Larchmont Chronicle
VOL. 59, NO. 1
• DELIVERED TO 76,439 READERS IN HANCOCK PARK • WINDSOR SQUARE • FREMONT PLACE • MIRACLE MILE • PARK LA BREA • LARCHMONT •
IN THIS ISSUE
JANUARY 2021
Raman and Ridley-Thomas sworn in n Homeless issues addressed first
HEALTH, FITNESS & BEAUTY 11-15
SHOT in the arm. 15
HISTORY of the city, Part II.
2-3
By Billy Taylor New City Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Mark Ridley-Thomas, elected in November, took office last month. Raman was sworn in to her new job representing Council District Four at a Dec. 15 ceremony where she announced her first two motions before City Council. Both proposals are aimed at addressing homelessness, a key campaign priority for Raman. “I believe, so powerfully, there is nowhere else on earth like Los Angeles. A city that is so thrilling and magnificent, with so much stunning natural and human diversity, where people can come from anywhere in the world and feel welcomed and find communiSee Swearing in, p 8
Generous gifts saved Marionettes n Free show at Pier
TIPS on poker and life. 2-13 For Information on Advertising Rates, Please Call Pam Rudy 323-462-2241, x 11 Mailing permit:
By Rachel Olivier Bob Baker Marionette Theater (BBMT) is celebrating because its fundraising campaign “Keep Imagination Alive” has already met — and even exceeded — its $365,000 goal. BBMT began the campaign in November in a desperate move to pay rent and keep the lights on, said Winona Bechtle, director of development. She added that the board and staff had fully expected the campaign to last far into this year, and only hoped to raise a third of the goal by the end of 2020. Thanks to the community of fans who supported the pupSee Marionettes, p 20
Love, and travel, are in the air in February
Two special features, “Valentines” and “Vacation Planning,” will be highlighted in our February issue. To reserve advertising space, contact Pam Rudy, 323-4622241, ext. 11. Deadline is Mon., Jan. 11.
NEW SIGN for Chevalier’s Books was erected in late December at the new home of the city’s oldest independent bookstore, now at 133 N. Larchmont Blvd. In 1940, Joe Chevalier opened his original store on that west side of the street, closer to Beverly Boulevard. Photo by Duke Underwood
Chevalier’s and other Lipson Building tenants transition to their new reality n New owner Christina Development plans to renovate their old building By Billy Taylor Longtime tenants of the Lipson Building on Larchmont Boulevard had until midnight Dec. 31 to vacate the 17,000-square-foot property located at 124-148 N. Larchmont Blvd. New owner Malibu-based Christina Development purchased the property in Oct. 2018 for $23.5 million with plans to renovate the existing structure. Some of those tenants have found new locations while other tenants have struggled to start fresh. Here’s what we have learned so far. Chevalier’s Books The oldest independent
bookstore in Los Angeles officially has a new address. Last month, Chevalier’s Books moved across the street to 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., located between Village Pizzeria to the south and Sweetfin Poke to the north. A new sign was quickly constructed to highlight the Chevalier’s storefront, which was once a part of the iconic gourmet grocer Albert T. Balzer Company, and, later, Jurgensen’s Grocery. In fact, this is a return to the west side of Larchmont Boulevard for the local bookshop that was first opened on that side of the Boulevard in
1940 as a lending library located a few doors south of Beverly See Chevalier’s, p 10
Seeking Vacation & Valentine Tales! The topics of “Valentines” and “Vacation Planning” will be highlighted in our February issue. Write to us about your trips near and far. And, Valentines, tell us how you met. Send 200 words or less for either subject and photos to suzan@ larchmontchronicle.com. Deadline is Mon., Jan. 11.
Ko brings Bespoke Beauty to Larchmont n New line to launch
By Suzan Filipek Makeup maven Toni Ko may have made her fortune in cosmetics, but she is also in the business of happiness. She painted her Bespoke Beauty Brands building, 320 N. Larchmont Blvd., a pastel shade reflective of her brand. “Pink is a happy color,” she says. And, in case anyone misses the subliminal message, she added street entry signage, “Happy People Creating BeauSee Bespoke Beauty, p 14
ON LARCHMONT, the former Cerrell building is now home to Toni Ko’s Bespoke Beauty Brands.
www.larchmontchronicle.com ~ Entire Issue Online!
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
Editorial
Calendar
By John Welborne
At last, a new year! This issue of the Larchmont Chronicle, the first issue of our 59th year, is being delivered throughout the community on Thurs., Dec. 31. We say “goodbye and good riddance” to 2020 and look forward to 2021. We certainly hope for a better year to come. Regardless, we also should use this time of annual transition to reflect on the resiliency, creativity, determination, fortitude, and so many other adjectives and nouns that describe humans’ reactions, across the globe, to the pandemic in 2020. People learned how to make do. We had to. That said, and using this time of transition between years for reflection, we think readers may particularly enjoy the musings this month of several of our columnists. Writer George Epstein normally focuses on poker; his column this month is more about life skills, generally. Theater reviewer Louis Fantasia, like the Roman god Janus, looks both backward and forward. Rachel Olivier remembers columnist Bill Bentley, recently retired from his “Professor Know-It-All” column of 32 years. Time to reflect. All things held as equal as possible, we want to believe that humans have much to anticipate that is positive in 2021.
What’s New for Hancock Park in the New Year Hancock Park starts the New Year with hope and optimism. In 2021 the Association will be focusing on: 1) Homelessness and security – this includes supporting meaningful solutions to the citywide homelessness crisis while addressing security issues raised by encampments in our neighborhood; 2) Concrete street repair – the budget for repairing our failing streets in historically mandated concrete has been approved; 3) Traffic control; 4) Continuing support and enforcement of our Historic Preservation Zone (HPOZ) and the resolution and repair of hazardous structures, such as 252 S. June Street and 181 S. McCadden; 5) Continued support to ensure that the City maintains the historic Highland traffic median and its protected palm trees; 6) Increasing and maintaining Hancock Park’s urban forest (the Association is now planting and we encourage all residents to take care of their parkway trees); and 7) Crime prevention and safety. The Association continues to expand and strengthen its block captain network and to work with the LAPD to proactively keep Hancock Park a safe neighborhood. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, and the attendant decrease in revenues and increase in demand for services, the City budget is deeply strained. The Association will be working closely with our new Councilmember, Nithya Raman, to ensure that our neighborhood is protected and safe. Don’t forget, as Fall and Winter are tree planting season in Los Angeles, the annual Association parkway tree planting is in process. If you need a tree, let us know via the website. o o o If you’re planning to make any changes to the streetvisible portion of your house, including hardscaping and windows, check with our HPOZ Planner Suki Gershenhorn (suki.gershenhorn@lacity.org) before starting. The HPOZ Preservation Plan, which regulates our HPOZ, can be found at preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/ la/hancock-park. There is also an online form you can fill out to help speed up the process — the Initial Screening Checklist (preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening. checklist). Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System: laocb.org/ programs/graffiti-abatement and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180. Adv.
Tues., Jan. 12 – Annual meeting of Park La Brea Residents Association at 5 p.m. via Zoom, visit plbra.org. Wed., Jan. 13 – Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council board meeting via Zoom, 7 to 9 p.m. Check greaterwilshire.org to confirm and for login. Mon., Jan. 18 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Wed., Jan. 20 – Inauguration of the 46th president of the United States. Thurs., Jan. 28 – Delivery of the February issue of the Larchmont Chronicle.
Holiday decorations light up neighbors’ lives By John Welborne Dayana Monico of St. Andrews Square, and Hope Wood, of nearby Koreatown, shared a late-December “Next Door” dialogue thanking neighbors for their outdoor Christmas light displays: Wrote Monico: THANK YOU! We drove up & down Hancock Park & Larchmont area last night. So many pretty decorations, from the smallest to the extravagant. We enjoyed it so much. We saw lit up trees, trains, snow, doggies, Frosty & family... & a sign that reminded us that “this too shall pass.” My grandma is 93 & hasn’t been out of the house since the pandemic (except for a few doctors’ appointments). This was such a treat for her. With all of the
Larchmont Chronicle Founded in 1963 by Jane Gilman and Dawne P. Goodwin .
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Publisher and Editor John H. Welborne Managing Editor Suzan Filipek Associate Editor Billy Taylor Contributing Editor Jane Gilman Staff Writers Talia Abrahamson Helene Seifer Advertising Director Pam Rudy Advertising Sales Caroline Tracy Art Director Tom Hofer Classified and Circulation Manager Rachel Olivier Accounting Jill Miyamoto 606 N. Larchmont Blvd., #103
Los Angeles, CA 90004 323-462-2241 larchmontchronicle.com
‘What is your New Year’s Resolution?’
That’s the question inquiring photographer Talia Abrahamson asked locals along Larchmont Blvd.
suckiness going on, this really warmed our hearts. Wish all your Holidays are Happy & Safe. Responded Wood: I have a 1-yr-old who is basically going through his developmental stages watching educational shows on TV or in a rain bagcovered stroller at the market. He has so many frustrated moments, and I tried taking him to the park but he gets scared so easily because we don’t take him out like we could’ve before Corona. When we passed by Hancock Park / Larchmont, I saw the lights and I decided to swing a right and go up and down the streets. He was just “ooh-ing” and “ahhing” the whole time. That just broke me. I was so sad and happy at the same time. The guilt for bringing him into a world like this but then so grateful to have my baby see such beautiful displays during this holiday season. I’m incredibly grateful you guys allowed us to end 2020 so sweetly.
Letters to the Editor Save our affordable housing
A few days after Thanksgiving, as we are approaching the height of the global pandemic, the Larchmont Chronicle published a front page story about a co-living building on Rossmore Avenue. There was no public comment from neighbors and tenants. Where are the public hearings? The architectural plans? The permits? This construction project does not exist in a vacuum. There is a human side to this story, too. After a year of economic uncertainty, financial hardships, health concerns and housing instability, we, the remaining tenants, have a civic duty to stay engaged with (Please turn to page 6) Write us at letters@larchmontchronicle.com. Include your name, contact information and where you live. We reserve the right to edit for space and grammar.
