‘The Grateful Dead of Alternative Rock’
The Pixies swing into town for BeachLife
A Universal Language Kite festival returns to LA State Historic Park
+ Downtown Community Plan approved
The Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee has approved the updated Downtown Los Angeles Community Plan after it was raised in a recent meeting. The plan will include a new zoning ordinance and will aim to accommodate Downtown’s projected growth of 125,000 residents, 70,000 housing units and 55,000 jobs by 2040.
“The city is rebuilding its zoning from the ground up for the first time since 1946,” said Vincent Bertoni, director of planning. “This is what we call a formbased code, which means that it is responsive to the shape and design of buildings and places in a much more nuanced way. What it also allows us to do under this new zoning system is to really allow us to be more responsive to individual communities … rethinking Downtown as a Downtown of the future.”
Community plans are created to outline how land will be used in a neigh -
borhood to improve its office, residential and social environments. Senior city planner Brittany Arceneaux described the Downtown Community Plan as a new framework of housing planning in LA that will not only impact the Downtown neighborhood, but the city as a whole. Though the plan will impact 1% of the LA’s land area, it will represent 20% of the city’s household growth.
“Encouraging development near high quality transit will help to reduce traffic in Downtown and in other neighborhoods across the city, and also combat the effects of climate change,” she said. “This is an important step for our future.”
In addition to traffic mobility and climate change, the plan will look to address the fundamental challenges of equity, access to housing, environmental justice and a shifting economy.
These challenges were raised after seven years of outreach and input from approximately 6,500 community members. They were presented to the Planning and Land Use Management Committee
alongside a zoning map, land use map, policy document describing the community plan’s vision and an implementation overlay, which will establish the Downtown Community Benefits Program.
“The program outlines a number of pathways to secure much needed benefits, such as affordable housing, public parks, day cares and support for those experiencing houselessness,” Arceneaux explained. “The benefits would be provided directly by a developer in exchange for more development potential or, in limited circumstances, through a community benefits fund that would be managed by a mix of city staff and community members. … The program serves as an important role in making sure Downtown is comprised of complete neighborhoods.”
Craig Weber, principal city planner, added that the plan, while utilizing Downtown’s concentration of transit options, would include a “substantial share” of new affordable housing units in the neighborhood.
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“It’s notably a sea change from what we have today, which are really zero affordable housing requirements and citywide incentive systems that are not functional within the Downtown context,” he said. “In most places Downtown, … the places where we’re seeing a lot of our newer housing development, in order for that housing development to occur, those projects have to apply for a zone change and a general plan amendment, which means that they’re providing affordable housing units subject to the requirements of (Measure) JJJ, but that they’re also involved in a roughly three-year-long entitlement process that is adding, as our studies have shown, around $3 million to the cost of delivering that housing.
“What this community plan says is we actually know the places where we want to start to allow housing in the future, and that we are going to establish a replacement inclusionary obligation that will be economically feasible for projects in the future and that considers the gradations and projects that may occur as market conditions change over the roughly 20-year shelf life of the plan. We’re able to more readily deliver housing in the Downtown area here at the heart of our regional transportation network in a way that allows us to grow sustainably and consistent with our regional
and statewide housing goals.”
The presentation of the Downtown Community Plan before the committee focused on Skid Row and the Fashion District. While the plan would allow for a variety of mixed-use developments throughout Downtown, 80% of Skid Row’s development is slated for affordable housing. In the Fashion District, the committee was faced with balancing needs for both housing opportunities and industrial spaces.
“As we all know, the city of Los Angeles is experiencing a housing and homeless crisis,” said Ivan Villegas, director of operations at LA Fashion District BID.
“The Fashion District currently has under 700,000 square feet of industrial space available that offers limitless opportunities for housing and job creation. … A success story of housing our homeless community is the Home at Last project located at (1426) Paloma Street. This project of transitioning a manufacturing space to homeless housing was made possible because of flexibility and adaptive reuse.”
A collective of garment workers also spoke to the committee, asking for approval of the recommendations raised by themselves and fellow representatives of the Fashion District to preserve the garment industry and protect its workforce.
“The majority of my community depends on the garment industry as their main source of income; replacing factories would only contribute to the lack of jobs we are currently facing,” said Iris De Leon, a daughter of garment workers. “The impact the 2040 plan will have on my family’s ability to work is that my dad, as a garment worker, would now spend more unpaid time looking for work (and), as a result, less time spent with his family. This is only the experience of one out of 20,000 garment workers who are essential in Downtown LA.
