Pasadena

Owned by Hope Creature, the business sells plants, gifts and garden supplies in one building and organic drinks and pastries in another. A 50-foot greenhouse shelters indoor tropicals, organic edibles, drought-tolerant native plants and small potted succulents, which go for less than $2. The outdoor seating area is outfitted with plants available for purchase.

“A lot went into making this space architecturally stunning as well, with every design detail considered,” Creature says. “The space also serves as a platform for our ongoing community programming, which showcases what the space is all about — bringing people together to explore, learn and connect.”

The queer-owned-and-run cafe offers standard coffee fare including matcha, espresso, cortado, cold brew and drip options from local roaster Unity, as well as a selection of teas and pastries.

Open daily from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., the shop’s enclosed outdoor patio (buttressed on either side by the cafe/general store and greenhouse) offers a peaceful reprieve from the relative hustle and bustle of Eagle Rock Boulevard.

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Central League

Bernstein 28, Roybal 20

Contreras 55, Mendez 17

Hollywood 48, Belmont 0

Coliseum League

Dorsey 37, Washington 12

Crenshaw 6, King/Drew 2

Eastern League

Garfield 37, L.A. Roosevelt 30

Exposition League

Santee 61, Angelou 0

Marine League

Carson 50, Narbonne 0

San Pedro 49, Gardena 14

Metro League

Hawkins 38, Locke 6

Northern League

Eagle Rock 49, L.A. Wilson 7

Lincoln 35, L.A. Marshall 28

Southern League

Diego Rivera 33, West Adams 18

Valley Mission League

Granada Hills Kennedy 21, San Fernando 12

Sylmar 42, Reseda 0

Van Nuys 43, Panorama 36

West Valley League

Birmingham 23, Granada Hills 16

El Camino Real 45, Chatsworth 6

Taft 21, Cleveland 13

Western League

Fairfax 21, L.A. University 20

Palisades 46, LA Hamilton 30

Venice 21, Westchester 8

Nonleague

Fremont 30, Maywood CES 15

Los Angeles d. L.A. Jordan, forfeit

SOUTHERN SECTION

Almont League

Bell Gardens 43, Keppel 6

San Gabriel 27, Alhambra 20

Schurr 42, Montebello 7

Alpha League

San Clemente 28, Los Alamitos 9

Mission Viejo 37, Edison 20

Angelus League

Cathedral 28, St. Pius X-St. Matthias 14

Paraclete 42, St. Francis 35

St. Paul 41, Alemany 7

Baseline League

Chino Hills 27, Damien 19

Rancho Cucamonga 41, Etiwanda 7

Upland 37, Ayala 0

Bay League

Culver City 48, Lawndale 0

Leuzinger 27, Mira Costa 14

Palos Verdes 31. Inglewood 12

Big West Lower League

Corona Santiago 37, Corona 21

Great Oak 36, Temecula Valley 13

Murrieta Mesa 51, Riverside King 24

Big West Upper League

Vista Murrieta 42, Murrieta Valley 35

Bravo League

Corona del Mar 47, Tesoro 8

San Juan Hills 28, Villa Park 10

Yorba Linda 41, Newport Harbor 14

Channel League

Buena 28, Oxnard 26

Moorpark 42, Royal 6

Citrus Belt League

Beaumont 56, Citrus Valley 3

Cajon 67, Redlands 0

Redlands East Valley 43, Yucaipa 41

Conejo Coast League

Calabasas 42, Rio Mesa 14

Thousand Oaks 17, Newbury Park 7

Westlake 33, Santa Barbara 14

Cottonwood League

Silver Valley 36, Riverside Prep 33

Salesian 40, St. Anthony 0

Del Rio League

California 28, Santa Fe 23

La Serna 42, Whittier 8

Delta League

Trabuco Hills 28, Cypress 7

Desert Empire League

Palm Desert 35, Palm Springs 28

Desert Valley League

Coachella Valley 28, Twentynine Palms 0

Yucca Valley d. Indio, forfeit

Epsilon League

Crean Lutheran 31, Huntington Beach 28

Foothill 31, El Dorado 13

Foothill League

Golden Valley 43, West Ranch 28

Valencia 38, Hart 7

Foxtrot League

Aliso Niguel 17, Orange 10

Laguna Beach 49, Dana Hills 40

Gano League

Chaffey 63, Don Lugo 14

Rowland 44, Montclair 7

Gateway League

Downey 40, Warren 0

La Mirada 37, Paramount 16

Mayfair 42, Dominguez 18

Golden League

Knight 26, Littlerock 14

Palmdale 48, Eastside 10

Quartz Hill 41, Antelope Valley 7

Hacienda League

Chino 29, South Hills 22

Los Altos 49, Diamond Bar 35

Inland Valley League

Heritage 35, Citrus Hill 34

Perris 33, Canyon Springs 7

Iota League

Troy 21, Irvine 20

Ironwood League

Aquinas 46, Capistrano Valley Christian 7

Cerritos Valley Christian 35, Heritage Christian 25

Village Christian 62, Ontario Christian 14

Ivy League

Liberty 21, Rancho Verde 19

Orange Vista 52, Riverside North 14

Vista del Lago 55, Paloma Valley 54

Kappa League

Esperanza 27, Westminster 21

Segerstrom 14, Brea Olinda 7

Marina 14, La Palma Kennedy 7

Manzanita League

Anza Hamilton 31, California Military Institute 14

Vasquez 64, Desert Chapel 14

Marmonte League

Bishop Diego 35, St. Bonaventure 27

Oaks Christian 42, Camarillo 6

Oxnard Pacifica 42, Simi Valley 20

Mission League

Chaminade 52, Loyola 0

Gardena Serra 35, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 16

Sierra Canyon 40, Bishop Amat 0

Mission Valley League

El Monte 38, South El Monte 21

Gabrielino 61, Pasadena Marshall 0

Rosemead 21, Arroyo 13

Mojave River League

Hesperia 33, Sultana 28

Mountain Pass League

San Jacinto 63, West Valley 0

Mountain Valley League

Miller 14, Pacific 13

West Torrance 35, Compton Centennial 6

Pacific League

Burbank d. Glendale, forfeit

Pasadena 49, Arcadia 14

Pioneer League

North Torrance 48, South Torrance 14

Redondo Union 40, Peninsula 21

Torrance 49, Santa Monica 14

Rio Hondo League

Monrovia 35, San Marino 7

South Pasadena 48, Temple City 6

San Andreas League

Colton 56, Rim of the World 49

Kaiser 28, San Gorgonio 21

Skyline League

Arroyo Valley 38, Fontana 19

Bloomington 50, Riverside Notre Dame 18

Rialto 7, Carter 6

Sun Valley League

Banning 37, Cathedral City 6

Desert Hot Springs 35, Desert Mirage 20

Sunbelt League

Rancho Christian 7, Hillcrest 0

Riverside Poly 28, Valley View 10

Tango League

Loara 28, Garden Grove Santiago 27

Tri-County League

Agoura 25, San Marcos 6

Fillmore 24, Dos Pueblos 17

Santa Paula 27, Hueneme 16

Trinity League

Mater Dei 40, JSerra 7

Santa Margarita 28, Orange Lutheran 7

St. John Bosco 42, Servite 0

Valle Vista League

Alta Loma 21, Northview 20

Zeta League

Saddleback 42, Century 6

Nonleague

El Segundo 35, El Rancho 18

Desert Christian Academy 30, Viewpoint 6

INTERSECTIONAL

Rancho Dominguez 42, Verbum Dei 20

St. Monica 55, Franklin 21

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Majestic League

Cornerstone Christian 43, Highland Entrepreneur 0

Tri-Valley League

Sage Hill 42, Cate 16

INTERSECTIONAL

Fresno Christian 84, Hesperia Christian 28

CSDR 70, Model School for the Deaf (Washington D.C.) 24

A Grammy Award for best new artist. Four top 10 hits since September 2024. Sold-out gigs packed with admirers in pink cowgirl hats wherever she goes.

At 27, Chappell Roan has unquestionably become one of pop’s new queens. But let it never be said that this powerhouse singer and songwriter rules without mercy.

As her band vamped on the intro to her song “Hot to Go!” on Friday night, Roan surveyed the tens of thousands spread across the leafy grounds surrounding the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

“We’re gonna teach you a dance,” she said, though few in the audience probably needed the lesson at this point in Roan’s ascent. For more than a year, social media has been awash in video clips of Roan’s fans doing a “Y.M.C.A.”-like routine in time to the frenzied chorus of “Hot to Go!”

But wait a minute: “There’s a dad in the crowd that’s not doing it,” Roan reported with practiced disbelief. The band stopped playing. “There’s a dad that’s not doing it,” she repeated — less incredulous than reproving now.

“But he looks really, really nice, so I’m not gonna do anything about it.”

Roan’s show Friday was the first of two in Pasadena to wrap a brief U.S. tour.

(Brian Feinzimer/For The Times)

Friday’s show, which Roan said was the biggest headlining date she’d ever played, was the first of two at Brookside at the Rose Bowl to conclude a brief run of U.S. concerts she’s calling Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things. The performances in New York, Kansas City and Pasadena can be seen as something of a victory lap after the slow-building success of her 2023 debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” which beyond “Hot to Go!” has spun off numerous other hits including “My Kink Is Karma” and the inescapable “Pink Pony Club.”

That last song, which has more than a billion streams on Spotify and YouTube, documents a young queer woman’s sexual awakening at a West Hollywood gay club; Roan’s music sets thoughts of pleasure, heartache and self-discovery against a gloriously theatrical blend of synth-pop, disco, glam rock and old-fashioned torch balladry.

Having spent this past summer on the European festival circuit, she’s said that Visions of Damsels represents “the chance to do something special before going away to write the next album”; the mini-tour also keeps her in the conversation as nominations are being decided for next year’s Grammys, where she’s likely to vie for record and song of the year with “The Subway,” one of a handful of singles she’s released since “Midwest Princess.”

Yet as clearly as it showcased her natural star quality — the stage was designed like a gothic castle with various staircases for Roan to descend dramatically — this was really a demonstration of the intimate bond she’s forged with her fans, many of whom came to the show dressed in one of the singer’s signature looks: harlequin, majorette, prom queen, construction worker.

