The Institute of Contemporary Art welcomes new president
Baar Baar revolutionizes Indian cuisine
+ Downtown Community Plan update adopted
After nearly 20 years in Culver City, global design, architecture, planning and engineering firm HOK has relocated its Los Angeles studio to the Arts District. The company will occupy 20,000 square feet of ROW DTLA’s historic industrial campus.
“We’re the first global firm to go to the Arts District,” said Anne Fletcher, managing principal for HOK’s Los Angeles studio. “We wanted to think about where we saw the future of LA, where we saw the future of development, where our staff were going to be coming from in the future, and everything was pointing east into the Downtown area.”
Fletcher explained that HOK was drawn to ROW DTLA due to the campus’ “horizontal environment,” which creates a wider community among the tenants, as well as its amenities. The firm’s new space will include floating workstations, a VR center, a wellness room, cold brew and iced tea on tap, an Everytable vending machine, and a rotating art collection featuring local artists.
“ROW particularly resonated with us as the future of dense development in the city and also a place where we were surrounded by other creative firms,” she said. “We really liked the creative community that Atlas has been building there at ROW.”
One of the core tenets of HOK’s mission as a firm is to build neurodiverse workspaces that address the various personalized needs of employees. Fletcher described the team’s new studio as the perfect place to turn ideology into practice.
“We have a lot of different types of workspaces, some that are very quiet, some that are very open, different zones where you can be, different types of rooms, different types of furniture; everything’s ergonomic and adjustable,” she said. “I think that’s pretty essential for thinking about getting people back (into the office after the pandemic). They’ve got to be comfortable in their work environment. … The relationship of the desk to the common areas is different than how it was 20 years ago.
“We’ve only been in here a couple months now, but we can already see a real difference in the interactions in the office. … What we’re seeing is that more teams and people who don’t work together are interacting in the new space than in our
Surrounded
old space, and it’s really good. We’re also using our hybrid meeting technology a lot better because the rooms are built for a hybrid meeting, whereas before they were retrofitted. And having them built with all of that technology in mind actually makes a difference in how useful the room is.”
Following its move into the Arts District, the HOK Los Angeles team hosted a celebration of the office’s opening and the 40th anniversary of HOK’s business in LA. The event benefited United Way LA, an organization HOK has partnered with to create trauma-informed design for homeless populations.
“We created a roadmap guideline book, and it’s open so anyone can download it and use it, to help guide the design for people experiencing trauma due to homelessness, so (looking at) the facilities where they might … visit to get services and how those spaces are planned,” Fletcher said. “What kind of colors you use, what kind of furniture, they all signal different things to people who are in trauma, and so we had worked with them on that and had gotten a grant from the American Society of Interior Designers as well to do that.
“They’ve had nine to 10 different sites throughout LA … where they’re funding improvements to those sites, like Midnight
Mission and some of the others in Downtown that serve these populations.”
Alongside its work with United Way LA and recent donation of $10,000 to the organization, HOK’s team has worked to grow roots and leave a lasting legacy in Downtown. Its projects include the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Human-Centered Computation Hall, Longfellow’s Bioterra Life Sciences Building, City of Hope Orange County at Five Point Gateway Hospital, Soka University STEM Research Building and Residence Halls, Sony Pictures Entertainment and USC Michelson Hall. HOK Los Angeles also serves as the principal architect for Los Angeles World Airports.
“The health care practice, and behavioral health especially, we see as having the longest, most positive impact on the community,” Fletcher said. “We are doing the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital right now in Mid City, and for us we see that creating better environments for care for more people in Los Angeles as having the greatest impact on the future of the city.
“One of the greatest leaders into going through the trauma of homelessness is really mental health, so providing the best possible facilities around the county and Southern California through design … is really important.”
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PRESIDENT:
VICE PRESIDENT:
Los Angeles City Council has officially adopted the Downtown Community Plan update, which will serve as the land use plan and guiding policy document for Downtown Los Angeles until 2040 and as a model for future community plans.
The updated plan was brought before city council after gaining unanimous approval from the Planning and Land Use Management Committee. It 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 plan was originally created by the Central City United coalition (CCU), a cross-neighborhood collective led by the Los Angeles Community Action Network, the Southeast Asian Community Alliance and Little Tokyo Service Center, to ad-
dress the needs of vulnerable communities Downtown — through methods like sustaining present cultural practices and institutions in areas like Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Skid Row; prioritizing tenant protections; creating a net gain of affordable and supportive housing to curb displacement; and uplifting the voices of community leaders, residents and businesses in regard to future planning and development.
“DTLA 2040 allows for the maintaining of jobs, building of housing and the preservation of historic communities like Skid Row, Little Tokyo and Chinatown,” said Steve Diaz, deputy director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network. “We are excited to be able to tell the story of a bright future for our community with the passage of DTLA 2040. We now need to move on to the implementation and monitoring of the plan.”
The process of forming the coalition’s People’s Plan began in 2017, when the CCU
outlined its shared priorities of affordable housing and homelessness prevention, displacement avoidance, cultural preservation, economic development, community benefits and racial justice.
“Skid Row, Little Tokyo and Chinatown have historically been pitted against each other — by race, language and even a freeway,” said Sissy Trinh, executive director of the Southeast Asian Community Alliance. “Central City United worked to undo those barriers and built a powerful coalition where we were able to become neighbors and allies to create change that benefited all of our communities.”
Senior city planner Brittany Arceneaux called the current plan an “important step” in the city’s history, and Vincent Bertoni, director of planning, described it as a way of reimagining Downtown LA as “a Downtown of the future.”