“All the advancements with my community, such as housing, could be beneficial. This change brought upon should not, as a result, push my community away due to urbanization.”
Marissa Nuncio, executive director of The Garment Workers Center, described the Fashion District’s workforce as the “backbone of the nation’s largest apparel production sector and LA’s second largest creative industry,” and urged the committee to heed their recommendations to protect the boundaries of the Fashion District and prevent job displacement.
“Several modifications are outlined (in the plan) to protect and incentivize garment manufacturing,” Arceneaux explained. “The modifications would prohibit any conversion of nonresidential
spaces to residential or hotel. Additionally, conversion to office would be prohibited unless it was accessory to a manufacturing use. Study results show that this prohibition on conversion is the fundamental tool to prevent displacement of garment manufacturing businesses.”
The workers’ recommendations were included in the final 2040 Downtown Community Plan motion, which was approved after votes in favor from Councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Katy Yaroslavsky, John Lee and Heather Hutt.
Hilary Norton, executive director of FASTLink DTLA, added that the plan is one of the first to fully execute LA’s Transportation Demand Management ordinance.
“We are hosting an Olympics and a Paralympics; the more that we make sure that we can make … a transit for everyone, the better,” she said. “Let’s make sure we use this as an opportunity to apply for state and federal dollars and enhance an enhanced infrastructure finance district to support all kinds of transit.”
Given the approval of the updated Downtown Community Plan by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, the plan will now be presented before the full LA City Council for its consideration.
To celebrate the conclusion of April’s Donate Life Month, Cedars-Sinai and the Smidt Heart Institute proudly revealed that their surgeons completed 583 solid organ transplants in 2022, breaking their 2021 record of 573.
“These numbers reflect Cedars-Sinai’s distinctive combination of leading-edge research and unwavering dedication to our patients,” said Irene Kim, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center and a Cedars-Sinai professor of Surgery. “We are constantly seeking ways to improve the patient experience and provide the most comprehensive and clinically effective treatments.”
The largest increase came from kidney transplants, which made up 286 of the year’s total count, compared to 269 in 2021. Cedars-Sinai performs such a high number of kidney transplants because they are the leading hospital to treat recipients with high levels of antibodies, which makes organ rejection more likely; high-antibody recipients make up about one-third of patients on transplant lists.
Stanley Jordan, MD, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center’s Hu-
man Leukocyte Antigen and Transplant Immunology Laboratory developed a treatment called plasmapheresis, which makes treatment for high-antibody patients possible. This treatment removes antibodies from the blood and helps patients avoid potential organ rejection.
“Cedars-Sinai patients were the first to benefit from this specialized therapy that allows highly sensitized patients to receive lifesaving kidney transplants,” said Kim, the Esther and Mark Schulman chair in Surgery and Transplantation Medicine.
Cedars-Sinai also hosts the Smidt Heart Institute, the largest heart and lung transplant provider in California. In 2022, the Smidt Heart Institute performed 14 more lung transplants than in 2021, numbering 74. Over the past six years, the Smidt Heart Institute has performed 706 heart and dual heart/lung transplants, more than any other medical center in the country.
Liver surgeons performed and completed 107 liver transplants in 2022.
“Organ donation is the gift of life,” said Nicholas Nissen, MD, director of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. “We are able to help patients live their best lives only because of the generosity of organ donors and their families. Every successful transplant is a tribute to them.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff sided with journalist Ben Camacho when he rejected the LA City’s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent him from publishing images of LAPD officers online.
The City of Los Angeles first sued Camacho on April 5 after he obtained data on approximately 9,000 LAPD officers through a public records request six months prior. The city’s lawsuit aims to recover the photographs and prevent Camacho from distributing the images on the basis that the department mistakenly included information on undercover
officers, including headshots, names and other personal information.
Camacho obtained the information legally and through the appropriate channels before it was hand-delivered to him by the city attorney after their office determined the LAPD was legally required to hand over the information. Camacho then provided the data to the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, also named in the lawsuit, which subsequently published the data on their website.
When the files were delivered to Camacho, the LAPD included a letter stating there were no images of officers working undercover at the time. However, now the LAPD is contending the files provided to Camacho included sensitive information
that could threaten LAPD officers’ safety if published online.
