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PAGE 2 THE ARGONAUT OCTOBER 8, 2020
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ON THE COVER: International ballet star and Westside School of Ballet alumna Joy Womack makes an appearance in the ballet academy’s film festival fundraiser ‘Grace and Grit,’ also a collaboration with Santa Monica College. Photo courtesy of Westside Ballet of Santa Monica. Design by Arman Olivares.
Local News & Culture
The Westside’s News Source Since 1971 CONTACT US (310) 822-1629 Letters, News, Tips & Event Listings: ccampodonico@timespublications.com EDITORIAL
Corona by the Numbers & Local Updates: LA County Clears Nail Salons, Indoor Malls and Playgrounds to Reopen Compiled by Christina Campodonico Reported Cases & Deaths by Neighborhood as of Tuesday, Oct. 6 Culver City: 399 (Deaths 29); Del Rey: 367 (Deaths 10); El Segundo: 132 (Deaths 1); Marina del Rey: 75 (Deaths 1); Mar Vista: 335 (Deaths 6); Playa Vista: 144 (Deaths 0); Playa del Rey: 29 (Deaths 0); Santa Monica: 915 (Deaths 41); Venice: 300 (Deaths 3); Westchester: 434 (Deaths 15) Total Westside Cases: 3,130 Total Westside Deaths: 106 Total Confirmed Cases in LA County: 275,856 Total Deaths in LA County: 6,681 Total New Cases as of Oct. 6: 990 Total New Deaths: 30 Hospitalizations: 685 Postivity Rate (7-day average): 32% (Source: Los Angeles County Department
of Public Health) • LA County cleared breweries and wineries to reopen but with a couple of catches: Hours are limited to 11:30 a.m. to midnight, would-be imbibers have to make reservations one day in advance and alcohol must be purchased with food in the same transaction. • Nail salons and indoor malls have also received clearance from the county to reopen with capacity limited to 25% in both settings. • Outdoor playgrounds may also reopen at the discretion of individual cities. Tots under age 2 can skip the mask requirement, but everyone over two years must wear a face covering, and adult supervision is required.
Managing Editor: Christina Campodonico (310) 574-7654 Contributing Editor: Shanee Edwards Contributing Writers: Amy Alkon, Lisa Beebe, Bliss Bowen, Kellie Chudzinski, Sarah Donahue, Shanee Edwards, Jacqueline Fitzgerald, Jason Hill, Danny Karel, Jessica Koslow, Colin Newton, Jennifer Pellerito, Matt Rodriguez, Anthony Torrise Editorial Interns: Meera Sastry, Amy Watsky, Lydia You, Dev Jaiswal, Samuel Aftel, Katherine Brubaker, Julia Escobar, Holly Jenvey, Caden Sullivan, Stepan Sarkisian ART Graphic Designers: Arman Olivares (310) 574-7656 Kate Doll (310) 574-7653 Staff Photographer: Luis Chavez Contributing Photographers: Mia Duncans, Maria Martin, Shilah Montiel, Ashley Randall, Courtnay Robbins, Jason Ryan, Ted Soqui, Zsuzsi Steiner, Gunnar Kuepper
VOTING SAFELY IN 2020 MEANS A TRIP TO THE MAILBOX. VOTE EARLY TO KEEP EVERYONE HEALTHY AND ENSURE WE GET EVERY VOTE IN. It’s never been more important to stay healthy. Keep your community safe from COVID-19, and make sure you and your family know how to vote from home this election. During this pandemic, vote by mail, vote early and stay healthy.
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ADVERTISING Display Advertising: Kay Christy (310) 574-7654 Denine Gentilella (310) 574-7651 Classified Advertising: Ann Turrieta (626) 584-8747 aturrietta@timespublications.com BUSINESS Associate Publisher: Rebecca Bermudez (310) 574-7655 rbermudez@timespublications.com WE MOVED! NEWS & SALES OFFICE 161 Pasadena Ave. Suite B, South Pasadena CA 91030 The Argonaut is distributed every Thursday in Del Rey, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Santa Monica, Venice, and Westchester. The Argonaut is available free of charge, limited to one per reader. The Argonaut may be distributed only by authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of The Argonaut, take more than one copy of any issue. The Argonaut is copyrighted 2020 by Times Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part in any form or by any means without prior express written permission by the publisher. An adjudicated Newspaper of General Circulation with a distribution of 30,000.
(Continued on page 8)
VICE PRESIDENT: Michael Hiatt PRESIDENT: Steve Strickbine
EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
Visit us online at ArgonautNews.com
L E T T E R S Presidential Debate: Zoom Edition Trump wouldn’t have to oppose new debate rules if he could have followed the old ones. But now that he’s been touched by COVID19, there’s enough justification to hold the next debate as a Zoom meeting. With it being a Town Hall format, all the participants; the debaters, the moderator and the Town Hall questioners, can participate from their own safe socially distanced locations in a format that will be familiar to most broadcast viewers. Disallowed interruptions can be effortlessly controlled as well as speaker time limits. Problems solved — on with the show. Tim Tunks Santa Monica The U.S.S. America is the Modern Day Titanic Embarking on her journey in 1776, the U.S.S. AMERICA is the greatest ship ever built and believed to be unsinkable. The passengers (especially the 1%) are afforded the most luxurious and comfortable
sentence. No or minimal trade education for high school inner-city youth as a career alternative for those dropping out to a life of crime. There is still time to melt the iceberg. Our crew has the resources and ability to accomplish this. At the very least, I hope there are more life boats on the U.S.S. AMERICA... don’t you? Dan Wunsch Concerned Citizen Marina del Rey ‘We Are All One’ When I sit in silence, contemplating my life, I am grateful over and over to have manageable strife. injustice). But the main body is still hidden (economic injustice or poverty). To melt the iceberg, we need to recognize and address three fundamental truths: Our welfare system keeps people poor. Felons are stripped of their rights after serving their
accommodations unrivaled in the history of shipbuilding. The crew (our public politicians and administrators) promote themselves as well trained and the best seamen on the face of the earth. Up ahead is an iceberg. Now unlike the original Titanic, the crew and passengers can clearly see the tip of the iceberg (social
The world is in so much turmoil. People dying left and right. The Coronavirus does not care if you are yellow, gay, black or white.
Just thoughts divide the people; a thought can make them dear. God gave us eyes to see with and not to judge and fear. When will we finally realize that judgment creates fear. So let us travel on this road together and hold the journey dear. We all look different on the outside; We all have different names; but never ever forget to realize …on the inside, we are ALL the same. COVID-19 knows no color. It randomly hits at its will. We are all in this together! LET’S LEARN THE LESSON…NOT KILL!!! — Hannelore Hutton, LMFT Culver City
We Want to Hear from You!
If only humanity would honor that we are truly all one. Injustice has been committed, on each and every one.
Being in print is a lot more meaningful than grouching on Facebook. Send compliments, complaints and
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Communing with the Natural World
The voice of Liam Neeson guides viewers through the scenic landscapes of ‘Love Thy Nature’ By Caden Sullivan Monday marks the halfwaypoint for Santa Monica College’s Green Screen Series, but don’t worry! There’s still time to enjoy three feature films for no cost at all. This week’s film “Love Thy Nature” is a documentary directed by filmmaker/nature therapy guide Sylvie Rokab and narrated by Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson about the human disconnection from the natural world. Exploring the natural environment, technological world and society’s interweaving of the two, the film uses real-world scenes to insist on a more sustainable perspective. “Love Thy Nature” was filmed in 2014 and explores a holistic view of the world where humans are interconnected with that nature. Neeson represents “the voice of Sapiens” as slow-motion footage of ani-
The film ‘Love Thy Nature’ encourages people to reconnect with the natural world quarantine are more disconmals, plants and people unfold. nected with the outdoors than Besides that message, however, ever. the film’s context is as imporRokab understands the current tant as its content. Six years crisis and reason to stay later, environmental problems indoors, but she does not such as raging wildfires and believe it makes us unable to rising floods have only grown connect with nature. She says, more difficult, and people in
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“It’s a shift in perception arriving in our bodies. When we do that, whether it’s being completely connected with that glass of water, cutting that cilantro and smelling your fingers, the taste of delicious food and being really present with it, or the touch of a loved one’s hand or even our own hand, all of those things are connecting with nature and ourselves.” Emphasizing the natural experiences in our own homes, Rokab believes that this recognition of life and nature is what will drive us to a better future. And although environmental activists are still struggling in shifting the public’s perception six years later, Rokab has a reassuring message for them, too. Conceptualizing “Love Thy Nature” as an eighteen-year-old in Brazil, Rokab faced a number of obstacles in producing the
documentary — from writer’s block to the 2008 recession. Through her years of writing and filming, the main lesson she learned is one that applies to struggling environmentalists today: “When we have a dream, even if you have to take a different path for a while or it doesn’t work out immediately, that dream can still manifest itself.” Whether you’re a passionate environmentalist or simply a fan of Liam Neeson, the only requirements to watch “Love Thy Nature” are time and internet access. Visit https:// www.smc.edu/community/ global-citizenship/events/ green-screen-series.php for a full schedule of films and simply log on at 3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 12, for admission. Visit smc.edu/calendar or call (310) 434-4100 for SMC’s full event calendar.