The final DTLA 2040 plan adopted by city council includes a number of com -
munity-responsive policies and programs that had been proposed in CCU’s original People’s Plan. These include promoting development of new affordable housing through a graduated inclusionary housing program that adjusts to changing market conditions; creating a new category of “Acutely Low-Income” for affordable units that targets the lowest income community members; requiring a 1-to-1 replacement ratio for any demolished affordable housing units and tenant protections to prevent displacement as a result of lost units; creating a new zone in part of Skid Row known as the IX1 that ensures a minimum of 80% of new housing units will be restricted affordable units; replacing the Transfer of Floor Area Rights program with Community Benefits Fund that aims to incentivize important community needs, including additional affordable housing, eco-
Dear Sen. Portantino,
I’m pleased to see that you’re running for U.S. Congress. For goodness’ sake, we need you there. You definitely have the potential to fill Congressman Schiff’s shoes, especially in the area of women’s rights, aka human rights. Kudos to you for showing up physically for so many of us over the years, attempting to save Roe, and supporting Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ people either on the steps of Pasadena City Hall or at All Saints Episcopal. I am particularly fond of your stalwart support of Title IX. I once saw you at a campaign event I covered for the Pasadena Weekly; you told me, “I was dismayed when I saw that they expected the girls to practice softball with no night lighting. The boys’ fields were lit and allowed for nighttime play.” You share my indignation on so many issues.
While you know me for my lifelong commitment to ending misogyny, you may not know that I have been on the board of Consumer Watchdog for over 30 years. I’m a proud growler and barker.
I really like your congressional campaign motto: “Principled. Courageous. Fighting for you.” I’m using this open letter to preemptively ask you to take a principled and courageous stand in the fight against community oil drilling while you’re still in the California Legislature and later — fingers crossed — when you’re in Congress.
Before I get into the drilling details, you can be a hero for people like Nalleli Cobo, the brave youth who is the poster child for California SB 556, the bill that puts the oil and gas industry on the hook for health damages like Ms. Cobo’s.
At 9, Nalleli started organizing to shut down the oil well 30 feet from her home, a well making her family sick. She helped found a grassroots campaign called People Not Pozos, Spanish for “wells.”
“When I was about 11,” Nalleli wrote recently in the LA Times, “I was diagnosed with asthma. By the time I turned 19, we had shut down the drilling in our South
L.A. neighborhood, but not before I was diagnosed with Stage II reproductive cancer. I lost my ability to bear children as a result.
“After three surgeries, eight minor procedures, three rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation, I was cancer-free as of two years ago, at 20.”
Now, the hard facts: There are more than 100 operational oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of a home, school or sensitive community receptor in the congressional district you seek to represent and in the San Gabriel Valley where you currently have constituents. As the chair of the State Senate Appropriations Committee, you also have the power to protect people who live near wells in Downtown Los Angeles and all over California and your district.
These wells are killers. An independent panel of public health experts assembled by the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) found a direct link between asthma and prenatal defects for people living within half a mile of oil wells. Then there are the carcinogens that oil wells spew — benzene and formaldehyde among them. Studies show that cancer diagnoses are much greater in people who live so close to wells.
Here’s the sticking point where Consumer Watchdog will be barking: SB 556 must pass out of the State Senate Appropriations Committee you chair by May 19.
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Participation is easy. Go to downtownnews.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Letter to the Editor” link. For guest opinion proposals, please email christina@timespublications.com.
This bill discourages dangerous community drilling by requiring drillers to use the best available technology to mitigate risk or face presumptive liability for the harm they cause people who live within 3,200 feet of wells.
Now it’s up to you to decide based on the fiscal evidence.
As a board member of Consumer Watchdog, I am keenly aware of the powers you wield as chairman of the appropriations committee to hold bills without hearings because they allegedly cost too much money. A bill that goes on the “suspense file” can disappear without anyone having to take a vote to stop it.
SB 556 deserves better. The deterrent effect of the bill has the potential to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars in health care and other costs if it can prevent asthma, prenatal defects and cancer, because drillers used the best technologies. The public health expert memo prepared for CalGEM found social benefits of more than $382.5 million annually from eliminating community drilling. Many of these economic benefits would be realized by SB 556’s deterrent effect on reckless community drilling.
Recognizing the impact of drilling
on communities last year, the legislature passed SB 1137 (Gonzalez), which stopped new drilling within 3,200 feet of communities. The oil drillers spent more than $20 million to qualify for a referendum that delays the ban until November 2024, when voters decide. Meanwhile, the drilling goes on, putting our communities at risk.
Consider the pain and suffering that could have been avoided in Nalleli’s life and the cost to the health care system if reckless drilling had been deterred. Nalleli and people like her count on you to tap into your love as a father to make sure SB 556 has a deterrent impact on the “we don’t care” oil and gas industries. Principled. Courageous. Fighting for you with SB 556. We’re watching.
Sincerely,
Ellen Snortland2023 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.
Since its founding in 2010, the popular plant-based milk company Califia Farms has stayed close to home.
The company recently moved into its new office in the Maxwell Coffee Building, a historic production facility built in 1924. It has since been turned into a mixed-use complex in Downtown’s Arts District, just a few blocks from where Califia Farms started. Outgrowing its previous office, Califia Farms enlisted the firm SLAM Collaborative to design its new space.
The nearly 30,000-square-foot headquarters was designed during the pandemic with a hybrid working model in mind and features an open concept and multipurpose layout to accommodate approximately 200 staff members.
Intentionally located on the ground floor, the office has an indoor-outdoor feel, intensified by large windows, skylights and
roll-up garage doors that open up to a patio, extending the office into Downtown’s streetscape. As a growing brand, it was important for Califia Farms to foster a connection with the neighborhood and engage directly with the community. Colorful murals by local artists throughout the office pay homage to the area.
“Designing an office space for one of the country’s fastest-growing startups is akin to creating the blueprint for their next achievement,” lead SLAM designer Alexis Dennis-Huether said. “The magnitude of impact that a new office space can bring to a company with a mission as clear as Califia Farms is limitless. As we embarked on designing this space amidst the pandemic, we recognized the importance of agility in creating a workspace that not only meets the evolving needs of Califia Farms’ employees but also supported their fast
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, has made history, recently appointing Claudia Flores as its new board president. Flores is the first Mexican woman to serve as president of the board of directors at a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles. Her predecessor, Laura Donnelley, stepped down after 18 years.
Founded in 1988 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, ICA LA relocated to its 12,700-square-foot home in Downtown LA in 2017. The space features exhibitions, public programs, retail pop-ups, integrated offices and special projects. The independent and noncollecting museum exhibits work from local, national and international contemporary artists to challenge the status quo and upend hierarchies of race, gender, class and culture. Admission is free.
