Topline:
Sixty years ago today, NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft took the first up-close images of Mars, changing humanity's understanding of the Red Planet. The spacecraft was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
July 14, 1965: That’s when the spacecraft flew within about 6,000 miles of Mars, capturing and sending back more than 20 images.
Read on … to see a gallery of Mariner 4’s images.
Sixty years ago today, NASA’s Mariner 4 flew within about 6,000 miles of Mars, capturing the first close-up images of another planet’s surface.
The much awaited images were in black and white, converted from analog radio signals, and showed the Martian landscape pockmarked with craters.
“You had the idea that there may have been a civilization on Mars, but Mars was a dying planet. And before Mariner 4 people didn’t really know if there were canals on Mars or not,” said Hoppy Price, chief engineer for NASA's robotic Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a video posted by the organization.
Other equipment on the space probe measured the daytime surface temperature, estimated the surface pressure to be about 200 times less than on Earth, and helped us figure out that Mars’ atmosphere is made up of significant amounts of carbon dioxide.
“The Mariner 4 experiment has been a brilliant success, tantalizing us with the possibilities for Martian exploration that are now within our grasp,” wrote astronomer Carl Sagan in the July 1966 edition of Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
“The scientific exploration of Mars — whether or not we uncover life on that planet — remains one of the greatest opportunities in the history of science,” Sagan wrote.
The spacecraft was developed and built by JPL in Pasadena over the course of two years, and became the U.S. space program’s second successful mission to another planet. The first was Mariner 2, which flew to Venus in December 1962.
Mariner 4 weighed just 575 pounds, launching from Earth in late 1964 and arriving at Mars in about eight months.
Mariner 4’s mission ended in December 1967 when it ran out of propellant.
The exploration of Mars has continued. The latest mission is the Perseverance rover, which is collecting rock samples that could carry evidence of prehistoric, microscopic life.
The idea is to test the samples, but they first need to be brought back to Earth as part of the complex Mars Sample Return mission.
“That would be the next mission that we would hope to do,” Price said in an interview. Funding for that part of the mission is currently uncertain.
In this edition:
West Hollywood Pride, a tarot festival, Primary Trust at the Mark Taper Forum and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
What better way to welcome L.A.’s newest resident than with a fruit cart, paletas, pastries from Porto’s, Philippe’s French dip sandwiches and Kogi tacos passed out by Roy Choi himself? That’s exactly how the L.A. Philharmonic heralded new music director Daniel Harding at a conversation and reception last week, and I don’t think you can top it. Well, maybe only with the big sendoff happening for Gustavo Dudamel, who conducts his final shows at the big “Gracias Gustavo” celebration at Disney Hall this weekend after a glorious 17-year run. Bravo, maestros!
For more music, Licorice Pizza has your picks. On Friday, Secondhand Serenade is at the Roxy, Latin rock stars Maná play their first of two nights at the Honda Center and Scottish indie-pop darlings Belle & Sebastian perform their album Tigermilk in full at the Palladium with special guests Beachwood Sparks — they’ll be there Saturday, too, doing If You’re Feeling Sinister, with Tyler Ballgame opening.
Saturday, Alex Warren and Nat and Alex Wolff are at Crypto.com Arena, Snoop Dogg and Friends play a hometown show at the Long Beach Amphitheater and Mongolian folk metal band the Hu are at the Wiltern.
Sunday, Paul Simon plays the Hollywood Bowl and “School’s Out, ICE Out: An All-Ages Celebration of Community” hits the Echoplex with the Linda Lindas, Starcrawler, Illuminati Hotties, Allison Wolfe and more. But perhaps THE biggest concert tour of the year, the reunion of Rush, kicks off that night at the Forum.
Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about the weird things people leave behind in L.A. Ubers and check out our interview with Ziggy Marley.
Friday to Sunday, June 5 to 7
West Hollywood
COST: VARIES, MANY FREE EVENTS; MORE INFO
Pride kicks off big time in the mother of all Pride hubs: West Hollywood. This year’s street fair features free performances and appearances by Meg Stalter, Willa Ford, Cailin Russo, Say Now, Elio and more along Santa Monica Boulevard. Sunday’s parade starts at noon and is grand marshalled by Kathy Hilton; the weekend’s big Outloud Festival is ticketed and includes headliners Ashlee Simpson and Confidence Man, drag performances and much more
Through Sunday, June 28
Mark Taper Forum
135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: $40.25; MORE INFO
Knud Adams, who just recently directed the fab production of English at the Wallis, returns for the L.A. premiere of Eboni Booth’s 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Primary Trust. The one-act play tells the story of a young man (played with a light touch by Petey McGee) who has to find his way on his own after losing his bookstore job in upstate New York. It’s a tight, moving look at the changes in small-town America (the set gives Mr. Rogers vibes) and the challenges of moving through the world and finding your community — kind of an Our Town for our times.