“My New Year’s resolution is going to be that every minute of my life and my family are going to count.” Raquel Oropeza “I wish COVID goes away.” Ruby Hernandez Hollywood
“To get credited and write music for a big name show, for Netflix or something like that.” Nicoletta Nomicou “To write music for a feature film, my first one. That is my one and only goal.” Kevin Robles East Hollywood
“To explore more neighborhoods in Los Angeles, specifically restaurants and pop-ups in different neighborhoods. I don’t think I am very good at getting out to the San Gabriel Valley or South L.A.” Pamela Wright “Probably to eat less junk food. Mostly chips, because I always find myself looking in the drawers just to eat chips randomly, and that’s probably not good.” Rita Wright Ridgewood Wilton
“Just to stay safe and healthy.” Justin Younesi “To stay safe and healthy by not going outside too much.” Anna Dirkx Larchmont Village
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Chronicle to publish souvenir edition for Larchmont centennnial in 2021 By Talia Abrahamson This upcoming September is Larchmont Village’s 100th anniversary, and the Larchmont Chronicle will be publishing a special “Souvenir Collector’s Edition.” This will be only the second such edition, following our coverage of the 50th anniversary in 1971. The theme of the 50th anniversary commemorative edition was “From Barley Fields to Affluent Suburb,” a closer look at Larchmont’s evolution since its founding in the Jazz Age. The Chronicle took readers through Larchmont’s history decade by decade. For the 1920s, writers wrote on notable milestones like “Two-Story Homes Completed in Windsor Square Suburb” and “Ebell Club Ball Marks Move to Wilshire Blvd.” Larchmont then experienced the Great Depression,
remembered by the headline: “1930s — From High Spirits to Depression.” Despite this, writers described small moments of relief, from residents lining up to watch “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” at the Larchmont Movie Theatre (where the empty Flywheel building is today) to enjoying a $1.50 buffet at nearby Perino’s Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard before an afternoon Philharmonic concert downtown. During wartime in the 1940s, Chevalier’s kept selling out of Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Gas rationing was enforced, which impacted the Boulevard’s three gas stations and had LarchMart Grocery curtail delivery services. Out of the despair from the two previous decades came the 1950s: “Fabulous ’50s Start on Note of Optimism, Hope.” In
1955, the city approved Larchmont modernization plans, removing the Boulevard’s streetcar tracks, overhead power line and poles, repaving the street and installing new curbs and gutters. New buildings were built and restored, and in 1959, the first parking meters appeared on the street. The history of Larchmont has been one of resilience, optimism and celebration, and that narrative will be expanded in our 100th Anniversary Souvenir Collector’s Edition, publishing this September. Information about feature stories and advertising opportunities will be provided in the coming months. FRONT PAGE of the 1971 Souvenir Collector’s Edition features Larchmont statesman Ross Stratton and the bygone time when street car bells clanged and gas stations dotted the area.
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MAKEUP MAVEN.
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AROUND THE TOWN 4 COUNCIL REPORT 7 HEALTH, FITNESS & BEAUTY 11 SCHOOL NEWS 15 YOUTH SPORTS 16 ENTERTAINMENT At the Movies 20 Theater Review 21 On the Menu 23
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Larchmont Chronicle
Children’s Institute virtual gala sparkles, raises $470,000
By Helene Seifer Confined to computer screen Zoom rectangles, the Children’s Institute’s third annual Cape & Gown Gala on Dec. 12 none-the-less sparkled in this difficult fundraising season. Emcee Loni Love, a comedian, Emmy Award-winning television host and actress, dazzled in cranberry-hued sequins while entertaining with humor and enthusiasm, and President and CEO Martine Singer warmly welcomed us in a poinsettia-red dress by her flickering fireplace. Over 200 households clicked
into the virtual event, totaling 500 people, including Larchmont Chronicle neighbors Gene Straub, executive vice president and chief finance and operating officer of the Children’s Institute (CII), with his wife Janneke Straub, director of leadership gifts for the LA Opera. Other local participants included one of the gala’s sponsors, Suzanne Rheinstein, as well as Stuart Gibbs, Chip Sellers, Trisha Cardoso and Christine Woertink. Instead of the typical swag bags provided attendees at fundraising events, CII’s virtu-
Thank You for supporting our Larchmont businesses!
LARCHMONT BOULEVARD ASSOCIATION
www.LARCHMONT.com
©LC0121
“An oasis in the city”
al guests each got delivery of a gourmet nibble box curated by chef Nyesha Arrington and wine from vineyard partner Ceja Vineyards. A raffle awarded one $5,000 Neiman Marcus shopping spree. Loni Love kept guests engaged and prodded them to dig deep in support of CII helping upwards of 30,000 children and families in need in Los Angeles each year. She described giving categories that ranged from $250, which provides two children with backpacks stuffed with a year’s worth of school supplies, to $20,000 to pay for a year of support for a new mother. By evening’s end $470,000 was raised to fund CII’s five dedicated buildings across Los Angeles, including a mid-Wilshire location on South New Hampshire Avenue. Although their 2019 inperson gala raised $1.2 million before expenses, Singer, a former long-time Windsor Square resident and past executive director of Hollygrove, believes the foray into cyber space managed to capture the spirit of the organization. “While we couldn’t be together in person this year, I felt just as connected with everyone because I know we all believe in children.” The night’s program emphasized CII’s many achievements since its founding in 1906 and its equally numerous needs. The fundraising gala included video pieces highlighting CII’s work to provide preschool education, behavioral health
MARTINE SINGER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, has helmed the Children’s Institute since 2016.
COMEDIAN AND ACTRESS LONI LOVE emceed the virtual gala with humor and enthusiasm.
help, trauma training for caregivers and parenting information. Former clients who now take active roles in the organization shared their stories, including Yarelly Rosas, now a peer counselor and LaRae (no surname given), their community outreach ambassador. LAPD deputy chief and member of the CII Board of Trustees Emada E. Tingirides spoke for the broader community, noting, “People want validation that they’re just as important as anyone else who lives anywhere in the city.” Celebrity luminaries lent their voices: film director Rob Reiner addressed the importance of early education and singer Billie Eilish spoke in support of the need for mental health assistance, both fundamental to CII’s mission. Social justice was the focus of the keynote speech from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery. While discussing his investigation into events in Ferguson, Missouri and other instances of police shootings, the writer emphasized that a journalist’s job was to “contextualize” and “help people understand.” In response to LaRae’s young son Royalty shyly asking what he could do to help, Lowery responded, “Our responsibility as citizens is to create the world we want.” The Children’s Institute is
one place where concerned individuals who want to make a difference can find a home. CII has two auxiliary groups for volunteers: the Colleagues, whose resale boutique and annual luncheon has contributed over $25 million since 1950, and the C.H.I.P.S. (Colleagues Helpers in Philanthropic Service) which provides CII with programming and fundraising support. Singer reflects on the Children’s Institute’s work: “Our programs support families who have seen the greatest injustices and been hit the hardest by COVID-19. We see up close, every day, how trauma impacts their health and wellbeing. … We will continue to fight for justice and a brighter future for all our kids.”
Around the Town with
Patty Hill
Around the Town is on a break
Larchmont Chronicle columnist Patty Hill is temporarily not out and about, and her Around the Town column is on hiatus. -Editor
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410 N. ROSSMORE residents and their concerns, expressed at neighborhood council land use committee meeting, were the subject of March 2020 Larchmont Chronicle story.
Letters
(Continued from page 2) the community and share our thoughts and concerns. Our building, 410 N. Rossmore Ave., is not in shambles needing to be saved. It has coexisted peacefully, for decades, with a stable surrounding community. I have lived here 31 years. There was always a feeling of safety and continuity
here, until recently, when the out-of-state developer arrived. We, the tenants and surrounding neighbors, will be negatively impacted by additional units, two-to-three years of construction and the co-living apartments. These are essentially adult dorms with up to six bedrooms sharing a kitchen and living room. These units are hyper-monetizing the persquare-foot dollar yield under
325 N. Larchmont Boulevard, #158 Los Angeles, California 90004 www.windsorsquare.org 157 N. Larchmont Boulevard
New Year’s Resolutions for 2021
Goodbye and good riddance to 2020! It was a year when we learned more than we ever wanted to know about epidemiology, quarantines, masks, social distancing — and sourdough bread baking. Every January brings the urge for reflection and improvement — and especially so this year. Here are a few of our New Year’s Resolutions for 2021: 1....Stay healthy! You owe it to yourself and your whole community to maintain the healthy habits we’ve had to adopt for most of last year. So keep wearing those masks, keep your distance from others and wash hands frequently. We may be sick of these routines, but we must keep them up until the vaccines are widely distributed and the spread of the COVID-19 virus is contained. (By the way, did you know that one great side effect of using masks and hand washing is that seasonal flu rates are way down this year?) 2....Do your part by getting vaccinated. It’s wonderful news that the new safe and effective vaccines will soon be available to the wider public, giving us hope that we can begin to go back to normal, with schools, stores, restaurants, gyms, houses of worship, and other gathering spaces once more welcoming us. But this will only happen if enough of us receive the vaccine, so do your part as soon as you can. 3....Plant more trees. They help keep the environment healthy, filtering the air, reducing water run-off and reducing heat in summer, not to mention adding beauty and value to your home. The Windsor Square Association is happy to help with this goal by providing a free street tree to any neighbor with an empty spot in the parkway. To obtain yours, contact us through the website (windsorsquare.org). 4....Make Windsor Square an even friendlier place to live. Welcome new neighbors, greet people as you walk the sidewalks, support our local shops, restaurants and farmers’ markets (we have two now, on Wednesdays and Sundays). Thank your mail carriers, who have worked harder this year than ever. 5....Volunteer to help others, if you are able. There are countless opportunities (COVID-safe for the time being). Check with local churches, temples and food banks. Look into Meals on Wheels or our local Big Sunday organization, which matches volunteers with dozens of projects. 6....Keep up those creative outlets . . . that kept you sane this past year, whether it’s gardening, painting, crafting, organizing — and yes, sourdough bread baking. Keep feeding that starter, and share the wealth! 7....Finally, join the Windsor Square Association, if you haven’t already. Go to our newly updated website to find out more. We’re a great source of information about issues that affect the neighborhood, from safety to land use to traffic, and more. And don’t forget the free parkway trees!
Ed. Note: The proposed changes and tenant and owner concerns at 410 N. Rossmore Ave. were covered in our Feb., March, Aug. and Dec. 2020 issues.
Proposed Rossmore project is not welcome
©LC0121
The Windsor Square Association, an all-volunteer group of residents from 1100 households between Beverly and Wilshire and Van Ness and Arden, works to preserve and enhance our beautiful neighborhood. Join with us! Drop us a line at 325 N. Larchmont Blvd., #158, Los Angeles, CA 90004, or visit our website at windsorsquare.org. ADV.
the cloak of affordable housing. They function with nontraditional leases and create a fluid and transient environment with a high turnover. They describe it as “...per bed rents” to their investors. Imagine paying $1,900 a month for a 150-square-foot bedroom? Also, it exploits an infrastructure that is already stressed. We are already having electrical, water and traffic problems on the street. Traffic on Rossmore Avenue is already intense with countless accidents in front of 410 Rossmore Ave. and the Wilshire Country Club. More units and construction will amplify an already chaotic street. Rossmore bottlenecks at Rosewood going north and below Melrose going south. It is one lane on both sides for a good stretch. Add all the delivery trucks on top of that! This zone can not withstand the traffic, dust, debris and destabilization from long term construction along with the parking issues, which are bad now. Sixty-four parking spaces for 225 residents? Arden, Rosewood and Lucerne are already challenged for parking. Our RSO building [under the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance] provided the city of Los Angeles with 78 rent stabilized units in a beautiful neighborhood. The previous owner took 18 units off the market with AirBnB. That was the beginning of the trouble. The new out-of-state owner, Domos, bought the building with many vacant units, which was probably very appealing to them. We need to protect existing affordable housing stock. It is rapidly disappearing in Los Angeles to high-rise luxury apartments. This does not solve the housing crisis, it actually adds to it. If you say you are for affordable housing, you do not displace people that are already in affordable housing. Los Angeles has reached a tipping point in the dance between the city and the developers. Vulture economics have swooped in along with the melodic jackhammer, even during the pandemic, there is no peace, just pressure to pack it up and get out of the way of “progress.” I can assure you that all the surrounding neighbors on every side of our property are deeply concerned with these plans. Cinzia Zanetti Rossmore Ave.