An hour or so into her 90-minute set, Roan sat in a giant throne with a toy creature she called her tour pet and recalled her move to Los Angeles nearly a decade ago from small-town Missouri.

“I had a really, really tough time the first five years,” she said, adding that she’d lived in Altadena when she first arrived. (In a bit of now-infamous Chappell Roan lore, she was dropped by Atlantic Records in 2020 after the label decided “Pink Pony Club” was not a hit.) She talked about how much she loves this city — “F— ICE forever,” she said at one point to huge applause — but bemoaned the “weird professionalism” she can feel when she’s onstage in L.A.

“I know there’s a lot of people in the music and film industry here, and I don’t want you to think about that,” she said. “Don’t f—ing talk about it. Don’t talk about work here. I just want you to feel like you did when you were a kid — when you were 13 and free.” She laughed.

“I’m just gonna shut up — I’m so dumb,” she said. Then she sang the lovelorn “Coffee” like someone confessing her greatest fear.

Roan said Friday’s show was the biggest headlining date she’d ever played.

(Brian Feinzimer/For The Times)

Though the castle set was impressively detailed, Roan’s production was relatively low-key by modern pop standards; she had no dancers and no special guests and wore just one costume that she kept removing pieces from to end up in a kind of two-piece dragon-skin bikini.

But that’s because at a Chappell Roan show, Chappell Roan is the show: a fearsomely talented purveyor of feeling and attitude whose campy sense of humor only heightens the exquisite melancholy of her music.

Her singing was immaculate yet hot-blooded, bolstered by a killer band that remade songs like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Red Wine Supernova” as slashing ’80s-style rock; Roan covered Heart’s “Barracuda” with enough strutting imperiousness to compete with Nancy Wilson’s iconic guitar riff.

“The Giver” was a stomping glitter-country hoedown, “Naked in Manhattan” a naughty electro-pop romp. For “Picture You,” which is about longing to know a lover’s secrets, Roan serenaded a blond wig plopped atop a mic stand — a bit of absurdist theater she played completely straight.

The heart of the concert was the stunning one-two punch of “Casual” into “The Subway,” Roan’s most grandly emotional ballads, in which her voice soared with what seemed like total effortlessness.

After that is when the singer noticed that kindly dad shirking his duties in “Hot to Go!” Maybe the poor guy was just too dazzled to take part.

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Central League

Bernstein 54, Hollywood 0

Contreras 46, Belmont 6

Roybal 35, Mendez 0

Coliseum League

Crenshaw 12, Dorsey 8

Washington 38, Fremont 8

East Valley League

Grant 48, Fulton 13

North Hollywood 24, Arleta 20

Chavez 28, Sun Valley Poly 16

Verdugo Hills 55, Monroe 20

Eastern League

Garfield 34, Bell 19

Huntington Park 28, South East 7

L.A. Roosevelt 16, Legacy 13

East Valley League

Chavez 28, Sun Valley Poly 16

Exposition League

Jefferson 56, Angelou 0

Marquez 50, Santee 0

Marine League

Gardena 29, Wilmington Banning 6

San Pedro 48, Narbonne 6

Metro League

Hawkins 20, Rancho Dominguez 6

Northern League

Eagle Rock 41, L.A. Marshall 7

Franklin 21, L.A. Wilson 2

Southern League

Los Angeles 44, West Adams 0

Maywood CES 62, Rivera 0

Valley Mission League

Canoga Park 37, Reseda 0

Granada Hills Kennedy 42, Panorama 7

Van Nuys 49, Sylmar 46

Western League

LA Hamilton 26, Fairfax 6

Palisades 35, Westchester 19

Venice 27, LA University 7

West Valley League

Birmingham 42, El Camino Real 7

Cleveland 36, Chatsworth 19

Granada Hills 46, Taft 30

SOUTHERN SECTION

Almont League

Montebello 52, Keppel 12

Angelus League

Cathedral 56, St. Paul 25

Paraclete 49, Alemany 6

St. Pius X-St. Matthias 42, St. Francis 15

Baseline League

Chino Hills 27, Upland 21

Etiwanda 40, Ayala 0

Rancho Cucamonga 24, Damien 22

Bay League

Leuzinger 43, Inglewood 32

Mira Costa 14, Lawndale 0 (postponed in first quarter)

Palos Verdes 48, Culver City 7

Big West Lower League

Murrieta Mesa 35, Temecula Valley 21

Riverside King 44, Corona Santiago 28

Big West Upper League

Chaparral 28, Vista Murrieta 20

Murrieta Valley 55, Norco 45

Bravo League

Corona Del Mar 33, San Juan Hills 10

Tesoro 17, Newport Harbor 14

Yorba Linda 28, Villa Park 7

Camino Real League

Mary Star of the Sea 21, St. Genevieve 12

St. Bernard 48, Bosco Tech 8

Channel League

Ventura 62, Buena 13

Moorpark 52, Oak Park 27

Royal 20, Oxnard 0

Citrus Belt League

Beaumont 56, Redlands 0

Redlands East Valley 14, Citrus Valley 3

Citrus Coast League

Grace 53, Del Sol 6

Nordhoff 55, Channel Islands 14

Conejo Coast League

Newbury Park 31, Santa Barbara 21

Thousand Oaks 49, Calabasas 34

Westlake 49, Rio Mesa 20

Cottonwood League

Silver Valley 22, Temecula Prep 0

Del Rey League

Crespi 42, St. Anthony 6

La Salle 47, Harvard-Westlake 37

Salesian 64, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 7

Del Rio League

La Serna 30, El Rancho 13

Santa Fe 34, Whittier 12

Delta League

Capistrano Valley 41, Western 14

El Modena 21, Trabuco Hills 7

Desert Empire League

Palm Springs 32, La Quinta 13

Shadow Hills 18, Rancho Mirage 14

Xavier Prep 19, Palm Desert 14

Desert Sky League

Barstow 21, Victor Valley 7

Granite Hills 25, Adelanto 20

Epsilon League

Huntington Beach 65, Laguna Hills 10

Foothill League

Hart 63, West Ranch 21

Saugus 41, Canyon Country Canyon 13

Foxtrot League

Dana Hills 35, Aliso Niguel 14

Laguna Beach 42, Northwood 0

Gateway League

Dominguez 21, Paramount 14

Downey 33, Mayfair 14

Warren 27, La Mirada 13

Golden League

Highland 28, Littlerock 6

Lancaster 34, Quartz Hill 20

Palmdale 28, Knight 9

Hacienda League

Chino 49, Covina 27

Diamond Bar 30, Walnut 7

Inland Valley League

Moreno Valley 42, Citrus Hill 7

Perris 13, Lakeside 9

Iota League

El Toro 27, Anaheim Canyon 17

Irvine 43, Santa Ana 7

Troy 42, Sonora 9

Ironwood League

Aquinas 75, Ontario Christian 27

Cerritos Valley Christian 35, Capistrano Valley Christian 26

Village Christian 17, Heritage Christian 13

Ivy League

Orange Vista 49, Paloma Valley 20

Rancho Verde 21, Riverside North 14

Kappa League

Brea Olinda 21, Westminster 0

Esperanza 58, Garden Grove 33

Segerstrom 27, St. Margaret’s 14

Lambda League

Beckman 34, Fullerton 14

La Palma Kennedy 14, Placentia Valencia 7

Manzanita League

Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian 47, Nuview Bridge 0
Marmonte League

Oxnard Pacifica 17, Oaks Christian 13

St. Bonaventure 41, Simi Valley 16

Mesquite League

Maranatha 20, Linfield Christian 14

Whittier Christian 7, Arrowhead Christian 6

Mid-Cities League

Compton Early College 63, Firebaugh 49

Gahr 48, Bellflower 13

Norwalk 25, Lynwood 6

Miramonte League

Bassett 37, Workman 14

Ganesha 47, La Puente 20

Garey 41, Duarte 0

Mission League

Chaminade 35, Bishop Amat 0

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 35, Loyola 10

Sierra Canyon 30, Gardena Serra 0

Mission Valley League

El Monte 28, Rosemead 7

Gabrielino 30, South El Monte 28

Mojave River League

Oak Hills 28, Serrano 14

\Ridgecrest Burroughs 17, Sultana 7

Montview League

Hacienda Heights Wilson 42, Pomona 13

Nogales 53, Azusa 3

Ontario 49, Sierra Vista 31

Moore League

Long Beach Wilson 23, Compton 21

Millikan 49, Long Beach Jordan 10

Mountain Pass League

Elsinore 34, Temescal Canyon 18

San Jacinto 53, Tahquitz 7

Mountain Valley League

Indian Springs 30, San Bernardino 15

Mountain View 41, Pasadena Marshall 13

Ocean League

Compton Centennial 28, Beverly Hills 0

El Segundo 38, Hawthorne 0

Omicron League

Buena Park 30, Katella 3

Garden Grove Pacifica 42, Irvine University 6

Portola 17, Woodbridge 7

Pacific League

Burbank 55, Arcadia 23

Burbank Burroughs 34, Glendale 12

Muir 49, Crescenta Valley 0

Pasadena 66, Hoover 8

Pioneer League

Peninsula 35, South Torrance 34

Santa Monica 21, North Torrance 13

Torrance 34, Redondo Union 24

Rio Hondo League

La Canada 44, Temple City 3

South Pasadena 23, Monrovia 21

River Valley League

La Sierra 35, Rubidoux 24

Norte Vista 67, Jurupa Valley 0

Patriot 31, Ramona 27

Sierra League

Bonita 21, Colony 7

Charter Oak 40, Glendora 7

Claremont 28, Los Osos 24

Sigma League

Estancia 25, Rancho Alamitos 17

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 42, Santa Ana Valley 14

Skyline League

Bloomington 16, Arroyo Valley 14

Rialto 19, Fontana 16

Sunbelt League

Hillcrest 41, Arlington 17

Riverside Poly 50, Hemet 0

Tango League

Anaheim 54, Loara 21

Bolsa Grande 14, Westminster La Quinta 7

Tri County League

Agoura 35, Santa Paula 10

Dos Pueblos 27, Hueneme 8

Fillmore 21, San Marcos 0

Trinity League

Mater Dei 25, Orange Lutheran 10

Santa Margarita 17, Servite 7

St. John Bosco 70, JSerra 21

Valle Vista League

Alta Loma 20, West Covina 6

San Dimas 35, Diamond Ranch 0

Zeta League

Saddleback 52, Godinez 14

Nonleague

Arroyo 27, Glenn 0

Brentwood 35, Don Lugo 0

Cathedral City 28, Indio 0

Mission Viejo 56, Long Beach Poly 7

Rim of the World 28, Chaffey 24

Rowland 57, Artesia 7

Yucca Valley 62, Banning 42

INTERSECTIONAL

Manual Arts 64, Verbum Dei 0

Rio Hondo Prep 49, Dallas First Baptist 28

8-MAN

CITY SECTION

City League

Animo Robinson 58, New Designs Watts 22

New Designs University Park 48, Stella 14

Valley League

Sherman Oaks CES 32, TEACH Tech 20

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Cornerstone Christian 76, Public Safety Academy 20