“I would like to thank Laura Donnelley for her crucial contributions and constant positive impact on the museum for the
last decades,” Flores said.
“Those are big shoes to fill, but I am committed to take on her impressive legacy and continue supporting and expanding on what makes ICA LA the essential and crucial museum of firsts for years to come. As a mother, friend and activist for the arts, human sustainability, and proud Angeleno-Mexicana, I could not feel more honored to accept such an important role at one of the most prominent cultural institutions in our City of Angels.”
After visiting the museum for the first time in 2017, Flores was hooked. At the time, the museum was hosting an exhibit, the first in its new Downtown location, by Mexican artist Martin Ramirez. Flores visited the exhibition with her daughter.
“It was just phenomenal for me. It was the beginning of an incredible love story that keeps evolving,” Flores said.
She could not stay away. “I kept coming back. I came back with my children, friends and extended family,” she said. “I took it upon myself to become an ambassador of such a special jewel. … The com-
munity, staff and everything were warm, and the sense of home was evident.”
Before becoming a board member in 2019, Flores was active in the museum’s patron groups like the Curator’s Council and the Fieldwork Council. Flores has been involved in nonprofit work and activism, founding the Human Sustainability Project, which promotes community building and artistic expression. In addition to her work at the museum, Flores is actively involved with organizations committed to social justice, human rights and education, like the Freedom to Choose Project, Social Impact Media Awards and Innovando la Tradicion.
“Claudia is the first person I invited to join the board after becoming director,” said Anne Ellegood, ICA LA’s good works executive director. “Her belief in artists’ capacity for positive social impact and the power of creativity will play a critical role for ICA LA as we evolve into our next chapter. I am thrilled to work closely with her on all aspects of the museum’s growth
and know her energy, skills and ideas will help us strengthen and grow the museum and its board for generations to come.”
As president, Flores is committed to fostering a welcoming space for emerging and established artists and community members from all backgrounds. Her leadership style is one of partnership, collaborating with artists and experienced curators to guide the hand of the museum.
“I am dedicated to making ICA LA a space available and safe for all, a place where we gather to expand our awareness; ignite our individual, collective abilities; and engage our creativity. I wholeheartedly believe that artists are our best point of reference to courageously unleash our creativity, integrity and authenticity, venturing outside of the boundaries of life as we know it and making it a dynamic space,” Flores explained. “I intend to support artists and create a sense of collaboration amongst the board and the staff. I plan to host and be a welcoming and loving presence in the museum.”
growth.”
In a pre-pandemic world, where many jobs have gone online, intentional spaces are increasingly important. “The physical space is never going to go away,” Dennis-Huether said.” Most forward-thinking companies understand the importance of team building and coming together in terms of developing innovation and not just increased productivity.” Recent studies have shown that in-office employees are 25% more likely to engage in career development activities like mentoring and formal training.
With hybrid working in mind, the SLAM team wanted to create open, multi-use spaces for flexibility and collaboration. It was important for the team to develop an active and engaging environment, never feeling empty, no matter how many employees are in the office on any given day.
While most desks are assigned, 15% of the workstations are dedicated to hoteling, allowing employees to reserve open seating and move around the office. For seamless hybrid meetings, offices and meeting rooms are equipped with high-quality video conferencing interfaces.
Large amenity spaces in the office include a tasting room, which serves as a development and research space, along with a reception and café area staffed with a barista. The two-level café serves as an office hub for meeting and socializing. Employees can also partake in soft-serve ice cream and Califia’s newest offerings served
by an in-house barista, who crafts coffee-based beverages using Califia’s plantbased milks and creamers.
“As soon as you step inside the office, you’re transported to the inviting ambiance of a bustling café. Rather than being greeted by a traditional receptionist, there’s a friendly barista, setting the tone for a unique and memorable experience. This entrance creates an impactful first impression that perfectly captures the brand’s bold and playful personality,” Dennis-Huether said.
The tasting room, a hallmark of the office, is a multipurpose room equipped with kitchen appliances — an electric cooktop and a refrigerator — and the technology of a meeting room. The room is a creative space for research and development, where staff members concoct, test and perfect products. It also doubles as a space for breakout meetings, team activities and lunch preparation.
“Whenever I visit the office, I’m always so impressed by the energy that permeates the space, as well as the inventive ways in which employees utilize the various areas,” Dennis-Huether explained. “The tasting room, for example, seems to have a magnetic quality, providing an opportunity for staff to forge connections with one another and the company’s products. This not only reinforces the idea of Califia as a warm and welcoming place but also speaks to the company’s commitment to fostering a dynamic and engaging environment that encourages health, wellness and creativity.”
nomic development and small-business protections while being more equitable and transparent; creating tools to support mom-and-pop, community-serving small businesses and street vendors; ensuring that new open spaces are publicly accessible and inclusive of amenities for all users, including low-income families, seniors and the unhoused; and creating a new Racial Justice and Equity Program that provides a harm analysis and reduction to identify and mitigate potential racialized impacts.
“The final version of the DTLA 2040 com-
munity plan is the result of thousands of hours of engagement by hundreds of community members — many of whom are low income, small-business owners or unhoused, … those who have been historically marginalized by planning processes,” said Grant Sunoo, director of community building and engagement at the Little Tokyo Service Center. “We are thankful for their input, grateful to all of our allies, and appreciative of the Planning Department for their partnership in this process. There is much work to come as we implement the plan, but this is certainly an important milestone.”
No one will disagree — the last few years have been hard. After the onslaught of the pandemic, a continued racial reckoning, and an escalating climate catastrophe, everyone could use some healing.
Public art organization LA Freewaves invites Angelenos to Heal Hear Here, a free day of collective healing through art, from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at Los Angeles State Historic Park. The event coincides with Mental Health Awareness Month and is funded by the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health.
On the heels of a globally tumultuous time, it was important for Anne Bray, director and founder of LA Freewaves, to move out of isolation collectively. “With the pandemic winding down, I felt like something healing and communal was necessary,” she said. “I want to see what it feels like for us to get back together.”