As a resident of a neighboring building on Rossmore, I do not welcome this proposed architectural abomination that will diminish the quality of lives of my fellow residents
Larchmont Chronicle
310 N. LUCERNE “party house” backs up to Chipotle.
Lucerne ‘party house’ cited for noise, ‘disturbing the peace’
By Suzan Filipek After months of complaints about loud parties at a home at 310 N. Lucerne Blvd., the owner was cited for disturbing the peace and violating the city’s COVID-19 Saferat-Home order, said LAPD Wilshire Division Senior Lead Officer Dave Cordova. Officers responded to complaints of loud noise at the home in the early morning
hours of Dec. 12 and Dec. 13, Cordova said. “We are aware of this location, and are working on it,” said Mehrnoosh Zahiri Naderi, Wilshire neighborhood prosecutor and deputy city attorney. She would not comment further until she receives the criminal filing. Neighbors first complained of activities at the home ear(Please turn to page 8)
by additional traffic and parking congestion, and destroy the charm and character of the neighborhood. The past year has been a devastating challenge for everyone and the idea of putting longtime renters out of their homes is cruel and heartless, all in the pursuit of grotesquely obscene profits. I’m not against owners getting decent return on their investment, but when it brings hardship and pain to the vulnerable tenants it is nothing short of sadism. Surely there is a humane way to achieve a mutually beneficial resolution. Compounding the inanity of this project is the notion of “coliving.” Does that mean the building will actually be a high-ticket dormitory for young professionals? Are there
any successful examples in Los Angeles or elsewhere of this form of community living? Are the builders anticipating a new Age of Aquarius? This project should be nipped in the bud before it pollutes this beautiful neighborhood. John De Simio Rossmore Ave.
Co-living is a disaster
What a disaster for the tenants, the neighborhood, the city and historic preservation. This PR hit job is unworthy of this neighborhood paper. Turning this historic building into a fancy AirBnB is a terrible idea. Co-living during the time of COVID is an epic disaster. We should all denounce this plan. Mary Kate Killilea Rossmore Ave.
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New CD4 Councilmember proud and excited to serve
To all of the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods including Windsor Square and Hancock Park, and to the small businesses along Larchmont Boulevard, hello! I’m very proud and excited to be your new City Councilmember representing Council District 4. For those who haven’t met me, I’m an urban planner, a working mom of preschoolaged twins, and an immigrant to America. I was born in Kerala, India, and grew up in the suburbs of Massachusetts, where I attended public schools, and later went to Harvard and got my masters in Urban Planning at MIT. I moved to Los Angeles in 2013 after many years working in India on issues related to urban poverty and slums. As an immigrant to this country myself, I love Los Angeles, because it is a city that welcomes immigrants with open arms. It is one of the many reasons that led my husband and me to choose to raise our family and build our lives together here. Much of the work I have done in Los Angeles has focused on homelessness. In
Council Report by
Nithya Raman 2014, I worked for the City Administrative Officer of Los Angeles and wrote a report on the city’s spending to address homelessness. I was dismayed to learn that the city spent the vast majority of its resources arresting and jailing unhoused people, rather than offering services, treatment, and other effective paths to stable housing. I left the workforce temporarily when I had twins, but stayed active in my own community, joining the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s Homelessness Committee as Co-Chair and co-founding the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, helping grow it into one of the most active allvolunteer homeless services nonprofits in the city. Working to expand homeless services in my own neighborhood, I grew frustrated by
Land Use Committee of GWNC hears comments on 410 N. Rossmore
By John Welborne The Land Use Committee of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC) met via Zoom on Dec. 22, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Although there were about a dozen substantive agenda items discussed at the meeting (see greaterwilshire.org/land-usecommittee-agendas-minutes for details), nearly the bulk of the meeting was devoted to discussing changes proposed for the apartment building whose construction got underway at 410 N. Rossmore Ave. in 1930 (but arguably was not completed until 1944). The property was sold to a new owner — Domos — in January 2020. The company specializes in “community living” or “co-living” projects. See: domoscoliving.com. Land Use Committee Chair Philip Farha invited a representative of the property’s new owner and developer to report on the latest plans for the property. Richard Loring, the firm’s construction director, who actually has moved into the building on Rossmore, presented the latest architectural plans and renderings. They, and a lot of other materials, are available at: greaterwilshire.org/LUCdocs Resident objections The majority of the community testimony consisted of objections to the project from some current tenants and several neighbors. Nearly
45 minutes were devoted to their comments. In total, 16 people spoke in opposition to the project, including (with apologies for misspellings): Sarita Singh, Joy Wingard, Lois DeArmond, Siobhan Higgins, Cinzia Zanetti, Paula Peng, Carolina Lopez, David Roud, Chris Shandley, Brandon Smith, Karen Yamashita, Ted Kitata, Anne (no last name), Philip (no last name), Cindy Chvatal and Deborah Natoli. Monitoring the meeting was Tabatha Yelos, attending on behalf of new Councilmember Nithya Raman. The testimony from attendees — other than the owner’s representative, the committee members, and the councilmember’s representative — was universally in opposition to just about everything said or presented by Domos during the past year. Two of the speakers, architects who live on Arden behind the apartment building, did indicate that they would like to review the architectural drawings (which only had been provided hours before the meeting — and are available at the GWNC web link cited above). The developer did indicate that the construction plans are not yet final and that there has been no application to the city for permits. He said that the company’s intention is to submit plans to the city (Please turn to page 9)
how little help we were getting from our elected officials — so I decided to do something about it. I ran a campaign for City Council premised on the belief that the city can play a transformative role in addressing our interwoven climate and housing crises, but residents were too often not engaged by city officials in how to participate in the local political process. Our campaign resolved to change that, building a field team of volunteers that knocked on over 80,000 doors across the district during the primary, and recruiting over 2,000 volunteers to our campaign during the general election. Our campaign was also unique because we refused all corporate and PAC donations and only raised money from individuals. The three main pillars of our campaign were taking on homelessness and housing insecurity, addressing climate crisis, and improving City Hall governance. But COVID-19 has necessitated a new, urgent agenda of keeping people safe and small businesses afloat during these unprecedented times. I’ve spent the last month hiring staff and meeting with community groups, elected officials, and the heads of all 44 city departments in order to ensure that my office will be able to advocate as effectively as possible for the residents of CD4. I would also
like to express my deep appreciation for the way that former Councilmember Ryu and his staff have made themselves available to make the transition as seamless as possible. My process for designing and enacting public policy is premised on a belief in cogovernance, in which all parties affected by an issue are given a voice and a seat at the table. If your community or neighborhood-level group hasn’t spoken with my office yet, I encourage you to be in touch and we will set up a time!
Rising COVID infections, widespread economic hardship, and a deepening city budget crisis make this a dark and difficult moment to be assuming office. But as I meet with dedicated city officials, engaged residents, and the passionate and talented staff members I am assembling in my office, I am also possessed by great hope for what 2021 will bring. I am humbled by the trust that you’ve placed in me, and I look forward to serving you to the best of my ability as your Councilmember.
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
Swearing in
(Continued from page 1) ty and build their dreams,” Raman said to her new Council colleagues. “And yet — just as vast as this city’s capacity for joy has been — so too has been its tolerance for suffering.” Raman went on to say that economic forces are pushing people out of their homes, out of the city, and onto the street: “I feel the weight of this moment so heavily. It hangs on my heart,” she said. Following the swearing-in ceremony, Raman and Ridley-Thomas — who served on the Council in the ‘90s
before his time in state and county government — participated in the year’s last City Council meeting. The Council recessed until this month. Council motions Raman’s first motion asks the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the city to report back on the status of homeless outreach efforts, including how teams are managed, where in the city efforts are taking place, and how resources are divided between proactive and reactive efforts. Her second motion asks the city to identify funding and possible sites for homeless services, such as restrooms,
showers and storage, in CD4. “As homelessness has become widespread across our entire city, services have not expanded to meet the need,” Raman stated in remarks following her swearing in. Council District 10 Councilmember Ridley-Thomas, who replaced Herb Wesson, struck a similar tone in his remarks when he called homelessness the “moral crisis of our time.” Ridley-Thomas introduced a motion to ask the city to report back on creating a “Right to Housing” framework within city law. And he introduced a resolution for the city to support state Assembly Bill 71, which proposes $2.4 billion for homelessness and housing efforts.
ON THE JOB, Councilmember Raman poses with her family last month in the John Ferraro City Council Chamber.
Councilman Ridley-Thomas has many mentors By John Welborne Each month, for more than 30 years, “The Planning Report” (planningreport.com) has been a forum for the region’s leaders to engage in substantive debate about urban planning, growth, design, and public infrastructure investment. In the Dec. 21 issue, publisher David Abel interviewed incoming Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas (10th District). The interview wrapped up with this thoughtful question and informative answer. Q: Who are the thoughtleaders you’ve had the opportunity to spend time with over your more than two-decade public career whose ideas have inspired you and helped you frame your public priorities? A: It’s no secret that my
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40-year conversation partner has been Prof. Cornel West. He’s a standout in terms of a sustained personal, public, intellectual-based relationship, although we differ on a number of things political. There’s no two ways about the role that he’s played. My activity a decade into the Aspen Institute was connected with Prof. West; my relationship with Sen. Bill Bradley was Prof. West; my relationship with Toni Morrison was Prof. West and on, and on, and on. That’s one example. In the arts, currently there is a fellow by the name of Michael Govan at LACMA who I have mad respect for and all of what he’s doing. I’m a big supporter of his vision, his work, and the way that he has blessed the LA scene—and he’s not done yet. In the area of bioscience is my mentor, David Meyer. In the area of healthcare proper, I met, with the launching of the MLK hospital, the following individuals: Dr. Robert Ross, Dr. Woody Meyer. Additionally would be he who is now the president of the UC system, Michael Drake, and add to that the president of Duke Health Care, Gene Washington. And so, the five of us met with regularity over breakfast and steered, engineered, and gave definition and leadership to the vision of what that hospital could and should
Lucerne
(Continued from page 6) lier in the year, and police officers held a Zoom meeting with the owner, real estate developer Youval Ziv. “We advised him he could no longer rent the home,” Cordova said. Afterwards, there was a lull in activity but the boisterous parties were held again from time to time, Cordova said. The police first became aware of parties with large gatherings at rental homes throughout the city after bars, clubs and restaurants were closed in response to the pandemic.
MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS
be, and I maintain conversation and relationships with those individuals to this very day. And finally, I’ll shout out to those who are on the ground making it work: Dr. Elaine Batchlor at MLK Community Hospital and Dr. David Carlisle at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Those are some of the individuals who have had a pretty significant impact on my development and investment over the past, literally, three decades. Now, a couple of others: Rev. James Lawson Jr., a teacher of nonviolence as designated by Dr. Martin Luther King, and Marian Wright Edelman and her husband, Peter Edelman, who I’ve become close friends with over the last decade; they have had a significant impact on my work and freedom schools and more. “There’s nowhere to go because of the pandemic. So we noticed this … it’s similar throughout the city… We’re definitely trying to get on top of it,” Cordova said. If the Lucerne owner does not comply, the mayor’s office will authorize the Dept. of Water and Power to turn off the home’s electricity. Several “party homes” have continuing by getting generators, said Cordova. In those cases, the mayor’s office will authorize shutting off the water. The house on Lucerne is just north of Beverly Boulevard in the Larchmont Village Neighborhood.
Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
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David Ryu says farewell to City Council, thanks communities Delivering his farewell address last month, former Councilmember David Ryu, with his wife Regina by his side, spoke to the City Council virtually, with a message of gratitude and hope. Ryu served as the Fourth District Councilmember for five years after replacing former Councilmember Tom LaBonge in 2015. In his Dec. 8 remarks, Ryu reflected on his work and on lessons learned while in
office. “I quickly learned that working together was the only way to make meaningful change. Getting things done doesn’t always mean being out front, and leadership requires tough choices, compromise and collaboration,” he said. Most of all, Ryu thanked the communities that make up Council District Four: “This district is full of neighborhood groups and hardworking residents, who are
Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association holds Zoom meeting
By John Welborne The Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association (LVNA) held its first remote general meeting via Zoom for its fall meeting in November. LVNA president, Charles D’Atri, reports that subjects discussed included the recent Fourth Council District (CD4) election, graffiti in the Raleigh Studios and Elmwood Avenue and Van Ness Avenue areas, a recent fire on Rossmore Avenue, the upcoming Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council elections in March 2021, and the construction of a new home on N. Plymouth Blvd. The association includes residences between Arden Boulevard (both sides) and
Wilton Place, from Beverly Boulevard to Melrose Avenue. At the fall meeting, Senior Lead Officer Joe Pelayo, from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Olympic Division, provided a thorough update, according to D’Atri. As association president, D’Atri spoke at length about how much he and his neighbors appreciated the diligent attention given by CD4 field deputy Rob Fisher to all neighborhood matters. D’Atri said, “The role of field deputy is of critical importance in helping our neighbors find their ways through the thicket of city government, and we can only hope that the new staff will be as helpful as the last one.”
Blood Drive set Girl Scouts’ sales for Jan. 27, 28 go digital in 2021
The Original Farmers Market is partnering with Cedars-Sinai to help save lives. Roll up your sleeve on Wed., Jan. 27 and Thurs., Jan. 28 from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. to donate blood. Look for the bloodmobile next to Earl’s Service Station on the Market Plaza, 6333 W. Third St. Space is limited and advance registration is encouraged at donatebloodcedars.org.
The Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles 2021 Cookie Program will kick off Mon., Jan. 11 with the launch of Digital Cookie, a platform to help girls develop their cookie businesses. The GSGLA Cookie Program starts with cookie inventories delivered to the Scouts on Go Day, Jan. 24. For more information about the Cookie Program visit girlscoutsla.org, and read all about it in our special Scouts section in February.
Land use
mittee Secretary Cathy Roberts indicated that the committee had not yet taken a position on the project, first presented to the committee last February. It was the consensus of committee members present that additional review is needed from committee members. Farha noted that there is no case number yet assigned by the city, and he concluded by stating that the committee would return to this project in the future. Then, at 8:15 p.m., the committee moved on to the other items on its agenda.
(Continued from page 7) in March. Loring also said that Domos plans to return to the Land Use Committee with additional drawings, including requested renderings of the proposed co-living suites (four-to-five bedroom apartments with shared kitchen and common areas and some shared bathrooms). Chairman Farha requested the Council Office to designate a representative to participate in the process of reviewing the project. Land Use Com-
committed to improving our city. Being able to partner with those community leaders and deliver for neighborhoods has been the honor of my life,” said Ryu. If he could do anything differently, Ryu explained that he would “have gone further and pushed harder” for reform. In closing, Ryu noted: “I may no longer be a City Councilmember, but I will always be an Angeleno. And I look forward to working with all of you on continuing to serve our incredible City.”
OUTGOING Councilmember David Ryu, sitting with wife Regina, says farewell to City Council members on Dec. 8.
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
(Continued from page 1) Boulevard. Larchmont Barber Shop For nearly eight decades, Larchmont Barber Shop served local residents, young and old. In 2013, George Hilario bought the shop from Jerry Cottone, who, with his father Vince, ran the barbershop for more than 70 years. Taking the “Larchmont Barber Shop” name west with him, Hilario says that he is moving the salon to a new location at 401 1/2 S. Fairfax Ave., with two of his colleagues, Cesar Perez and Cesar Vasquez. Hilario says that the new location will be open Sat., Jan. 2. Contact 323-464-6659. Vincent Hair Artistry The transition has not been easy for Vincent De Marco, owner of Vincent Hair Artistry. Having secured a new location last October, located at 140 N. Larchmont Blvd., De Marco has been fighting to get the necessary permits and renovations complete as soon as possible, but he fears it could be several more months of work until he’s ready to welcome back clients. “It’s been really stressful,” De Marco told the Chronicle.
He requested a 90-day extension to his lease in the Lipson Building, but the request was swiftly denied by Christina Development. Visit vincenthairartistry.com for updates. Alegria Bazaar Opened as a pop-up shop in 2017, Alegria Bazaar by Paula Carlotto does not yet have a new location. Local residents know Carlotto from her years selling hand-made jewelry from her colorful van at the Larchmont Village Farmer’s Market. When asked about the changes coming to Larch-
younger generation is going to lose that special quality of community. Nationwide chain stores don’t care about local neighborhoods,” she said. Carlotto told the Chronicle that she has not been able to find the right location on the Boulevard, although she says that she wants to stay local if she can. For now, she is directing people to her website for updates, alegriabazaar.com. Other updates Owner of Landis Gifts & Stationery Edie Frère told us that, for now, she is taking
custom stationery orders at landisstationery.com. The upstairs tenant in the building, Judy M. Horton Garden Design, is leaving Larchmont but, as Judy says, “still in business!” Her contact information is 323-440-9846 and jhorton@jmhgardendesign.com. Lipson Plumbing is staying on Larchmont, moving its business office north of Beverly to 606 N. Larchmont Blvd, Suite 106. The telephone number remains the same, 323-469-2395.
Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Newstat, Chevalier’s manager, 72 By Rachel Olivier Elizabeth “Liz” Clare Newstat, Hancock Park, passed away last month. She was 72. A long time employee and manager at Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont Boulevard, Newstat was considered the local aficionado on all things literary. Some of her work included selecting books for Chevalier’s, meeting with publishers and planning author events, as well as the day-today running of the store, and of course matching readers with good books. “Every book on that shelf was handpicked by Liz,” said
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mont, Carlotto says that she is worried that “the special community feeling is being lost.” She can recall “the golden years” of Larchmont Boulevard (her ex-husband was the chef and owner of La Luna, a former Larchmont restaurant located in the Le Pain Quotidien space and beloved by many locals in the area): “Twenty years ago, there was such a strong feeling of community between local residents and the small business owners on Larchmont, but things are changing. I worry that the
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one of her characters on Newstat in an upcoming novel. “She was an extraordinary person, kind and funny and the best bookseller I’ve ever known,” said Los Angeles novelist Steph Cha on Twitter. “Her taste was exquisite — last time I went to the store [Chevalier’s Books] I bought six books. I hadn’t meant to buy any,” said Dennis Johnson, co-owner of Melville
House Books in New York, in another tweet. “As we close our current location [at 126 N. Larchmont Blvd.] and begin another chapter in our new home at 133 N. Larchmont Blvd. next year, we will carry Liz’s spirit with us. Hopefully she won’t hate it too much,” stated the announcement signed by Chevalier’s staff “old and new” in December.
LONGTIME Chevalier’s employee Newstat preferred her graphic icon to being photographed.
a statement from Chevalier’s Books, announcing her death. “She fought for the authors she believed in, and every book she pressed into your hands would become your new favorite.” A brief online search showed not only how often Newstat has been quoted or referred to over the years by the Los Angeles literary community, but also how much she will be missed. From the “Los Angeles Times,” the “Los Angeles Review of Books,” the “Larchmont Buzz” and columnist Paula Panich of the Larchmont Chronicle, to as far away as indie bookstores in Bremerton, Wash. and an independent publisher in Brooklyn, N.Y. Newstat’s expertise was celebrated and appreciated. As reported in the “Larchmont Buzz,” local author Julia Claiborne Johnson had based
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
HEALTH & BEAUTY
11
Staying healthy, fit, flexible and vaccinated amid shifting rules
By Suzan Filipek Back rubs and neck massages were loosening tight muscles at Healing Hands Wellness Center on Larchmont Boulevard when the state rolled out more restrictive pandemic guidelines last month. “As things are changing, we are changing with whatever is in place,” said Center acting manager Katina Nikou. The city tightened a Safer at Home Order on Dec. 14 after the region’s hospital intensive care unit (ICU) capacity fell below 15 percent. By Christmas, capacity had fallen to zero percent. Massages continue at the site, but now a doctor’s note is required to book a treatment. But “come January … the note aspect may be a moot point,” notes Nikou. Since acupuncture and chiropractic care are offered on site, the center is considered an essential health care service and allowed to stay open through the pandemic. Usually no more than four
MASSAGES continue at Healing Hands Wellness Center, an essential health care service with a loyal local following.
people are on site at any time — which is much less than the 25 percent capacity allotment for essential health care services, Nikou explained. Clients enter a sanitized lobby, equipped with new air filters and plexiglass, for mobile check-in. Operating out of a 1920s bungalow the past 17 years, Healing Hands has a loyal following. Many clients and patients refuse to go elsewhere, and would rather wait out the pandemic, said Nikou.
“We send out emails regularly updating them. We have so many wonderful regular clients from the community.” Healing Hands, 414 N. Larchmont Blvd., healinghandswc.com, 323-461-7876. • • • “I can’t stay home… I’m a healthcare worker!” Dr. Angelique Campen says on her Facebook page at GlamERDoc. The Hancock Park resident and ER physician at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank has been on
the front lines since the start of the pandemic. Her daily vlog on Facebook and Instagram gives up-todate information on the science and the facts behind the pandemic and the coronavirus, and also chronicles her journey: “All signed up!” she writes Dec. 15 for the COVID-19 vaccine, dose 1, Dec. 16 at UCLA. The next day she reports, “I have a sore muscle in my arm which is to be expected (means my immune system is good and doing its job) but other than that I feel fine!”
Her second shot is in three to four weeks, when more systemic symptoms are expected (fatigue, body aches, etc.). And, she’s not on the fence about it. “Get the vaccine!” she stresses. She’s still making house calls to homes in the neighborhood with her in-home esthetic medicine practice. “I am still making house calls but only after screening questions for illness and while wearing masks,” Dr. Campen told us last month via email. Dr. Angelique Campen, an(Please turn to page 12)
FUNCTIONAL FITNESS is for all ages, the young and old, and athletes, says Ester Poberezhskaya.