B U S I N E S S
Dog Walking with a Twist
Westside Dogs LA now takes pooches and pet parents on socially-distanced strolls By Holly Jenvey Westside Dogs LA has been serving communities of furry friends since 2014. In the midst of the pandemic, the dog walking service has not stopped their operations but has added new pledges to ensure safe and fun social distancing guidelines. The “Pledge of Social Obedience,” which Westside Dogs shared in an email to The Argonaut a few weeks ago, reads: • Keep at least six feet of social distance between ourselves, other dogs and their humans, unless their scents prove irresistible. • To unconditionally love you, even when you resume your workaholic schedule. • To not give into separation anxiety and make chew toys out of your Jimmy Choos. • To never throw shade on postal carriers or Grubhub delivery drivers again. • To not share frisbees, tennis balls, fetching sticks or tug toys. • To not sniff the crotches of
In a sign of the times, Westside Dogs LA is now walking humans, too humans we don’t know. • To never touch or lick the faces of strangers, even if they offer treats. • To…ooh squirrel, squirrel! Sincerely, The Westside Dogs of LA “We wanted to have people not so stressed out,” said Cary Tepper, co-founder of Westside Dogs LA. The pledges were made to make light of the strains of the pandemic, but also highlight the dog-
walking service’s new safety precautions, including branded masks, gloves, wipes and leashes for staff to provide clients with a contactless experience. Staff are also provided with a backpack filled with this equipment, as well as a first aid kit. The company — which is certified in pet CPR, a member of the National Association of Pet Sitters and winner of the 2016 Expertise award for Best Dog Walkers in Los Angeles — is
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known for taking dogs on “Pawventures” (two-hour-plus outings around the community to engage in social activities), but is now offering a special walk for homebound humans a well. Westside Dogs LA has started meet-and-greet walks with their human clients. Tethered together by a six-foot leash (two three-foot leashes joined together), walkers get to know their clients and their dogs in an outdoor setting, instead of the home, on a socially distanced walk. The staff get to know the dogs’ routes and neighborhood while the owners get to go on a walk as well! Aside from encouraging socially-distanced socialization between humans, the meet-andgreet walks and pledge were developed to nurture a healthy state of mind for dogs. Tepper said that since owners are home all the time these days, dogs are prone to developing anxiety. Taking them on walks helps them get out of the house and gain socialization with new people.
Tepper also said that even though Westside Dogs LA was hit hard by the pandemic, they are still actively serving the communities of Marina del Rey, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Culver City, Inglewood and Westchester, and that clients are easing back into using their services. They also have seen how much their clients have missed them over the past few months of lockdown. Tepper and his company have been keeping in contact with owners, some of whom they consider family, by posting their dogs on the company’s Instagram page @westsidedogsla. Other clients have reached out by text. “They love us because we’re a very social, family-oriented boutique company,” said Tepper. “Sometimes clients would shoot us a text message of their dog.” For more information or to schedule a walk, visit westsidedogsla.com.
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Ahead of Her Time The cultural immediacy of ‘Jenna Takes the Fall’ has been 10 years in the making PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
By Meera Sastry A. R. Taylor, whose second novel “Jenna Takes the Fall” hit shelves earlier this autumn, is an Ohio native who currently lives in Marina del Rey. Reading “Jenna,” you might guess the first detail of its author’s autobiography — the protagonist, who gives her story its name, is a fresh-faced transplant from Ohio, whose attitude at the start of the novel is Midwestern but intrepid. But the city to which Jenna travels is not her author’s beloved city of Los Angeles (as Taylor refers to it). Rather, her coming-of-age is sparked by the milieu of late 1990s New York City. “I lived in New York from ‘95 to 2001,” Taylor says of her experience with the city. “[The people there] were so different from people where I grew up in Ohio, and I was fascinated by the ins and outs of the power games.” From this impression came the
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layered dynamics at the heart of “Jenna Takes the Fall,” which follows the seemingly scandalous journey of a young assistant through New York’s elite media world and beyond. “It’s easy to get caught up in these worlds that seem so appealing,” Taylor says, empathizing with her protagonist. “But it’s very deceptive. I went into a sort of Henry Jamesian world with this: plots, counterplots. People are not what they seem.” Any comparison between Taylor’s real life and Jenna’s story is not to imply that the novel is autobiographical — the plot’s central conceit is too unique and too well-plotted for that. In brief, it depicts the unlikely way Jenna finds herself covering for a friend of hers by posing as her boss’s mistress, a middle-aged media mogul — after he dies in a compromising position. However, the novel is rooted
deeply in its sense of place — one can feel the humidity of late August in New York City, and empathize with Jenna’s struggle to find herself a place in all of it. Even after Jenna departs the city, each subsequent setting is elaborately rendered and atmospherically resonant — from Wyoming ranch houses to Italian wine cellars. “I think each place — the pace of it, the people, the morals, the status symbols — seems unique to me, whether it be between different towns, or different regions of the country,” Taylor says. “It’s fascinating to watch it in action: what is admired, what is not admired? How can you comport yourself? I think that sense of place is really important to fiction.” Whether alluding to New York or Los Angeles, though, the plot of “Jenna Takes the Fall” rings relevant, and given its history, comes across as almost pre-
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ArgonautNews.com scient: Taylor began writing this novel ten years ago — long before titans of media, such as Harvey Weinstein and CBS’s Les Moonves fell from grace because of scandalous sexual misconduct allegations. “I wrote my first draft in 2010,” she says of its origins. “And it was just such a mess. I felt the subject was too big for me; I wasn’t sure if I was up to this story. I’m sort of at home in the comic mode, and [Jenna] is more serious.” She kept busy in the interim — Taylor is a multitalented writer, with public television, playwriting, and humor pieces under her belt along with her works of fiction — but, luckily for her readers, eventually returned to Jenna’s story, six years after she’d started it. “I first published my book ‘Sex, Rain, and Cold Fusion’ [in 2013],” Taylor says. “Then I sat down one day, and I looked at ‘Jenna,’ and I said, ‘Okay, I can write this now.’ It felt like a subject that required a stretch.” Jenna’s complicated relationship with her boss will immediately bring the #MeToo movement to a 2020 reader’s mind, and the fallout after she takes the fall, so to speak, lends itself easily to be compared with the hyper-vigilant nature of (social) media as it exists today. Depending on one’s taste, “Jenna Takes the Fall” might even seem to fit into a sort of late-2010’s New York cultural
canon — though it’s not quite so macabre. Though sweet Jenna differs greatly from the jaded characters in each, there is a certain landscape that the book occupies in common with HBO’s “Succession” and Ottessa Moshfegh’s “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.” But then, what about sweet Jenna? At first glance, our protagonist seems to fall
under a clichéd category: a naïve girl fawning over an older, experienced, powerful man. More than anything else, it is her status as the main character of the story that allows her to transcend this. The novel’s through-line is her development, and it satisfies both on a literary and feminist level, especially for those who may be turned off from her character at the start. “That was the challenge in writing her character: I didn’t want her to just to be a silly, flighty sort of person who did dumb things,” Taylor says about the process of crafting Jenna. “It’s not that at all. It was really important to me that that the reader feel her as a potential person; that she’s learning how to become a sensitive and sensual adult.” The rest of the cast is mostly filled out by the characters Jenna meets at the start of the novel; the middle slows the pacing a little as she is removed from them, but picks up nicely when examining Jenna’s repartee with the people she keeps in contact with over the years. Of particular note are two of her co-workers at the media company — Jorge, a fellow assistant who fills the role of a protective older brother, and Inti, a reporter and romantic interest for Jenna. In addition to the character of her boss, these men serve well to define Jenna’s relationship to men and chart it over the years. There are also fellow women in
this cast of characters. Still, without spoiling too much, Jenna never really comes to understand them or their world — the subversion of her character in the patriarchal framework of her setting does not necessarily extend to others. However, they are not without surprising angles of their own. Though the premise of the story encompasses a very shocking half-hour in Jenna’s life, the entire span of the novel is much longer, so these relationships end up serving as the thread to tie the story together. Because the cast of characters is somewhat limited and Jenna’s life’s circumstances so bizarre, there are times when her life feels a little out of touch. But then again, “Jenna Takes the Fall” is a little different than a typical social commentary or coming-of-age story; in a way, it is a bit of an adult fairy tale. In Taylor’s words: “She came from nothing and nowhere, and she really is unmoored when she gets to the city. But I just hope people find it an interesting journey because I think she got somewhere good in the end.” To find out where that “good” might be, visit A.R. Taylor’s website lonecamel.com/books to learn how you can get get a copy via Amazon or an independent local bookstore.
BEST ISSUE OF THE YEAR!
Don’t miss your chance to be part of this once-a-year advertising opportunity! The Argonaut will be publishing our annual Best of The Westside edition on October 22, 2020.
Reach 20,000 readers in print and 10,000 digital readers! Closing October 12th.