Saturday, June 6, 7 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 South Gaffey St., San Pedro
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Sound Pedro is one of my favorite immersive art events of the year. Perched up on the hill overlooking the harbor, art installations featuring sound echo across the former Army barracks at Angels Gate. This year, the event celebrates its 10th anniversary with a riff on the traditional gift, tin. The one-night-only event includes sculptures, environments, installations, timed and ongoing performances, interactions and more throughout the site.
Sunday, June 7, 4 p.m.
Barnsdall Gallery Theater
4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz
COST: $15; MORE INFO
I got many, many emails from you all after the first previews of the David Geffen Galleries, and everyone had strong feelings. So if you sent us a note, this event is for you. Get your hot takes out and hear from architects and art experts about the new LACMA building at the LACMA Therapy Session, brought to you by our friends at L.A. Material, Punch List and the New York Review of Architecture. Bring your own Erewhon smoothie.
Through Sunday, June 7
Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Feliz
Tarot Arts, 1017 Mission St., South Pasadena
COST: FROM $39; MORE INFO
Your weekend plans are in the cards. Meet tarot experts, take a card-reading workshop, find your favorite new deck and get special readings with the best card readers in Los Angeles at the L.A. Festival of Tarot.
Sunday, June 7, 5 p.m.
Only the Wild Ones
1031 Abbot Kinney, Venice
COST: $39.66; MORE INFO
Cut Chemist (Lucas MacFadden) has to be in the running for coolest Angeleno. The accomplished DJ and producer has worked with Jurassic 5, Ozomatli and so many more. He’s hosting a series of intimate conversations and music sessions on the back patio of natural wine and vinyl bar Only the Wild Ones in Venice all summer long. Part VH1 Storytellers, part living room hang, it’s a really fun, low-key Sunday-night party. This week, the focus is Tuned In, Comped Out, about McFadden’s musical education; there will also be events on July 5 and August 2.
Saturdays, 10 a.m.
Westridge Trail, Brentwood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Put on your hiking boots and head up to Westridge Trail above Brentwood to make some new friends and get some exercise with the Venice Hike Club. The group heads out weekly, so make this Saturday your week! Can’t promise there won’t be a rattlesnake sighting.
Saturday, June 6, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Annenberg Community Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Clearly, sound is the theme this week. Dublab is hosting Ocean of Sound, a free event at Santa Monica’s Annenberg Community Beach House. It’s currently sold out, but check back to see if you can score a ticket to this evening of restorative listening. Periphone, a sound installation by Nina Keith, will be presented alongside Light & Air Studies, a textile installation by Faith-Ann Kiwa Young. Find a spot poolside or hop in to listen to work by Meg Duffy and Qur’an Shaheed via underwater speakers.
Topline:
Actor/comedian Lamorne Morris is best known for his roles in the 2010s sitcom New Girl and the dramatic Fargo TV series, which earned him an Emmy. In Spider-Noir, Morris says he got to borrow from both experiences, and “play in both the levity and the stakes.”
Read on... for his take on Marvel fans and working with Nicolas Cage.
In the new live-action Prime Video series Spider-Noir, based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir, actor and comedian Lamorne Morris plays a reporter named Robbie Robertson who is best friends with Ben Reilly (played by Nicolas Cage), a private investigator grappling with his superhero past.
Morris is best known for his roles as Winston in the 2010s sitcom New Girl (which he currently co-hosts a rewatch podcast about called The Mess Around), and more recently as a North Dakota deputy in FX’s Fargo, which earned him an Emmy.
In Spider-Noir, Morris told LAist host Julia Paskin that he got to borrow from both experiences, and “play in both the levity and the stakes.”
And while the show is set in a version of 1930s New York City, it was filmed in Los Angeles. Morris noted, “ Downtown L.A. looks probably more like 1930s New York than New York does,” and confirmed a fun tidbit — a real-life bar used as a filming location in the series, The Prince in Koreatown, was also regularly featured in New Girl.
Morris stars alongside Nicolas Cage who Spiderman fans will remember as the voice of a version of Spider-Noir in the 2018 animated film Into the Spider-Verse. The Amazon Prime series does blend in some original comic book characters like Joseph “Robbie” Robertson, played by Morris.
Some highlights of their conversation are below, including why the anticipation of comic book fans’ reactions to the show made him more nervous than meeting Nicolas Cage for the first time.
