Ken Flores, Beloved Comedian, Dead At 28 Amid National Tour
A Los Angeles County Medical Examiner report confirmed his death after it was announced on Flores' social mediapages. While a cause was not officially confirmed, TMZ reported the beloved comic suffered a cardiac arrest via law enforcement sources.
Flores was scheduled to perform Thursday at a club in Phoenix after a gig in Norcross, Georgia, People reported. His tour had begun Jan. 10 in Portland, Oregon, and was supposed to conclude in San Diego in mid-April.
Rene Vaca, a friend, told the Los Angeles Times they had put together another tour that would reap a deserved windfall for Flores, who had built a following through gigs at venues such as LA's Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store and the Hollywood Improv.
'We were gonna break seven figures, we were gonna be millionaires together, it was gonna be special,' Vaca told the Times. 'Hopefully we can still do it in honor of him and give all the money to his family or something. The timing is so messed up because we just found out the news about the tour the day before and then this happens.'
A routine by Flores shared by Jam Comedy in September 2023 went viral. Flores, who's originally from Chicago, riffed on eating at Golden Corral, befriending gay people, and his conflicted relationship with street-food vendors since moving to Los Angeles.
He also had taped a yet-to-be-released comedy special, the Times said.
Stardom was inevitable, according to one club that featured him.
'We were honored to share your talent on our stages,' the Hollywood Improv wrote on X. 'You were greatness, and it was only a matter of time until the whole world saw it. You were also kind and a tremendous friend to all lucky enough to know you. We love you Ken, thank you for all the laughs.'
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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
A new iteration of Taco María opens, in an unlikely place
Carlos Salgado wowed the world of Mexican food the moment he opened Taco María in 2013. His marriage of high-end with homestyle — sturgeon tacos, Flamin' Hot chicharrones, handmade blue corn tortillas from kernels he imported from Mexico and milled himself — seemed better suited to Los Angeles or Mexico City than a hipster food hall in Costa Mesa. The accolades came quickly: L.A Times restaurant of the year in 2018. Four straight Michelin stars. One of Esquire's most important U.S. restaurants of the 2010s. Salgado was a Best Chef in California finalist for the James Beard Awards — the Oscars of the restaurant industry — in June 2023. A month later, Salgado shocked his fans by closing Taco María. As his good friend, I have the exclusive on what's next. It's … Wisconsin? A few months after the restaurant closed, Salgada relocated to Door County — the childhood home of his wife, Emilie Coulson Salgado — in a move that left Southern California's food scene befuddled, if people knew at all. If anyone deserved to go all 'Walden,' it was the thoughtful Salgado. He had worked nonstop for a decade, weathering the pandemic and an Orange County audience that usually got mad when he explained why his space didn't serve chips and salsa or had 'Black Lives Matter' stenciled on the patio window. Taco María's lease was up, the location was never the best fit and Carlos and Emilie wanted to spend more time with their two young children and her parents while they recharged and decided what was next. Now, after some time off, they're in the restaurant business again, opening La Sirena this month in Ephraim, population 345, about an hour and a half away from the nearest big city, Green Bay. Expect everything that made Taco María so incredible — a prix fixe menu, a focus on local produce and meat, those fabulous blue corn tortillas that taste like a time portal to Tenochtitlan — except on the shores of Lake Michigan instead of off the 405 freeway. Nothing against the Badger State, but the idea of a Mexican chef of Salgado's caliber setting up on a peninsula jutting into a Great Lake is like Shohei Ohtani announcing he's leaving the Dodgers to join a Sunday beer league. Gustavo Dudamel deciding his next gig isn't the New York Philharmonic but the Whittier Regional Symphony. Gov. Gavin Newsom forsaking his office to run the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. About 8% of Wisconsin's population is Latino, and Door County is 96% white. The Mexican food scene outside Milwaukee and maybe Racine is still mostly combo plates washed down with massive margaritas, or cartoonishly big burritos in the Chipotle model. Wisconsin is ... Wisconsin, land of cheese curds and brats and brandy Old Fashioneds. 'I would push back that [Mexican food] is out of place anywhere in the United States,' Salgado told me by phone last week. 'We are the foundation of the restaurant and hospitality industry, farming and construction — I don't need to say all the ways we're embedded.' He sure shut me up there! Besides, I'm proud that his and Emilie's next step is in an isolated spot in a state that went for Donald Trump in two of the past three elections. California needs all the ambassadors we can get, especially in places that don't look like us — and we can't get better ambassadors than them. 'In parts of the Midwest, you mention you're from California, there's inevitably haters who want to believe that we left California because it's a failed state, and they try to commiserate with us about how California is uninhabitable,' the 45-year-old Salgado said. 'Of course, I don't believe that. I have pangs of longing for my home state every day, especially fruits!' 'I actually thought we'd live in California forever, and I still consider us California people,' Coulson Salgado, 41, said in a separate interview. 