Hesperia Christian 50, PAL Academy 18

Hillcrest Christian 60, Malibu 16

INTERSECTIONAL

California School for the Deaf Riverside 44, Colorado City (Ariz.) El Capitan 12

Vista St. Joseph Academy 50, California Lutheran 6

The voyages of the starship Enterprise will include a 5½-mile stretch in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

The iconic “Star Trek” flagship will be prominently featured on the franchise’s 2026 Rose Parade float, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the storied sci-fi franchise. The design for the Star Trek 60 “Space for Everybody” entry was revealed on Monday.

In addition to the USS Enterprise and its bridge — where yet-to-be-announced actors will be stationed — the float will feature an homage to Vasquez Rocks, the local landmark where “Star Trek” has filmed, as well as the franchise’s future version of San Francisco, where Starfleet is headquartered. The design also incorporates planets and transporters.

As previously announced, the float’s design is meant to reflect values that “Star Trek” champions: hope, inclusivity, exploration and unity. It was designed by artist John Ramirez and will be built by the team at Artistic Entertainment Services.

The float will also promote the upcoming Paramount+ series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” which stars Holly Hunter as a starship captain and chancellor leading the academy’s first new crop of cadets in more than 100 years. The show will premiere next year.

The theme for the 2026 Rose Parade is “The Magic in Teamwork,” which is meant to celebrate “the sense of accomplishment in knowing that by working together, we can collectively achieve outcomes so much richer than we can ever experience as individuals,” according to the Tournament of Roses website.

The Rose Parade float will kick off “Star Trek’s” yearlong celebration of its 60th anniversary, which will also include additional new shows, Lego sets and even a cruise.

You might not think of John C. Reilly as a romantic — he’s best known for starring in comedies like “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights” — but these days, the actor is leaning into that side of himself.

His new vaudeville show, “Mister Romantic,” came from a moment of deep reflection.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

“Three years ago, I was looking around the world thinking, ‘Man, it’s getting really divisive out there,’” he says. There’s a lot of strife among people. What can I do? And I thought, ‘Well, you can sing and dance, tell people you love them,’ and that’s how ‘Mister Romantic’ was born.”

With a quartet of musicians behind him, Reilly takes the stage as Mister Romantic, his alter ego who has no memory of the past. All he knows is that he must perform — and if he’s lucky, he’ll find someone to fall in love with him by the end of the night. The stage performance, which makes a stop at L.A.’s Palace Theatre on Oct. 10, follows the release of Reilly’s debut “Mister Romantic” album, a collection of love ballads he gathered and reinterpreted over the years. The result is part crooner, part cabaret — with clear nods to Frank Sinatra and Old Hollywood romances.

“We’re taking this message of empathy and love out to the world and having a lot of fun at the same time,” he says.

Reilly used to live near Pasadena, but after losing his home in the L.A. fires, now resides “all over.” With his children grown and most likely “doing their own Sunday things,” his ideal Sunday is spent with his wife and other important people in his life.

“Sunday is kind of like this safe space,” Reilly says. “It’s a chance to just check in with someone who might need a little company.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

7 a.m.: The joy of pajamas
I want to encourage everyone to get into pajamas. I’m a big fan of pajamas. I like the traditional kind with stripes. You know, like the old dad pajamas from the 1950s. So you’ll see me in my pajamas if you come to my house on Sunday morning.

I usually wake up about 7 o’clock, but it takes me about an hour and a half to even get anything going — I’m a very slow riser.

8:30 a.m.: Pick up pastries in Pasadena
I usually like to hit a bakery early on because it’s a fun thing to have on a Sunday morning — some fun bakery items. There’s this bakery I love in Pasadena called Seed Bakery that has all the hits. It’s this amazing couple, just the two of them — they make all the amazing French stuff that you’re familiar with and killer ham-and-cheese croissants.

One thing that my grandfather used to do when I was a kid: Sunday would be the day he would come over with stuff from the bakery. If you want to be like the most fun uncle out there, you can also just go to a friend’s house with baked goods.

11 a.m.: Take a hike at TreePeople
There’s this great place called TreePeople that I love that is up at the top of Coldwater Canyon. It’s a famous conservancy started by this kid in the ’70s — he was a teenager who was concerned about pollution, and he heard that trees and plants can help take pollution out of the air.

It’s one of the great hikes of L.A. It has these paths that kind of crisscross back and forth. It’s very peaceful.

It has this mission of not just preserving the trails but also teaching people about ecology and why trees are important. We definitely need some trees after all this fire that we’ve had in L.A. Trees are a really important part of the city.

2:30 p.m.: Afternoon at Moonlight Rollerway
I love the Moonlight Rollerway, an amazing roller rink in Glendale. I’m a longtime patron of the place. I’ve filmed in there a couple different times. We shot some of “Winning Time” in there.

It’s like a throwback kind of roller-skating rink. It reminds me of the places I used to go when I was, like, 11 or 12 years old, in the late ’70s in Chicago — and it really looks exactly like that. I don’t think they changed the concession stand since the ’70s.

I really love roller skating. During COVID, we started this gang called the Rebel Skate Rolling Club, and we would just go to parking lots, like the Target parking lot at 11 p.m. Everyone would descend with matching jackets and go roller skating.

Moonlight Rollerway is always there. It’s always air-conditioned. It has beautiful wooden floors, so if you fall, it’s not the end of the world. I’m a big fan of it because you don’t drink. There is no alcohol served there. It’s good clean fun, is the way I would describe it. You can have a hot dog at the concession stand.

There’s something really cool and energizing about roller skating — it’s the closest thing to flying that you’re gonna come across without sprouting wings.

5 p.m.: Bike to dinner
Me and my wife love to get on our bikes while it’s still light out, and ride our bikes to a fun restaurant near us and have a nice meal, maybe a couple glasses of wine, and then you’re riding back on your bike in the dark. It’s so fun — it feels like an adventure.

There are a lot of cool restaurants all along Mission Street in Pasadena — that was adjacent to where we lived, and it was easy to bike there.

8 p.m.: Catch a show at Largo or the Elysian
There are two places that I have a really strong connection to that are theaters in L.A. One is Largo at the Coronet, where you can see so many amazing comedians, but I love going there for the music. I can’t tell you how many nights of extraordinary experiences I’ve had at Largo.

The other theater I love is the Elysian Theater on the Eastside in Silver Lake on Riverside. It’s gonna sound crazy for people that are not aware that there is a clown scene going on in L.A., but there’s a huge clown scene going on in L.A. There are a lot of people in the clown scene that work out of the Elysian Theater. But if you’re into alternative comedy or queer stuff, or just voices that you are not going to hear at, like, the Comedy Store, then the Elysian is a really great hub for you.

It’s a nonprofit. It’s a place that encourages alternative voices. It feels really intimate when you’re there. I’ve done my show “Mister Romantic” there a bunch of times.

10:30 p.m.: Yoga as a nightcap
I like to do a little yoga before bed. People think of yoga as, like, starting the day with yoga, but actually stretching out before you go to bed is really good, because then you let go of the tension and stuff you’ve been holding from the day and can sleep better — so I recommend a nightcap of yoga. I usually go to bed around midnight.

Doug Bledsoe has made the rounds as a high school football coach. He’s been head coach at North Hollywood, Dorsey, Pasadena and University. He says his latest coaching position will be his last until his 3-year-old grandson reaches high school.

It’s going to be his most challenging, trying to rebuild a Narbonne program that once again had an exodus of players and coaches after rule violations caused the City Section to impose a three-year playoff ban and make the program vacate its City title. This also happened in 2019 and the team dropped to 2-9 during a similar transition year in 2021.

Bledsoe insists, “The Narbonne Gauchos ain’t dead.”

He has four returning all-league players, including King’leon Sheard, a defensive end who had two sacks in last season’s City Section Open Division final won by the Gauchos. They chose to stay even though there will be no playoffs when the 10-game regular season ends.

“They love the school,” Bledsoe said. “We told them what we could do for them.”

There’s about 30 varsity players. Bledsoe is confident he and his staff can prepare his many new varsity players for the season ahead. Playing 10 games will be better than the eight games played last season when Marine League coaches boycotted playing the Gauchos, resulting in the loss of four games.

A new coach and a new principal give the Gauchos a chance to start over. The harsh penalty imposed also could be reduced with good behavior. One sign of the dramatic change in a year’s time is that the Gauchos had 27 transfers in the football program a year ago. There are currently none in the City Section transfer portal for this season.

The starting quarterback will be basketball point guard Quamare Meadows, who was the JV quarterback two seasons ago but didn’t play last season.

Narbonne opens on the road against Los Osos on Aug. 22. It will play its first league game in two seasons against runner-up San Pedro on Oct. 3.

“Thank you so much for showing up this morning,” Sharon Nicholls said into a megaphone at 8 a.m. Wednesday outside a Home Depot in Pasadena.

As of Friday afternoon, no federal agents had raided the store on East Walnut Street. But the citizen brigade that stands watch outside and patrols the parking lot in search of ICE agents has not let down its guard—especially not after raids at three other Home Depots in recent days despite federal court rulings limiting sweeps.