TO RESERVE SPACE CALL: 310-463-0633 OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 9
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Venice Family Clinic Tackles the ‘Trauma of Incarceration’ and Celebrates 50 years with Star-studded Kick-off to ‘Week of Action’
Billy Crystal
Susan Burton
New Way of Life was influenced and made possible by the care she received at the Venice Family Clinic. “I didn’t realize the impact that the type of environment has on your mental health,” she said. “At Venice Family Clinic, I got all of my medical and mental health needs met. I was given a counselor, and I was able to sit down with that therapist every week and talk through not only the pain and trauma of the past, but also the
hope for the future. And I began to get on a healing journey.” The clinic ensures that its services provide “traumainformed care” in a way that allows their patients and those they support to define their own pasts and take their journeys at their own pace. “Trauma has adverse effects on health,” Forer said. “It leads to long-term changes in the structure and function of children’s brains and bodies, and can impact educational
PAGE 10 THE ARGONAUT OCTOBER 8, 2020
attainment. It leads to risk of violence in people or incarceration. If we can work with them early and they can be in touch with what their trauma is, even just knowing that helps them to move differently or get the help they need from us and others.” As Burton added, however, the Venice Family Clinic, which has locations all over the Westside, is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to accessible and community-based support for situations and conditions like the ones she underwent. “[Traumatic experiences] were the norm,” she said. “It was life. I didn’t think there was anything else until I sat down in Venice Family Clinic. I didn’t until I got into the community of Santa Monica. And I saw how different life could be and I was like, ‘Wow, this is like two worlds.’” This speaks to a larger issue that runs as deep as the very culture of America — a tendency towards individual-
ism, rather than mutual support and interdependence. At the Venice Family Clinic, Forer says, she and her team seek to correct that, at least for their slice of the world. “There’s this sense of rugged individualism [in America],” she tells The Argonaut. “But, in many ways, those rugged individuals didn’t make it where they were without a lot of help from a group. What I like about the clinic is that people here have functioned as a team since we first started. There was not a lot of ‘I;’ there was a lot of ‘we:’ we work together, we’re here to help. Who do we know that could help if we can’t?” The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the devastating effects of the virus and lack of support for incarcerated people, who often struggle with subpar living conditions, inadequate access to health care and are being infected by the coronavirus at a rate more than five times higher than the national PHOTOS COURTESY OF VENICE FAMILY CLINIC
By Meera Sastry In the second installment of their Health + Justice series held in August, the Venice Family Clinic hosted Susan Burton, an activist for the formerly incarcerated and founder of the nonprofit organization A New Way of Life, in conversation with Venice Family Clinic CEO Elizabeth Forer and television journalist Gayle King. The event centered around the “Trauma of Incarceration,” a timely topic as the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally harmed incarcerated populations while discussions of criminal justice reform have persisted throughout the summer after the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in early June. The talk was anchored by Burton’s personal experiences — after a traumatic youth, she was incarcerated for drug use. After her release, she was eventually able to seek help through the Venice Family Clinic’s mental health services, but her struggle to find any support elsewhere led her to create A New Way of Life and work to provide aid to other formerly incarcerated women in need. “I saw that with support and kindness and love and resources, there could be a whole different trajectory for people,” Burton said. “I sat there one day, and I realized that I couldn’t turn back all of the years of pain and suffering that I had went through, but that I could stop another woman [from experiencing that].” So far, Burton has helped around 1,000 women — and 300 of their children — settle into life after incarceration. A New Way of Life provides these women with places to live and the resources to get back on their feet, and is distinctive for its caring and individualized approach, as she described. “I wanted a place that was motivational, that was bright and cheery, that women could come to and feel safe and comfortable and hopeful,” Burton said. Her vision for A
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rate, according to an analysis by UCLA School of Law’s COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project and Johns Hopkins University. The murder of George Floyd and the uprisings protesting his death and other forms of police violence, most recently the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has put even more scrutiny on the policing and criminal justice systems. These fractures in our society have only compounded on the very American inadequacy to provide adequate community care; as Burton points out, the systems in this country rely too heavily on punitive measures and are dangerously lacking in empathy. “We are just so quick to punish people, and not get to the root causes of harm that folks are experiencing,” she said in an interview with The Argonaut. “We’re at this place where we’re forced to look at it now, and we could actually really be more thoughtful and compassionate and just do for everybody what we would want to be done for ourselves.” Despite all of this, however, Burton retains hope. “I’m always hopeful, and that’s what keeps me going, the
hope for something better while working towards that something better,” she says. “It’s shameful that it came to a crisis to get our attention, but it seems more right now [than before] that things are gonna change.” Both Burton and Forer suggest voting and volunteering as direct actions that people can take to help their neighbors in need. As Burton says, “People already know what they can do. They just need to pull into their best, most empathetic, wisest self, and be courageous enough to follow it, even when it goes against the mainstream.” For the week of Oct. 11 to 17, locals can get involved with the Venice Family Clinic’s mission to aid low-income, uninsured and homeless individuals through health care by participating in the clinic’s “Week of Action,” a service-driven celebration of the clinic’s half-century on the Westside. All week long, individuals can sign up on the Venice Family Clinic’s website for “Action Pack” pledges to create care packages for homeless patients or give toys, books or school supplies to pediatric patients. (Visit venicefamilyclinic.org/ action-pack to learn more about
how you can engage, donate and volunteer. Questions? Contact VFCaction@mednet. ucla.edu or call (310) 3929255.) To get you revved up to volunteer, the Venice Family Clinic is hosting ‘Health, Justice, Action: The Kickoff Party’ on Sunday, Oct. 11, featuring celebrity guests such as Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal and performances by Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson and country artist Blake Shelton. The star-studded 50th-anniversary celebration kicks off at 6 p.m.
The Venice Family Clinic has served low-income, homeless and uninsured patients of all ages and backgrounds for 50 years
Visit https://venicefamilyclinic. org/justice2 to watch the full discussion with Burton, Forer and Gayle King. Visit anewwayoflife.org or a venicefamilyclinic.org to learn more or volunteer with Burton’s organization. Visit https://venicefamilyclinic. org/50years to RSVP to the ‘Health, Justice, Action: The Kickoff Party’ on Oct. 11 and learn how to participate in the clinic’s ‘Week of Action.’ Argonaut Managing Editor Christina Campodonico contributed to this story. OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 11
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Compromise and Choice Diesel bookstore in Brentwood Country Mart joins the growing number of indie booksellers turning to crowdfunding and community support to stay afloat PHOTOS BY KIMBERLY JAFFE
By Bliss Bowen Change and compromise have defined our lives this year in myriad ways, as we’ve armed ourselves against a stalker virus by wearing masks, physically distancing, transforming our homes into work and school stations, avoiding crowds, and meeting and shopping online. That last behavioral shift has gut-punched small businesses — particularly independent booksellers such as Diesel, a vital gathering ground for the Westside literary community since opening in 2008. Diesel has traditionally benefited from brisk foot traffic in the Brentwood Country Mart at the edge of Santa Monica. But on Sept. 3, co-owners John Evans and Alison Reid launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the store (and another Diesel location in Del Mar, San Diego) stay afloat in a rising tide of debt. “Foot traffic everywhere is so far down,” Evans said recently. “We stayed open in the sense of shipping and curbside pickup throughout the whole time [of the shutdown] as an essential service — which we were reassured every day was an essential service. Some people came only to the bookstore and never went to any other place whatsoever during the first three months of the COVID [shutdown], which is fascinating, whether it’s doctors coming from St. John’s in their scrubs, or whatever. “Sales were down 70% to 80% through the spring,” continued Evans. “Our rent was exactly the same. So was our health care and staffing and all that stuff we were maintaining for everyone; those things are important, and there’s no time like COVID for recognizing the need for health care. Between March and September, it was between 55% and 80% down for sales. You can see what’s happening there.” Diesel’s landlord and publishers with whom the store does business have extended payment terms, Evans said, “but they’re not abating anything. The debt keeps mounting, and it will just bury the store.” Thus the attempt to plug their leaky financial boat with
Diesel co-owner John Evans is hoping a GoFundMe campaign and community support will see the Santa Monica bookstore through the COVID crisis crowdfunding help. By late September, Diesel’s GoFundMe campaign had raised almost $135,000 of its $400,000 goal. Asked if there’s a make-orbreak date by which Diesel needs to reach that goal to sustain itself, Evans said initial response was strong enough to extend their timeline. “We’re trying to make it into next year, trying to thread the needle and be able to pay the back stuff for the last five months so we can continue as sales increase,” he explained. “It’s the indebtedness that’s weighing down the boat. … We’ve already modified our buying intensely and returned a bunch of books; that decreased our indebtedness but we need to decrease it a lot more.” In the meantime, the store remains open. Will there be another COVID surge? Will
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Congress provide more Paycheck Protection Program relief before the election? After? Will the U.S. Postal Service slow down deliveries? The American Booksellers Association is urging independent bookstores to adopt the motto “October is the new December” and encouraging shoppers to buy locally. But will that quantifiably improve sales numbers? No one knows the answers, or the implications, for anything. COVID-19 is not solely to blame for the struggles of independent bookstores; despite promising growth in 2019, they were fighting against the riptides of corporatization and Amazon. According to the American Booksellers Association (bookweb.org), retail sales at US bookstores were down 7.6% in December 2019, and in February, ABA member stores
reported a 2.7% decrease in sales. By July 2020, Publishers Weekly was reporting that Amazon, which reportedly commands 70% of online book sales, experienced a 48% uptick in online sales during 2020’s second quarter. But as with so many other things in American life, COVID is forcing a reckoning about what we value, the ways in which we define and develop community, and how we support those things with action. And it is generating another threat likely to be graver for independent bookstores than corporate chains: the slowing down of printing and distribution processes just before the crucial holiday retail season. “There’s a paper problem, there’s a printing problem, and there’s a distribution problem,”
Evans observed. “All of those are going to become very big come the holidays. You can see now that places are encouraging people, [to do] holiday shopping early. Also, you don’t want to be in crowds, right? But because of all the problems, book publishers aren’t sure exactly how well certain books, especially those people look for as gifts, are going to do because of all the different conditions and restrictions independent bookstores across the country are under and whether or not there will be another wave of COVID. So they’re very conservative in their print runs. That means when something really sells, they have to reprint. But all the printing is slowed down, shut down, socially distanced — [in] China — there are so many different issues. Those books will not be as
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available.” Who will get whatever copies become available? No one knows. Everything is in flux. Regardless of the outcome, Evans says publishers are sustaining lower risk and higher profits than independent booksellers. “What’s happening structurally is some publishers are doing better than they were in the previous six months because people have time to read. But that money is going to places that are not very sustaining for the community. So the danger is that, three to six months from now, when a third of independent book businesses may close — which is what’s predicted — people as they start to circulate will go, ‘OMG, what’s happened to the landscape?’ Because it’s all been destroyed not just by fire but by this COVID thing. They’ll be left with Amazon, which is … like fast food or ice cream. It’s exciting. It’s fast. But it’s bad for you.” Bookstores are businesses, obviously, but they’re also a service. They’re in a unique position to reflect and define a community’s character. And in a year whipsawed by historic changes, readers continue to seek out booksellers for books relating to the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement, the shredding of constitutional norms and the relentless churn of political scandals. “Watching the culture all the time, which is what you do as a bookseller, you see all the edges of the culture top and bottom and off to the sides, all the things that are moving toward the center,” Evans noted. “It’s fascinating to watch the culture morph. [Take] Black Lives Matter — it’s fascinating to see how many copies of books people still come in to buy like ‘White Fragility’ and ‘How to Be an Antiracist.’ It’s largely sensationalized in the news, but it’s a fascinating trend in the middle of COVID. It’s transformative.” As mindful book lovers are aware, shopping is politics. “We always know that wherever we spend our dollar is a political statement. We choose the world we live in by how we spend our money,” Evans points out. One obvious way to support independent bookstores now is to buy books — physical,
hold-in-your-hand books, right there in the brick-and-mortar store. That option isn’t tenable for all consumers, but there are alternatives. Buy gift certificates (physical or digital), ebooks or audiobooks, whether it’s from Diesel, Eso Won Books in Leimert Park (which experienced a surge in orders this summer), Malik Books in Baldwin Hills (like Eso Won, one of LA’s few Black-owned bookstores), the Last Bookstore in Downtown LA (which has been hosting online book clubs and discussions), Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood (whose spring GoFundMe campaign kept the business operating) or Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena (which just announced the next few months’ sales numbers will decide its future and is currently accepting donations via its website). “We are encouraging people to buy gift certificates, and to use the distribution possibilities of our website for shipping,” Evans said. “We can get things to people as fast as Amazon can. In March and April, Amazon wasn’t shipping books. We were. They decided it wasn’t an essential service. We think it is.” The human scale of such service develops relationships with customers and other local businesses, and now proffers reciprocal benefits. To Evans, it’s a kind of ecosystem: “What makes a bookstore is certainly not just Alison and I, nor is it just our booksellers. It’s the UPS driver. It’s the customers that come there who recommend books to me. It’s so civilizing, and communal, and humanizing.” The delight or purpose of a bookstore is discovery — “browsing, recommendations, a kind of communal experience,” says Evans — while algorithms employed by online retailers only reflect your past choices and represent constriction. “An independent bookseller shows you possibility and future and growth and expansion,” says Evans. “It shows you who you want to be, or who you don’t even know yet you want to be.” To donate to Diesel’s GoFundMe campaign, go to https:// tinyurl.com/dieselgofundme. Visit Diesel at 225 26th St., Ste. 33, Santa Monica; call for details at (310) 576-9960 or go to dieselbookstore.com.
OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 13
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Hammer Forum Looks Back on Legacy of ‘Notorious RBG’ and Fate of the Supreme Court By Stepan Sarkisian and Christina Campodonico As the nation mourns the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Hammer Museum in Westwood held a special virtual forum on Thursday, Sept. 24, to discuss her legacy and the Supreme Court’s future. The late Justice Ginsburg, born in 1933, was a champion of gender rights and a cultural icon for millions. Before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, Ginsberg faced countless adversities throughout her law career as a woman and a mother and was instrumental in overturning a number of targeted gender laws and discriminatory institutions. Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson moderated the panel, which featured former California Senator Barbara Boxer, Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court correspondent Linda Greenhouse, and senior opinion writer at the Boston Globe and MSNBC contributor Kimberly Atkins. “[What] she wanted to show the court was that sex equality isn’t going to favor one or the other, it’s gonna wipe away these built-in assumptions about the roles that society has assigned to men or to women,” said Greenhouse while speaking of Ginsberg’s legal work, adding that “this panel tonight are all her beneficiaries.” As each member shared personal experiences and anecdotes of the late Justice Ginsburg, audience members were reminded that behind the larger than life presence of the “Notorious RBG,” as she became known in later years, was a humble, small, soft-spoken woman, who despite the illnesses she suffered, was a relentless champion for women. “What made her powerful is she suffered the slings and arrows of discrimination,” said former Senator Boxer, who recalled meeting Justice Ginsburg soon after her nomination to the Supreme Court — “I’m five feet tall, and she’s five feet tall. So first of all, I loved her because we could look eye-to-eye.” — and Ginsburg’s multiple, valiant fights against cancer. “I remember being shocked that she was on the bench at work just days after she lost her husband,” recalled Atkins, who was WBUR Boston’s Washington correspondent and D.C. bureau chief of Dolan Company newspapers before joining the Globe. “She was on the bench at work after the first cancer diagnosis after the second cancer diagnosis after the third cancer diagnosis while she was going through chemotherapy. ... She’s showing reporters her workout on camera. I mean, it was that sort of spirit, that sort of show that ‘she can do anything’ that was a part of what she was writing about in her decisions. And... PAGE 14 THE ARGONAUT OCTOBER 8, 2020
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on Sept. 18; her death has sent Washington into a political flurry to confirm or block her replacement
often her dissents, about equality about… what feminism looks like, what a working woman looks like.” The panelists also discussed how Justice Ginsburg’s perseverance to remain on the court as long as she was able, despite health issues and partisan pressure, was an extension of her feminism and should not be seen as a blow to those who saw her as a protector of liberal ideologies on the bench, especially in her later years. “People are talking about, you know, why didn’t she retire? Why are we in this situation? And I pushed back against that,” said Greenhouse. “I pushed back against it when a kind of a male cabal of law professors rather early in the Obama years said that Ruth Ginsburg should retire. And, frankly, I thought that was a sexist deal. You know, ‘You little lady, it’s your responsibility to give up the job you love and at which you’re pretty darn good and take a bullet for our side and leave.’ You know, the notion that the political death spiral that our country seems to be in right this minute should be laid at the feet of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s a little bit out of context, I think.” While Ginsburg’s decision to persevere led to another decade as a Supreme Court Justice, the timing of her death gives an opportunity for President Trump to shift the court’s makeup to a 6-3 conservative majority with the appointment of judge Amy Coney Barrett. (Barrett’s confirmation hearing is scheduled to start on Oct. 12.) The loss of Justice Ginsberg and the consequence of a potential conservative majority may lead to a regression in gender rights as the court would have the power to overturn Roe v. Wade. With the rights of so many women dependent on the presence of Justice Ginsberg on the court, it calls into question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and its nomination process. “The ideology of the sitting justices, for the first time in modern American history, maps completely on to the partisan identification of the president who appointed them,” said Boxer, adding that a positive public perception of the Supreme Court will be difficult to maintain if the highly politicized and partisan nature of the confirmation process continues. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moves to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat, opposition has labeled his actions as hypocritical considering his decision to block the pre-election Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland four years ago during the Obama administration. In defense of his decision, Senator McConnell claims the two situations are completely different as the GOP (the same party as the president) now controls the Senate. “…there were no caveats. They said in an election year. That’s it. …So, they can twist themselves into pretzels to try and rationalize this. But it’s a bald-faced, double-dealing, hypocritical move. And if I was still in the Senate, I would not be
allowed to say those words.” said Boxer in response to the legitimacy of his claim. Despite the prospect of a conservative majority on the court and the threat of overturning Roe v. Wade, the mood of the panel was far from doom and gloom as they discussed potential areas of change on and outside of the Supreme Court, including court packing, judicial term limits and legislative strategies. “The solution for those who want to preserve reproductive rights lie elsewhere, lies in Congress, it certainly lies in statehouses. I mean, there are states for which the laws will not change, because there are strong laws within those states that support those rights, and it will become a state’s issue,” said Atkins. The underlying theme of each of the panelists’ answers pointed to the importance of individual participation in the democratic process. When asked of the best way to honor Justice Ginsburg’s memory, the panelists said it is up to those who follow in her footsteps to fight for the values she upheld by engaging in politics, social movements and voting. “Look at the year we’ve been having in the United States in 2020 and the reckoning about racial justice that’s come about in these months,” said Greenhouse. “What she [Ginsburg] was standing for was the dignity of all people, regardless of gender. And what this great reckoning moment has told us this year is nothing’s more important in society, in a democratic society, than to recognize the dignity of all people, regardless of all the aspects that seem to make us different on the surface, one to the other, whether it’s race or ethnicity, or gender. ... I think we have to keep our eyes on that ball. We have to raise our children to take this seriously and to be active members of the democratic polity.” “I think the importance of voting, whether it’s a special election for local school board or whether it’s the presidential election, casting a vote in every single election is crucially important for a number of reasons, including for all the reasons that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg laid out,” said Atkins. “It’s good for everybody,” said Boxer of voting, “whoever you love, whatever you look like, whatever your background, whatever your zip code. And we need to stand up to that fight. We have to now, and it means doing more than you thought you’d have to do, not just sitting around and thinking about it, but saying something about it, doing something about it…” While the future of the Supreme Court and the country remains uncertain, the panel reminded — undoubtedly — that the loss and impact of the one tirelessly devoted “Notorious RBG” will not be soon forgotten. Visit the Hammer Museum’s YouTube page at https://tinyurl.com/rbgathammer to watch the talk in full.
WHAT AN EARL WANTS This new guy I’ve been dating said he wants to keep things casual. I’m bummed because I’ve caught some pretty intense feelings for him. Is it possible he just needs to get to know me better and once he does, he’ll feel differently? — Wishful
over the hero as the power of the “magic hoo hoo.” Once the hero has this particular hoo,“he desires no other,” writes Salmon. Or, as some researchers put it, a “dad” is being molded out of the ashes of a confirmed “cad.” Salmon explains that women’s longing to be irresistibly desired emerges from evolution’s effect on female emotions, pushing women — who, unlike men, can Pursuing a relationship with this guy is like sentencing yourself to live out the rest get pregnant from sex — to be commitof your days stuck in that “distracted ment-centric. This “female desire to be boyfriend” meme. irresistible” is ultimately a desire by a Understanding your situation starts with woman “to be secure in the belief that a peek into book publishing. Unbeher choice of mate is the right one and that he will never stray.” As for the power knownst to most people, the most and prevalence of this desire, Salmon profitable area in publishing is the notes previous research finds that more romance and erotica genre. Most than half of female sexual fantasies romance novels have pretty much the revolve around “the desire to be sexually same theme: a high-status man, often irresistible,” and this desire seems to be wildly wealthy, who has shown he can’t be tamed but who, nevertheless, eventu- “at the heart of the bodice-ripper style of romance and fantasies of submission.” ally is — by the irresistible beauty and Now, it’s within the realm of possibility specialness of one particular woman. This genre is literary catnip for the ladies, that this guy only thinks he wants to keep it casual, and he’ll come around and earning $1.5 billion in 2015, while the become your Mr. One And Only. Renext best-earning book genre, mystery and crime, brought in a measly $730 search suggests men can sometimes be million. triggered into committing when they It turns out art reflects life — or rather, sense they have competition, like how women wish their romantic lives through your dating other guys. It’s would play out. Evolutionary psychologist likewise possible this wouldn’t change Catherine Salmon explains that, in anything; he might simply be in the thick romance novels, “In the end, the heroine of his sexual safari years. So, applying the is typically the one in control,” while the old 80/20 equation to your situation, 80 hero is “a slave to his passion/love for percent of success in love is showing up; her.” She references romance novel however, the other 20 percent is making bloggers Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan, sure you aren’t showing up to hookup who, hilariously, refer to the heroine’s hold hell in a wedding dress.
EX TO GRIND I’m seeing this new guy, but his ex-girlfriend is absolutely awful: rude, unfriendly, and less-than-intelligent. It makes me question his judgment. If he’s interested in a girl like that, I’m not sure I want to be with him. — Legitimate Fear?
we’re excited by possible gains). We often succumb to the “sunk cost fallacy:” irrationally deciding to continue investing time, money, and/or energy in what we know is a losing gambit, based on the investment we’ve already made (that is,“sunk” into it in the past). However, that prior investment is gone. The Really good sex can keep a man from rational approach is seeing whether seeing the romantic hell show he’s in, future investment would pay off suffiespecially when the thinking cap he ciently and, if not, cutting our losses automatically reaches for comes from a (perhaps while waving a forlorn goodsmall square package marked “Trojan.” bye to all the days, months, or — gulp! We assume someone’s romantic — years we wasted). partners are a result of carefully reaTo determine how active a role your man’s judgment played in his previous soned choices. In fact, many people entanglement, ask him about what he meet someone, have sex with them, want more sex, and end up in a relation- values, in general, and in a partner, and ship — totally bypassing any assessment then ask what draws him to you. You should see whether he’s with you for of whether this might be a ruinous idea. Eventually, the initial hot-sex fog recedes reasons you respect or whether you’re just a random variation on the nasty, a little, and their partner’s terrible qualities become increasingly apparent. Time kitten-eating sexbots of what might be to break up, right? Well, there’s a problem. called “Cinder” (Tinder when a guy’s Psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains penis repeatedly picks emotional that we tend to be “loss aversive”: deeply arsonists who’ll burn his mental wellness disturbed by potential losses (more than to the ground).