The reparative afternoon will unite 30 local arts organizations and feature performances, workshops, readings, processions, installations and more, creating a multicultural and multi-sensory afternoon for individual and communal healing.
Each organization will bring a different healing modality, whether deep conversations over tea, an ancestral walking tour, poetry readings, performance art, a community chorus, a soundscape labyrinth or a meditative bike ride through the park, to
name a few. “It’s a joint portrait of healing,” Bray explained.
Organizations representing a wide swath of people and cultures from across LA will be present, including Metabolic Studio, LA Artcore, GYOPO, Armory Center for the Arts, LA River Public Art Project, artworxLA, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Self Help Graphics & Art, Project 1521 and UCLArts & Healing, among oth-
ers.
Thinh Nguyen, representing Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, will lead a festivalwide healing chant. Nguyen will share their personal mantra and conduct meditation and breathing exercises.
Poet Sara Harris from Escritorio Público will write real-time poetry. Participants will tell Harris what is on their minds, and she’ll write an inspired poem on her typewriter, gifting it to them.
Beth Peterson will display her life-size puppets from One Grain of Sand Puppet Theater in a procession. The Queer Spa Network will also be in attendance, conducting a workshop to create biodegradable spa products from drought-resistant plants.
Bray wants to widen people’s perception of mental health and what it means to heal. “Everyone thinks of the hospital or the shrink, but we’re trying to expand that,” she said. “We’re trying to expose all
these other ways of healing. There are 30 different methods that these artists are suggesting. I feel like people will get exposed to something they never knew would work for them. “
The event will open with an Indigenous-informed land acknowledgment ceremony conducted by Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe representatives. The ceremony is designed to sanctify and heal the land, recognizing the Indigenous people who were here long before Los Angeles. Before individual and communal healing, “this is a healing that needs to happen first,” Bray said. Indeed, the land now known as LA State Historic Park was once a gathering place for local tribes following a converging section of the LA River.
“It’s sort of re-welcoming people to the park,” Bray said. “While we were all sick, the park got well. it flourished. … It is so much healthier than it was before the pandemic.”
Heal Hear Here
WHEN: 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 20
WHERE: Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles
COST: Free
INFO: freewaves.org
With 1 billion streams behind him, hip-hop artist Bankrol Hayden is on his first headline tour, which hits the Echo on Thursday, May 18.
But he’s taking it lying down. He’s preparing for it with cupping, an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a therapist puts special cups on skin for a few minutes to create suction. It’s used for pain, inflammation, blood flow, relaxation and well-being.
Hayden is chill but looking forward to the jaunt.
“It means a lot to me to go on my own and stand on my own two feet, travel the world on my own bus with my friends,” he said. “It’s going to be crazy. I’m a little nervous, but once you get out there, it’ll all go away, all the butterflies. I’m always nervous before every show.”
The tour is in support of his mixtape “29,” featuring hard-hitting bars and melodic hooks. It has spawned the hit “Bop Slide,” featuring Blueface, OHGEESY and Maxo Kream.
The title “29” is an ode to a Nov. 29, 2017, car crash that nearly killed him at age 16. The rapper was in the backseat of a car when his friend crashed it while high on marijuana. The driver, a 16-year-old girl, was charged with the murder of two women in the other vehicle.
Hayden suffered from a broken back and ribs and a small-intestine injury. The song “29” has garnered 20 million Spotify streams and 7 million SoundCloud plays.
“I try to take care of myself now,” he said. “Health is wealth. I do yoga, stretches, hot cupping and stuff like that that makes me feel better. Talking to a therapist is good with stuff like that. I think about it all the time.”
His breakout tracks were 2019’s “Brothers” and the following year’s “Costa Rica,” both of which collected over 60 million steams each.
Now signed to Atlantic Records, Hayden was the featured artist for all “NBA on Christmas Day” coverage. He wrapped 2022 with the Christmas basketball anthem “Courtside.”
The album “29” was a difficult project for Hayden.
“It took some time to get it out,” he said. “My last project (‘Pain is Temporary’) was a few years ago. There were a lot of moving pieces. The meaning of ‘29’ reflects my car crash and the day my grandma passed away. It’s my angel number.”
He’s looking forward to playing for fans in LA.
“You’ll hear all the old music of mine, all the new album, ‘29,’” he said. “We’re going to have some special guests for LA and the bigger markets. It’s a surprise, though.”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, May 18
WHERE: The Echo, 1822 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles COST: $25
INFO: theecho.com
Ben Christo learned early on about the power of music.
His very first memory of it is wandering around a supermarket in Torquay, Devon, England, looking for his mother.
“I’m sure it happens to every kid,” Christo said. “I was walking around, trying to find my mum, but I wasn’t worried because I was singing ‘Frankie’ by Sister Sledge.
“That very first memory is one where music is helping me to feel OK in a scary situation. So, from that point on, I was always really into music. I found that I gravitated toward any pop music that had a guitar in it, like Michael Jackson, Belinda Carlisle or Michael Bolton — songs that would be on the radio. If there was a guitar solo — a very present kind of guitar in it — I would like that song.”
Christo is now making memories for himself and fans as the guitarist for English rockers The Sisters of Mercy, who play the Hollywood Palladium on Monday, May 15. He promises a nostalgic-yet-modern set.
“The show is a nice combination of paying respects to the heritage whilst bringing our own feel to it and making sure it’s not just like a nostalgia trip,” Christo said
“We’re still making sure that we recognize that certain songs mean a lot to people, and we want them to sound, to a certain degree, like what they know.”
As a fan of music, Christo said he understands the importance of blending new tracks with the favorites.
“We’re bringing some new elements to the show, too,” he added. “I think, visually, it’s going to be a lot more exciting and engaging than the last time we were over there. We have much better synergy now, and with the sound and the light, it’s very dramatic and it’s very theatrical. It’s a lot more engaging, I think.”
Christo serves as singer Andrew Eldritch’s guitarist, while joined by Dylan Smith, “Ravey” Dave Creffield and the ever-present drum machine “Doktor Avalanche.”
The tour is The Sisters of Mercy’s first U.S. jaunt in more than 14 years. Blending punk psychedelia, metal, dance beats and guttural growls, The Sisters of Mercy
are best known for the songs “This Corrosion,” “Dominion,” “Temple of Love” and “Lucretia My Reflection.”