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.

About two dozen people gathered near the tent that serves as headquarters of the East Pasadena Community Defense Center. Another dozen or so would be arriving over the next half hour, some carrying signs.

“Silence is Violence”

“Migrants Don’t Party With Epstein”

Cynthia Lunine, 70, carried a large sign that read “Break His Dark Spell” and included a sinister image of President Trump. She said she was new to political activism, but added: “You can’t not be an activist. If you’re an American, it’s the only option. The immigration issue is absolutely inhumane, it’s un-Christian, and it’s intolerable.”

Anit-ICE activists march through the Home Depot in Pasadena on Aug. 6.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

There are local supporters, for sure, of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Activists told me there aren’t many days in which they don’t field shouted profanities or pro-Trump cheers from Home Depot shoppers.

But the administration’s blather about a focus on violent offenders led to huge demonstrations in greater Los Angeles beginning in June, and the cause continues to draw people into the streets.

Dayena Campbell, 35, is a volunteer at Community Defense Corner operations in other parts of Pasadena, a movement that followed high-profile raids and was covered in the Colorado Boulevard newspaper and, later, in the New York Times. A fulltime student who works in sales, Campbell was also cruising the parking lot at the Home Depot on the east side of Pasadena in search of federal agents.

She thought this Home Depot needed its own Community Defense Corner, so she started one about a month ago. She and her cohort have more than once spotted agents in the area and alerted day laborers. About half have scattered, she said, and half have held firm despite the risk.

When I asked what motivated Campbell, she said:

“Inhumane, illegal kidnappings. Lack of due process. Actions taken without anyone being held accountable. Seeing people’s lives ripped apart. Seeing families being destroyed in the blink of an eye.”

Anywhere from a handful to a dozen volunteers show up daily to to hand out literature, patrol the parking lot and check in on day laborers, sometimes bringing them food. Once a week, Nicholls helps organize a rally that includes a march through the parking lot and into the store, where the protesters present a letter asking Home Depot management to “say no to ICE in their parking lot and in their store.”

Nicholls is an LAUSD teacher-librarian, and when she asks for support each week, working and retired teachers answer the call.

“I’m yelling my lungs out,” said retired teacher Mary Rose O’Leary, who joined in the chants of “ICE out of Home Depot” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

Sharon Nicholls gets a hug of support from another protester outside the Home Depot in Pasadena.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“Immigrants are what make this city what it is … and the path to legal immigration is closed to everybody who doesn’t have what, $5 million or something?” O’Leary said, adding that she was motivated by “the Christian ideal of welcoming the stranger.”

Retired teacher Dan Murphy speaks Spanish and regularly checks in with day laborers.

“One guy said to me, ‘We’re just here to work.’ Some of the guys were like, ‘We’re not criminals … we’re just here … to make money and get by,’” Murphy said. He called the raids a flexing of “the violent arm of what autocracy can bring,” and he resents Trump’s focus on Southern California.

“I take it personally. I’m white, but these are my people. California is my people. And it bothers me what might happen in this country if people don’t stand firm … I just said, ‘I gotta do something.’ I’m doing this now so I don’t hate myself later.”

Nicholls told me she was an activist many years ago, and then turned her focus to work and raising a family. But the combination of wildfires, the cleanup and rebuilding, and the raids, brought her out of activism retirement.

“The first people to come out after the firefighters—the second-responders—were day laborers cleaning the streets,” Nicholls said. “You’d see them in orange shirts all over the city, cleaning up.”

The East Pasadena Home Depot is “an important store,” because it’s a supply center for the rebuilding of Altadena, “and we’re going out there to show our love and solidarity for our neighbors,” Nicholls said. To strike the fear of deportation in the hearts of workers, she said, is “inhumane, and to me, it’s morally wrong.”

Nicholls had a quick response when I asked what she thinks of those who say illegal is illegal, so what’s left to discuss?

“That blocks the complexity of the conversation,” she said, and doesn’t take into account the hunger and violence that drive migration. Her husband, she said, left El Salvador 35 years ago during a war funded in part by the U.S.

Pablo Alvarado, right, co-director of National Day Laborer Organizing Network, speaks to Anti-ICE protesters on Aug. 6.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

They have family members with legal status and some who are undocumented and afraid to leave their homes, Nicholls said. I mentioned that I had written about Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, who was undocumented as a child, and has kept his passport handy since the raids began. In that column, I quoted Gordo’s friend, immigrant-rights leader Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

“Full disclosure,” Nicholls said, “[Alvarado] is my husband.”

It was news to me.

When the raids began, Nicholls said, she told her husband, “I have the summer off, sweetie, but I want to help, and I’m going to call my friends.”

On Wednesday, after Nicholls welcomed demonstrators, Alvarado showed up for a pep talk.

“I have lived in this country since 1990 … and I love it as much as I love the small village where I came from in El Salvador,” Alvarado said. “Some people may say that we are going into fascism, into authoritarianism, and I would say that we are already there.”

He offered details of a raid that morning at a Home Depot in Westlake and said the question is not whether the Pasadena store will be raided, but when. This country readily accepts the labor of immigrants but it does not respect their humanity, Alvarado said.

“When humble people are attacked,” he said, “we are here to bear witness.”

Nicholls led demonstrators through the parking lot and into the store, where she read aloud the letter asking Home Depot to take a stand against raids.

Outside, where it was hot and steamy by mid-morning, several sun-blasted day laborers said they appreciated the support. But they were still fearful, and desperate for work.

Jorge, just shy of 70, practically begged me to take his phone number.

Whatever work I might have, he said, please call.

[email protected]

The city and county of Los Angeles are among the local governments seeking to join a lawsuit calling on the Trump administration to stop “unlawful detentions” during ongoing immigration sweeps in Southern California.

On Tuesday, the governments filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Public Counsel and immigrant rights groups against the Trump administration last week.

The lawsuit claims that the region is “under siege” by federal agents and aims to stop federal agencies from an “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids.

“These unconstitutional roundups and raids cannot be allowed to continue. They cannot become the new normal,” said Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Feldstein Soto was joined by Mayor Karen Bass and officials from other cities also seeking to join the lawsuit.

The motion from the local governments comes as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Southern California enters its second month. Between June 6 and June 22, federal agents arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“Day in and day out, there is no telling who these federal agents will target or when they will strike, since they refuse to coordinate with local authorities,” attorney John Schwab, who is representing Los Angeles and other cities, wrote in the motion to intervene. “All that is certain is that Defendants’ aim is to instill maximum fear in … communities and wreak havoc on the economy of one of the most diverse and vibrant areas in the country.”

The motion argues that the immigration raids are obstructing local governments’ ability to perform critical law enforcement functions and depriving them of tax revenue because of a slowdown in the local economy.

L.A. County and some cities — Culver City, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Pasadena — hope to become part of the lawsuit at a hearing Thursday where a judge will consider issuing a temporary restraining order that would bar the administration from making unconstitutional immigration arrests.

“How do we know the difference between this and a kidnapping?” Bass asked at the news conference.

In a statement, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said, “For the past month, we’ve seen individuals picked up at car washes and Home Depot parking lots, then simply disappear without warrants, probable cause, or due process … These actions have created fear, trauma, and instability in our communities. Small businesses are suffering. People are afraid to go to work, take their kids to school, or ride public transportation.”

Feldstein Soto stressed that a temporary restraining order would not stop the Trump administration from conducting legal civil immigration enforcement in L.A.

In a court filing opposing the temporary restraining order, U.S. Department of Justice attorneys argued that L.A. and the other local governments were trying to “interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration law.”

L.A. officials had already been considering a lawsuit before filing the motion Tuesday. Seven City Council members signed onto a proposal asking Feldstein Soto to prioritize “immediate legal action” to protect the civil rights of Angelenos. Feldstein Soto said her office would soon have more announcements on litigation against the administration.

The Trump administration has sued the city of Los Angeles as well, claiming that its sanctuary policy is illegal and discriminates against federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Times staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo took a break on a warm day, wiped his brow and pointed out the Folgers coffee can in the corner of his office.

He’s told the story many times, but felt it was worth repeating, given recent events.

For years, Gordo’s parents were undocumented. They crossed the border from Zacatecas, Mexico, when he was a young child, settled in Pasadena and raised their family. Gordo’s father was a dishwasher and cook; his mother was a seamstress in a factory that used to be across from City Hall. The family lived in a converted garage.

“Under my parents’ bed was a Folgers coffee can, and in that can was cash, a list of names and phone numbers, copies of birth certificates and identification cards,” said Gordo, who was the oldest child and describes himself as a latchkey kid.

“If my parents didn’t come home, I was to take that can and go knock on the neighbor’s house” and get help, Gordo said.

The can in his office isn’t the original. It’s a replica, and a reminder.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo is the son of immigrant parents.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

With federal raids across Southern California, families and neighborhoods have been reeling. People have been afraid to leave the house following arrests at car washes, building supply centers, restaurants, the Garment District and street vending locations.

Gordo knows how they feel.

“We lived in fear, and that’s what’s so offensive about this, and painful, frankly,” he said.

In Pasadena, Gordo said, it hasn’t been clear whether the sweeps are being conducted by legit federal agents or vigilantes. Their cars are unmarked. Their faces are shielded. Their uniforms don’t answer any questions.

In recent days, a man exited a vehicle in Pasadena and pointed a gun in the direction of protesters before speeding away, emergency lights flashing. At a bus stop, several men were detained, some of whom were on their way to work on construction sites in the post-fire rebuilding of Altadena, according to Gordo.

And the city canceled some swimming and other recreational programs Saturday amid fears of increased federal enforcement activity. Gordo told The Times that masked men with guns and vests had chased several men at Villa Parke.

“They’re creating volatile, dangerous situations,” Gordo told me, saying he fears that bullets will fly through neighborhoods, or that police will arrive on scene and not know what’s what or who’s who.

Even people with legal status are wary, Gordo said, because some of the raids appear to be arbitrary and indiscriminate. As my colleague Rachel Uranga reported, the majority of those arrested in the first 10 days of June in Southern California had no criminal records, despite Trump’s vow to reel in “the worst of the worst.”