In an interview with another news agency, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the department “erred in the sense that there’s photographs that are in there that should not have been in there.” Camacho’s lawyers said the lawsuit is “unconstitutional” and an attempt to “rewrite history by claiming it wishes it had withheld photos of both undercover officers and officers who ‘serve in sensitive assignments.’”
Camacho’s legal team stated the photos or links to the images have already been published on several websites, which means they are already in the public domain. This ostensibly renders the LAPD’s request to prevent the publication
of the photos ineffectual.
One day before the city’s lawsuit, more than 300 undercover police officers filed a legal claim against the city and LAPD, alleging that leadership did not give officers advance notice of Camacho’s public records request. The attorney representing the officers, Matthew McNicholas, is reported to have said his clients fear for their safety now that their information is online.
Although the LA County Superior Judge rejected the city’s request for a temporary restraining order, a decision regarding the original lawsuit is still pending. Camacho’s legal team has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but no decision has yet been made.
Iwatch myself, outside myself. I sit at my cluttered desk. I engage in avoidant behaviors: online shopping for unnecessary things; arranging the perfumed, lovely lilacs from our yard; chatting with a friend I haven’t talked to in forever. These actions are all to avoid today’s topic: the terminal diagnosis of one of my dear friends, Donna Falls. She has started hospice as I write this.
We missed Donna earlier this year when she went on a several-week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia, arranged by the Transformational Journeys program at All Saints Church (ASC). Ken and I know Donna because we’re all ardent ASC Coventry choir members; Donna is my alto section seat buddy. We laugh, share pencils, get lost together, chat on the sly and harmonize. If we’d been in 5th grade together, we would have been regularly sent to the principal’s office.
The first indication of something wrong with Donna was severe pain, which at the time was blamed on a UTI she must have contracted during the Vietnamese trip. Her choir family didn’t know anything was amiss until those of us who streamed or attended that week’s ASC Sunday service heard Donna’s name in the “Please pray for…” section. We immediately called Donna, who delivered the terrible news and reason for the prayer request: her UTI had disguised advanced pancreatic cancer that had already spread.
Initially, Donna thought she should spend whatever time she had left by moving to Florida to be with her daughter, Catherine Story. Donna’s choir family — because family is what we are — had a hard time with that plan. The doctors agreed that Florida wasn’t a good idea. Instead, Catherine and Donna’s granddaughter Hillary are with Donna in Monrovia to help her for now … and where we can bring her soup.
Donna was in too much pain to attend choir practice last Thursday when the senior rector of ASC, Mike Kinman, spoke to us. As a country and community, we have experienced so much loss. It’s hard to imagine what it must be like for Reverend Kinman, who is the terminus of so much bad news and raw human life and death experience. That’s his job. Thanks to Mike, we all had the op -
portunity to weep openly. Our trusted and beloved in delicate matters choirmate, Matt Berkley, shared that he’d visited Donna to discuss which pieces of music she wants at her memorial. I can’t even write that sentence without getting choked up. Whatever the music, I’ll need it in advance to practice crying through it. Singing with each other is the most comforting thing I can imagine.
In the past couple of years, I have experienced loss on a personal level. For example, I lost my eldest sister Alane.
I was convinced I couldn’t live without her, and I’m still here. I discovered the body of one of our besties when she didn’t show up for our standing Monday-night meal. I’ve lived through an excruciating 12-year cancer battle that my late niece Ann de Paolo fought with all her might. These were all difficult, but knowing that someone I adore is about to exit is, in some ways, even more so. I suspect many of us feel this way: how do we confront knowing that this person we love only has a rapidly decreasing amount of time left with us?
Some people start to act weird or go on the lam when dealing with terminal friends and loved ones. There are also people with terminal diagnoses that hide out, who have had it up to their eyebrows with unsolicited advice. “Have you tried…?” or “My auntie Bertha died of that, too!” These Helpy McHelpersons are so tone-deaf that they chase their loved ones away, who need support, not advice. Thankfully, Donna is so wellloved in the ASC community that she al-
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ready has a support team running interference. We now contact Donna’s friend (and ASC stalwart) Erica Tamblyn and/or hospice help before we take soup over or, as we did yesterday, a smorgasbord of edibles for Donna to try.
When we visited yesterday, Donna was thankfully still Donna with her darling, sparkling eyes, warm smile and best hugs. Gracious, funny, kind, with just the right scintilla of silly. I came dangerously close to holding her hand too much. I also knew she was too nice to kick us out, so I kicked us out before we wore her out.