GOT A PROBLEM? Write to Amy Alkon at 171 Pier Ave, Ste. 280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or email her at AdviceAmy@aol.com. ©2020, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. Alkon’s latest book is “Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence.” Follow @amyalkon on Twitter or visit blogtalkradio.com/amyalkon.
OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 15
E D U C A T I O N
A Cool Kid
Ice skating, drawing & dance paved the way for this Otis College freshman’s creative higher-ed studies and Olympic aspirations By Katherine Brubaker At age 18, Zarii Arri’s love for the arts can be classified as multifaceted. Primarily a talented figure skater, Arri has taken on other artistic pursuits along the way, while simultaneously maintaining straight As at online school California Connections Academy. Arri is now in her first year at Otis College of Art and Design, majoring in video game development. Arri has always been interested in skating. “My mom says that I had a little postcard of figure skates, and they were the white figure skates. And I thought they were really pretty, so I would always look at them,” said Arri, “and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I want those skates.’ And then I saw figure skating for the first time on television. And I was like, ‘I definitely want to do that.’” Because of this interest, while living in D.C., Arri went to work with an ice-skating coach who encouraged her to “move around first” on the ice while starting out. “For someone who had never skated before and was two years old and had to wear a really heavy helmet, I was doing pretty well. And [the coach] was surprised and my parents were surprised. Ever since, I have been skating almost every day for the last 16 years,” Arri said. Arri has trained at LA Kings Valley Ice Center and Pickwick Ice. She is currently coached by Randy Gardner, Edik Khachatriyn and Nicole Larsen, among others. Last year, at age 17, Arri achieved gold status in U.S. Figure Skating’s skills test. Arri described the challenging process for obtaining this title. “When you start skating you have to go up through certain levels to be able to compete or to be able to say you are at that level. There’s two different types of tests that you have to pass. Those are moves in the field and free skate. Free skate is basically doing your program. Moves in the field is just showing how well you can control your weight by making specific images in the ice. I remember figures were really
For Otis College freshman Zarii Arri art is a gateway to her future artistic schedule. intense, but to get gold status, move to Burbank, California to Arri’s ice skating coach, Randy you need to be able to pass support this pursuit, which led every single level of moves in to scene work in “Transformers” Gardner, mentioned Otis College of Art and Design to her the field, starting with pre-preand voice acting gigs. liminary, ending at seniors. And “Voice acting is still something offhandedly one day. Fast forward a couple of months I did. I actually have never that I am pursuing and doing,” later, and Arri is attending Otis failed a moves test,” said Arri. said Arri. College, where she will be Arri, however, has never solely On top of her performing arts majoring in video game develbeen an ice skater. She has also pursuits, Arri can’t seem to opment and concept design. Otis tapped into her musical artistry remember a time when she via the violin, and before ice wasn’t drawing. At age three she was also appealing because “the campus is also close to an ice skating, Arri started dancing at got her first easel, and has been rink,” according to Arri. (The 18-months-old. hooked ever since. Toyota Sports Performance “I have been taking dance “I would draw stick figures at Center, where the LA Kings classes and going to dance for as first, or I would draw these little practice, is in nearby El Segunlong as I can remember, because heart people. I still have do.) I’ve always loved dance and notebooks filled with all of my Arri is choosing video game I’ve always loved ballet. I think weird drawings,” said Arri. development as her major just because of how similar it is Arri didn’t start taking art because of her background in art to figure skating,” said Arri. classes until she was 15 at as well as her love of video Arri has trained with the Xpress Art Center in Glendale. games. Joffrey Ballet, dancing in their She later started taking art “I’ve always loved video Nutcracker production as a classes for oil painting and games. And as I’ve gotten older snow angel and participating in drawing at LA Valley College. and I have started to love them their summer dance intensive “That really made me realize I one year. Arri also danced in can study art and that I can go to even more, I realized that this is Moscow Ballet’s Nutcracker as school for art. And that’s when I an industry I want to be a part of,” said Arri. She is specifically a Spanish dancer. started looking into schools,” interested in character design At age five, Arri became said Arri, who attended Califorand world-building. interested in acting. Soon after, nia Connections Academy Looking even further into the she and her family made the online to accommodate her busy
PAGE 16 THE ARGONAUT OCTOBER 8, 2020
future, Arri still has aspirations of competing in the Olympic Games and is currently training for it. “I have so many different nationalities, so I’m not just limited to the U.S. or the Commonwealth of Dominica, which is where my mom’s from, when choosing a country to compete for in the Olympic Games” said Arri. Similar to the uncertainty around what’s in store for the world mid-pandemic, the timelines for the summer and winter Olympics Games are also up in the air. However, Arri remains unfazed and focused on her goal. “... Right now I’m shooting for 2022 for the Olympics. I actually have one more [Senior Free Skate] test to take... I’m planning on taking that test near the end of the year, just when things start picking up again,” said Arri. Know a local student we should spotlight? Email christinac@argonautnews.com.
C O V E R
S T O R Y
‘Grace and Grit’ Drive-in film event showcases the creative strength and spirit of Santa Monica dancers PHOTOS COURTESY OF WESTSIDE SCHOOL OF BALLET | WESTSIDE BALLET OF SANTA MONICA
By Christina Campodonico and Katherine Brubaker Ask international ballet star and Westside School of Ballet alumna Joy Womack what “grace and grit” mean to her and she’ll give you the raw truth. “In the ballet sense… ballet looks beautiful on the outside,” she says, during a Zoom call from Russia, where she’s been performing under the country’s laxer lockdown rules and trained as a Bolshoi Ballet dancer after attending Westside. “But, like, I have literally bleeding toes and things like that,” she says, pointing her toe toward the camera, adding that it’s “lots of just basically smiling and grinning and burying it.” But she also says ‘grace and grit’ encompasses resilience, much like the spirit of Santa Monica’s Westside School of Ballet, which despite the upheavals of the pandemic, has continued to offer first-rate ballet training in-person and via Zoom throughout lockdown as conditions have allowed. “I think one of the most beautiful things about Westside Ballet,” says Womack, referring to the school’s pre-professional nonprofit dance company and the community itself, “is that they are a family and no matter what, for the many years that they’ve been in Santa Monica, the show always goes on. And there’s not a
Westside School of Ballet alumna Joy Womack group of more resilient people that are committed to an art form that I know of in the world.” That tenacity will be on display Oct. 9 and 10 during “Grace and Grit,” a drive-in dance film festival and fundraiser in collaboration with Santa Monica College featuring a compilation of films created by Westside Ballet and SMC’s dance communities. Among the featured segments set to screen in the East Parking Lot of Santa Monica College’s Bundy campus are pieces by SMC’s Global Motion and Synapse dance companies; Barak Ballet’s “Breathe In,” a short film
with choreography by the company’s artistic director and Westside alum Melissa Barak; a duo of original solos on film called “Water and Air” choreographed by Westside Ballet’s Sophie Monat; and a fiery solo on film from “Don Quixote” performed by Womack in a remote Utah salt flat. “I was basically homeless for like six months of the pandemic,” recalls Womack of the wandering road trip that led her to film that solo on the side of a road during a pitstop between California and Colorado. “[It was] like a kind of adventure to try to find a place to just be for a little while.”
Barak found a similar theme of release in making “Breathe In,” which depicts an ensemble dancing through the unique architecture of Pan Pacific Park. “It was just sort of a film about better days ahead and sort of freedom, you know,” says Barak. “It starts with a man who takes his mask off, and is just obviously longing to dance and feel free again, and he sort of is the instigator. Other dancers follow suit, and they kind of join in with him on this frolic through the park. But it’s less flowery than that. … He kind of reminds them of what’s inside them as dancers and the freedom that they longed for, and that they embrace when they see him take initiative.” “So really ‘Grace and Grit’ was born of that idea that... you can’t quarantine your soul,” says Westside Ballet Artistic Director Martine Harley, underlining the resilience of the organization’s dancers. “And so dancers will find a way to dance. They will go in their yards; they will go in their living rooms, kitchens, the sidewalk if you’re allowed outside. “And so ‘Grace and Grit’ was born of that. … Even with the quarantine, even with COVID, it all managed to keep living and adapting and blooming. And there was no way to stop that,” says Harley of the evolution of the film event. “There was no
way to put any polish on it, there was no way to go into a theater and have beautiful lighting… it had to be done just with the grit of what was possible in the time, or what is possible in this time because it’s continuing. But it’s also about the grit of dancers, that they have this tenacity that keeps them going no matter what. They have high tolerance for pain, they have high tolerance for all kinds of adverse situations. “So there’s a lot in the film[s], where you just see the dancers, both in their polished elements and then also in these raw elements, you know, being outside or just being in their living room and doing what they love.” “I think it’s a great way for people to continue to dance and to continue to enjoy dance during a time where obviously, none of us can go to live performances,” adds Joffrey Ballet dancer Lucia Connolly, who performs in Monat’s “Water” solo. That was also the last piece she performed at Westside before entering the School of American Ballet and embarking on her professional dance career. “So this just really feels full circle. ... I feel like it, for me, symbolized all the help that Westside gave me over the years. ... It was a culmination of everybody’s hard work and everybody’s skills that gave me the skills that I needed. Getting to use that solo to come back and get back to Westside is really great. It’s cool.” “I think it also is like this extension past Westside, which is incredible that there’s also SMC pieces and Barak Ballet’s in it,” chimes in Molly Novak, who dances in the corresponding solo by Monat “Air” and joined Boston Ballet after attending Westside and Samohi. “Hopefully, it reaches a broader audience and range of people. I think it’s showing that Westside still has this commitment to producing art and sharing with our community in a difficult time like this — against all odds, trying to still make something happen and put something together.” “Grace & Grit” screens at 7:30 and 10:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, and Saturday, Oct. 10, in the East Parking Lot of Santa Monica College’s Bundy Campus (3171 East Bundy Drive, Santa Monica). Tickets are $50 per vehicle. Visit westsideballet.com/ graceandgrit to learn more, buy tickets or make a donation.
OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 17
F O O D
&
D R I N K
Dessert for Breakfast or Breakfast for Dessert? The choice is yours with this fruity panna cotta citrus. For this recipe, I tested out grapefruit, lime, lemon and orange. I recommend that if you do use orange, try to mix it in with a more acidic citrus such as lemon because it can get pretty sweet. This dish is all about balance. If you make a sweeter curd by using oranges or grapefruits, tone down the amount of sugar you put in the panna cotta. If you make the panna cotta too sweet, balance it out with a tangier lemon curd. Now, if you want this dessert to be more dessert-like, bake a graham cracker crust into the bottom of your ramekin before setting the panna cotta to make mini Key lime “cheesecake” cups. For this recipe, I used stevia to sweeten my panna cotta, but you can use whatever sweetener you’d like and however much of it you want. Feel free to use ramekins, glass jars, or wine glasses for plating. Don’t feel like making your own curd? Check out Coldwater Canyon’s (coldwaterprovisions.com) variety of fruit jams every Saturday at Marina del Rey Farmers’ Market! Their honey nectarine jam will pair perfectly for this recipe. For your citrus fix, check out Polito Farms (@politofarms on Instagram) for a variety of beautiful, locally grown citrus fruits at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market! Ingredients: Panna cotta 2 cups of Greek yogurt (any kind, any fat percentage) 1 cup of milk (any kind; I used
PHOTO BY AMY WATSKY
By Amy Watsky Panna cotta is one of those desserts you end up making way too much of… only to remember you’re in quarantine and have to eat it all by yourself — unless of course, you come up with a clever way to make this dessert stretch and serve double duty. Don’t get me wrong, panna cotta is amazing, but the usual panna cotta packs in heaps of heavy cream and sugar and can leave you feeling the dizzying effects of a sugar crash. I have the perfect solution for you — just use different ingredients that cut the sweetness and double your palate pleasure by transforming it into a versatile meal. By using Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream, you get a good source of protein fit for breakfast while keeping that creamy texture we all love about panna cotta. Mix in some gelatin, vanilla and sugar to your liking and you’ve got the perfect healthy dessert or desserty breakfast! Now it’s time to spice it up with a seasonal touch. Noticed all those beautiful citruses lined up at the farmers’ markets? That’s because we grow a lot of them locally! So, let’s use them. If you love lemon bars, Key lime pie, or lemon meringue pie you’re going to love fruit curd. Tangy, sweet, sour, and smooth, it’s everything you want out of a dessert sauce. Top that on a panna cotta, and you’ve got a perfectly balanced breakfast. The best part about curds is that you can use any type of
cashew) 1-2 sheets of gelatin (you can also use powdered gelatin for this) Sugar, to taste 1 tablespoon of vanilla ½ teaspoon of salt Fruit Curd* 1 egg yolk 3 tablespoons of sugar 2 tablespoons of citrus juice Salt, a shake 1 tablespoon of butter *(This makes one serving, just multiply by the number of people you’re feeding.) Recipe Guide 1. To start, soak the sheets of gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, set a small
saucepan on the stove and heat up your milk to a gentle simmer. 2. After the gelatin has been soaked, dissolve it into the milk. At the same time, dissolve your sweetener into the milk. Set aside for a few minutes to let cool. 3. Whisk the Greek yogurt, vanilla and salt together. Carefully whisk in the milk mixture until perfectly smooth. I like doing this in a pitcher or a 4-cup measuring cup so it’s easy to pour for the next step. 4. Pour the mixture into each container and set in the fridge until firm. 5. While the panna cottas are setting in the fridge, make your curd. Bring a small saucepan
filled a quarter of the way with water up to a boil. 6. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and sugar. Whisk in the citrus juice. Bring the water down to a simmer and place the bowl over it to create a double boiler. 7. Whisk over the heat until it thickens. You’ll see the sugar start to melt, and the mixture become foamy. Whisk until the foam disappears and you’re left with a thick, yellow curd. 8. Place the curd in the fridge until ready to assemble. 9. Once both the panna cotta and the curd are set, spoon some curd onto the panna cotta, and serve for breakfast or dessert!
The Win~dow Has Opened its Doors on the Boardwalk By Stepan Sarkisian Along the iconic Venice Boardwalk, burger stand the Win~dow at American Beauty is looking to recreate the magic a second time. Stylized as “The Win~Dow,” the classic American-style takeaway restaurant opened its first location on Rose Avenue in 2019, where it quickly became a neighborhood favorite and famous for its $4 burgers. Its second location,
right on the corner of Ocean Front Walk and 19th Avenue, will feature its signature cheeseburgers at wallet-friendly prices just steps away from the beach. Head Chefs Anthony Goodwin and Chef Elisha Ben-Haim opened the new location on Tuesday, Sept. 29, committed to keeping much of the menu and low-prices the same while offering some new Veniceappropriate additions. The
PAGE 18 THE ARGONAUT OCTOBER 8, 2020
The Win~Dow’s delicious double cheeseburger
curated menu, which features items costing $8 or less, features vegetarian alternatives like grain bowls and plantbased burgers, alongside fried chicken sandwiches and the Win~dow’s ever-popular cheeseburgers. The expanded menu also features a separate ice-cream bar offering milkshakes and dipped cones, perfect frozen treats for cooldowns on hot beach days. The new location also has a
40-seat patio with a prime view of the Pacific Ocean and Muscle Beach for those looking to relax while enjoying their meal. If you’re feeling a bit lazy, local delivery is also available through DoorDash, Postmates and UberEats. Check out the new location open daily from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and for more information, visit www.thewin-dow.la or follow @americanbeauty.la on Instagram.
OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 19
SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
■ RESIDENTS IN 4 STATES CASH IN: The phone lines will be ringing off the hook. That’s because for the next 48 hours, packages containing actual Gold Vault Bricks still loaded with four
5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold minted by the Federated Mint are being shipped to residents in 4 states. These are the only Gold Vault Bricks known to exist and everyone wants them. That’s because they’re still loaded with Jumbo Gold Bars bearing the name of The First Bank of the United States of America and the state they were once destined for. And here’s the best part. If you live in one of the 4 states listed in today’s publication you cover only the minimum gold fee set for state residents of just $49 per ounce. That’s a real steal because residents living outside of the designated 4 states must pay $124 per ounce if any remain.
Residents snap up Gold Bars issued in 4 States
Heavy Gold Vault Bricks loaded with valuable Jumbo State Bars layered in 24 Karat Gold are up for grabs as thousands stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold bars; now residents in 4 states can claim the Gold Vault Bricks for themselves and keep all the valuable bars found inside just by covering the minimum gold fee set for state residents within the next 48 hours “It’s like a modern day gold rush,” said Mary Ellen Withrow, emeritus 40th Treasurer of the United States of America. That’s because actual Gold Vault Bricks™ still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold bearing the name of the First Bank of the United States of America™ and the state they were once destined for are up for grabs as thousands of U.S. residents stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold. Now any resident of those states can claim the Gold Vault Bricks for themselves and keep all the valuable gold found inside. That’s four massive bars weighing a full 20 ounces of high demand bullion copper layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold in all. And here’s the best part. If you live in one of the 4 states listed in today’s publication you cover only the minimum gold fee set for state residents of just $49 per (Continued on next page) PAGE 20 THE ARGONAUT OCTOBER 8, 2020
Who gets the Jumbo Gold Bars: Listed below in bold are the states that get the gold. If you live in one of these states immediately call the State Distribution Hotline at: 1-800-749-6917 GB1082
AK AL AR Arizona California CO CT DE FL GA
HI IA ID IL IN KY KS LA MA ME
MD MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE Nevada
NH NJ NM NY OH OK Oregon PA RI SC
SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY R1007C
SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
(Continued from previous page)
ounce which totals $980 for the full 20 ounces locked away inside these gold vault bricks. That’s a real steal because residents living outside of the designated 4 states must pay $124 per ounce which totals $2,480 if any remain. “As special counsel to Federated Mint I earn my pay delivering breaking news. And today’s announcement confirming the release of Gold Vault Bricks to the general public is as big as it gets. Believe me, I know how valuable these Gold Vault Bricks are to resellers, collectors, dealers and anyone else who gets their hands on them,” Withrow said. “So my advice is this, anyone who gets an opportunity to get their hands on one of these Gold Vault Bricks better jump at the chance before they’re all gone,” Withrow said. “These Gold Vault Bricks loaded with massive 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold make the most impressive gifts for Christmas, birthdays, graduations, weddings, and any other occasion, especially for that hard-to-buy-for person,” Withrow said. According to Ms. Withrow, since thousands of U.S. residents stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold, today and tomorrow are intended as a “special 48 hour release” for the benefit of persons living in; CA, AZ, NV and OR. This gives residents of those states a fair chance to claim the Gold Vault Bricks and all the valuable gold loaded inside for themselves. But, Ms. Withrow added, “The Gold Vault Bricks are only available as inventory permits during the special 48 hour release and once they’re gone, they’re gone.” The emeritus Treasurer added, “Remember this, these Gold Vault Bricks contain a full 20 ounces of high demand bullion copper layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold and we have no power to stop dealers, resellers, collectors and the like from buying up all the Gold Vault Bricks they can get their hands on and reselling them for a big profit,” Withrow said. Anyone who fails to obtain them during this special 48 hour release may be forced to buy them later in the secondary market from a dealer, reseller or collector at a hefty premium. ”We already know the phones will be ringing off the hook. That’s why hundreds of agents are standing by to answer the phones beginning at 8:30am this morning. We’re going to do our best, but with just 48 hours to answer all the calls it won’t be easy. So make sure to tell everyone to keep calling if all lines are busy. We’ll do our best to answer them all,” Withrow said. “That’s why Federated Mint set up the State Distribution Hotlines in order to make sure residents in the 4 designated states listed in today’s newspaper publication can get them now,” Withrow said. The only thing readers of today’s newspaper publication need to do is make sure they live in one of the 4 states listed in today’s newspaper and call the State Distribution Hotlines before the special 48 hour release ends midnight tomorrow. ■
NEVER BEFORE SEEN: THESE FIRST BANK OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA JUMBO GOLD BARS ARE THE ONLY ONES KNOWN TO EXIST
VALUABLE: THESE ARE THE FOUR 5-OUNCE JUMBO GOLD BARS SEALED AWAY IN EACH GOLD VAULT BRICK BEARING THE STATE DESTINATION
How much are the Gold Vault Bricks worth: The answer is, it’s impossible to say. But, it would be foolish for anyone to try and determine the value of these Gold Vault Bricks based on today’s price of gold. Here’s why. Gold, silver and all precious metal values always fluctuate and there are never any guarantees. But what we do know is that these are the only Gold Vault Bricks still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars known to exist. In fact, the value of the pure 24 Karat Gold layered content is just a bonus for anyone lucky enough to get one of these Gold Vault Bricks because there’s no telling how much the actual collector value could be worth. That makes the minimum gold fee set for state residents of just $ 49 per ounce which totals $ 980 for the full 20 ounces locked away inside these Gold Vault Bricks a real steal since residents living outside of the designated 4 states must pay $124 per ounce, which totals $ 2,480, if any remain. Why the vault fee is so low: Since thousands of U.S. residents stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold, Federated Mint has re-allocated Gold Vault Bricks to be sent out in the next 48 hours. That means the gold is up for grabs and now residents in 4 states can claim the Gold Vault Bricks for themselves and keep all the valuable bars found inside. These are the only Gold Vault Bricks known to exist and everyone wants them. That’s because they’re still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold bearing the name of The First Bank of the United States of America and the state they were once destined for. That’s four massive bars weighing a full 20 ounces of 24 Karat Gold and valuable bullion copper in all. And here’s the best part. If you live in one of the 4 states listed in today’s publication you cover only the minimum gold fee set for state residents of just $ 49 per ounce. That’s a real steal because residents living outside of the designated 4 states must pay $124 per ounce if any remain.