“I’m carrying my passport with me,” Gordo said.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo outside City Hall in Pasadena.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

“The overreach is stigmatizing an entire swath of our society. Whether you look or sound like an immigrant, in the eyes of others, you are automatically considered an outsider, and that’s morally and legally wrong.”

Gordo’s positions on immigration enforcement haven’t always gotten straight A’s from immigrant rights advocates. In 2017, L.A. Progressive said Gordo’s coffee can story was compelling, but accused the then-councilman of waffling on a proposed city ordinance prohibiting police contacts with any federal law enforcement agencies.

The article said Gordo was opposed to local police “having contacts with ICE,” but said on one occasion that he “favored an exception for bad guys.”

Gordo ultimately voted in favor of that ordinance, which passed unanimously, and told me he feels now as he did then. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are here to work hard and create opportunities for their families, he said. Same as his family. But there have to be consequences for “bad actors,” he added, and that’s a criminal justice matter, not an immigration issue.

“If the federal government or our own police believe there is someone who has violated the law, they should address that issue,” Gordo said. “But they should do it respecting the Constitution of the United States, and what the federal government is doing now is missing due process.”

Also missing, says Gordo, is any conversation about immigration reform that would serve the needs of employers and give immigrants a pathway to making even greater contributions.

He recalled that when he was about 10, his family moved back to Mexico temporarily as part of the process of establishing legal status in the U.S., which was made possible under the Carter administration. His father is a U.S. citizen, as was his late mother. Gordo and a sibling became attorneys; another is a doctor and yet another is an educator.

Now, said Gordo, there’s no path to legalization. There’s just this hypocritical system in which there is demand for immigrant labor in many industries, along with demonization of these very contributors.

Pablo Alvarado, a Pasadena resident and executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told me he’s had differences with Gordo over the years. But he thinks the events of the last month have prompted the mayor to more fully embrace his immigrant identity.

“He’s stepping up to the moment and I’m very proud of what he’s doing,” said Alvarado, who has joined Gordo at vigils and demonstrations. “It’s one thing to tell the story of where you came from, and another thing to … confront the powers … behind these unlawful ICE operations. … I think he’s been fearless.”

Gordo told me he visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 18, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra), to check on arrestees. They were denied entry, but Gordo met a distraught woman from Pomona who was not being allowed to deliver heart medication to her husband.

Gordo offered his services as an attorney and was allowed entry along with the woman. He said he later learned that the husband had been arrested during his lunch break on a landscaping job, had been in the country 22 years with no criminal record and was in the process of obtaining a green card.

Gordo said that when he and the woman entered the detention center, the husband and wife were separated by a glass partition.

“She was crying and shaking,” Gordo said. “He was telling her it was all going to be okay. He was comforting her, and trying to smile.”

The partition had a small opening. They couldn’t fit their hands through it, but Gordo watched as the pair hooked their pinky fingers.

“All she could muster was, ‘I told you,’” Gordo said. “‘I told you not to go to work.’”

[email protected]

At Pasadena’s AC Hotel earlier this month, dozens of protesters gathered in an effort to confront federal agents who had arrived in town amid demonstrations against the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo was among those present on June 7 as demonstrators holding signs with “ICE out of Pasadena” and other messages chased federal vehicles out of the luxury hotel’s parking garage, cheering and recording it all on their cellphones.

The mayor said the protest forced the agents to leave the place they were using for local accommodations during their L.A. operations, which involved protecting federal buildings downtown.

“Word got out that there were Homeland Security vehicles parked at the hotel,” Gordo told The Times. “People wanted to express their 1st Amendment rights and they did so in a lawful, nonviolent and respectful manner.”

After hours of noisy rallying, the hotel staff asked the feds to pack up their things and go, according to Gordo. By sunset, uniformed agents from the Federal Protective Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, were seen walking out of the hotel with their bags stacked on a luggage cart in a video of the incident that went viral online. Their vehicles were escorted out of the garage by local police as protesters trailed behind.

Hotels have emerged as hot spots for confrontations between community members and immigration agents. Federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sometimes rent blocks of rooms in places where agents are dispatched for major operations.

Hotels have emerged as hot spots for confrontations between community members and immigration agents.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

The showdown in Pasadena was one of several recent instances of protesters coming together at hotels across the Los Angeles region to put pressure on their proprietors to offer no quarter to federal personnel during the Trump administration’s crackdown. The businesses, which rely on immigrant workers for cleaning and maintenance, have been cast into an awkward position — one that requires balancing politics with protecting their employees.

From Whittier to Hawaiian Gardens to Brea, concerned citizens have repeatedly taken to social media and whisper networks to share locations where they have spotted who they believe are federal agents. And people have followed up on such information by staging protests outside hotels in communities including Long Beach, Downey and Glendale.

Employees at the AC Hotel Pasadena referred inquiries to a spokeswoman, who did not immediately provide a comment. It was back to business as usual Tuesday afternoon at the Marriott property, which opened earlier this year. A man on a plush couch worked on his laptop, a woman sipped a beer at the bar and staff milled about.

Gordo said he had confirmed that there are no longer any Homeland Security agents staying at the property.

The Homeland Security press office did not immediately provide comment, and agencies under the department’s umbrella, including ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, did not respond to inquires.

Protesters have been arrested this month for allegedly interfering with federal officers, and federal agencies have expressed concerns about the repercussions of people “doxxing” agents by sharing their locations and other personal information online.

“People are out there taking photos of the names, their faces and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves,” Reuters reported acting ICE chief Todd Lyons said last week.

Pasadena police block the entrance to the Hotel Dena in Pasadena last week.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

The crowd-sourced effort to spread information about where federal agents are holed up plays out mostly online.

In some instances, the unverified reports come from people who work at the hotels. Other times, hotel guests or area residents see suspected agents outside or in the lobby, or walk through parking lots in search of federal vehicles.

During the first days after the L.A. enforcement effort began, it was fairly easy to tell where agents were staying by looking for vehicles with agency logos. But it appears that they have caught on to the surveillance tactics of those who would like to see them go home.

On Monday, a Times reporter visited 13 hotels in three Southland counties — from Westchester to Garden Grove to Ontario — where federal immigration agents recently had been rumored to be staying, according to social media posts and alerts on apps and websites dedicated to tracking ICE activity. No vehicles in any of the hotels’ parking lots bore clear visual indications that they were federal agents’ cars, vans or trucks.

At five hotels, employees approached by The Times declined to comment. At three, employees agreed to speak but declined to give their names, citing corporate policies. Two of them said in brief interviews that they were not sure whether agents were staying on the premises. A third, who works at a chain hotel in Anaheim, said he had seen who he believed were ICE agents at the property last week, but they were no longer staying there.

Workers at the Hilton Pasadena show support for community members taking part in a June 12 protest.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“They didn’t bother anyone,” said the man, who declined to provide his name out of fear of reprisal from his employer or immigration authorities. “There were maybe, like, a dozen of them. It was a little concerning.”

Workers such as him have been subjected to political whiplash in recent days. Last week, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them.” That same day, a senior ICE official sent guidance to regional ICE officials directing them to avoid raiding farms, hotels and restaurants and instead emphasize other targets.

The development gave hotel employees hope that they were out of the crosshairs. But the Trump administration quickly reversed course, saying this week that there is now no reprieve for hotel workers and others who Trump had praised just days earlier.

Andrew Mark, a pastor at Pasadena Covenant Church, also addressed the crowd at the June 7 rally outside the AC Hotel. He said in an interview that he was impressed — but not surprised — that the community came together and forced change.

“There’s a deep pride in Pasadena. So I think that for agents to be staying in a hotel here, you feel … a sense that we don’t want this to be a place where they can stage and go out and target people,” he said. “The fact that they were based in a hotel in our community was unsettling.”

On Tuesday, Manuel Vicente sat behind his makeshift desk in a soundproof room at the Pasadena Community Job Center, which helps connect day laborers with employment opportunities. As director of Radio Jornalera, he creates audio and video content to help migrant workers, including content that informs them of the rights they have during encounters with immigration enforcement agents.

Vicente said he believes the successful protest at the AC Hotel Pasadena is an example of a saying he likes to quote, “Pueblo salva el pueblo,” or “Only the people save the people.”

“When they were kicked out of the hotel, everybody was excited,” he said. “It was a small victory, but our efforts made a difference. We need to be together to protect our community, to protect our workers.”

There has never been a shortage of TV series that take place in Los Angeles, the longtime hub of the American television industry and its players. But the 2025 Emmy season features such a wealth of shows set and shot in and around L.A. that we couldn’t resist spotlighting how several of them use the iconic locale we call home.

‘Shrinking’

Jason Segel, left, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller and Ted McGinley in “Shrinking.”

(Apple)

The Apple TV+ comedy, which follows an interconnected group of co-workers, friends and neighbors, is set mainly in Pasadena and Altadena. Location manager David Flannery, a fifth-generation Pasadena native, notes, “So often [these cities] play for everywhere else in the world. But we want to show exactly where we are — which is just a little more specific than general L.A. — and that the characters are grounded in very real places.” These sites have included the Rose Bowl, Pasadena City Hall, Pasadena’s Central Park (featuring the landmark Castle Green building) and the South Pasadena train station. The Laird and Bishop family homes, with their adjoining backyards, may look like a set but are actually neighboring Altadena houses, both of which survived the Eaton fire.

‘Only Murders in the Building’

Martin Short, left, Selena Gomez and Steve Martin in “Only Murders in the Building.”

(Eric McCandless / Disney)

Although Hulu’s Emmy-winning comic mystery is the ultimate New York tale, its Season 4 opener sent its crime-solving lead trio to Tinseltown to pursue a movie adaptation of their popular podcast. Co-creator and showrunner John Hoffman, calling in during the show’s Season 5 shoot, says, “Last season had to start in L.A. It really kicks off a season that is specific to cinema, to moving images.” Filming took place on the classic Paramount Studios lot, at the historic Il Borghese condo building in Hancock Park and at an “ultra-glamorous, deeply L.A.” Hollywood Hills home, which served as studio exec Bev Melon’s party house.

