen to the radio. And that’s how I learned English, through music.”

Graciela Lopez, whose stage name is DJ Funky Caramelo.

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Courtesy Graciela Lopez

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Lopez grew up listening to stations like Power 106 and watching the music channels of VH1, BET and MTV. Lopez fell in love with music so much that she dropped career plans to become a lawyer, and eventually took a 6-month class about DJing and music theory.

She says her different identities — encompassing her life as a DACA recipient, family and sexuality — come together to guide her work as a DJ. Lopez describes her sound as global beats, but she believes in curating her set lists to bring unrepresented sounds to the front.

“Female-identified DJs were very rare. And then when it happened, at least for me, I was like, ‘hey, I can do that,’” Lopez said. “I feel a sense of responsibility to pay it forward.”

For Lopez, DJing is more than just playing sounds while everyone else dances. When she puts events together, she makes sure to invite other women Djs and makes a point to play sounds emphasizing artists of color and LGBTQ+ people.

“I have the power to command the room and I have the power to play the voice that people are not used to hearing,” Lopez said. “I want to be able to use that time and shout out other artists that other people would probably not listen to because they're not mainstream.”

Lopez joined LAist on Jan. 30 to perform and explored more of how she got started.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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Kadletz Family Archives)

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Courtesy MRCA

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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Anthony Chieh

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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Anthony Chieh

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.