321 N. Larchmont Blvd. Suite 906 323.464.8046 rebeccafitzgeraldmd.com
JANUARY 2021
HEALTH & BEAUTY
Staying healthy (Continued from page 11)
gelique.campen@ucla.edu, 323-788-3409. • • • Before the tighter restrictions last month, physical therapist and nutritionist Ester Poberezhskaya was travelling to clients’ backyards to work on abs, lunges and balance exercises as well as a host of other tools in her “functional fitness” arsenal to improve
tennis swings and prevent injuries. “It’s been a bit hectic, to say the least. These last changes have put a dent in my plans,” said the certified nutritionist and personal trainer. For now, the outdoor classes have been nixed, but “I am working via Zoom to keep all my clients healthy and most importantly sane during this time,” Ester tells us. “We’re trying to be more careful, so we don’t cause any
pandemic upticks…” She describes “functional fitness as great for self awareness, but most importantly, it’s for longevity and self care and to be able to stay in your own home.” Clients as young as four also benefit from cross training, a new movement among athletes and lay people seeking to become well-rounded in various sports and activities. She still is teaching from her studio at Musa on Larchmont Boulevard, where, before the pandemic, she held in-person classes. Private classes are offered in 15-, 30and 45-minute increments, and group classes are offered mornings and evenings for 30 minutes or one hour. Older clients learn skills such as how to walk through a narrow pathway, reach a high shelf or carry a travel bag — so they are mobile enough to travel. She also preps students for new activities, such as running a marathon or keeping up with their grandkids. “Our goal is to build healthy lifestyle routines that we can stick with during tough times, as well as once we are free to travel and take over the world!” Visit BodybyEster.com or call 310-334-9737. • • • Also working to keep your body and limbs moving and pliable is the staff at Larchmont Physical Therapy (LPT), where Kathy Whooley celebrated her 35th year on the boulevard in June.
Larchmont Chronicle
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PHYSICAL THERAPIST Kathy Whooley converses with patients through telehealth at Larchmont Physical Therapy.
It was a quiet celebration, said office manager Joanne Mendoza. LPT’s annual events (a holiday party at Le Petite Greek and participation in the Taste of Larchmont in the fall) were also cancelled, noted Mendoza. But LPT has stayed open in the Larchmont Medical Building throughout the pandemic. In fact, in preparing for the flu season in the fall, staff had bulked up on hospital grade PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and sanitizers, which, coincidentally, were lifesavers the past several months. An on-site gym has closed, and fewer patients venture out from home, but those that do are greeted by Whooley and other physical therapists — all masked. Some are treated via telehealth calls. “We are all in this together,” notes Whooley. Larchmont Physical Therapy, 321 N. Larchmont, Ste. 825, 323-464-4458.
Here’s how it works: a paddle-like device is placed on your abdomen, thighs or buttocks to emit magnetic energy. That energy prompts thousands of involuntary muscle contractions to strengthen muscle fibers. Six treatments are recommended to see the lean, defined, enviable look of Pilates enthusiasts. After each session you’ll experience the rewarding soreness of a great workout. To maintain your sleek new physique, come in for a maintenance session every few months. Schedule your appointment today and get started on acquiring the body you’ve only dreamt of. Happy, healthy New Year! Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald is a Board Certified Dermatologist located in Larchmont Village with a special focus on anti-aging technology. She is a member of the Botox Cosmetic National Education Faculty and is an international Training Physician for Dermik, the makers of the injectable Sculptra. She is also among a select group of physicians chosen to teach proper injection techniques for Radiesse, the volumizing filler, around the world. Dr. Fitzgerald is an assistant clinical professor at UCLA. Visit online at www.RebeccaFitzgeraldMD.com or call (323) 464-8046 to schedule an appointment. Adv.
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
HEALTH & BEAUTY
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14
JANUARY 2021
HEALTH & BEAUTY
Bespoke Beauty (Continued from page 1)
AT HOME in Fremont Place, Toni Ko shows her new Bespoke make up line, Jason Wu Beauty. Stephanie Yang Photography
tiful Beauty Products.” “People have their pictures taken in front of it,” Ko said proudly during a telephone conversation last month. The company’s product development takes place on the third floor of the building, but, because of the pandemic, Ko is working from her Fremont Place home, where she is preparing for the launch of her new makeup line, Jason Wu Beauty. She met fashion designer Jason Wu at a casual dinner with friends, and together they
dreamed up the idea of the line, the glamour of haute couture with an affordable price tag. It includes multitaskers, such as lipsticks that double as eye shadows, in earthy, neutral colors with a touch of naughtiness, says Ko. Jason Wu Beauty will launch on Jan. 17 at Target stores across the country. Wu designed First Lady Michelle Obama’s inauguration dresses. L’Oreal deal Ko founded Bespoke Beauty Brands after a noncompete agreement was lifted five years after she sold her NYX Professional Makeup in a deal reportedly worth $400 million.
Celebrating 35 Years Serving the Greater Los Angeles Community
COME VISIT US AT LARCHMONT PHYSICAL THERAPY At Larchmont Physical Therapy, we are passionate about providing excellent patient care. As a privately-owned business with great integrity, we are able to attend to our patients’ physical and emotional states of being. We create an individualized plan of care for each patient that promotes optimal results.
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Our team’s passion, background and expertise has been carefully selected so that we may better assist you with your own rehabilitation needs. LPT remains open to serve the community following CDC guidelines to keep our staff and patients safe!
321 N. Larchmont Boulevard • Suite 825 • Los Angeles 90004 (323) 464-4458 Visit our website: www.larchmontpt.com Email: larchmontpt@juno.com
2 0 Ye a r A n n i v e r s a r y ! T h a n k y o u , L a r c h m o n t !
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Larchmont Chronicle
HER HOME is remodeled in a contemporary style with hints of its Spanish and Italian past, says Toni Ko.
Home photos by Tessa Neustadt
After the L’Oreal deal, Ko had planned to relax and retire. “I thought I was going to retire and sit by the beach for the rest of my life, and that didn’t happen. After two days I got bored.” Instead, she bought a Fremont Place house, make that two houses, and because the noncompete agreement restricted her from working in the beauty business, she ventured into the sunglasses market. For a while, she had a shop. Perverse, on Larchmont. The L’Oreal restriction lifted, Ko founded Bespoke Beauty Brands in 2019 and purchased the former Cerrell Associates building. (The Cerrell public affairs firm had been at the site for 40 years before moving last year to 5900 Wilshire Blvd.) Bespoke’s first makeup line, KimChi Chic Beauty, is marketed in collaboration with drag queen Kim Chi, of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Ko’s NYX line was a sponsor on season two of the TV show. “I DM’d her on Instagram. I was a big fan, and she replied,” says Ko of the partnership. Distribution of Bespoke’s products is from a warehouse in the City of Commerce, and manufacturing is in Asia, so when the Larchmont building went on the market, she jumped at the chance to gain access to the Westside and be near influencers. She herself is not an influencer, she laughs. She was, however, in 2019, on the cover of “Forbes”’ annual “America’s Richest Self-Made Women,” and her Toni Ko Foundation lends support to organizations that help children, especially young girls’ educations. She is also a board member of the UNICEF Southern California chapter and took a field visit to Madagascar in spring 2019. Ko, 47, emigrated to the U.S. with her parents from South Korea when she was 13. As a teen she helped run their beauty store and a cosmetics distributing company. With $250,000 in seed money from her mother, Ko launched a line of lip liners and eyeliners in 1999 when offices were equipped with fax machines and “super-slow dot (Please turn to page 15)
Body by Ester Times have changed, and so must we. Zoom on-line LIVE training sessions are here to stay. Take charge of your daily routine and add balance, strength, resistance, flexibility & posture training to your life. By adding 1-3 minutes a day to your already learned routines, you can jumpstart your energy levels, improve sleep & increase bone density. My name is Ester and I have been training people ages 4-89 to connect with their body and improve their physical abilities. At BodyByEster Zoom, we train movement not muscles, practicing end-range motions while improving flexibility and balance. Regardless of what your ability level may be, there is always room for improvement. Keeping a high immunity & listening to your body is especially important now during the pandemic. As a Holistic nutritionist & physical trainer, I strongly encourage my clients to stay active and eat nutritious food for their longevity & happiness, which we discuss during our private and small group Zoom training session. All group classes have moved to ZOOM online until further notice. However, one-on-one training outdoors (front/back yards & pools) with masks and according to other safety precautions will continue following all guidelines. Schedule your assessment or nutrition consultation today. Please call 310-334-9737 or email me at Ester@bodybyester.com to get started.
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
HEALTH & BEAUTY
IMMACULATE HEART By Quinn Lanza 12th Grade
CHIEF NURSING OFFICER at Olympia Medical Center Sheryl Howland receives the vaccine shot from the employee health nurse. Photo: Jeffrey Adams, Olympia Medical Center
Vaccine is here! Frontline workers are up first
By Suzan Filipek The first vials of the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer have been delivered to Olympic Medical Center for frontline healthcare workers. Nurses at the hospital have created a slogan in support of the vaccination: “Be the Barrier, not the Carrier.” “I encourage you to have your colleagues who might be skeptical, to talk to their doctors, talk to me, to talk to you about why it makes sense to get immunized,” said Dr. Peter Wolfe, infectious disease specialist and chair of the Infection Control Committee. The hospital utilizes storage containers for the Pfizer vaccine that are specially made to achieve temperatures of -94 degrees. The vaccine supply is refreshed every 15 days. Pfizer has developed its own shipping techniques to keep temperatures extremely cold in specialty shipping contain-
ers that hold dry ice. The Pfizer vaccine along with the Moderna vaccine, also recently approved, consist of two shots given about 21 days apart and have proven 95% effective. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a new scientific approach to enhance the body’s immune system to fight off COVID-19 by turning the patient’s virus-fighting cells into armies made up of one particular corona virus protein — the outer shell of the virus — similar to an M&M without the chocolate inside. These pioneering vaccines work by providing a genetic code message to our cells to produce viral proteins. Once the outer shell proteins, which don’t cause disease, are produced, the body launches an immune response against the virus, enabling the person to develop immunity.
Bespoke Beauty
main house, a two-bedroom guesthouse, a pool, outdoor lounging and dining areas and palm trees. The original owner was said to have hired a set designer as the architect, which explains its “Romeo and Juliet”- style balconies and Spanish and Italian feel. The late Kazuko Hoshino was the interior decorator of the new home, painted white with gold-trimmed furnishings. Ko insisted on the rose quartz surround for her fireplace. “It has good energy,” she says.
matrix” printers. Trade shows, however, were plentiful at the time, and she thinks she went to every one. Social media By 2011, social media was picking up speed. “We were fortunate. We gained momentum from these outlets.” Before social media, one happy customer could tell her friends. “Now, this person could tell 1,000 friends.” In Fremont Place, she embarked on a complex remodel of her early 20thcentury homes — rumored to have been owned by A.P. Giannini, founder of Bank of America — with BAR Design and Construction and architect William Hefner. As required by the Fremont Place Association, she removed and saved the historical façade and moved the home to the back. A new home was built in its place, and the original façade was reapplied to the front. She is “super happy” with the results — a six-bedroom
CHRIST THE KING By Wynter Williams 8th Grade
The second trimester of this academic year is well under way. Our Academic Decathlon team is beginning to prepare for the competition, which will take place in the new year, even though students will be competing online.
At the beginning of December, students had the day off to participate in an online retreat. This retreat included meditation and self-guided discussions aimed at helping students de-stress before CAP (Cumulative Assessment Period). Students survived CAP week and then came together for our last school day of the year for the school’s virtual Christmas Program, which featured songs and skits by members of our Genesians theatre company. Immaculate Heart plans to
return to virtual learning on Jan. 11, but with schedule changes to accommodate student concerns expressed last semester about the difficulties of online learning. These changes include a later start time and slightly shorter classes to allow students more time to sleep and hopefully, less screen time. With the coming vaccine, students hope for sports to soon be underway and for classes to return to campus at some point. Happy 2021!