'But this experiment to be here [Wisconsin] turned out to be really good for us and our children.' The two met in San Francisco in 2008, when Coulson Salgado was working for a literacy nonprofit and Salgado was a pastry chef at a high-end restaurant. He moved back to his native Orange County in 2011 aiming to help with his immigrant family's Cal-Mex restaurant in Orange. Instead, he capitalized on the era's food truck craze and opened Taco María. Coulson moved down in 2013 to help transition the luxe lonchera to a brick-and-mortar, eventually becoming the restaurant's general manager and beverage director, roles she will also assume at La Sirena. Taco María was a daily miracle, especially given its Orange County location. Salgado got nationwide media coverage and forced Angelenos to do the unimaginable: travel to O.C. for Mexican food. His exhortations for people to value Mexican cuisine and the people who make it was essential in an era where too many Americans love the former and loathe the latter. But the grind of running a restaurant — which I know too well, through my wife — wore on the couple. They didn't want to be rushed into opening a new Taco María, so they decided a sojourn to Door County would be fun and also right. 'Emilie put in 15 years with me in California,' Salgado said, and moving to Wisconsin 'was something we felt we deserved as a family.' He unwound from the restaurant rush by hiking through Door County's forests and fishing in its waterways while continuing Taco María's successful salsa macha mail-order business; Emilie moonlighted as a grant writer. The plan was to return to California sometime in 2024 and hop back on the restaurant hamster wheel. But the more they experienced Door County's slower pace of life, the more they realized it would be nearly impossible to replicate that in Southern California. 'We started Taco María without kids,' Salgado said. 'This trial gave us the opportunity to imagine the kind of balance that we wanted, and we realized that we stood a very good chance of creating it here.' I asked if he meant the cost of living or the sclerotic traffic or the lack of affordable housing or any of the other reasons California quitters give when they leave and whine about their move. 'We're certainly not California quitters,' Salgado deadpanned. 'People talk all the time about making career changes to spend more time with their families, and this is really it for now.' Coulson Salgado said it's been 'wonderful' to return to where she grew up 'with the eyes of an adult.' Door County has seen newcomers from California in recent years, mostly young families drawn by its immaculate landscapes. 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'And I'm not going to shy away from taking up space and perform brown excellence in anywhere that I am.'
USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
Wordle hint today: Clues for July 29 2025 NYT puzzle #1501
WARNING: THERE ARE WORDLE SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE JULY 29, 2025 WORDLE ANSWER SPOILED FOR YOU. Ready? OK. We've seen some hard Wordle words over the years and if you're here, you're probably struggling with today's and are looking for some help. So let's run down a few clues with today's Wordle that could help you solve it: 1. It has three vowels. 2. It starts with one. 3. It's associated with a letter. And the answer to today's Wordle is below this photo: It's ... OMEGA. While you're here, some more Wordle advice: How do I play Wordle? Go to this link from the New York Times and start guessing words. What are the best Wordle starting words? That's a topic we've covered a bunch here. According to the Times' WordleBot, the best starting word is: CRANE. Others that I've seen include ADIEU, STARE and ROAST. Play more word games Looking for more word games?
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Buzz Feed
Ana De Armas Likes Instagram Post About Nicole Kidman
Ana De Armas has people talking after she was seen liking a shady Instagram post about Nicole Kidman. This week, eagle-eyed fans noticed that Ana had liked an Instagram post questioning whether Nicole got plastic surgery. The post, made in February on the Instagram account @celebmess, included what the account holder says is a 1996 photo of Nicole alongside a more recent picture of her. Also attached were screenshots from a 2007 interview where Nicole was asked about persistent stories surrounding her appearance. The piece noted that Nicole had sparked "persistent buzz over whether [she] is overly Botoxed" following her appearance at the 2006 Oscars. In the profile, Nicole denied getting any work done. "To be honest, I am completely natural," she said. "I have nothing in my face or anything. I wear sunscreen, and I don't smoke." She added, "I take care of myself. And I'm very proud to say that." Nicole's response was included in the Instagram post — right next to a doubtful meme that said, "Sure, Jan." "When you keep it real," read the caption of the post, which also hashtagged Nicole's name and included the song "Denying" by the Spice Girls. You can see Ana's Instagram account, here, among the likes. It's still there, as of publication. Needless to say, people thought it was super shady. One Reddit user wrote, "what a sick burn 🙄." Another said, "Ugh. Shaming people like this is so weird." "De Armas is wow, so horrid for this petty crap," a third fan shared, as someone else said it gave "mean girl vibes." "I see some people still haven't graduated from that high school mentality. How embarrassing at her big age of 37," a fifth user complained. Others pointed out that the pictures of Nicole also appeared to be heavily edited. "They had to edit Nicole Kidman to even give the illusion she could have aged badly," one user said, as another stated, "Whatever, Nicole always has been and still is so beautiful to me." Ana has yet to address the situation, but it comes as she and Tom Cruise continue to face dating rumors following multiple appearances together since February. In a May interview on Good Morning America, Ana addressed their relationship and insisted it was purely a "working" one. "It's so much fun," she said. A source also told People that she and Tom are "just friends." Nicole was married to Tom from 1990 to 2001 and shares two children with him: Isabella, 32, and Connor Cruise, 30. BuzzFeed has contacted reps for Ana for comment — we'll let you know if we hear back.