The late great poet Mary Oliver is eloquent about nature and the brevity of life. Here’s an excerpt of the last three stanzas from her poem, “When Death Comes.”
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder If I have made of my life something particular and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
When Donna’s time comes, I will mourn her as I pretend she’s on another very long visit to Vietnam, a place she adored.
2023 marks the 30th year that Ellen Snortland has written this column. She also teaches creative writing online and can be reached at ellen@ beautybitesbeast.com. Her award-winning film “Beauty Bites Beast” is available for download or streaming at vimeo.com/ ondemand/beautybitesbeast.
Pathways LA’s sixth annual Family Fun Day on April 22 was for families living in Los Angeles communities of Central City, Downtown LA, Echo Park, El Sereno, Hollywood, Mid-City Wilshire, Monterey Hills, Mount Washington, Silverlake, West Hollywood and Westlake. Those children and families in attendance
participated in games, hands-on activities, and face painting, while being entertained and having access to community resources. Families picked up free fruits, vegetables, diapers and wipes, if needed, and children received free books. Photographer Chris Mortenson was there to capture the event.
Amid Downtown Los Angeles’ residential recovery, with occupancy exceeding pre-pandemic levels in 2022, Downtown’s eight-story, 42-unit multifamily property The Mint has sold for $17.5 million to a local investor.
The property, originally constructed in 1923 as an office building, underwent an extensive $12 million renovation in 2016 that included structural upgrades, seismic retrofit work and significant building system upgrades to electrical, elevators and plumbing.
Located at 1136 W. 6th Street in one of the most desirable and rapidly developing locations in the Downtown neighborhood, the property is close to a variety of restaurants, cultural and entertainment venues, shopping, hotels and nightlife. It is also not subject to Los Angeles City rent control, resulting in rental upside potential.
Janet Neman, executive vice president and shareholder with commercial real estate firm Kidder Mathews, and associate Angelica Gotzev represented the seller, a real estate investment firm managing assets that span the United States and Europe, while advisor Jason Aftalion of Teva Properties provided management services for the asset.
Through an extensive marketing campaign, they generated multiple offers and selected a buyer who closed less than four weeks before the increased property transfer taxes were enacted due to Initiative Ordinance ULA.
Neman, who has been in the commercial real estate industry for over 35 years and sold more than $2.5 billion in assets, called the sale a “rare opportunity for an investor to acquire a turnkey, fully renovated boutique apartment community in one of the strongest and most vibrant markets in Los Angeles.”
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Moriah Formica is upbeat and excited about the future of her rock band, Plush, and its aggressive new single, “Left Behind.”
Penned by Plush with producers Zac Maloy (The Nixons’ lead singer), Blair Daly and Kile Odell, “Left Behind” is for “anyone who’s felt marginalized or misunderstood,” Formica said.
“Anyone can take it and apply it to their own lives and take whatever meaning stands out to them,” said Formica, a powerhouse 4-foot-11 vocalist who rivals Ann Wilson of Heart.
“It’s really a song for anyone who’s felt marginalized or misunderstood, like a misfit. That was all of us girls in high school and middle school; the kids who were alone or misunderstood. It’s also a metaphor for rock music, I think. Obviously, the last 10 years, it’s been very on the back burner, not really out there. It’s been kind of sort of left behind in a way.
“However, the rock community is still loud and proud and it’s going never away — ever.”
Besides Formica, the all-female rock band features lead guitarist Bella Perron, bassist Ashley Suppa and drummer Faith Powell. All in their early twenties, their experience belies their ages. They open for The Warning, along with Holy Wars, at The Regent DTLA on Tuesday, May 2.
Formica found national recognition when she auditioned for NBC’s “The Voice” at 16. She was the youngest competitor to catch the attention of all four judges by performing a rock song.
Although she was lauded for her performance of Heart’s “Crazy on You,” Formica missed out on a spot in the top 12, being eliminated before fans had a chance to vote.
Plush was founded in 2020 when the women were in their late teens. Sidetracked by the pandemic, Formica compensated by performing weekly covers submitted by fans. Two of those have over 1 million views, without any paid promotion or sponsorship.
Its 2021 self-titled debut album featured the top 40 hits “Hate” and “Better Off Alone.” Since then, they have opened for Kiss, Alice in Chains, Evanescence, Daughtry, and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators.
Formica said it was an adjustment to start touring at such a young age.