■ FIRST LOOK INSIDE THE GOLD VAULT BRICKS: Pictured above are the Gold Vault Bricks containing the only Jumbo State Gold Bars known to exist bearing the name of the First Bank of the United States of America and the state they were once destined for. State residents are rushing to get them because the Gold Vault Bricks are still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold. To claim you Vault Brick, just call 1-800-749-6917 GB1082 before the deadline ends. Everyone lucky enough to get them better hold on to them because there’s no telling just how much they could be worth.
R1007C
FEDERATED MINT, LLC IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE U.S. MINT, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, A BANK OR ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY. IF FOR ANY REASON WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM SHIPMENT YOU ARE DISSATISFIED, RETURN THE PRODUCT FOR A REFUND LESS SHIPPING AND RETURN POSTAGE. THIS SAME OFFER MAY BE MADE AVAILABLE AT A LATER DATE OR IN A DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION. OH RESIDENTS ADD 6.5% SALES TAX. FEDERATED MINT, PO BOX 1200, MASSILLON, OH 44648 ©2020 FEDERATED MINT OCTOBER 8, 2020 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 21
STATE-OF-THE-ART HOME “Modernist in spirit, this sophisticated three-bedroom plus detached office/flex space is a haven of luxury, tranquility and efficiency,” says agent Stephanie Younger. “Characterized by functional minimalism and expanses of blended glass and redwood, it offers a curvilinear plan that respects the SoCal aesthetic. Escape the chaotic world and commune with the sunny possibilities of telecommuting from home working or schooling in its Edenic bonus backyard Zoom-room. Host large events or intimate wine tastings at the posh halfshell wet bar with wine fridge or explore culinary talents in the chic kitchen featuring Thermador appliances and dramatic black quartz eat-in island. The idyllic master suite retreat is rife with wrap-around glass balcony, walk-in closet extraordinaire and spa-like bath with soaking tub. This polished residence with abundant natural light, soaring ceilings, raingarden and floating glass staircase boasts a fluidity of indoor-outdoor living in proximity to retail and restaurants, marina and mountains.” PAGE 22 AT HOME – THE ARGONAUT’S REAL ESTATE SECTION OCTOBER 8, 2020
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FIND YOUR PLACE The Stephanie Younger Group 310.499.2020 | DRE 01365696 stephanieyounger.com | @stephanieyoungergroup Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. License Number 01991628. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only and is compiled from sources deemed reliable but has not been verified. Changes in price, condition, sale or withdrawal may be made without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footage are approximate. If your property is currently listed for sale this is not a solicitation.
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“This turnkey home features an open floor plan with white washed hardwood floors, updated kitchen, Caesarstone counters and Wolfe range,” says agent Denise Fast. “No expense spared, in the master bath with exquisite use of stone and floral tile, crystal countertop and bench. A disappearing Fleetwood door off the master gives way to sunsets and ocean breezes on a large private deck complete with gas fire pit. The backyard is a great place to relax and play at any time of the day or night. Features include a stainless steel built-in barbecue with seating for four. ” Offered at $2,195,000 Denise Fast RE/MAX Estate Properties 310.578.5414
“Newer construction four-bed, four-bath, fully furnished home. Living room features an elongated fireplace with Mid Century inspired cement tile,” says agent Jesse Weinberg. “Open kitchen includes custom-designed, soft close European oak kitchen cabinetry. Island with built in drawers, Nero Maquina Honed countertops and backsplash. Stainless steel Thermador appliances include 48" 6 burner range with pot filler, oversized integrated refrigerator/freezer, vent hood, dishwasher, 48 bottle wine cooler. Fleetwood oversized sliding doors open to salt water pool, spa, outdoor shower, and BBQ.” Offered at $3,499,000 Jesse Weinberg Jesse Weinberg & Associates 800-804-9132
“Luxury and style merge in this contemporary modern home,” says agent Stephanie Younger. “From the second you pull up to this private cul-de-sac you will be captured by the gated front lawn, clean aesthetics and sleek curb appeal. A breath taking entry opens to a family/living room with 14’ ceilings, solid white oak floors, modern fireplace accented by Italian porcelain. Gourmet kitchen featuring Thermador appliances and custom cabinets. Escape to the impeccable master suite with separate doors to the patio, and spa like bath.” Offered at $1,949,000 Stephanie Younger Compass 310-499-2020
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THE ARGONAUT REAL ESTATE Q&A
Job losses will inevitably continue After a decade of gains, California’s employment picture is back to square one. California lost over 2.7 million jobs from the December 2019 peak to April 2020. This translates to a 15.4% drop, the bulk of which occurred in a single month. In comparison, the job losses experienced in response to the 2008 recession equaled a lesser 10.2% drop, a loss of 1.6 million jobs, spread out over a period of two years. Employment is the single most important factor in determining the health and stability of California’s real estate market. Without a paycheck, households cannot pay rent or buy a house. Further, without income to provide jobs, businesses have no need to occupy and use commercial property. Demand for real estate increases with the number of local jobs, and additions to the labor force drive up rents and prices on properties in the vicinity of job growth. For example, the Bay Area’s volatile real estate price growth is driven by demand from a booming population, lured to the area over the past 10-20 years by exciting job growth in the highpaying tech industry and other supportive industries. On the other hand, a decline in the number of local jobs reduces the need for all types of real estate, residential and commercial alike. Decreased demand for property leads to lower rents paid by tenants and lower prices paid by buyers. Commercial vacancies are inextricably linked to residential vacancies, as individuals whose incomes are lost or reduced are forced to move in with family members or roommates.
Jobs are the key cog in the wheel that keeps the economy — and real estate market — turning. Will the real estate market keep moving as we continue to move through the 2020 recession? Or will the road prove too bumpy? The (very) long recovery ahead Since the biggest job losses occurred this spring, the media has proclaimed record job gains. However, these gains have thus far seen a return of just 680,600 of the jobs lost as of July 2020. At this time, jobs are still 11.5% below the December 2019 peak, and the pace of job additions has slowed dramatically from the initial rebound when shelter-in-place orders were lifted. Optimistic prognosticators believe jobs will return just as quickly when a COVID-19 vaccine is released. But this ignores the underlying economic recession, the conditions for which existed long before the pandemic pushed the already teetering jobs market over the edge. Some government stimulus programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, have attempted to keep individuals employed and provide for those who are not. But the PPP has been riddled with problems, with scammers targeting the program and many legitimate businesses failing to receive any aid before the program closed in August 2020. On top of the problems, the stimulus we’ve seen so far has been woefully inadequate. Even in Europe,
PAGE 24 AT HOME – THE ARGONAUT’S REAL ESTATE SECTION OCTOBER 8, 2020
where many governments offered comprehensive stimulus programs to large companies so that everyone could continue receiving a paycheck during the shutdowns, many European companies are now announcing huge layoffs. Worse, the European Central Bank warns that unemployment will still remain high even after the pandemic subsides. Here in the U.S., one chief at the Federal Reserve (the Fed) has said the unemployment picture will get worse the longer it takes to pass another round of stimulus funding. On the other hand, passing funds for greater unemployment benefits will not only help jobless households, but it will also help those who are secure in their jobs feel more comfortable spending. Timing the next recovery More time is needed before a realistic and consistent jobs recovery will begin. This recession is likely to mimic a “W”-shape in the remainder of 2020 and 2021, with conditions rising with false momentum, only to fall back when sustaining economic conditions do not emerge. The employment market won’t begin to make solid climbs until 2022 or even 2023, at which point the real estate market will begin to emerge from the recession. In the meantime, a meaningful transition will occur in the jobs market. Many brick-and-mortar businesses will disappear for good, their customers choosing to move their purchases online. This will hurt the retail industry but give a boost to industrial real estate. Temporary layoffs will turn into permanent layoffs as the economy re-charts a course in the sudden sea change.
These shifts will ripple throughout the real estate market, causing a spurt of foreclosures and distressed sales following the end of the foreclosure moratorium on December 31, 2020 and the eviction moratorium ending January 31, 2021. It’s possible a state-initiated effort to keep Californians housed will extend these moratoriums longer, further delaying the inevitable. Job creation is the only cure. When will that happen? It took California nearly a decade to catch up with pre-2008 levels when counting working-age population growth. During that elongated recovery, home sales volume never rose above 61% of peak Millennium Boom volume. Unless we want to spend the next ten years in a similar malaise, we will need more jobs — now. More infrastructure and federal jobs, as well as federal stimulus for private businesses are necessary. Otherwise, we will see a repeat of the last ten years of elongated, bumpy recovery.