‘Nobody Wants This’

Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in “Nobody Wants This.”

(Adam Rose / Netflix)

Creator-showrunner Erin Foster can’t imagine her Netflix rom-com about a progressive rabbi and a gentile sex podcaster set anywhere but her native Los Angeles. “You have to write what you know, and that’s what I know,” she says by phone from her West Hollywood home. “In L.A., people are following their dreams, so it says a lot about who someone is. I think the same applies to locations in a TV show: They all signal where [the characters] are in their life and who they are.” Some of these illustrative locales have included Westwood’s Sinai Temple, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Koreatown, the Los Feliz 3 Theatre, Calamigos Ranch in Malibu and WeHo’s Pleasure Chest sex shop.

‘The Studio’

Seth Rogen and Catherine O’Hara in “The Studio.”

(Apple)

Seth Rogen and company’s raucous creation about a beleaguered movie studio chief is rooted in firsthand experience. “Seth knows this town very, very well,” says supervising location manager Stacey Brashear. “He and [co-creator] Evan Goldberg wrote in 90% of the locations, including the [John] Lautner-designed, Midcentury Modern houses that studio executives like to collect.” Among these eye-popping sites are the Silvertop house above the Silver Lake Reservoir and the Harvey House in the Hollywood Hills. Adds Brashear, “I feel like our locations are actual characters in the show.” Among the Apple TV+ series’ many other L.A. locations: the Warner Bros. studio lot, the Smoke House Restaurant in Burbank, Lake Hollywood Park and the Sunset Strip’s Chateau Marmont.

‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’

Chloë Sevigny and Javier Bardem in “Monsters: The Lyle Aand Erik Menendez Story.”

(Netflix)

This Netflix limited series revisits the 1989 murder of wealthy Beverly Hills couple José and Kitty Menendez by sons Erik and Lyle, a crime notoriously connected to Los Angeles. “It was such a period of decadence and grandeur, and Beverly Hills was kind of the poster child for that,” says production designer Matthew Flood Ferguson. “I wanted to recapture the [town’s] glamour and celebrity culture.” He also notes, of L.A.’s diverse architecture, “You can get quite a few different looks all in the same place.” These “looks” included a grand Hancock Park-area home standing in for the Mendendez mansion, Koreatown’s Wilshire Colonnade office complex, a 1970s-built Encino bank building, Beverly Hills’ Will Rogers Memorial Park and the former Sunset Strip site of Spago, restored to look as it did in its heyday.

‘Hacks’

Megan Stalter left, and Hannah Einbinder at the Americana at Brand in “Hacks.”

(Kenny Laubbacher / Max)

Unlike past seasons, in which L.A. often subbed for Las Vegas, Season 4 of “Hacks” is mostly shot and set in Los Angeles. Says Lucia Aniello, co-creator with Paul W. Downs and Jen Stasky, “Much of [the season] is getting back to the roots of L.A. comedy. It really is a love letter to Los Angeles — and to the comedy world.” Adds Downs, “The show is a lot about people outside of the industry looking in. By being in L.A., we got to really explore what that means.” Some key locations: CBS Television City, the Lenny Kravitz-designed Stanley House, the Americana at Brand and Echo Park’s Elysian Theater; the Altadena estate doubling for Deborah Vance’s Bel-Air mansion was lost in the Eaton fire.

‘Running Point’

Kate Hudson and Max Greenfield in “Running Point.”

(Katrina Marcinowski / Netflix)

Loosely based on the life of Lakers President Jeanie Buss, this Netflix comedy is “filled with a lot of L.A. DNA,” says co-creator and showrunner David Stassen. He adds that, like Buss, the show’s star, Kate Hudson, “is also part of a dynastic L.A. family. Plus, she knows Jeanie, she loves the Lakers and she grew up going to games.” Though much of the season was filmed downtown at Los Angeles Center Studios, location work included the Pacific Coast Highway south of Venice (where Cam, played by Justin Theroux, crashes his Porsche), downtown L.A.’s elegant Hotel Per La and homes in Sherman Oaks and Woodland Hills. The L.A. skyline gets quite the workout here as well.

‘Forever’

Lovie Simone in “Forever.”

(Elizabeth Morris / Netflix)

Netflix’s reimagining of Judy Blume’s 1975 novel unfolds in 2018 Los Angeles, where it evocatively explores first love between teens Justin and Keisha. Showrunner and L.A. native Mara Brock Akil considers her adaptation “a love letter to Los Angeles and to the idyllic life we’re all trying to live in this city, where dreams are not isolated to one particular neighborhood.” Key parts of the story take place around Keisha’s home in the View Park-Windsor Hills area, with the show’s many other L.A. locations including Ladera Park, St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood, the Grove and the Original Farmers Market, Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Pier. Adds Akil, “A lot of people [in L.A.] are moving around on public transportation, which I wanted to shine a light on too.”

In “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” playwright Lucas Hnath cheekily proposes an answer to a question that has haunted the theater for more than a century: Whatever happened to Nora after she walked out on her marriage at the end of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 drama, “A Doll’s House”?

The door slam that concludes Ibsen’s play ushered in a revolution in modern drama. After Nora’s exit, anything was possible on the stages of respectable European playhouses. Conventional morality was no longer a choke hold on dramatic characters, who were allowed to set dangerous new precedents for audiences that may have been easily shocked but were by no means easily deterred.

Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

“A Doll’s House, Part 2,” which opened Sunday at Pasadena Playhouse under the direction of Jennifer Chang, is a sequel with a puckish difference. Although ostensibly set 15 years after Nora stormed out on Torvald and her three children, the play takes place in a theatrical present that has one antique-looking shoe in the late 19^th century and one whimsical sneaker in the early 21^st.

The hybrid nature of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” isn’t just reflected in the costume design. The language of the play moves freely from the declamatory to the profane, with some of its funniest moments occurring when fury impels a character to unleash some naughty modern vernacular.

More crucially, comedy and tragedy are allowed to coexist as parallel realities. Hnath has constructed “A Doll’s House, Part 2” as a modern comedy of ideas, divided into a series of confrontations in which characters get to thrash out different perspectives on their shared history.

Elizabeth Reaser in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Chang stages the play like a courtroom drama, with a portion of the audience seated on the stage like a jury. The spare (if too dour) set by Wilson Chin, featuring the door that Nora made famous and a couple of rearranged chairs, allows for the brisk transit of testimony in a drama that lets all four characters have their say.

Nora (played with a touch too much comic affectation by Elizabeth Reaser) has become a successful author of controversial women’s books espousing radical ideas about the trap of conventional marriage. She has returned to the scene of her domestic crime out of necessity.

Torvald (portrayed with compelling inwardness by Jason Butler Harner), her stolid former husband, never filed the divorce papers. She’s now in legal jeopardy, having conducted business as an unmarried woman. And her militant feminist views have won her enemies who would like nothing more than to send her to prison.

Kahyun Kim in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Nora needs Torvald to do what he was supposed to have done years ago: officially end their marriage. But not knowing how he might react to her reemergence, she makes arrangements to strategize privately with Anne Marie (Kimberly Scott), the old nanny who raised Nora’s children in her absence and isn’t particularly inclined to do her any favors.

After Torvald and Anne Marie both refuse to cooperate with her, Nora has no choice but to turn to her daughter, Emmy (crisply played by Kahyun Kim). Recently engaged to a young banker, Emmy has chosen the road that her mother abandoned, a distressing realization for Nora, who had hoped that her example would have inaugurated a new era of possibility for women.

Hnath works out the puzzle of Nora’s dilemma as though it were a dramatic Rubik’s Cube. The play hasn’t any ax to grind. If there’s one prevailing truth, it’s that relationships are murkier and messier than ideological arguments.

Jason Butler Harner in “A Doll’s House Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Nora restates why she left her marriage and explains as best she can the reasons she stayed away from her children all these years. But her actions, however necessary, left behind a tonnage of human wreckage. “A Doll’s House, Part 2” offers a complex moral accounting. As each character’s forcefully held view is added to the ledger sheet, suspense builds over how the playwright will balance the books.

Each new production of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” works out the math in a slightly different way. The play had its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2017 in an elegant production that was somewhat more somber than the Broadway production that opened shortly after and earned Laurie Metcalf a well-deserved Tony for her performance.

The play found its voice through the Broadway developmental process, and Metcalf’s imprint is unmistakable in the rhythms of Nora’s whirligig monologues and bracing retorts. Metcalf is the rare actor who can lunge after comedy without sacrificing the raw poignancy of her character.

Elizabeth Reaser, left, and Kimberly Scott in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Reaser adopts a humorous mode but it feels forced. More damagingly, it doesn’t seem as if Hnath’s Nora has evolved all that much from the skittishly coquettish wife of Ibsen’s play. The intellectual arc of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” suffers from the mincing way Reaser introduces the character, with little conviction for Nora’s feminist principles and only a superficial sense of the long, exhausting road of being born before your time.

The early moments with Scott’s Anne Marie are unsteady. Reaser’s Nora comes off as a shallow woman oblivious of her privilege, which is true but only partly so. Scott has a wonderful earthy quality, but I missed the impeccable timing of Jayne Houdyshell’s Anne Marie, who could stop the show with an anachronistic F-bomb. Chang’s staging initially seems like a work-in-progress.

The production is galvanized by the excellent performances of Harner and Kim. Harner reveals a Torvald changed by time and self-doubt. Years of solitude, sharpened by intimations of mortality, have cracked the banker’s sense of certainty. He blames Nora for the hurt he’ll never get over, but he doesn’t want to go down as the paragon of bad husbands. He too would like a chance to redeem himself, even if (as Harner’s canny performance illustrates) character is not infinitely malleable. Bad habits endure.

Kimberly Scott in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Kim’s Emmy holds her own against Nora even as her proposed solution to her mother’s dilemma involves some questionable ethics. Nora may be disappointed that her daughter is making such conformist choices, but Emmy sees no reason why the mother she never knew should feel entitled to shape her life. The brusquely controlled way Kim’s Emmy speaks to Nora hints at the ocean of unresolved feelings between them.