“For me, I’m such a homebody, ironically,” said Formica, who has two cat fur babies, a Maine coon and a Scottish fold.
“I love my pets. I love my mom. I love my dad. I want to hang out with my brothers. I’m a big family person. I’m a big animal person. I love to go fishing and hiking and drive around the area and find cool spots. There’s definitely a level of security and comfort that’s swept out from underneath you when you start touring — especially fresh out of high school.”
Then it was taken from them during the pandemic.
Recording “Left Behind” in Nashville was easy for Plush, Formica said.
“We have never been so excited about a song before,” she said. “We knew this was our favorite song that we were go -
ing to put out. We would work half the day, stop and take a walk and go to Velvet Taco. The whole time, of course, we were laughing and cracking jokes.
“It was so much fun that it didn’t feel like work.”
Formica said after the jaunt with The Warning, Plush will return to the studio to finish its sophomore effort.
“We don’t have an exact timeline for its release,” she said. “This whole thing has been such a whirlwind, to be honest. We really are so shocked at what
we’ve been able to do. We’ve had such amazing, big opportunities at such a young age.
“I know many bands say, ‘Oh my gosh, it takes until 25 or 30 to make it.’ It’s amazing no matter what age you are. We’re extra grateful that we’re blessed enough to get these amazing opportunities, get to be heard, share our music with people, and get to travel. To share that together, too, is a really special experience.”
The Warning w/Plush and Holy Wars
WHEN: 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 2
WHERE: The Regent Theater, 448 S. Main Street, Los Angeles
COST: Tickets start at $33
INFO: regentdtla.com, plushrocks.net
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Dowtown News Executive Editor
Last year, when singer Peaches played the Just Like Heaven festival, she hit the stage at 2 p.m. — with very few expectations.
“Then I got there and there was like 15,000 people already,” she said with a laugh. “I thought it was amazing. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is for that festival. People are going to be there for you, and it was fantastic. It felt great.”
Born Merrill Nisker in Toronto, Peaches is returning to this year’s Just Like Heaven on Saturday, May 13, also featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, Future Islands, Empire of the Sun, M83, Hot Chip, Caribou, The Walkmen, The Bravery, Fever Ray, Azealia Banks, Ladytron, Metronomy and The Faint, among others.
“First of all, I have to say, I’m super happy that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the headliner,” she said.
“For whatever reason, I just like that.
It really gives me a great feeling. I’m excited about so many bands — Fever Ray, Azealia Banks and Ladytron. It’s just going to be exciting. It’s funny because it’s a revival of people from the aughts. I’m sure I’m going to see so many old friends.”
Last year, she performed as part of her The Teaches of Peaches 20th Anniversary Tour. In May, she’ll sing a retrospective of songs from her catalog.
“In my mind, it has to be a full show,” she said. “It’s not just song to song. It has to have an arc — even if nobody understands that. It has to have a conceptual arc. It has to have a musical arc. It has to have a performative movement arc, a lighting arc.”
Come September, she’ll return to writing tracks for her seventh collection.
“I’m a communicator. I’m a performer,” she said about her music and show.
“I want the ideas not just to be heard. I want people to feel they’re a part of them.”
Gender identity is one theme of Peaches’ music, often playing with traditional notions of gender roles representation. Her lyrics and live shows consciously blur the line between male and female. Her message the same: allow people to be who they “need” to be.
“Why can’t we let people just be who they need to be?” she said. “Why aren’t we letting people have control over their bodies? Why aren’t we letting people express themselves the way they need to? Why do we have to make it about something it isn’t? Why does or -
ganized religion have any place? I’m not talking about religion. I’m not talking about spirituality. I’m talking about organized religion, which is a dangerous thing because it’s all about greed and money.
“But it’s not even about a choice. That’s what people have to understand. It’s who they need to be. It freaks me out that people aren’t allowed to do that. Why are standards standards? They’re not standards. Mainstream is not the mainstream. That’s what we need to switch.”
WHEN: Noon Saturday, May 13
WHERE: Brookside at the Rose Bowl, 1133 Rosemont Avenue, Pasadena
COST: Tickets start at $189
INFO: justlikeheavenfest.com
For singer/guitarist Rome Ramirez, performing with Sublime never gets old—especially in front of crowds like those at BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach.
“I’m still in shock that I’m invited to play things like this in front of all those people,” Ramirez said.