Alongside that, our 8th grade class is preparing for the High School Placement Tests and interviews, which will be held in January. The 8th grade class isn’t the only class who’s busy though — students throughout the school have been showing their Advent and Christmas spirit! Though not in person, our school held a food drive for Thanksgiving and a toy drive during Advent for the less fortunate. We raised a fantastic amount of
food and gifts for those in need. While we continued with our distance learning, we also held a virtual Christmas pageant with our beautiful angels, shepherds, and kings, and everyone who gave their voices and talents to make this pageant possible. Students have now been dismissed for their Christmas break. We hope that everyone will celebrate Jesus’ birth and be grateful for everything they have been blessed with. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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Immaculate Heart students are currently in the middle of their winter break. Looking back, our first full semester of virtual learning has been largely successful, and the entire school community pitched in to make it work.
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Larchmont Chronicle
If you build it, they will come: St. Brendan Basketball I never played basketball as a youth, so it was quite a learning experience when my friend Joe Byrne invited me to be his assistant coach on the Saint Brendan Basketball Association (SBBA) teams on which our sons were members. During one of the two seasons we coached together, the squad went undefeated, then it won the post-season tournament. I take no credit for that. Joe Byrne is a great coach. The SBBA has been my son’s favorite athletic league since he began playing organized sports six years ago. He’s participated in baseball, flag football, basketball, soccer, indoor rock climbing and tennis. The SBBA is relatively new. In 2010, a group of parents, led by Jason Kruse, formed a neighborhood recreational youth basketball league. Prior to that, the choices for local kids who wanted to play organized basketball were the Pan Pacific or Hollywood YMCA leagues. If adding a third program locally might have seemed excessive, consider this: In 2017, the year Joe and I coached the SBBA’s French Lick Hoosiers (that’s another story), the league had grown to 280 players and 28 teams. It’s the best league for beginners because the rules insist on equal playing time for all members. The SBBA also implements a policy for the younger divisions where the defense must set up and
Youth Sports by
Jim Kalin remain inside the three-point line, which promotes offensive plays and strategy. History The groundwork for the SBBA’s formation began much earlier than its actual inaugural season. St. Brendan School first opened in 1915, and its original two-story brick building faced Western Avenue. In 1960, it was deemed outdated and demolished. A new building was constructed on the same site, but this time facing the opposite direction so that the entrance was on Manhattan Place. In 2004, St. Brendan purchased a lot next to the school. The original plan was to build a playground or library, but the parish head, Monsignor Terrance Fleming, didn’t believe those were the best options for the space. Students didn’t research through books or read as much anymore, and when they did, it was usually on computers. “I wanted to blend the ideas of a hall and a sports center,” explained Fleming. “I didn’t want just a gymnasium. We built a stage, and there are no lockers or showers.” League’s conception The first organized basket-
SBBA plays games at St. Brendan’s sports center.
ball games in St. Brendan’s new multi-purpose facility did not include children, and it wasn’t an official league. Two groups of men gathered once a week on different nights for pickup games. One group included players over 40, and the other contained the young guns, men in their 20s and 30s. “I think each person paid $5 a night to play,” said Fleming. Even though the SBBA is hosted by St Brendan’s Parish, the league is not Catholicexclusive, and never has been. “I wanted a neighborhood facility,” said Fleming. And is it ever. It’s also run by the community. After Jason and Jackie Kruse’s sons outgrew the league, the reins were turned over to Brendan Malloy and Pat Tostado, whose children played in the SBBA. Presently, the league’s commissioner is Abel DeLuna. The SBBA season runs from January to March and is for ages 6-13. There are four divi-
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sions, and the season ends with a playoff tournament that spans two weekends. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the SBBA’s 2021 season is cancelled. Joe Byrne didn’t coach last
season. He thought he’d take a year off. This meant I didn’t get to coach either. Our sons have one more season left in the SBBA after this year. Hey Joe, I want to coach again.
SAINT BRENDAN
Finally, congratulations to our 8th graders who are just finishing all their high school applications. As we ended 2020, we can’t forget about the incredible amount of donations we received for Adopt A Family. We also had many donations from our younger grades towards the Alexandria House Toy Drive. To get into Christmas spirit, we held an online Christmas pageant where all of our classes sang classic songs. With the help of Mr. Johnson, we were able to recreate our Christmas program from the safety of our homes.
By Lucas Bland 8th Grade
Happy New Year! It’s finally a new year, and we have so much to do. St. Brendan School is hoping to implement hybrid learning soon. This way, we will be able to safely experience school again. On Jan. 31, Catholic Schools Week is coming and we hope to celebrate with activities in person or online.
BUCKLEY
By Jasper Gough 11th Grade All classes will resume and the second semester will start on Jan. 5. We will continue with remote learning and athletics practices until Jan. 18, at which time hopefully there will be more clarity about returning to campus. Unfortunately, our Winter Fest drive-through event is canceled. The Parent’s Association has planned a Jan. 10 event call Party Book: Sips and Shakes. During this event kids will meet up
and play various games which will remain a mystery until the kids arrive. It’s voluntary and everyone will be social distancing while there in order to be safe. During the second week of January, the school will host a virtual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) assembly by Zoom. Speakers will talk about how we can help better the lives of minorities around us as well as how to be antiracist. We also hope to tackle the topics of sexism and misogyny in these assemblies and how we can make our curriculum more minority friendly. We will have no school on Jan. 18 because its Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Happy New Year!
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
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JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
THIRD STREET By Sofia Kirilov 5th Grade
Happy New Year! On behalf of Third Street Elementary, I wish you a happy and healthy New Year! A huge thank you to everyone who made our school’s annual Book Fair a huge success! Bestselling authors Henry Winkler
and Lin Oliver helped kick off our Book Fair with an appearance at our virtual school assembly. They read to us from their new book Alien Superstar, which made us laugh while teaching us to appreciate each other’s
unique qualities and differences. Chevalier’s Books hosted our Book Fair (at their Larchmont store and on-line) raising funds for our school and donating money for our library! Burger Lounge and Jeni’s Ice Cream hosted our family dining night, making it possible for families to pick up dinner and buy books in one night! As you are reading this, I am
Larchmont Chronicle
still on my Winter Break. We come back to school on Jan. 14, after spending the holidays at home. Because of the stay-athome order restrictions, everything this school year is different. Normally, fifth graders like myself would be looking forward to spending a week at AstroCamp and going to other field trip adventures. Due to COVID, we have to adjust and come up with creative ways to make our last year at Third Street memo-
rable. My class (with the help of volunteer parents), created a short video with advice for the Kindergarteners for their upcoming years at Third Street. Everyone put a lot of thought and effort into the video, and it turned out great! (Even though it was embarrassing to see pictures of ourselves as kindergarteners). I look forward to other unique projects we will come up with to celebrate our last year at Third Street!
MARLBOROUGH
and a different teacher for grades 10-12). There are many categories that the advisees can aim to win, such as Most Festive, Most Viral and Most Punny. Unfortunately, this year we were unable to have Advisory on campus due to COVID, so Marlborough put together virtual window decorating. There was a massive Google slide presentation shared with the entire class, and we decorated our slide by Advisory on Zoom. Second, the senior class of ’21 has been working so hard to try to salvage their senior year starting with continuing a tradition even if it was over Zoom. The senior class presented their classes mascot and video at a virtual all-school meeting on Dec. 15. The seniors also shared a video of their parents singing to them, which is an annual tradition. Sadly, this year winter fest was not able to happen like usual. Winter fest is usually on the last day of school before winter break, and there are games and food and activities all on the field. But this year Marlborough is doing a drive through to pick up baskets filled with little goodies. Lastly, I am very excited for winter break, which started at Marlborough on Dec. 18 and ran until Jan. 3. It was very well deserved for everybody. And a belated Happy Holidays to those who celebrated. I hope you all were able to spend time with your family and stay safe.
By Avery Gough 9th Grade
Happy Holidays! I hope everyone is having a wonderful and festive month no matter what holiday you are celebrating. A beloved Marlborough tradition is to decorate our advisors’ windows/front door of the classroom before break. (Advisory is a group of students in the same grade paired with either a teacher or an administrator for grades 7-9, then different group of students
OAKWOOD SCHOOL By Scarlett Saldaña 10th Grade
After a restful Winter Break, Oakwood will return to remote-learning classes on Jan. 5. Although this month is usually the time for exciting events like Spirit Night and Semi-Formal, because of the pandemic, they will be postponed. However, there will always be virtual communitybuilding events to ensure our school stays connected remotely. In an effort to balance schoolwork and extracurriculars, Oakwood has developed Flexible Fridays. These asynchronous days are times for students to work on group projects, check-in with teachers, or to host club meetings and activities. In my experience, these days have helped me focus on my extracurriculars, while also giving me enough time to work productively on my homework. By the end of the day, I feel accomplished and ready for a restful weekend, because of the time I spent away from screens, independently working on anything I need to get done for school. Mid-January, members of the International Thespian Society (ITS), a theater organization that I am a part of, will release their first radio play, “She Kills Monsters,” by Qui Nguyen. As the theater department continues to work on “The Colored Museum,” for the past few months, ITS has worked on this audio-only play that will be broadcasted on Oakwood’s radio station, KOAK. Once the play is released, it will be broadcast every night of this month, eventually leading up to the end of our first semester.
Playgrounds: reopened during COVID-19 surge
By Caroline Tracy After a regional stay-athome order for Los Angeles County closed playgrounds in early December, the decision was quickly reversed, bringing relief to many area parents and caregivers. The county and city reopened the shuttered play areas on Dec., 10, following the updated state guidelines which stipulated “playgrounds may remain open to facilitate socially distanced personal health and wellness through outdoor exercise.” Best practices prescribed to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission during any park outing include: face masks worn at all times and frequent hand sanitizing, especially after the use of communal facilities and/or apparatuses.
Larchmont Chronicle HOLLYWOOD SCHOOLHOUSE By Emily Mansourian 6th Grade While we continue to celebrate our 75th year, so many events have happened recently at Hollywood Schoolhouse. Alumni class reunions are happening! Students who have graduated throughout the past ten years are coming back to visit all of their previous teachers via
LARCHMONT CHARTER By Sally Shapiro 11th Grade The weeks before Winter Break are often hectic due to finals and scrambling to turn in work. As the semester comes to a close, students are trying to raise their grades. Larchmont has created a system to give kids two days to get in any late assignments and get their grades up. The two days, cleverly named “Ketchup Day” and “Relish Day,” were created to help students who have fallen behind due to the pandemic. Ketchup Day or “catch up
JANUARY 2021
Zoom. Another big event that happened this past week was the Winter-Wonder-Zoom, hosted by our PA. The Winter-WonderZoom was a day where students and teachers were able to take part in different activities, like ornament making, and other winter games online. Just like in past school events, there were opportunities to win prizes and raffles. This past Friday was also our Spirit Day. This is when our Student Council has the responsibility of selecting a theme for the day. In this case, they chose Wear Your Winter. Students and teachers were invited to wear
whatever winter means to them. Recently, the 6th grade class finished a project called Earth Odysseys. Earth Odysseys is part of an online virtual classroom experience that students have an opportunity to participate in through the University of Michigan. We, along with our university mentors, follow the journey of a woman named Nadia, a report-
SECTION ONE
er, and her travels in Morocco. Every Monday and Thursday, Nadia and the other creators of Earth Odysseys, would submit an experience she had during her time in Morocco. Personally, one of my favorite experiences that we read of was C’est La Vie. C’est La Vie meaning “That’s Life” in French. It is also the title of a song that is well known in places
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like Morocco. Nadia wrote about that song because everywhere she went, she heard it. Besides the fact that it is a song known worldwide, it also has a beautiful meaning behind it. Finally, HSH is now on break and will be back on campus (preschool-2nd grade) in January. I hope you all enjoy your winter break!
day” occurs the day we return from Winter Break. Students will attend homeroom and the rest of the day will be dedicated to getting caught up. Teachers will be available on Zoom to help students with whatever they need. The next day is Relish Day (named for students “relishing in their achievements”). Students will have homeroom and the rest of the day will be for turning in late assignments. This is the last day to turn in work before grades are official for the semester. These two class-free days are a way to help students. It has been a hectic year for all and many students have fallen behind. Ketchup Day and Relish Day, among other initiatives at Larchmont, will give students a better chance to succeed.