Christo’s musical inspiration comes from his uncle, who was 8 years older than him.
“He was into Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Europe, all of those bands. I wanted to be just like him. I loved the music, and that’s when it started,” he said
“He took me to see AC/DC and Judas Priest in a very quick succession when I was about 10 or 11 years old. Seeing those kinds of shows as a child, you can imagine how huge everything was and how the fantastic the light show and stage show were. I came away from that wanting to play the guitar.”
Supporting their son, Christo’s parents bought him a knock-off Stratocaster electric guitar, which he hadn’t asked for. He was grateful because he could instantly play songs he was interested in.
“A lot of parents, they get this nylon string acoustic guitar for their kid,” he said.
“The kid is sitting there playing ‘Sailing’ with a little footstool thing that you had to do in school. This is nothing like what a kid wants to do. I was very lucky in that sense that I started playing the electric first. Electric is just easier to play than acoustic. That’s how it started.”
When he was 10, he had a self-proclaimed “existential crisis,” trying to choose between sports, specifically soccer and music.
“I was quite good,” he said about soccer. “I was on the school team. I remember thinking, ‘I can only do one thing with my life. I must choose. I must choose.’ I chose music.”
Before Christo joined The Sisters of Mercy, he said the band was in his personal top 20. Still, it was “pretty, pretty mind blowing to join this legendary act.”
“To be part of something that had been a fairly important part of my musical upbringing is incredible,” Christo said “It’s always exciting for me to be able to think this is someone whose music I was inspired by and now I get to actually compose with him. That’s really mind
blowing.
“When he says to me, ‘That’s a really great thing you’ve done there,’ it means a lot to me because I’m getting affirmation from someone who inspired me. That’s very, very rewarding.”
The road leading to The Sisters of Mercy was interesting, he said. He received a phone call from a “mysterious number” on a Tuesday afternoon while he was getting ready to go to work at a convenience store.
“This mysterious voice, without any kind of introduction, just said, ‘We might want you to be in our band,’” he recalled.
“I said, ‘What band?’ This voice said, ‘I’m not going to tell you.’ I said, ‘OK, well, what’s it like?’ Again, he said, ‘I’m not going to tell you.’ I was very skeptical. I felt like whoever was talking to me was very arrogant and this was probably a windup, some sort of joke.”
The only thing this voice told him was the band had a tour of America booked and it needed a new lead guitarist. The
person saw his work on his MySpace page. To audition, he just needed a few Hendrix licks.
“I went into the audition a little bit nervous because I was walking into a building with a bunch of people whom I had never met in a town that I had only been to once before,” he said with a smile.
“A friend of mine works for the police. I said, ‘Look, if you don’t hear from me in an hour, this is where I’ll be.’”
At the audition, one man was dressed in a pair of sunglasses and a wooly hat, holding a can of beer; the others had a laptop and a guitar.
“It was this really weird atmosphere of no one really saying anything,” he said.
“Then, the guy with a guitar would go, ‘OK, look, can you play this?’ I could pick things up by ear. I can’t read music. I said, ‘Yes.’ Then he asked me to improvise over what he was playing. In retrospect, they were asking me to play Sisters of Mercy songs that had never been released or recorded.”
He didn’t recognize the songs, but knew they had a Sisters kind of feel to them. Christo figured out it was The Sisters of Mercy.
“I looked around and I thought, ‘Well, I haven’t seen a press picture of this band for 10, 15 years,’” he recalled.
“I didn’t know what they looked like. Maybe this is them. So, I thought I would do a test. I was going to play a famous Sisters of Mercy riff right now and see if anybody said anything. Sure enough, I played the riff and the guy with the hat, shades and cans of beer said, ‘That’s one of our songs.’ I remember it vividly.”
Christo looked down at his hands and they were shaking. He was nervous because he was in the presence of a band who had a large impact on him, and his life was about to change. He was working in a convenience store but also teaching guitar lessons, “hoping to go somewhere with music one day. Here was my chance to get instantly involved with an established band who I liked.”
Eldritch said he would call, but Christo missed him by 13 seconds, as his phone was in another room. He called back, and it went to a fax machine. So, he went to the local internet café and sent “the only fax I’ve ever sent in my life. I said, ‘Hey, it’s Ben here, the guitarist from yesterday. I am still interested if you want to give me a ring.’
“Instantly, he phoned me back,” he continueed. “What I found out later was that was the deal breaker. He had written
me off because he thought I couldn’t be bothered to answer the phone. He didn’t have any faith in me as a music partner. Because I’d sent the fax, it showed him that I had the initiative to think around a problem.”
Six weeks later, he was driving through Death Valley for the first show in Las Vegas.
Christo said The Sisters of Mercy have evolved since he joined the band in 2006. The lineup has changed, as has the act’s dynamics and music.
“When I first toured with the band, the set list was a mix of things that have been written by many different people across the years. It was quite disparate. Now, we have a really nice mix of greatest hits — stuff people are going to love — and deep cuts from albums that people will know and be like, ‘I can’t believe they’re playing this, how cool,’ and new material that we, as a current band, have written together.”
Christo said Sisters of Mercy feels cohesive now.
“To actually be performing works that I’ve been part of writing is so exciting for me,” he said.
“It’s so exciting to be able to write something and think, ‘Right now, we’re going to go out and play it to 2,000 people at night.’ It’s not something I’ve experienced a lot with my own bands growing up. We thought maybe we’d play the songs to a few hundred.”
The new songs fit nicely in The Sister of Mercy’s catalog, Christo explained. They’re a combination of the act’s three albums — 1985’s “First and Last and Always,” 1987’s “Floodland” and 1990’s “Vision Thing.”
“It takes something from all of those three records, and it gives it kind of a new coat of paint,” Christo said “We, as writers, have shown a respect to the heritage of where the band comes from, whilst giving it our own sort of breath of fresh air.