“I don’t see how anybody can take this for granted. Looking out at all these people singing back to me and moving to the music is amazing. It does something to you. It changes your inner workings—at least it should. It’s a moving type of experience. I feel like it can definitely ground you.”
BeachLife Festival is set for Friday, May 5, to Sunday, May 7, and features performances also by The Black Keys, Gwen Stefani and The Black Crowes. Sublime with Rome plays on Saturday, May 6.
Additionally, there will be wide-ranging food and drink offerings from acclaimed chefs and local breweries, onstage dining experiences, art installations and onsite activations highlighting various philanthropic causes, eco-friendly and sustainable initiatives.
While music takes center stage at BeachLife Festival, The Daou SideStage Experience provides foodies the chance to be seated onstage — literally — and served a four-course meal by celebrity chefs while musicians perform.
The gig will see Sublime with Rome playing the band’s debut album, “40 oz. to Freedom,” in its entirety. Ramirez joined in late 2010 after Sublime’s original singer, Bradley James Nowell died of an overdose on May 25, 1996, in a San Francisco hotel while on tour.
Ramirez was a self-proclaimed “huge fan” of Sublime before he joined.
“I was the biggest fan in the world,” he said. “It’s still full circle for me because I had Sublime posters up on my wall. We’ve been touring around for 15 years, getting to play music. I’m the face of the band and its sound. It’s unbelievable that I was gifted that opportunity. I don’t take it for granted and it’s a really beautiful thing. To celebrate its 25th anniversary is a special thing for any Sublime fan.”
Throughout the 14 years Ramirez has been in the band, he has performed most of “40 oz. to Freedom” live. He
doesn’t expect it to be too challenging.
“I’ve had to go back and relisten to everything and knock the dust off,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s been a learning experience. I’ve been playing them back to help remind me of how awesome Sublime is. It’s so monumental and it has so many different sounds. It’s a magical thing, getting to do it from front to back.”
Sublime with Rome is working on a new record, one that Ramirez calls “nostalgic.”
“We’re focusing on instrumentation
and jamming, like we do live, and the subject matter is a little more lighthearted,” he said.
“It’s carefree, celebrating the life that
Sublime with Rome/Submitted
we live. Why not? We’ve been having some crazy years as of late. It’s nice to put positivity out there.”
BeachLife Festival w/Sublime with Rome
WHEN: Noon Friday, May 5, and 11 a.m. Saturday, May 6, and Sunday, May 7
WHERE: Redondo Beach, 239 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach
COST: Tickets start at $179
INFO: beachlifefestival.com for the complete lineup
The 3rd Annual Community & Unity People’s Kite Festival is set to return to the LA State Historic Park, filling the Downtown sky with colorful artwork with the mission of bringing local communities together in a public green space. The family-friendly event, hosted by Clockshop and California State Parks, will run from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13.
“It’s a very joyful event,” said Sue Bell Yank, executive director at Clockshop. “(Kite flying) is a cultural practice that speaks to many different cultures in this city. From Chinese kites, Japanese kites, Korean … there’s a strong tradition of kite flying in the Middle East and in South America, Mexico, Central America … all over the world.
“Many communities feel a deep connection to it and can come together around this art form. We also were really interested in making the connection between not only public land, but also public airspace, and that being an important community resource and something that should be protected over time.”
The festival will fill the 42-acre expanse of the LA State Historic Park with kite flying, a “gallery in the sky,” art-making workshops that explore the natural environment and meetups with local community organizations like Self Help Graphics, 100 Acre Park Partnership and ADCCLA/Project Monarch. Visitors will also be able to learn new flying techniques from kite masters Stevie Choi and Scott Skinner.
Music and entertainment will be led by DJ Susan Kounlavongsa “DJ Straight Honey”, Changui Majadero Band and Tonina.
“One thing that we’re doing this year, which we hope to continue building upon, is bring deeper relationships with a lot of the different local community groups,” Yank said. “We’ll have some really fantastic food vendors there, from food trucks to local vendors like Gu Grocery and Hugh’s Hot Bowls. We’ll also have a number of community organizations that will all be doing different activities. We’re really focusing on organizations that service the local communities of Chinatown, Lincoln Heights and Solano Canyon.”
The festival will also feature traditional Japanese kite designs made by this year’s commissioned artists, Misa Chhan, who will be hosting the “Shades of Blue” workshop that teaches people how to create cyanotype depictions using the power of the sun.
