Indie Rock Bakery

Architectural critic Reyner Banham came to L.A. from England in the late 1960s and liked what he saw.

Banham came from abroad, but he came, not to escape something, not to try to reinvent himself or to sneer at us. He came to celebrate, and, in 1971, this bucked a 40-year trend in which Los Angeles had been cast as a schlock dystopia. Banham declared (outrageously, many said at the time) that L.A. was a great city, praising not only the émigré modernist designs of its architect pioneers like Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra but also its busy vernacular: gas stations, surfboards, muscle cars and freeways.

Robert Lanham, author of The Hipster Handbook:

The rage and self-loathing associated with hipsters has become more annoying, more naive, and more artificial than hipsters could ever hope to be.

The well-heeled children of Los Angeles are often derided as a lacquered tribe consumed with shopping and status, a stereotype sustained by the likes of the recently revived “Beverly Hills, 90210” franchise. But a different scene has been thriving here lately, composed of kids in thrift-store threads churning out homespun indie music and flocking to shows often held in one another’s backyards and living rooms.

The NBA championship the Lakers won by defeating the Orlando Magic, 99-86, in Game 5 of the NBA Finals tonight at Amway Arena redeemed so many of them. It was the Lakers’ first championship since 2002, the 15th in their storied franchise’s history.