“I think it sits pretty well. What I find really encouraging is that, initially, when we went out in 2022 to play these shows, Andrew was very keen to play a lot of new material. I had my reservations. He said, ‘No, no. Let’s play this new stuff. We’re proud of it. We like it. Let’s see what happens.’ To my surprise — and I was very pleased — people seem to really love it.”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Monday, May 15
WHERE: Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood COST: Tickets start at $59
INFO: livenation.com
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor
The Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit call their records “a documentation of time.”
Johanna and Klara Söderberg are sharing their journey on their latest album, “Palomino.” They stop at the Hollywood Palladium on Tuesday, May 16.
“We don’t like to sit down and go, ‘Let’s make a concept record,’” Klara said. “It ends up being whatever the songs are that we want to write. I think ‘Palomino’ fits well in the catalog, but it also feels new to us as well. We challenged ourselves, productionwise. We had a lot of rules in the past, and this time we didn’t.”
Johanna said, however, they wanted no pedal steel guitar on this record and instead incorporated synth.
“We were open to using sounds that we would have, in the past, thought didn’t fit into our sound,” Klara added. “Anything sort of ’80s we were against.
Now it was the opposite. We thought we would try everything and not have preconceived notions — except for no pedal steel.”
“Now we miss it,” Johanna chimed in with a laugh.
For the record, they worked with producer/songwriter and fellow Swede Daniel Bengston, whom Klara called an “incredibly enthusiastic person and producer.”
“I would say the process was, in one word, joyful.”
However, Johanna is quick to add, the path to making the record was not so much.
“We had a break from making music for a while,” Johanna said, referring to the pandemic. “It was a bit of a life crisis for both of us. I think that’s why it was so important that the recording process was a celebration of making music again.
“Daniel is the most enthusiastic person I’ve met in my entire life. We needed
that energy. Klara was burned out. I had a kid. We needed this to be a positive experience.”
Johanna described Bengston as a “one-man band” who played on most of the songs and contributed “a million ideas” to “Palomino.”
“He really made the songs what they are,” she added. “He was such an important part of the record. We were kind of scared. For the previous records, we went to America. We needed that — to go somewhere far away. It became a sacred thing to us. This time, we didn’t know who to work with. Then we found this person who also appreciates Ameri-
cana and this genre we’re in right around the corner.”
The show marks the first time First Aid Kit has been in the United States in five years. Klara said they have plenty of friends in LA, so they feel at home here.
After the U.S. jaunt, they’ll head to Europe to play festivals. The fall is up in the air.
“We want to do more shows,” Johanna said. “We’re dying to play. It’s been so fun after this long break. We feel like we’ve never appreciated it more. The American crowd is the best crowd in the world. I truly love it.”
First Aid Kit
WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 16
WHERE: Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
COST: Tickets start at $45
INFO: livenation.com, firstaidkitband.com
Born and raised in Kolkata, one of the gastronomic centers of Asia, chef Sujan Sarkar has spent much of his life learning culinary techniques and recipes from around the world. He has worked in modern fine-dining restaurants in London and toured across India to understand and taste regional specialties. After opening Baar Baar New York, the city’s first modern Indian gastro bar, and leading kitchens in Chicago, San Francisco and New Delhi, Sarkar has celebrated the grand opening of Baar Baar Los Angeles in Downtown’s South Park district.
“I come from a family that is very much food centered,” he said. “What I do in Baar Baar … the food is not from one particular region. It’s from different corners, different parts. Food cultures and food habits, everything changes in every hundred miles because there’re so many languages, cultures and foods. It’s all different in India … so that’s why we bring so many new things into our menu.”
Sarkar blends tradition and modernity on each plate, seeking to create a unique experience that takes each diner on a culinary journey across India, from its city streets to its diverse landscapes.
He’s wanted to open a restaurant in LA for over three years, and finally purchased the current Baar Baar location on the corner of West Ninth and Flower Street during the pandemic. Despite the economic uncertainty and lockdown measures of the time, Sarkar said he never lost hope for Baar Baar Los Angeles. He also explained that the Downtown LA location, while sharing a name, should not be compared to its New York counterpart.
“The offering has changed a little bit. It’s built for Los Angeles, built for California,” Sarkar said. “Here in LA, I want to do more local; I want to do more curated; I want to do one notch up. That’s why we’re calling it ‘new Indian.’
“We cook everything in-house. That’s our strength. … We follow the traditional recipes, how the recipes should be in India. We may work on the intensity of heat, but the basic recipes never changed. And then we upgrade those to suit the palette of the locals here.”
Baar Baar’s offerings, straight from the charcoal grill, include the lamb shank roast with Nihari gravy, fresh ginger, mint, cilantro and rose; monkfish osso bucco with mil-
let khichdi and rhubarb achar; and mushroom pepper fry with sunchoke salan, smoked almond and ramps; as well as classic dishes like Baar Baar butter chicken and chicken malai tikka.
“Each and every dish in the menu is connected to India,” Sarkar said. “Sometimes it’s very straightforward, like butter chicken. … But in India, when you buy the chicken, the food coloring comes into place because it’s always orange. Here we don’t use any artificial food coloring, so instead of that I use a little bit of sweet pepper to get the color and to get the sweetness. … (That’s) a traditional recipe turning into what we’re doing at Baar Baar.”
Sarkar’s imaginative menu also features LA-inspired dishes like the birria-style Kashmiri duck taco served with cilantro, red onion and pickled radish; along with chaats like Dahi Puri, made with avocado, tamarind, mint and cilantro chutney and yogurt mousse; and Cauliflower 65, made with carrot pachadi, peanut thecha, pickled kumquat and curry leaf.
“A lot of our menu is vegan, and 40% of our menu is vegetarian, but really flavorful,” Sarkar said. “Our dessert program is also really unique. I come from Kolkata, where we have a sweet tooth. Indian sweet making, nowhere in any Indian restaurant do they highlight that, but we do everything
in-house.”
Baar Baar’s dessert list includes homemade delights like mango ghewar — a Rajasthani dessert with a honeycomb texture made using thandai cassata, mascarpone mousse, mango jelly and pistachio — and carrot halwa cake with malai ice cream, phirni mousse and edible gold.