Other art worships include “Paper Native Flowers with Xochitl Manzanilla,” a lesson in how to make blooming paper California native flowers from scratch that’s led in both English and Spanish; and “Animist Natural Dyeing with Noon Tran,” which shares methods of dying fabric with natural plant materials.
“Our theory of change is really to draw that deep kind of emotional connection with the land that we live on,” Yank described. “I think that sometimes LA can feel like a place of transients … and you can feel kind of disconnected from place. Our real desire through this event is to have folks experience the park in this really joyful way, experience the gathering of all of the different communities of Angelenos here together, all having this communal experience, but also to really find attachment to that place as well.”
Yank said that she believes LA’s public parks must continue to be protected by each new generation so that they remain vital community resources and stand firm in the face of accelerating Downtown development.
“We’ve heard that, from past kite festivals and past events we’ve done, for some people it is their first time coming to the park and they maybe live very close by and never really either knew it was there or felt like it was very accessible to them,” she said. “By being there and having that kind of experience, it becomes their place that they can return to again and again.”
Yank said that there are few better destinations to hold an outdoor festival than the LA State Historic Park, which she called the “backyard” of Downtown LA.
“It’s an incredibly important, significant site to the city of Los Angeles; it has remains of the Zanja Madre, the original mother ditch that was put in by the Spanish in colonization, and before that it was an incredibly important site for the first peoples of this land, the Tongva and Kizh and other nations that used that very fertile flood plain of the LA River as a place for gathering,” she described. “It was the site of the railroad, so a lot of immigration coming into Chinatown, Sonora town … the place where people would come from all over the world to the city.
“We’re hoping to stand on the shoulders of that legacy and have these really diverse … local communities, but also inviting folks from all over the region to come and gather in the park for this joyful kind of celebration
of our public spaces.”
The 2023 Kite Festival is supported by lead “High Flyer” sponsor, The California Endowment; “Anchor” sponsors Resources Legacy Fund, Sieroty Company and the Sierra Club; and “Guide Line” sponsor American Business Bank. Additional support came from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and lead Clockshop Circle donors. Program partners include LA River
State Park Partners, the Arts District Community Council and the LA Parks Alliance.
“We’re just grateful to these communities of folks who are protecting our public space and our parks in the city, and also the organizations who are coming out to support the event,” Yank said. “It really is a group effort, so we’re very grateful to those partnerships and excited to fly a kite with all of them.”
The 3rd Annual Community & Unity People’s Kite Festival
WHEN: 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13
WHERE: Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles
COST: Free with RSVP and optional donation
INFO: clockshop.org
There’s no mistaking the blunt force melody of the Pixies, as singular a sound as ever committed in seven decades of rock ‘n’ roll.
Formed in Boston by college pals in the waning ’80s, the band, originally consisting of Black Francis aka Frank Black (pseudonyms of singer/guitarist Charles Thompson), guitarist Joey Santiago, bassist/vocalist Kim Deal, and drummer David Lovering, the foursome hooked anti-pop idiosyncrasy around limber reverb and distortion to escape teeth first from a cultural big bang that would spit out fresh worlds of alternative rock, hip hop, metal, No Depression country music, and electronica.
Maybe the Pixies didn’t reinvent fire, but they certainly found new ways to burn across four exceptional full-lengths (no strings being pulled on the vanguard “Come On Pilgrim” EP) that inspired a subsequent legion of artists. Sadly, the center couldn’t hold, and the band broke up in 1993 with members fending off calls for a reunion amid other pursuits.
David Lovering, who post-Pixies continued to drum off and on with Frank Black and Santiago (in The Martinis) as well as for Cracker and various others, found a second life in the realm of magic and illusion, reinventing himself as a scientific phenomenalist who combined a background in electrical engineering with performance art and comedy.
“With the Pixies, I’m behind a drum set and I’m behind three people, and I’ve never had a problem with that,” Lovering said in a mid-April interview.
“My first magic show was just myself and 10 people — and I could’ve wrung my T-shirt out and filled a Dixie cup with the sweat because it was nerve-wracking. But magic has been wonderful because it builds confidence. The years that I’ve done it, you’re dealing one on one with people, and it just changes you. I could do public speaking now at a whim — it’s just the easiest thing in the world—and it’s all because of magic. I’m very grateful to it.”
In 2004, the Pixies announced their return with a tour culminating in a 20song set at the Coachella Valley Mu -
sic and Arts Festival in Indio, California that mined cuts from the four seminal albums “Surfer Rosa” (1988), “Doolittle” (1989), “Bossanova” (1990) and “Trompe Le Monde” (1991).