The production is somewhat hampered by Anthony Tran’s cumbersome costumes and Chin’s grimly rational scenic design. Elizabeth Harper’s lighting enlivens the dull palette, but I missed the surreal notes of the South Coast Repertory and Broadway stagings. Hnath creates his own universe, and the design choices should reflect this wonderland quality to a jauntier degree.

But Chang realizes the play’s full power in the final scene between Nora and Torvald. Reaser poignantly plunges the depths of her character, as estranged husband and wife share what the last 15 years have been like for them.

“A Doll’s House” was considered in its time to be politically incendiary. Hnath’s sequel, without squelching the politics, picks up the forgotten human story of Ibsen’s indelible classic.

Rams running back Kyren Williams is waiting patiently.

During the offseason, the team solidified its offense by re-signing left tackle Alaric Jackson and receiver Tutu Atwell, adding free-agent receiver Davante Adams and offensive lineman Coleman Shelton and adjusting the contract of quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Williams, who rushed for more than 1,100 yards in each of the last two seasons, is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is eligible for an extension.

In April, the Rams and Williams’ agent exchanged proposed contract terms. But with organized team activities scheduled to begin next week, a deal has not been done.

Still, Williams said he was “feeling good” about the situation.

“I know with time it’s going to happen,” Williams said last week in Pasadena, where he helped distribute new shoes to kids affected by the Eaton Fire.

And if Williams and the Rams do not reach a deal before the season?

“I would love for it to get done so I can take care of my family and the loved ones that helped me get here,” he said. “I’ve always got trust in God. Whether it happens now or I play out the season, I know it’s going to happen eventually.

“And so, time will tell. I just know I’ve got to do what I need to do each and every single day to make sure that it does happen in my favor.”

Rams running back Kyren Williams, second from right, helped distribute new shoes to kids affected by Eaton fire last week in a joint effort between the Seattle Seahawks and Rams.

(Gary Klein / Los Angeles Times)

Williams, a 2022 fifth-round draft pick from Notre Dame, was slowed by injuries much of his rookie season. But in 12 games in 2023, he rushed for 1,144 yards, scored 15 touchdowns and was voted to the Pro Bowl. In 16 games last season, he rushed for 1,299 yards and scored 16 touchdowns and helped the Rams advance to the NFC divisional round.

Williams, 24, leads a Rams running back corps that includes second-year pro Blake Corum, Ronnie Rivers, Cody Schrader and rookie Jarquez Hunter, a fourth-round draft pick from Auburn.

Williams is scheduled to earn about $5.4 million this season, according to Overthecap.com. The Rams have not given a running back a top-level extension since they awarded Todd Gurley a then-record deal before the 2018 season.

General manager Les Snead has said that Rams would “definitely like to engineer a long-term partnership,” with Williams. Coach Sean McVay said in April that “bridging that gap” financially was the challenge.

“We’ll see how far that we have to go with that but he is a very important part of what we want to be moving forward,” McVay said, adding, “He knows how much I love him, and so we’ll see if we can get something done.”

In the meantime, Williams is preparing for the season — and continuing to contribute off the field with actions consistent with those that made him the Rams’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award last season.

Williams directed his $25,000 from the NFL Foundation to the LAFD Foundation to help with fire relief efforts, said Molly Higgins, the Rams’ executive vice president of community impact and engagement.

“He’s been very vocal in saying, ‘However I can help with the fire-impacted families, let me know,’” Higgins said.

So when the Seattle Seahawks reached out to the Rams offering to combine forces to distribute sneakers to needy kids affected by the fires, Williams signed on to assist team mascots and several former Seahawks players at the Boys & Girls Club of Pasadena.

“I couldn’t imagine what these young kids and their families went through when they lost their houses and things due to the fire so just being able to be here — this is a blessing,” Williams said.

As his contract situation plays out, the work on and off the field will continue, Williams said.

“My only purpose is to continue to get better,” he said, “and finding joy in each and every single day and finding something to get better at.”

If you’re wondering why so many goths we’re wandering around Pasadena this weekend, look no further than Cruel World. The Goldenvoice celebration of all things postpunk, new wave and alternative landed at Brookside at the Rose Bowl on Saturday for its fourth installment, this time led by New Order and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

It ran smoothly, even when the overcast turned into a hard drizzle, creating a vibe reminiscent of England’s famed Glastonbury Festival. Gen Xers and fans of the era flocked to the converted golf course to hear their favorite artists take the stage once again, with many only appearing occasionally over the course of decades.

But, as is the case with all festivals, some acts had it together, bringing their best to fans and entrancing them in a nostalgia-ridden high. And some just showed up. Here’s a list of the performances we saw at the fest, from best to not-so-great.

1. New Order
In a recent chat with The Times, Bernard Sumner spoke lovingly about New Order’s revival and attributed it partially to the band’s newfound cohesion.

“In the early days, we used to get f— up quite a lot and that f— up the shows,” Sumner said. “We used to play a really good one, celebrate how great it was, and then the next one would be terrible because we celebrated too much.”

He was spot-on with this point, as the band’s performance at Cruel World illustrated. Across entire set, it seemed everything was in the right place for the new-wave icons, who delivered perfection to fans. From the get-go, “Age of Consent” had the entire crowd bouncing around — an impressive accomplishment considering that the band was the last to perform on a wet and muddy day.

But the sky seemingly opened for New Order, who looked all too cool and casual while shouting out, “This is a protest song, and it’s time for a protest song” before treating the audience to “State of the Nation.”

The set would have been incredible enough on its own, gracefully fitting “Sub-Culture,” “Bizarre Love Triangle,” “True Faith” and “Blue Monday” into a one-hour window, but the group brought more than that to the table. After Sumner bowed out to “Temptation,” a minute went by before the band was back out onstage to play Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”

Emotions ran high in a celebratory and touching performance, as images of the late Ian Curtis and the words “Forever Joy Division” flashed on screens behind the band. Headliners are headliners for a reason, and there was no better group than New Order to lead festivalgoers on a victory lap during its stroll through the past.

Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo performs at Cruel World

(Dick Slaughter)

2. Devo

Devo was incredibly close to topping this list, as the band brought its signature wacky and whimsical show to Pasadena. After being pelted by rain, fans gathered around the festival’s Sad Girls stage to welcome the new-wave quintet.

A tape rolled on the screens, featuring returning character “Rod Rooter,” played by Michael W. Schwartz. In the footage, Rooter meets with the group, pitching the idea of Devo dolls: “We even got your jumpsuits!”

This was followed by another video, once again featuring Schwartz as Rooter, only years later.

“That was me 40 years ago, dispensing invaluable advice to the band that couldn’t shoot straight,” he said, sitting on an indoor bike and wearing a boldly colored tracksuit. “Now here they are, my biggest career regret, Devo.”

All four then danced out onto the stage, wearing all-black suits for “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man).” It wasn’t long until the musicians donned their signature “devolution” caps, which were later thrown to the crowd as the band launched into “Whip It.” This was followed by a quick outfit change into those yellow jumpsuits, which frontman Mark Mothersbaugh tore off during “Uncontrollable Urge.”

Devo brought everything to the table and gave fans the show they deserved. It’s no wonder Goldenvoice invited the band back after it lighted up the Pasadena stage in 2022, and it likely won’t be the group’s last appearance on a Cruel World lineup.

3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

It was always going to be a great performance from Nick Cave and his ensemble — it’s just their business. Over the entire course of the festival, no one was able to entice a crowd like they were. Throughout the entire set, it felt like gospel was ringing out across the Rose Bowl lawn, and Cave would extend a hand to his adoring worshippers at the stage’s front.

“You’re f— incredible,” he said. “Full of drugs and still able to clap.”

Throughout its one-hour set, the band played everything from lively, invigorating tracks like “Wild God” to mellow, meditative numbers like “Joy.” Of course, the group made sure to fit in “Red Right Hand,” which received an eruption of cheers. Cave would often make a mad dash between his piano and downstage, making a show of it as he danced his fingers across the keys.

But the perfomance’s peak likely came with a live debut of “Hollywood,” a 14-minute song (played in full) off 2019’s “Ghosteen.”

“We’re gonna try this song, we’ve never played it before,” Cave said. “It’s extremely long and it’s written for … Hollywood.”

The song, explained in a post to Cave’s 2018 project “The Red Hand Files,” is a tale referencing a series of images that came to him while sitting in the back seat of a car driving through Oslo, Texas. In it, a narrator finds himself on a beach, looking out at the sun.

Poetically and almost prophetically, the post said, “Malibu is on fire and the animals have been driven down from the hills to the shore.”

Shirley Manson of Garbage performing at Cruel World

(Dick Slaughter)

4. Garbage

Overlapping Garbage and Devo during Cruel World’s sets was a decision that left many attendees divided. It was no surprise that many larger groups split up around 7 p.m. and set off to either the Outsiders or Lost Boys stages.

Even lead singer Shirley Manson felt bummed about missing out on Devo and said she expected a much smaller crowd.

“I’m gonna be very honest with you … in rehearsal yesterday we were really freaking out because, of course, the great Devo!” Manson said. “We are so gutted that we’re playing at the same time as one of our hero bands.”

“We’re amazed that you’re here,” she continued, laughing. “Thank you so much.”

But Garbage put on an excellent performance — it was all smiles among those who had chosen the alt-rock group. A bonus was Manson’s outfit, which was undoubtedly the best of the day.

5. OMD

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark was an unexpected favorite among the lineup. The group came out with high energy and maintained it throughout its entire set. This kept fans on the edge of their seats, as did just the right amount of commentary from the bandto engage them.

“Everybody put two hands up,” lead singer Andy McCluskey said before performing “Talking Loud and Clear.”

“You have to do it with two hands, otherwise you’ll look like Elon Musk!”

It was an expected yet hilarious quip from the band, which has never shied away from making a political statement. Years later, it still felt awkward dancing away to “Enola Gay,” and even more so after the group flashed images of the notorious aircraft and a mushroom cloud on screens.

During “If You Leave,” the screens showed images of Molly Ringwald as Andie Walsh in “Pretty in Pink,” which was a nice nod to the song’s inclusion in the film’s soundtrack.