Sarkar’s creativity also extends to his wine cellar and cocktail list, which was inspired by past and present Bollywood films. They include Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, made with tequila, tamarind, aged balsamic, blackberry syrup and soda; Lagaan, made with gin, honeydew melon, kale, midori and egg white; and a unique take on classic milk punch named after the Oscar-winning film “RRR,” made with Old Monk rum, crème de cacao, chocolate, coffee bitters and milk wash.
“When I came to LA, I wanted to do something with Indian cinema,” Sarkar said. “The cocktail menu is so unique. It’s like a
booklet with different movies from different eras from 1950s to now.”
Inspired by the colors of Indian fashion and his personal love for design, Sarkar wanted the interior of Baar Baar Los Angeles to feel comfortable, welcoming and an “everyday place” for Angelenos. The space features multiple dining rooms decorated in shades of teal and yellow with white marble tabletops and murals painted by artist Jessica Kollar. Alongside a large communal table, there’s also a nearly 50-foot bar that seats 15 people.
“It’s a beautiful room, but we don’t want to do that kind of fine dining when you come there,” Sarkar said. “We are going to open the happy hour, so you can come to the bar just for happy hour and small plates, and then you can come back for full dining experience. We have beautiful music that came from India, too, which is, I would say, more electronic music. … Everything is very modern, but it’s very calm and composed.”
Sarkar expressed a sense of both excitement and fulfillment ahead of Baar Baar Los Angeles’ grand opening celebration. By marrying the flavors and textures of authentic Indian cuisine with a personal, contemporary approach, he hopes to elevate Indian cuisine to a level that has yet to be seen in LA.
“It’s all about bringing something new, building something at par with any top restaurant in this country,” he said. “The food has to be affordable, but with top-quality ingredients. Good food, music, drinks, the design of the space, everything. I think people will appreciate what we put into this, and they will love the food. … I think the future is great for Indian food and it’ll grow because it has so much flavor. People are looking for that kind of flavor nowadays.
“Indian food is getting the momentum, but not that kind of old-school dining. There are a lot of new restaurants coming up all over the country, and I want to be the front-runner … taking risks and opening this beautiful and the big place.”
When actress Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman raised the idea of founding a National Women’s Soccer League team in Los Angeles, they were met with rejections from investors born from a lack of belief that the franchise could succeed. Three years later, after its inaugural season, Angel City Football Club has become the largest majority female ownership group in professional sports and the subject of a new HBO Original docuseries debuting Tuesday, May 16.
The three-part series, titled “Angel City,” shows a behind-the-scenes view of the club’s genesis before embarking on a journey through its opening season. The story will follow the ACFC’s pursuit of their goal to consistently fill BMO Stadium and prove that the club can financially succeed while coping with growing pains and unexpected injuries to star players.
“It’s such a compelling origin story, and the unique aspect of being born out of Time’s Up was really inspiring,” director Arlene Nelson said. “The things that always stand out to me are the stories of the players, especially the OGs, the ones who have been around and in the league for 10 years, who initially received $5,000 as their salary. What made them come back year after year after year and play and train as hard as they possibly can? It’s extraordinary, and we are at a turning point, I believe, where the recognition is really starting to be there for the value.”
From the first episode, which will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max, the docuseries tracks Portman, Nortman and Uhrman’s process of building the club from the ground up, motivated by a
passion to elevate women’s sports. Uhrman described it as a chance to fight for true pay equity for female soccer players while building what she believes will be one of the most valuable professional sports teams in the world.
“We knew it was the right moment in time … when the world was really talking about female empowerment, female leadership, giving equal access and opportunity and pay to women, and then the U.S. Women’s National Team goes and wins the World Cup two times in a row,” Uhrman said. “We believed that if we built (the club) with the community, with a bigger mission, with greater values, we would be able to drive the eyeballs, the fans, the sponsors to Angel City in a way that truly could change the sport and ultimately show that … women’s sports could be profitable.”
Despite the U.S. Women’s National Team’s successes and NWSL viewership reportedly increasing over 490% in 2020, Uhrman recalled that Angel City was a “hard sell” for traditional investors because of the ownership group’s approach. They were trying to balance “mission and capital,” leaving the investors questioning whether ACFC acted like a nonprofit or a for-profit entity. The club would also join a Los Angeles sports ecosystem with 11 professional teams, including two Major League Soccer clubs, along with USC and UCLA.
“It was frustrating, and it really took us time to find those people who understood it, that we weren’t building a club, but we were building a platform and a brand that not only stood for equity, but we were going to rewrite the playbook on how you could actually drive significant revenue to get to profitability,” Uhrman said. “In hindsight, it wasn’t surprising that celebrities and athletes understood that you could do both because they leverage their platform; they leverage their social network and audience to drive attention and awareness for their latest project, but also whatever cause means the most to them.”
ACFC’s current lineup of nearly 100 investors boasts iconic stars like Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Garner, Billie Jean King, Eva Longoria and Serena Williams, as well as 14 former U.S. Women’s National Team players, including Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm.
Despite the star power, Uhrman described ACFC as a representative of the community with a diverse and inclusive fan base that creates an atmosphere that’s “second to none.” She expressed hope that the
new HBO docuseries will help showcase the value of each player as well as the club’s impact on the community.
“Driving attention and awareness for women’s sports is critical to help us grow, to … share that there is a different way to build a club where you can lead with purpose, where your goal can be both to have a positive impact in the community and to drive profit,” Uhrman said. “Ten percent of our sponsorship dollars goes back into the community. … We put over a million dollars to work last year and partnered with over 29 different organizations here in Los Angeles.
“We’d love to inspire other majority female teams to start a club or to invest in a club and to know that there’s another way to build it. … You can drive real value by demanding real value and investing in your community, in your players and in your product.”
As the director for the docuseries, which was produced by Portman and fellow Academy Award winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Nelson said that telling the story of Angel City required constant adaptation and strategy, particularly in balancing the amount of airtime dedicated to the club’s actions on and off the pitch.
“We had to strategically decide how we were going to attack this story because we didn’t have unlimited days to shoot and we didn’t have unlimited resources,” she explained. “We always, when we filmed a game, had a professional sports cinematographer because I absolutely wanted to make sure that the footage of the games was so elevated and matched the elite athleticism of these women. … Then, for training it was, ‘What story is going on this week,
and how much does that link back up to our core story?’ We just knew that we couldn’t have any fat, any excess. We had to be really judicious.”