“I think when we got back together then in 2004, there was a lot of discussion of the way this was going to be for one tour, this and that, and it kept going — and it kept going. We had just been going on our old laurels,” said Lovering, 19 years after the Pixies reformed.
“We’d been playing the old material for seven years, and it got us thinking. I think the epiphany in 2011 was, ‘Wow, we can’t do this anymore. We have to do something new.’ And that’s how ‘Indie Cindy’ came about.”
Initially released as a series of EPs, “In -
die Cindy” resurrected the Pixies as creators, this time without Deal, to prove themselves amid an alt-rock landscape they’d pioneered in another century.
“People talk of pressure, and I think that we had some internal pressure just thinking about it – you’re thinking, ‘Oh, jeez, this album has to be as good as the last one we did!’ So, there was that,” Lovering said. “But there was no formulation. I’m not saying we didn’t put our best forward, but there wasn’t anything to upstage it. There wasn’t a conscious effort to make it better than what we had or to go back and top that. It was just what we were doing at that point.”
The band recalibrated in 2016 with the album “Head Carrier” (so named for decapitated martyr St. Denis), adding soon-to-be-permanent bassist Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle, Silver Jews, Jenny Lewis) as well as producer Tom Dalgety into the mix.
“Paz is a fantastic player, she’s a great musician, just a great person overall-wonderful to be around,” Lovering said. “She’s so good, she makes me step up my game and play better because I don’t want to be embarrassed. It was a nice breath of something new, and I think we were jokingly calling it ‘Pixies Version 2.0’ or something like that, but it’s been fantastic. She’s definitely given everyone — because she is younger—a spark.
“Beneath The Eyrie” followed in 2019, along with what was supposed to be a globe-spanning tour. But COVID-19 and the ensuing pandemic sent the Pixies home, grounded but not necessarily uncertain. For Lovering, the unexpected break provided an opportunity for carpal tunnel surgery on both hands, which in addition to rejuvenating his drumming also provided enhanced dexterity for the magician’s ever-improving card tricks and sleight of hand.
“Doggerel,” the Pixies’ latest effort, could be their strongest post-reunion album to date. Realized through a combination of quarantine tracking and sessions at Vermont’s Guilford Sound, “Doggerel” is this incarnation at their most mature and fluid. Santiago has called the record “Doolittle Senior,” though tracks like “Nomatterday,” “Vault of Heaven,” “Haunted House” and the Leonard Cohen-dipped title track evoke classic Pixies mythology without recycling. This
isn’t nostalgia; it’s experience.
“We all played very, very well on (‘Doggerel’). I think that’s Joey’s comment, why it was like ‘Doolittle.’ And I think that the song content that Charles came up with is exceptional. I think that ‘Doggerel’ stands out (as) different than all the albums from after the reformation,” Lovering said. “We’re getting older. Not all music that we’re going to do is going to be heralded back to what we’ve done in the past, but it’s where we are in our lives. We’re better musicians, and I think that showed, especially with a producer (Tom Dalgety), who now is working with us for a third album, who knows us.”
As the Pixies prepare for their latest tour, Lovering is excited to share “Doggerel,” but equally energized by the challenge of playing no set list shows that will pull from every pocket of the band’s catalog.
“I think we’ve perfected it,” said Lovering of the no set list approach. “We call it our shtick because we know what the first song is and our sound man knows what the first song is and our lighting director knows what the first song is. After that, it’s all just by Charles and us with hand signals or him talking to a microphone that we only hear. We’re able to coordinate the show and work it and go through songs, and I must admit it’s fun. You don’t know when the set’s going to end!”
But Lovering’s true joy comes from seeing the band’s unfolding legacy reflected in the new (and growing) generation of Pixies fans.
“Back in 2004 when we played Coachella, it was a sea of kids that weren’t even born, probably, when we were originally a band — but they knew all the words,” Lovering said with a laugh.
“When I look at our audience before the doors open, it’s a sea of kids that are 15, 16, 17, 18, and going up from there. And they’re waiting to get in for general admission to get in that front row! To see a whole front row with kids in there, that know all the words to the new material — and people my age are in the back waiting for all the old stuff, it’s something else to see. That’s our audience now, and I feel very fortunate as a band to have it. I feel like we’re the Grateful Dead of alternative rock.”