6. Alison Moyet

A great performance from an incredible artist — it’s no wonder she received an MBE for music service in 2021. During the set, she floated back and forth between songs from her solo career and those she made with Yazoo alongside Vince Clarke, who had previously served as keyboardist for Depeche Mode.

Perhaps the most impressive part of her set was her vocals. It’s no secret that some of these singers’ voices have declined after 40 or so years. But Moyet, though not as crisp, still delivered on the main stage. In fact, the touch of grit to her voice only added to the songs, which she commanded with gravitas.

7. She Past Away

The Turkish postpunk duo took the stage around 2 p.m. and granted festivalgoers a pleasant peek of what was ahead of them. For a group that formed in 2006, it fit in comfortably in the lineup, entrancing listeners with sounds reminiscent of what its new-wave peers were creating in the ’80s. To put a cherry on top, bandmates Volkan Caner and İdris Akbulut adorned their classic black eye shadow and lipstick combo.

She Wants Revenge performing at Cruel World

(Dick Slaughter)

8. She Wants Revenge

Another postpunk outfit from the aughts, She Wants Revenge attracted quite the crowd. Lead singer Justin Warfield strutted around the stage in an all-black, all-leather outfit that featured a belt with golden ankhs hanging below it. As far as presence, the group had it down.

Its performance was solid, and fans applauded when the band whipped out a cover of the Psychedelic Furs’ “Sister Europe” mid-set. Hunter Burgan of AFI was brought out and introduced as not only “one of the raddest bass players ever ripping” but also “a mean sax player.” In a sentimental touch, the song was dedicated to the Furs’ late saxophonist Mars Williams.

9. Death Cult

This one was an odd one. As a preface, the Southern Death Cult was a Bradford, England-born band and a leader of the postpunk movement in the early ’80s. The group garnered a bit of attention, played about 20 shows, split after two years and released one album, titled “The Southern Death Cult.”

After the breakup, frontman Ian Astbury joined forces with guitarist Billy Duffy to form Death Cult in 1983. The band released one EP under this name, simply titled “Death Cult,” before becoming the Cult less than one year later. In 2023, Astbury and Duffy would revive Death Cult for a series of shows across the U.K. and a one-off performance at what was then the Theatre at Ace Hotel. For Cruel World, the pair followed suit and performed under the name Death Cult, while also celebrating the music of the Cult and the Southern Death Cult.

Going into the show, fans were confused about what they would possibly be hearing from the band, who walked out onstage to the theme from “A Clockwork Orange.” Needless to say, most attendees were fans of the Cult, the most well known of the three band iterations, and Astbury was seemingly frustrated that the crowd wasn’t more reactive to tunes from Death Cult and the Southern Death Cult.

It’s no surprise, then, that attendees rejoiced when they heard the Cult’s most popular song, “She Sells Sanctuary,” as well as others from the band.

It didn’t help that the sun had just gone down, leaving the small Lost Boys stage dimly lighted, and there were no visualizers to back the group. This meant fans could hardly make out the band unless they were close to the stage.

It’s not that Death Cult’s musicians were bad showmen. On the contrary, Astbury’s vocals were great, and everyone seemed to be on the same wave, except the crowd. Given all the factors at play, the set was just odd altogether.

10. The Go-Go’s

Fans arrived in droves, eager to hear their favorites from one of the biggest undercards on the lineup. I mean, it’s the Go-Go’s; you don’t want to miss “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “Vacation,” even if you’ve just spent hours in the rain, shelled out $20 on a cocktail and your soles are starting to scream at you.

It’s difficult to put a finger on what exactly went wrong for this performance; the hits were there and the crowd was packed. But every song felt uncoordinated, like the band could have spent a few more hours in rehearsal. The group was not only out of sync from the jump but the entire set was also plagued by feedback and sound mix issues.

“All right, I’m sitting back here motherf— … come on now, I’m working my f— a— off,” drummer Gina Schock said before diving into “Head Over Heels.” “I wanna see some movement out there, OK?”

But the crowd stood still. Even when the band finished off with “We Got The Beat,” the musicians’ attempt to lead a H-O-T-T-O-G-O chant — as they had done just weeks before at Coachella — fell flat on its face.

“You know that one,” Jane Wiedlin pleaded, to no avail.

SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

FIRST ROUND

DIVISION 2

Crean Lutheran 6, La Habra 1

West Ranch 4, Palm Desert 3

Sultana 2, Royal 1

Loyola 8, Sierra Canyon 1

Servite 1, Riverside Prep 0

Anaheim Canyon 10, Maranatha 6

Etiwanda 11, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 5

Gahr 10, La Salle 0

Oaks Christian 9, Redlands East Valley 2

Torrance 5, Chino Hills 1

Fountain Valley 4, El Segundo 2

Trabuco Hills 4, Bonita 3

Foothill 6, Millikan 4

San Clemente 8, Westlake 0

Mater Dei 3, South Hills 0

Simi Valley 3, Ventura 0

DIVISION 4

Woodbridge 4, Cerritos Valley Christian 1

Irvine 8, St. Bernard 0

Thousand Oaks 5, La Quinta 1

Claremont 2, Apple Valley 1

Dos Pueblos 5, Katella 3

Valencia 4, Northview 1

Trinity Classical Academy 3, Don Lugo 2

Grand Terrace 4, Chino 3

Saugus 22, Wiseburn Da Vinci 3

Murrieta Mesa 6, Santa Monica 0

Ganesha 2, Burbank Burroughs 0

La Canada 6, Downey 5

South Torrance 2, Culver City 0

Sonora 3, Linfield Christian 2

Monrovia 5, Capistrano Valley Christian 2

Oxnard Pacifica 8, California 0

DIVISION 6

Shadow Hills 2, Arroyo Valley 1

St. Monica 12, Paramount 8

Crossroads 6, Hesperia 3

Rancho Mirage 7, Rancho Verde 2

Estancia 10, Alhambra 8

Foothill Tech 3, South El Monte 1

Orange County Pacifica Christian 6, Quartz Hill 2

Muir 3, Rio Hondo Prep 1

Cerritos 5, Banning 1

Marshall 7, Leuzinger 0

Ridgecrest Burroughs 7, Savanna 6

Sante Fe 4, Windward 1

Tustin 2, Littlerock 0

Heritage Christian 9, Adelanto 2

St. Bonaventure 3, Pasadena 1

Montebello 2, Oakwood 0

DIVISION 8

Colton, bye

University Prep 9, Bolsa Grande 4

New Roads 11, Santa Ana 6

Duarte 7, Dunn 5

Fillmore 7, Santa Maria Valley Christian 2

San Jacinto Valley 6, Lancaster Desert Christian 4

Cate 3, Azusa 2

Westminster La Quinta 2, Rosemead 1

Yeshiva 7, Rancho Alamitos 3

Beverly Hills 10, Pasadena Poly 6

Hesperia Christian 3, Big Bear 2

Pioneer 5, Calvary Baptist 0

Arroyo 7, Edgewood 0

Placentia Valencia 11, Temecula Prep 5

San Bernardino 5, Rolling Hills Prep 4

AB Miller 7, Cal Lutheran 6

DIVISION 9

Nuview Bridge 17, Gorman 0

TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Games at 3:15 p.m. unless noted)

SECOND ROUND

DIVISION 1

Los Osos at Corona

Norco at Laguna Beach

Villa Park at Aquinas

Vista Murrieta at St. John Bosco

Santa Margarita at Huntington Beach

Orange Lutheran at Los Alamitos

Arcadia at Mira Costa

El Dorado at Crespi

DIVISION 2

Crean Lutheran at West Ranch

Loyola at Sultana

Anaheim Canyon at Servite

Gahr at Etiwanda

Oaks Christian at Torrance

Trabuco Hills at Fountain Valley

Foothill at San Clemente

Mater Dei at Simi Valley

DIVISION 3

San Dimas at Colony

Fullerton at Paraclete

Arrowhead Christian at Warren

Cajon at Beckman

Temecula Valley at Great Oak

Crescenta Valley at Castaic

Costa Mesa at San Juan Hills

Yucaipa at Glendora

DIVISION 4

Irvine at Woodbridge

Thousand Oaks at Claremont

Dos Pueblos at Valencia

Trinity Classical Academy at Grand Terrace

Saugus at Murrieta Mesa

Ganesha at La Canada

South Torrance at Sonora

Monrovia at Oxnard Pacifica

DIVISION 5

Northwood at Laguna Hills

Citrus Hill at Highland

Jurupa Hills at St. Anthony

Kennedy at Hillcrest

Liberty at La Serna

Bishop Montgomery at Elsinore

Camarillo at Moreno Valley

Riverside Poly vs. Long Beach Poly at Long Beach City College

DIVISION 6

Shadow Hills at St. Monica

Rancho Mirage at Crossroads

Foothill Tech at Estancia

Muir at Orange County Pacifica Christian

Cerritos at Marshall

Santa Fe at Ridgecrest Burroughs

Tustin at Heritage Christian

Montebello at St. Bonaventure

DIVISION 7

Channel Islands at Chaffey

Western Christian at Norwalk

Mary Star of the Sea at Lancaster

Milken Community at Garden Grove

Silverado at Grace

Flintridge Prep at Don Bosco Tech

Granite Hills at Riverside Notre Dame

DIVISION 8

University Prep at Colton, Monday

Duarte at New Roads

Fillmore at San Jacinto Valley

Cate at Westminster La Quinta

Yeshiva at Beverly Hills

Pioneer at Hesperia Christian

Arroyo at Placentia Valencia

AB Miller at San Bernardino

DIVISION 9

Coast Union at Loma Linda Academy, Monday at 4 p.m.

Coast Christian at Saddleback

Mountain View at Shalhevet

Pomona at Academy of Careers & Exploration

Twentynine Palms at Cobalt

Academy for Academic Excellence at Garden Grove Santiago

Santa Rosa Academy at St. Lestonnac

Nuview Bridge at Ojai Valley

Note: Quarterfinals in all divisions May 23; Semifinals in all divisions May 27; Finals in all divisions May 30-31.