Nelson’s hope is that the docuseries reaches an audience wider than that of LA’s soccer fans and that viewers can appreciate the core of the story as it amplifies the athletes’ journeys.
“There’re misconceptions that people aren’t that interested in female pro sports. Well, go to an Angel City game and you will see that that is not true,” Nelson said. “When you go to a game, there is a different vibe there. … This last game, I went as a spectator and I totally understood what everyone has been talking about. … (It’s) unlike any other sporting event that you go to.”
Alongside the game day experience, Uhrman said that the founding ethos of ACFC was to create a space for young Angelenos to be able to benefit from the sport.
“We want to build a platform here in Los Angeles where we can truly provide access and opportunity to young girls and to nonbinary youth … (to show them) that no dream is too big if you work hard at it,” she said. “If you work hard enough, you can be a professional women’s footballer and make a living doing it. … We truly believe it’s still just the beginning, and we’re excited. There’s much more to build.”
From molding a franchise into existence to watching their new club battle at the one of the highest echelons of women’s sports, Angel City FC’s founders have blazed a new trail in the heart of LA, one that they continue to walk with pride and unrelenting support from their city into the dawn of a new season.
LA Downtown News Contributing Writer
Michael Cooper played in 873 games with the Lakers. Byron Scott played 846 with the legendary franchise.
They each also played pivotal roles in Kobe Bryant’s career with the people and gold, including the very beginning on the court and the very end on the court.
Scott’s last season with the Lakers was the 1996-97 campaign, which was also Bryant’s rookie season. Among the roles the veteran guard Scott played in his 14th and final NBA season was that of mentor to the then teenage phenom before a formal coaching role some 20 years later.
Cooper, meanwhile, never played with Bryant. But he played against him. Sort of.
With a first-round selection in hand at the 1996 NBA Draft, the Lakers worked out several potential prospects in Los Angeles that summer before the event. Cooper, then a Lakers assistant coach, was tasked with guarding Bryant at the workout. But it was the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award winner in Cooper who went to school against a kid right out of high school.
“Contrary to what everybody thinks, Kobe did not kick my (tail),” Cooper said while laughing. “I was 40 years old then, but the joy in that moment was seeing a young man at 17 years old maneuver around the court and get to where he is supposed to be.
“I was instructed by Jerry West to keep him away from the free throw line, to keep him away from the low post,” Cooper remembered. “Kobe worked and worked and worked until he could get the shot. He didn’t hit every shot, but he was able to get there, and only really seasoned veterans can do that.”
Added Scott, with a smile and a chuckle: “The story is now some 20-plus years old. It was originally Kobe held his own. Then, a few years later, it was Kobe did pretty good. Then it was Kobe wore him out. Add another 10 years and it was Coop got his (tail kicked).”
The story of the hoops protégé became legend.
“What I always say is if you are going to get beat one on one,” admitted Cooper, “let it be Kobe Bryant.”
That is a sample of the memories Cooper and Scott shared of Bryant at a recent fundraising event honoring local sports legends in Pasadena. They thoughtfully reminisced about the superstar who tragically passed away in a helicopter crash in Calabasas more than three years ago.
Scott and Cooper famously played with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Something about Bryant was, well, unique.
“Meeting him when he was 17 years old and playing with him gave me an opportunity to be with him, to mentor him, to be around him a lot while talking about the game of basketball. Then, to come full cir-
cle and coach him was very special,” said Scott, a former star at Morningside High School in Inglewood.
“We all remember his last game when he scored 60 points. I remember heading into his last year. I told him my only objective was to get him to game 82 and to get to that game relatively healthy. I wanted him to be able to go out the way he wanted to go out.
“If you remember, he started that game like 0 for 5 or 0 for 6. It didn’t look good. Then he caught fire in a game we will all remember. I don’t think we will ever see another player retire, after all of those years of service, on that high of a note. Think of that — 60 points in your last and final game.”
That was at Staples Center in 2016, the 20th and final season — all with the Lakers — for Bryant, nicknamed Black Mamba.
During the evening, Scott talked about the toughness of playing on the hardwood with teammates like Cooper and Bryant.
Cooper, all kidding aside from the jokes about the pre-draft workout, used the platform to praise Scott’s influence on Bryant, who played in more than 1,300 games with LA.
“Byron was an exceptional player over the years, winning championships, and you can see the relationship he and Kobe had. I attribute a lot of (Kobe’s) success to Byron Scott. Kobe adhered to wanting to learn how to win championships. That made their relationship even that much better. You always saw how close they were.”
The relaxed atmosphere at The Ice House allowed Scott to praise Bryant’s unprecedented work ethic, including beginning gym workouts at 4 a.m.
“That Mamba Mentality … after so many weeks he was just so far ahead of others, and that was the way he thought.”
Scott also shared the nickname he gave Bryant — “I called him Show Boat when I first met him” — and how he listened to Bryant, who was 17 years his junior, as much as he talked.
“I loved being a part of his life. Coaching him later got us rekindled. It was full circle. It was special, and I miss him every single day.”
“His preparation is legendary,” longtime Lakers photographer Andy Bernstein said of Bryant. “He would get there nearly five hours before a game, and he would see me there setting up my equipment and we would share a laugh.”
Bryant and Bernstein collaborated on “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play,” a 2018 book that features Bryant’s personal perspective of his life and career on the basketball court and his exceptional, insightful style of playing the game.
The way he worked and the way he played the game — and an awesome first impression didn’t hurry — was integral to Bryant’s five NBA championship rings. With Scott’s three Laker rings and Cooper’s five, those 13 championships — and the fun, timeless memories — are a big part of the legacy of the trio.
It’s once again time to show your favorite DTLA businesses some love!
From May 23rd to June 23rd, you can vote for your favorite DTLA businesses simply by going to ladowntownnews.com – look for the Best of DTLA “VOTE” button. You can vote one time per device per day!
Voting starts at noon on May 23 and closes at noon on June 23.
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