Rig T in IR Nig H in Ht h h MiRTh MiR t E M e he IR a E ♥ ac Re ACcle ORFe le LE Mi Mil MILle! e! E LIFE-SIZE dinosaurs are the attraction this month at a drive-thru experience at the Rose Bowl.
Dinosaurs invade the Rose Bowl for a drive through experience
to learn about dinosaurs. Tickets are $49 per vehicle and are required in advance. The exhibit is closed on MonArchdiocesan & State Academic Decathlon Champions 2017! 8th grade days and Tuesdays. Visit juras8th gradethrough Math Program • Kindergarten • Honors Math Program • Kindergarten through • Honors Kindergarten through 8th grade • Honors Math Program • sicquest.com for information. Fully Accredited WCEA • CYO Sports & WCEA WASC Sports • Fully Accredited• WASC • CYO& Fully Accredited WASC & WCEA • CYO Sports • Schoolwide 4G Internet Access Hot Lunch Program Access Lunch Program • Hot • Schoolwide 4G••Internet • Hot Access Lunch Program Schoolwide 4G Internet • Lab Outreach ConcernCounseling Counseling Lab Concern Counseling •• 36 • • 36 MAC Computer • Outreach Doodle a Word Map Outreach Concern 36 MAC MAC Computer Computer Lab • Spanish Program Extended Day DayCare Care •• Spanish “Creative Word Map,” on •Jan. Spanish Program Program • Extended Day Care •• Extended Program Junior High Academic Decathlon School iPad Program Junior High Academic Decathlon 3, is part of the Los Angeles • Middle School iPad • •• Middle • Junior High Academic Decathlon K-8 iPad Program • County Museum of Art’s “AnJunior High Instrumental Program Junior High Music Instrumental Music Program • Departmentalized •Junior •• Departmentalized Lab / Art Center Departmentalized High •• Science dell Family Sundays Anytime,” Music Program Art & Music Program • Classroom Art ••&Classroom Classroom Art & Music Program which this month will draw Virtual Open House: on the inspiration of works Sunday, January 31 by Japanese artist Yoshitomo 11:30 am - 1 pm Nara. “Make a Tiny Flipbook Contact school office Zine” is Jan. 10, and “Design for more information. an Album Cover” is Jan. 17. Events take place from 12:30 755 South Cochran Ave., L.A. 90036 • For Information (323) 938-9976 or cathedralchapelschool.org 755 South Cochran Ave., L.A. 90036 755 for South Cochran Ave., L.A. 90036 to 3 p.m. online and anytime Please check our website updates regarding distant and in-person learning. For Information (323) 938-9976 or cathedralchapelschool.org For Information (323) 938-9976 or cathedralchapelschool.org after. Free. Visit LACMA.org.
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T-Rex and triceratops are just two types of dinosaurs to invade the parking lot of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for two weeks this month, Fri., Jan. 15 to Sun., Jan. 31, for a safari-style adventure. Jurassic Quest is a traveling dinosaur experience that features more than 70 life-size animatronic dinosaurs. This family-friendly event is safe, socially distant and contactless, according to organizers, who encourage participants to load up their vehicles with up to eight people per car. With a new show every hour, Jurassic Quest is an opportunity for families to not only get out of the house, but also
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Larchmont Chronicle
Carrying a torch in ‘Wild Mountain,’ enlightening ‘Louis’ Wild Mountain Thyme (8/10): 102 minutes. PG-13. Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt) has been carrying a torch for seemingly oblivious neighbor Anthony Reilly (Jamie Dornan) all her life. Lots of things made this movie stand out, not the least of which are the gorgeous Irish countryside, the outstanding cinematography (Stephen Goldblatt), and the wonderful music (Amelia Warner). The acting is outstanding; these are characters who are believable, aided by a terrific script. The two leads are greatly helped by the supporting players like Christopher Walken, who plays Anthony’s father, Tony; Jon Hamm, who plays Anthony’s American financial genius cousin, Adam — who also becomes smitten with Rosemary — and Dearbhla Molloy, who plays Rosemary’s mother, Aiofe. All the characters are realistic, but Aiofe really captured me. Blunt plays Rosemary as a strong woman who pursues her man with a vengeance without being emasculating, which is a treat. Anthony, for his part, seems almost doomed by his alexithymia. Dornan captures this brilliantly. Walken’s performance deserves an Oscar nomination, at least. In theaters and on demand: wildmountainthymemovie.com/watch-athome/ Your Honor (8/10): 10-episode TV series. This is a remake of the 2017 Israeli TV series “Kvodo,” with Bryan Cranston in the title role as a judge whose son gets involved in a car accident that causes mon-
umental problems. Filled with tantalizing tension. Showtime. Room 2806: The Accusation (8/10): Four-episode documentary telling the shocking story of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was the head of the International Monetary Fund and a favorite to be elected Prime Minister of France. He was accused of rape in 2011 by a Sofitel Hotel housekeeper and this goes deep into his background and the grisly details of the entire affair giving equal time to the alleged victim. Netflix. Louis van Beethoven (7/10): 120 minutes. NR. Presenting a view of Beethoven that is at odds with my original perception of him, it is enlightening despite the flaws. It presents Beethoven at three periods of his life, as a nine-year-old prodigy (Colin Putz), as a fledgling young man in his late teens (Anselm Bresgott), and as a man, deaf and near the end of his life (Tobias Moretti). All give fine performances. It jumps back and forth and this is somewhat disconcerting because there are no comfortable segues, but the main story is of him as a teenager, socially unsure, but confident of his talent. The film spends a lot of time on a romance that emphasizes his lack of experience. One of the flaws of the film is that Mozart is played by Manuel Rubey, who is 40 years old and looks older. If Beethoven and Mozart did meet, which is historically uncertain, it would have been in 1787, when Beethoven was 16 and Mozart was 30. The
At the Movies with
Tony Medley imagined meeting would have been far more believable if the actor playing Mozart looked much younger than he does in this film. In German. Prime. Ava (5/10) 96 minutes. R. What the hey? Jessica Chastain plays the titular character, but it is just a bunch of nonsense. There are a lot of fights, with the diminutive Chastain (5’3”) putting down not just one or two men, but in one scene, all alone, she bests what looks like the entire Pittsburgh Steelers defensive team with a few offensive linemen thrown in. The fights are brutal but totally absurd. As in most of these things, our protagonist, Ava, takes bone-breaking, killing blows, but bounces up time and again to keep fighting. Not so her adversaries, however. She puts dozens of them down for the permanent count, emerging only with a couple of scratches on her face. Director Tate Taylor, who ably directed the conversion of “The Girl on the Train” (2016) to the screen, does a very good job from a weak script that needs some sort of factual basis. As it is, this is nothing but action with no explanation or meaning. Prime. Mank (3/10): 131 minutes. R. This is a story of the writ-
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ing of the script for the Orson Welles (Tom Burke) magnum opus, “Citizen Kane” (1941). And its purpose is to minimize Welles’ contribution and give credit to Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman). Director David Fincher has made no secret of his disrespect for Orson Welles. But the film is no credit for Mank because it pictures him as a drunken, egotistical bore. In fact, Welles took Mank’s unworkable, unfilmable gargantuan 250-page script and whittled it down to what many believe is a classic. According to Robert
Carringer, author of “The Making of Citizen Kane” (1985), who had access to the full script files at RKO, “The full evidence reveals that Welles’ contribution to the ‘Citizen Kane’ script was not only substantial but definitive.... Major revisions begin as soon as the script passes into Welles’ hands.” This new film itself is almost unwatchable. “Mank” is dark (thanks to the black and white cinematography) and Mank is a hateful, obnoxious slob. Fincher wanted the film to look as if (Please turn to page 21)
PUPPETEERS and clown puppets entertain family audiences as they have for 58 years in Los Angeles.
Marionettes
(Continued from page 1) pet theater with contributions ranging from $5 up to some really, really generous gifts, said board treasurer and Brookside resident Vivian Gueler, BBMT can now, with the goal met, return from pure survival mode to concentrate on grant writing to help fulfill its programming and educational goals for 2021. Over the past year, BBMT has lost approximately $500,000 in revenues due to the COVID-19 closures, and the theater company continues to miss $30,000 in revenue per month. But for now, at least, the basic needs of the theater have been met. The doors (or curtains) remain open, and now the focus can turn to the mission of the puppet theater, which is to educate, celebrate and rejuvenate puppetry and the allied arts. Programming changes In addition to online programming instituted at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns, such as pre-recorded performances, music, arts and crafts and other programs
for kids, the puppet theater has introduced the Marionette Mobile. The mobile is a custom, retrofitted box truck that folds out into a stage area. It is designed to bring socially distanced performances and ice cream delivery to outdoor spaces throughout Los Angeles, when public health guidelines allow. For now, through Thurs., Jan. 7, you can view some of the marionette magic at the Santa Monica Pier. Visitors can take a free, outdoor stroll and peek through the windows of the merry-go-round to see a retrospective of BBMT’s history. The Bob Baker Marionette Theater was founded in 1963 by Bob Baker and Alton Wood when they transformed a rundown scenic shop at 1345 W. 1st St. into a puppet theater. In 2009, the building was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Recently, the theater has moved to Highland Park. Bob Baker passed away in 2014 at the age of 90. For more information, visit bobbakermarionettetheater. com.