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION WAS ANSWERED BY
Carrie B. Reyes is Market Watch editor and project editor of the Real Estate Economics and Economic Trends in California Real Estate books. first tuesday Journal P.O. Box 5707 Riverside, CA 92517
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Name Change ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME Case No. 20GDCP00266 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES. Petition of RYAN JEAN-JACQUES FIRPO and MAREN FIRPO, for Change of Name. TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: 1.) Petitioner: RYAN JEANJACQUES FIRPO and MAREN FIRPO filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: a.) WALLACE ROLAND FIRPO to HANNO ROLAND FIRPO 2.) THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: 10/29/20. Time: 8:30 AM. Dept.: E. The address of the court is 600 E. Broadway Glendale, CA 91206. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county Los Angeles: Original filed: September 1, 2020. Darrell Mavis, Judge of the Superior Court. PUBLISH: The Argonaut Newspaper. 9/17/20, 9/24/20, 10/1/20, 10/8/20
of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county Los Angeles: Original filed: September 1, 2020. Darrell Mavis, Judge of the Superior Court. PUBLISH: The Argonaut Newspaper. 9/17/20, 9/24/20, 10/1/20, 10/8/20
Fic. Business Name STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME – FILE NO: 2020131438 file no: 2016-157972 date filed: 06/23/2016. Name of Business(es) LA TAX CENTER, LA TAX AND BUSINESS CENTER, PATRICK'S TAX SERVICE, 1100 S. Hope St., #1207 LA, CA 90015. registered owner(s): Patrick E. Rohrbach, 1100 S. Hope St., #1207 LA, CA 90015. Business was conducted by an Individual. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) reg i s t r a n t s n a m e s / c o r p / l lc (print) Patrick E. Rohrbach title: Owner. If corporation, also print corporate title of officer. If LLC, also print tile of officer or manager. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of los angeles County on the date indicated by the filed stamp in the upper right corner: August 28, 2020. i hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. dean c. logan, los angeles county clerk by: T. Tran, Deputy Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper. Dates: 9/24/20, 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2020136149 Type of Filing: Original. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: EAST COAST BAGEL-MDR. 4375 Glencoe Ave. Suite D4-4-A Marina del Rey, CA 90292, 6404 North Willard Ave. San Gabriel, CA 91775. COUNTY: Los Angeles. REGISTERED OWNER(S) Bageldelicious LLC, 4375 Glencoe Ave. Suite D4-4-A Marina del Rey, CA 90292. State of Incorporation or LLC: California. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY a Limited Liability Company. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/ Stephanie N. Chung. TITLE: Manager, Corp or LLC Name: Bageldelicious LLC. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: September 9, 2020 NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions code). Publish: The ArPAGE 26 THE ARGONAUTgonaut OCTOBER 8, 2020Dates: Newspaper. 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20, 10/22/20
6404 North Willard Ave. San Gabriel, CA 91775. COUNTY: Los Angeles. REGISTERED OWNER(S) Bageldelicious LLC, 4375 Glencoe Ave. Suite D4-4-A Marina del Rey, CA 90292. State of Incorporation or LLC: California. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY a Limited Liability Company. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/ Stephanie N. Chung. TITLE: Manager, Corp or LLC Name: Bageldelicious LLC. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: September 9, 2020 NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions code). Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper. Dates: 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20, 10/22/20 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2020143591 Type of Filing: Original. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: THE CLARA LOS ANGELES. 1545 N. Bronson Ave., Apt. 201 Los Angeles, CA 90028. COUNTY: Los Angeles. REGISTERED OWNER(S) The Clara Group LLC, 1545 N. Bronson Ave., Apt. 201 Los Angeles, CA 90028. State of Incorporation or LLC: California. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY a Limited Liability Company. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/ Jennifer Panczenko Ryall. TITLE: Managing Member/CEO, Corp or LLC Name: The Clara Group LLC. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: September 21, 2020 NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions code). Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper. Dates: 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20, 10/22/20
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CONDUCTED BY a Limited Liability Company. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/ Jennifer Panczenko Ryall. TITLE: Managing Member/CEO, Corp or LLC Name: The Clara Group LLC. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: September 21, 2020 NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions code). Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper. Dates: 10/1/20, 10/8/20 , 10/15/20, 10/22/20 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2020128098 Type of Filing: Original The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: CAIA CANDLE; 2554 Lincoln Blvd., Suite 781 Venice, CA 90291, 4369 Chase Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90066. COUNTY: Los Angeles. REGISTERED OWNER(S) Kaiya Peralta, 4369 Chase Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90066. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY an Individual. The registrant commenced to transact business under the Fictitious Business Name or names listed above on: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/: Kaiya Peralta. TITLE: Owner. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: August 24, 2020. NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., business and professions code). Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper. Dates: 9/24/20, 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2020137422 Type of Filing: Amended The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: YOGA BLISS; 6218 W. Manchester Ave., Westchester, CA 90045, 332 Sheldon Street El Segundo, CA 90245. COUNTY: Los Angeles. REGISTERED OWNER(S) Lara Estrada, 332 Sheldon Street El Segundo, CA 90245 5. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY an Individual. The registrant commenced to transact business under the Fictitious Business Name or names listed above on: 08/2015. I declare that all in-
GISTERED OWNER(S) Lara Estrada, 332 Sheldon Street El Segundo, CA 90245 5. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY an Individual. The registrant commenced to transact business under the Fictitious Business Name or names listed above on: 08/2015. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/: Lara Estrada. TITLE: Owner. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: September 11, 2020. NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., business and professions code). Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper. Dates: 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20, 10/22/20 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2020138176 Type of Filing: Original The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: LOVE2 FLYFISH MEDIA; 7324 West 88th Place Los Angeles, CA 90045. COUNTY: Los Angeles. REGISTERED OWNER(S) Al Quattrocchi, 7324 West 88th Place Los Angeles, CA 90045. THIS BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED BY an Individual. The registrant commenced to transact business under the Fictitious Business Name or names listed above on: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. /s/: Al Quattrocchi. TITLE: Owner. This statement was filed with the LA County Clerk on: September 14, 2020. NOTICE – in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. a new Fictitious Business Name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., business and professions code). Publish: The Argonaut Newspaper Dates: 10/1/20, 10/8/20, 10/15/20, 10/22/20
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LOS ANGELES TIMES SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE “A SERIES OF MISSTEPS” By ALAN OLSCHWANG ACROSS 1 South American rodent 5 “Little Man __”: 1991 Foster film 9 Minor cuts 14 Blot with a tissue 19 God with a quiver 20 Times often named for music genres 21 Refined, as skills 22 Seed-to-be 23 One 24 It’s rarely paid to a car dealer 25 Big game name 26 Richest person in the world before Bezos 27 Many an investment 30 Treats with malice 31 Sr.-supporting component 32 Encl. with postage 33 i-opening company? 34 Revolutionary War name 35 Cambodian cash 37 Flag 39 Slothful sort 41 Some colas 44 MTV Video Music Award category 48 Invited to the penthouse 50 Loss nos., perhaps 51 British Isles tongue 52 Pride letters 54 Skyline feature 55 Store 57 Rice, e.g. 60 Sushi serving 62 K2 locale 63 “Wanna bet?” 65 Southernmost of the Marianas 66 Goddess of marriage and family 68 LBJ beagle 69 Where many
scenes are presented 74 Cornfield call 77 Up start or follower 78 For fear that 79 Apply forcefully, as the brakes 83 Subway fare? 85 West Coast pro 86 Newspaper supplement, maybe 89 Fern seed 90 First of 12 92 Zap 94 Cab category 96 Corporate honcho 97 Meat-curing compound 99 Used one’s clout 103 Summer wear 104 69-Across presentation 106 Simplify 107 Family reunion attendee 108 Arcade game word 110 Preferred group on the field 112 Do a rest stop machine’s job 114 You, in Germany 117 Dark-colored cigar 119 Freegan’s activity 122 Cell terminal 123 Anaheim athletes, in local sportscasts 124 Banned orchard spray 125 Kendrick of “Pitch Perfect” films 126 “Holy moly!” 127 Big name in violins 128 It can smell 129 Announced 130 Undo, in a way 131 It’s about 30 kilometers from Düsseldorf 132 Exude 133 Relationships
DOWN 1 “Goodfellas” Oscar winner 2 Loudly cheering 3 Formal outfit accessory 4 “Just __ ... ” 5 Fudge, perhaps 6 La Scala solos 7 Pepsi Challenge feature 8 Uruguay’s Punta del __ 9 Chinese dog breed 10 Waiter’s disappointment 11 Like many an injured arm 12 Brewed 13 Star Wars initials 14 Places to walk with best friends? 15 Be of use to 16 It’s often passed at family meals 17 On the protected side 18 Melanie’s “Working Girl” role 28 Secondhand 29 Quick movement 30 “__ the One”: 1996 Aniston/ Diaz movie 36 “We’re good to go” 38 Long cold spell 40 Tizzy 42 First female Nobelist 43 Asparagus unit 44 Kiss, in Cancún 45 Bk. before Job 46 Monopoly props. 47 The Rebels of the SEC, familiarly 49 Eco-conscious org. 53 Thai dough 56 Expressions of skepticism 58 Regular hangout 59 Encumbered 61 __ West, wife of DC Comics’
Flash 64 One who gets what’s coming 67 They may be torn on the field: Abbr. 70 Augusta National shrub 71 Musical motif, to Verdi 72 Firewood units 73 Finishes up on the green 74 Stands sound 75 Eagle’s home 76 Records 80 Biblical peak 81 Not a dup. 82 Takes in and keeps 84 Poetic contraction 87 Improve, as an urban area 88 NFL “sixes” 91 Determined by the stars, as time 93 Pancake-making aids 95 Brother of Peter, briefly 98 Early smartphone 100 Doesn’t bother to check the water first 101 Hightails it 102 Fashion’s Gernreich 105 Chair titles 109 Invasive vine 111 Ham it up 113 Rub off 115 Anatomical button type 116 “Yipes!” 117 Uxmal denizen 118 Auth. unknown 120 Summer shades 121 Grand Canyon adjective 123 “Scots Wha __”: patriotic song
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