While Morris said he welcomes fan reactions to his work, going back to his New Girl days (“ I love when I read fan feedback [...] I'm one of those actors that can appreciate it”) entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where fans can be “ real precious about their characters,” did intimidate him a bit.
”It being a comic book genre, that's where I feel the pressure because the fans are serious. The fans are like, ‘Hey, don't f--- this up.’ And you're just like, "Okay. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.’ So that pressure is there. We've gotten some pretty cool reviews so far, [but] the ultimate test is what the fans are saying. That's the final boss right there.”
Morris said the advantage of portraying the character of Robbie Robertson was that while there is some information about him in the comic books, and a portrayal of Robertson by the late actor Bill Nunn (who Wilson called “one of the greats”) in the 2000s Spider-Man trilogy of films by director Sam Raimi — there still was some room for Morris to make his own interpretations of the character.
“I got a chance to really make Robbie my own,” Morris said. “Which is all you can ask for.”
In doing some research on real-life Black reporters from that era, Morris’s friend brought up reporter Ted Poston, who was the first Black reporter for The New York Post (and only the third Black reporter to work for a major daily New York City newspaper) and was with the paper for more than three decades, from 1936 to 1972.
After finding out about Poston’s life and work, Morris said, ”uncovering truths and breaking down walls [...] it was one of those things where I said, ‘Man. I know I'm doing research on Robbie Robertson, but I would love to shed more light on Ted Poston just because he meant so much to culture and he meant so much to the profession of journalism.”
Another inspiration was the 1995 film Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle, and based on Walter Mosley’s novel set in post-WWII Los Angeles.
When showrunner Oren Uziel encouraged Morris to lean into an “old-timey” texture and tone for the character’s way of speaking, paying homage to “the noir of it all, to the black-and-white of it all” (all of the episodes of the series are available in both color and black-and-white) Morris looked for a character from around that time period who wouldn’t sound “too cartoony” or “over the top.”
So he watched Devil in a Blue Dress and studied Washington and Cheadle’s approaches: “They came at it from two different energies. And I thought if I can watch two master actors make two completely different choices, but they both work brilliantly for the film, then [it was] dealer's choice for myself.”
When it came to working with Nicolas Cage, Morris said he had to work past his own fandom to get to a place where he could work comfortably.
To do that, Morris said, he tried to get his “million” questions out of his system as quickly as possible — like “What’s it like being Nic Cage?” and “What do you eat for lunch?”
When he went on a weekend trip with friends to New Orleans, Morris said he texted Cage, who he’d heard “bought a haunted hotel or something in New Orleans” — a mansion, it turns out — and asked Cage what they should do.
“The messages I got back in return were insane,” Morris said. “He broke down every restaurant, who to talk to when I got there, where to get the best drinks, where to get this, where to get that.”
Beyond being a lesson that meeting your heroes isn’t always a bad idea, Morris said it also served a purpose for the work they were doing.
”What you're doing is you're breaking down those walls so you can remove those nerves,” Morris explained. “When you don't know someone personally and you have to jump right into something where you're best friends, you need to build that chemistry quickly. So for me, that's what it was. It was just being silly, asking him everything.”
Topline:
Cheap Fast Eats heads to Little Saigon in Westminster, where five spots along Bolsa Avenue deliver some of the most distinctive Vietnamese food in Southern California for around $15 a stop.
Why it matters: Little Saigon is one of the most striking ethnoburbs in the country — a community built by Vietnamese refugees who arrived after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and faced active resistance from the cities that would eventually become their home. What they built along Bolsa Avenue isn't just a food destination. It's a statement. Every bowl of mì khô, every bánh khọt, every bò kho served out of a strip mall storefront is the result of that determination.
Why now: With the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon in 2025 and the 2026 World Cup drawing attention to immigrant communities and their contributions to Southern California's cultural fabric, there's no better moment to pull up a chair on Bolsa Avenue and eat like a local.
Fifteen dollars. That’s all it takes to eat well in Little Saigon in Orange County — one of the most striking ethnoburbs in the country. (An ethnoburb, for the uninitiated, is a suburban community where an ethnic minority has put down roots so deep that the neighborhood adapts to them, not the other way around.)
Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese refugees have built something here in the face of a community that didn’t always want them, determined to create a better life.
Along Bolsa Avenue, in Westminster there's an unbroken stretch of Vietnamese restaurants, bakeries, markets and cafes, filled with everyone from manual laborers to the Little Saigon equivalent of Crazy Rich Asians, dripping with a quiet elegance. All rub shoulders over bowls of noodles in a kind of perfect harmony that feels specific to the area.