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Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
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Great theater is ephemeral — you have to be there; look to Juno
January, as Professor KnowIt-All might have told us before he retired, is named after Janus, the Roman god of gates, doors, transitions and new beginnings. Representations of Janus show him looking simultaneously forward and backward, but, with only Google to rely on (or rather, DuckDuckGo) and not the inestimable Professor, it’s hard to know if the god is being majestically double-headed or duplicitously two-faced. One of the things TV news programs like to do on New Year’s Eve is to give the “year in 60 seconds,” in which they zap through a lightninground of events. What always fascinates me in that exercise of looking back, is that not only do we immediately recognize the event, we also immediately recall where we were when we first experienced it: Kennedy’s assassination,
the Y-shaped explosion of the Challenger shuttle; Trump’s election; George Floyd’s murder. But there is no highlight reel for the theater. You have to be there to experience it. I can remember some truly great moments of theater — Oberon and Titania on swings in Peter Brook’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream;” the great Kabuki actor Nakamura transforming himself from an 80-year old National Living Treasure to an alluring young courtesan in one step (!) from the hanamichi bridge to Kabuki stage; Alan Howard vaulting over the gates of Corioli in the Terry Hands’ RSC “Coriolanus;” or St. Joan and her horse both played by actors on stilts (!) reuniting in heaven in the Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Story of St. Joan and Her Horse.” Looking back — way back, I must admit — these theatrical moments were all physical:
Theater Review by
Louis Fantasia events that celebrated the threedimensionality of the stage and the uniqueness of the ephemeral moment that bound spectator and performer together. Looking back on the past 12 months, we see that the great god Janus has deceived us: we remember the Zoomed blur of performance as seen from our living room couch. And so, as the “New York Times’” Jesse Green wrote (12/9/20), we must be kind and grade theater “on a curve.” We must be grateful that artists tried. That, among the most financially, and therefore most psychologically and emotionally, vulnerable of populations, they tried to create, to
pull together a community of performers and spectators and make something happen. We must applaud, without an iota of condescension, the virtual Mickeys and Judys who pulled together their on-line barns to put on a show; who kept the flame of creativity (which is the same as the beacon of hope) alive in a very dark time. But… Looking forward, we must not become complacent. We must not allow the lowered bar we all accepted to become the norm (I speak only of the theater). Looking forward, there will be a transition period when theaters and concert halls reopen and we will be more concerned about seat spacing and hand sanitizer than what is happening on stage. We will (I promise) continue to grade on the curve, giving points for producers and performers having taken the risks needed, months prior to opening night,
to gather writers, directors, designers, actors, musicians and investors, to raise the curtain on the brave new world of postpandemic theater. But… Going forward, we must not look back through the eyes of Janus. Rather we need to see with the eyes of the goddess Juno Moneta, better known by her Greek name Mnemosyne, or memory, the Mother of the Nine Muses — and therefore the inspiration for all the arts. The inherent contradiction in great theater is that it is ephemeral. It only happens when we — actors and audience — inhabit the same space at the same time, breathing the same (hopefully germ-free) air. You have to be there to see it. You have to remember it, to use Milan Kundera’s phrase, like a “golden footprint” on your memory. And, like the memory of a lost love, you must desperately want to have more of it.
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Jan Daley, Hancock Park, dropped her “Best of Jan Daley” two-disc album this month. Daley said that half of all earnings from the sale of the album will be donated to the Hancock Park National Giving Alliance (NGA), formerly Needlework Guild of America. The album includes songs from her last six albums plus her latest release, “How I Love the Rain.” Last month she released a re-mastered version of “The Christmas Song,” which is also a cut from the new album. Visit jandaley.com for more information.
Movies
(Continued from page 20) it had been made in the ’30s, and he succeeded. It’s boring, grainy and bleached out. The monaural audio deflates it even further. It might be pseudo avant-garde, but considering the quality of films then, this would have had a hard time making it to theaters as a second feature. Netflix. Recommended reading: “In Farleigh Field” by Rhys Bowen about England in WWII lives up to its advertised “sweeping and riveting saga of class, family, love, and betrayal.”
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JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
Larchmont Chronicle
Award winners hail from our areas
Big Sunday in hot seat, MLK Day goes virtual
By Suzan Filipek Two Big Sunday events are ready for prime time this month. In the first, actresses Amanda Peet and Rebel Wilson will be featured in a new episode, “In the Hot Seat,” of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” airing Sun., Jan. 3 at 9 p.m. Peet will jump in the hot seat for Big Sunday, and Wilson hopes to continue her winning streak for The School of St. Jude Tanzania. Announced ABC: “‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ returns to primetime on ABC. Hosted by late-night’s Jimmy Kimmel, this season features both celebrity contestants playing for the charity of their choice and frontline heroes trying their hand at winning the $1 million prize. “In addition to lifelines ‘Ask the Host,’ ‘50/50’ and ‘Phone a Friend,’ contestants on ‘Millionaire’ can invite an expert guest to help them answer questions. It could be a relative, a beloved teacher or famed trivia
expert — anyone they want — to help them win as much money as they can.” MLK Day Big Sunday’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day clothing drive will be held virtually in 2021. The Block Party and Clothing Collection will be on Mon., Jan. 18 from 11 a.m. to noon on Zoom. All the Big Sunday MLK Day favorites have been moved online for 2021, including the massive clothing collection and music with MLK Day favorite the Blue Breeze Band, as well as Big Sunday’s Something in Common Photo Project, together with projects that people can do at home. All ages are welcome, and groups, too. Sponsorships are also available. Founded by David Levinson, Hancock Park, Big Sunday organizes more than 2,000 ways to help out every year — from its headquarters at 6111 Melrose Ave. to events held citywide. For more information and to sign-up visit bigsunday.org.
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Oliviana Marie Halus-Griep, voice, finalist, Laurel Springs School
Penelope Juarez, photography, honorable mention, Harvard-Westlake
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By Suzan Filipek Several of the 2021 National YoungArts Foundation award winners live in our area. Of the thousands of applicants, 8.8%, or 659 winners, were announced last month. The Miami-based foundation identifies accomplished young artists in the visual, literary and performing arts, and provides them with creative and professional development opportunities. Awards are given in three categories: Finalist, Honorable Mention and Merit. “YoungArts empowers artists to pursue a life in the arts beginning at the critical time when many are faced with decisions about life after high school, and we are thrilled to announce this year’s YoungArts award winners,” said Executive Director Jewel Malone. The local winners are: Julianna Barrenos, design arts, Merit, Fairfax High; Oliviana Marie Halus-Griep, voice, Finalist, Laurel Springs School; Penelope Juarez, photography, Honorable Mention, Harvard-Westlake; Kacey Kim, visual arts, Finalist, Harvard-Westlake; Charles Nevins, photography, Honorable Mention, Harvard-Westlake; Hazel Sepenuk, film, Honorable Mention, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Previous awards winners include Timothée Chalamet, Viola Davis, Kerry Washington and Windsor Square’s own Josh Groban. YoungArts award winners at all levels will receive cash prizes between $100 and $10,000 and the opportunity to learn from leading artists such as Debbie Allen, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank Gehry, Wynton Marsalis, Salman Rushdie and Mickalene Thomas. A complete list of the 2021 winners, all 15-18 years old or in grades 10-12, is available online at youngarts.org/winners. Programming will kick off on Jan. 3 with National YoungArts Week+ offering award winners at the Finalist level the opportunity to participate in a week-long virtual program of workshops and panels, opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, project-based assignments, and classes with renowned guest artists in their fields. Finalists are also eligible to be nominated to become a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, one of the highest honors given high school seniors bestowed by the President of the United States.
Larchmont Chronicle
JANUARY 2021
SECTION ONE
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New England classics and soulful Mexican hit celebratory notes
2020 did not go down as a banner year for dining. Takeout provided a welcome alternative to cooking at home every night, but that was a far cry from the joy of meeting up with friends for three courses and an abundance of wine served in convivial surroundings. It’s hard to remember, but I did manage to have a few brilliant food experiences before the March shut down, especially a week of eating my way from one end of Mexico City to the other. I fear half of those restaurants and tiny storefront eateries won’t still exist when this pandemic ends, much as so many of our local places are hanging on by a thread. In the meantime, we order out and hope our meager deliveries are enough to help keep our favorites afloat until the vaccine does its magic and the world opens up again. For our recent wedding anniversary, our Brooklyn-based daughter offered to have a feast delivered to us. Since my husband and I had met while living in Boston and reveled in the fresh seafood on offer, we had her order from Connie
On the Menu by
Helene Seifer
and Ted’s, Michael Cimarusti’s casual but spot-on New England and mid-Atlantic sea-centric restaurant. It did not disappoint. We got an old-school lobster roll made with mayonnaise-tossed lobster chunks in a hot dog bun. Served with a lightly dressed cole slaw (what’s a seafood dinner without cole slaw?), the $29 treat was fabulous, bringing back memories of many such rolls from our dating days. Even better was the $36 fried clam belly basket with fries. Connie and Ted’s offers two clam choices: with or without the squishy bellies. (the “without” option, clam strips basket, is $19). Given that fried anything tastes more like the frying batter than anything else, biting into a plump belly is what explodes with the bivalve’s flavor. Crunchy
memories of Boston! I love New England clam chowder but have always been partial to broths that go easy on the floury thickening paste. Cimarusti uses a buttery, not pasty, broth in his $10 “wicked good chowda’” which makes for the cleaner, lighter taste I desire. Broccolini in a wonderfully garlicky aioli dipping sauce provided a healthy green. Our daughter also sent Connie and Ted’s lobster pot pie, because one can never have enough lobster. We saved that for the next night, since it needed time in the oven and we had more than enough food for one meal without it. Its flaky crust was adorned with their charming anchor logo — fashioned and filled with lobster chunks, leeks, mushrooms and squash in a creamy, thick, lobster shell broth. Warming and flavorful, but not as satisfying as the simpler roll and basket from the night before. However, it was
nice to be able to stretch our anniversary celebration to a second night, and we vowed to find excuses to honor our New England roots more often. Connie and Ted’s, 8171 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 323-848-2722. • • • I had been a little under the weather and was not in the mood to cook. We decided to indulge in a “feeling better, just lazy” celebration and brought in from one of our favorite local Mexican places, Mercado on Third and Fairfax. To start, and one must start with this, their $13.50 guacamole is layered with complex flavors, enhanced with serrano chilis, cilantro, tomatoes, red onions, salsa and spicy pepitas — served with beautifully crispy homemade tortilla chips. We saved the leftover chips and happily snacked on them the rest of the week. Roasted cauliflower
was swathed in chile marinade and brightened with pineapple chunks, $10. Fish tacos ($16) presented two fully loaded soft tacos: slaw, lime crema, chile aioli and pico de gallo fired up the flavor of the mild seared fillets. Chicken mole ($21) was a flavorful quarter bird in a Oaxacan chocolateand-chile sauce with rice. Even better, succulent shrimp glimmered in chile-garlic butter with cilantro lime rice, $26. That dish has now been added to my “always order” list. There’s a touch of heat in many dishes, but none that scorch, so most palates will be tickled, not torched. Washed down with margaritas from their “cantina to go,” this meal was just what the doctor ordered. (Note: the Mercado location at 3413 Cahuenga Blvd. is scheduled to reopen this month.) Mercado, 7910 W. 3rd St. 323-944-0947.
A New Beginning … New Year 2021
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Plan post-COVID escape to Mexico for food, culture Staff writer and food columnist Helene Seifer took a preCOVID-19 trip to Mexico City. We plan to run her full article on food and travel in our special section next month. Here is a sample to whet your appetite. Enjoy... By Helene Seifer Although the coronavirus is still in our midst, news of the vaccination inspires thoughts of future travels. Last year, 32 million Americans visited our southern neighbor; why not plan a trip to our sister city in Mexico to explore the cultural riches and pure deliciousness offered by Mexico City? This great urban center is home to people from every one of its states and indigenous communities. With addi-
tional influences from Europe, the United States and the rest of Latin America, there is an astounding variety of flavors and cooking styles available to the lucky tourist. Tune in next month for highlights from my happy experience eating my way from one end of Mexico City to the other — right before the lockdown. We will, of course, only report on those eateries that have survived the pandemic. Visitors also will find an abundance of culture in Mexico City. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are essentially the modern patron saints of the city, and one of the best places to enjoy their art is the Museo Dolores Olmeda, one of the stops on my travels.
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PEACOCKS IN THE GARDEN at the Dolores Olmeda Museum.
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JANUARY 2021
Larchmont Chronicle
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