The food is uniformly excellent, and if you know where to look, inexpensive. You can eat like a local for around $15 a stop.
This is Cheap Fast Eats: Little Saigon.
Of course, there’s no shortage of banh mi places to try in Westminster. But Carrot & Daikon was calling my name the day I visited, particularly for its crispy pork belly banh mi, based on the traditional Vietnamese recipe known as heo quay, where the signature ultra-crispy crackling skin and tender meat are seasoned with a five-spice blend.
Taking a bite causes an immediate jolt to the senses. The ultra-crunchy crust of the pork belly does a little jig against the soft interior of the baguette, highlighted by shredded carrots and daikon, fresh cucumber spears, and thin rounds of jalapeño that drive the whole thing home. At $8.99, it’ll get you where you need to go — and fast.
Location: 9016 Bolsa Ave., Westminster
Hours: Open daily 6 a.m.–7 p.m
Instagram: @carrotanddaikon
Chicken wings feel like another no-brainer when it comes to Cheap Fast Eats. Perhaps it’s because they’re a bit of an Achilles heel for yours truly — whenever there’s a new spot to try, I’m always there, licking my lips, ready to sink my teeth in.
What sets Mama Hieu's apart is the technique. Forget buffalo-style wings slathered in sauce — here, the flavor comes from dry rubs and fresh aromatics, the kind of approach that lets the chicken do the talking. Think dressed-up Southern-style fried chicken with a Vietnamese accent.
What started as a home pop-up launched by Nho Thi Le and her son Jimmy in 2020 has since grown into one of Little Saigon's most talked-about spots — a testament to what happens when a family recipe meets an insatiable neighborhood appetite.
Mama Hieu’s keeps it simple with four wing flavors — original garlic, spicy garlic, fish sauce glazed, and salted egg yolk — but simple is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. I went with the House Box Specialty ($15.99), splitting it between original garlic and spicy garlic, served with two scoops of white rice, a fried onion garnish, and housemade pickled veggies on the side.
Biting into the tooth-shatteringly crisp skin, it's easy to see why the lines haven't stopped since they opened. Two flavors at once, each distinct and confident — a chicken wing powerhouse of the highest order.
Location: 9090 Bolsa Ave., Westminster
Hours: Mon - Thurs 10:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m., Fri – Sat 10:30 a.m.– 9:30 p.m., Sun. 10:30 a.m.– 8 p.m.
Instagram: @mamahieus
There’s a lot to be said about the charm of a place like Le Croissant Doré. The name alone suggests a French-inspired bakery, which wouldn’t exactly be out of place in these parts, given Vietnam’s French colonial history.
And while yes, there are pastries to be had, that’s not why I came. I was here for the bò kho ($13.95) — Vietnamese beef stew. Originating in South Vietnam, it’s a dish whose influence spans beyond its home country to China and France, having evolved from French stews like beef bourguignon: slow-braised, served alongside a crusty baguette, and warmed by star anise, cinnamon and five spice.
It’s a surprisingly elegant dish given the humble café surroundings, but it feels entirely appropriate for Vietnamese cuisine — a culture shaped by years of colonization and mass migration that somehow produces some of the most comforting food on earth.
Dipping the warm baguette into the deep crimson sauce — almost velvet-like in its consistency as it coats the soft inside of the bread — you layer delicately cooked, slightly sweet stew and fresh veg into each bite. It’s the kind of dish that makes you slow down, which, on Bolsa Avenue, is saying something.
Location: 9122 Bolsa Ave., Westminster
Hours: Open daily 7 a.m.– 6 p.m.
No website or Instagram
Occasionally when I’m out trying new places, I’m struck with a feeling of instant familiarity — a sense of having been somewhere before, despite never having set foot in it. On this particular trip, that place was Mai Phát Mì Gia.
Maybe it was the large table of ten or twelve people in the middle of the room, working their way through what looked like the entire menu. A picture of a family who had carved out a Friday afternoon, apparently not for any special occasion, but simply to be together — catching up about everything and nothing in particular, all generations bonding over bowls of noodles and dumplings.
I was there for a similar reason — not with family, but with an appetite and a mission. The order: Mì Sủi Cảo Khô ($15.99), dry egg noodles tossed in soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and chili, deep golden in color, topped with thin slices of char siu pork, crispy bits of lard, green onion, garlic chives, and lettuce. And tucked just underneath, like an Academy Award-winning supporting performance, a fried wonton that holds its own on this stage of deliciousness.
Alongside it, a small bowl of sủi cảo — plump dumplings filled with minced pork, fresh shrimp, wood ear mushroom, green onion, and shallot, scattered with more green onion and dusted with white pepper that makes each bite almost pop. A small, clear broth comes on the side, a quiet palate cleanser that earns its place.
By the end of it, I found myself in quiet awe — not just of the food itself, but of how balanced and nourishing it all was. Every element of the dish carried a deep sense of welcome and comfort, the kind that hits whether you’re sharing it with a colleague or an entire family, every single time.
Location: 9191 Bolsa Ave., Westminster
Hours: Open daily 10 a.m.–10 p.m.
Instagram: @maiphatnoodlehouse
Just a few minutes off Bolsa on McFadden Avenue, Bánh Khọt Lady is the kind of place that rewards the detour. One thing that becomes abundantly clear after spending a few days eating here: there's a deep level of understanding when it comes to street food.
Perhaps the best example is Bánh Khọt Lady, which specializes in miniature savory pancakes from South Vietnam. Made from rice flour mixed with turmeric and coconut milk, and topped with shrimp and ground pork, they have a rich, savory flavor and a crispy exterior, all packed into one or two small bites.
And as if the bánh khọt alone weren’t enough, there’s a combo box ($13.99) that comes with five of them alongside two crispy egg rolls, a bundle of fresh herbs — cilantro, purple Thai basil, lettuce — for wrapping, and a fish sauce dipping sauce that ties everything together. Eat them at one of the tiny bamboo tables out front and you’ll understand immediately why street food culture in Vietnam doesn’t need a dining room to make a lasting impression.
Location: 10032 McFadden Ave., Westminster
Hours: Mon, Wed – Sun 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.
Instagram: @banhkhotlady
Topline:
Despite the state’s redistricting efforts, California’s District 40 will likely be represented by a Republican congressperson. As of Thursday morning, Ken Calvert is about 15 percentage points ahead of Young Kim and both appear to make the November ballot in the race to represent the newly redrawn region.
Background: Last year, California voters allowed the state to use new congressional maps for this year’s elections in response to the congressional redistricting in Texas powered by Republicans. Kim represented the old version of District 40.
How did the district change? California’s 40th District was originally made up mostly of Orange County cities. In the new maps, the district includes more of the Inland Empire, including Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Menifee.
Read on … for what the Primary Election could mean for November.
Despite the state’s redistricting efforts, California’s District 40 will likely be represented by a Republican congressperson. As of Thursday morning, Ken Calvert is about 15 percentage points ahead of Young Kim and both appear to make the November ballot in the race to represent the newly redrawn region.
Last year, California voters allowed the state to use new congressional maps for this year’s elections in response to the congressional redistricting in Texas powered by Republicans. Kim represented the old version of District 40.
California’s 40th District was originally made up mostly of Orange County cities. In the new maps, the district covers more communities in the Inland Empire, including Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Menifee.
Mike Moodian, a Chapman University lecturer and public policy analyst, said District 40 was always an uphill battle for Democrats because of registration numbers.
“The powers that be that drew those lines basically figured that … they would concede that more or less to a Republican, so that they could allow for comfortable margins. They could allow Democrats to pick up some seats elsewhere in the state,” Moodian told the LAist.
Moodian said Calvert’s significant lead ahead of Kim could be because more than half the District is Calvert’s old district.
The 40th was redrawn as a “Republican voter sink,” Christian Grose, USC professor of political science, told the LAist.
“I think it's the only Republican district remaining in all Southern California,” Grose said. “So, in some ways, it's not that surprising that two long-term impressive incumbents are fighting each other in the general.”
The person who comes in first in the primaries typically advances, but not always, Grose added.
“Kim will presumably try to get some of the Democratic and independent voters who didn't vote for either one of them,” Grose said. She might be better positioned for that.”
Not quite, Moodian said. The two Republicans will now have to spend a significant amount of money to beat each other in November, he added.
“Obviously, local Democrats and Democrats in District 40 are certainly not excited about the fact that two Republicans have advanced, but to me this is what the statewide Democrats had in mind when they redrew the lines,” Moodian said. “This allows them to attempt to pick up more seats, and at the same time basically eliminate one Republican congressmember by having these two face off against each other.”
In a statement, Calvert said Tuesday night’s early results show "that voters want an effective and consistent conservative who has been with President Trump from Day One.”
Chris Pack, spokesperson for Young Kim, said in a statement, “Despite being outspent 10 to 1, we are confident that Congresswoman Kim will be advancing to the November election and that she’ll put an end to Ken Calvert’s 30-plus years of failing to deliver for the people of Southern California."
The two top candidates will likely face off in the November election. It could take days for results to finalize in California. Keep up to date with the Primary Election results here.
