PHOENIX — It’s only fitting that the pitcher who recorded the Dodgers’ final eight outs of the World Series will take the mound on opening day, as the club tries to pick up where it left off in 2025 and chase a third straight championship in 2026.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Monday that World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will toe the rubber for the March 26 opener at Dodger Stadium against the Arizona Diamondbacks — the second straight year he’s had the honor and the first time at home, after pitching last season’s opener in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs.
Roberts added Yamamoto is expected to return to Camelback Ranch soon, after participating in the World Baseball Classic with Team Japan. The Samurai Warriors, seeking a second straight WBC title, were eliminated by Team Venezuela Saturday night in the quarterfinals.
Yamamoto is expected to make one more start in the Cactus League before opening day, although the date has yet to be scheduled, according to Roberts.
Shohei Ohtani returned to Dodgers camp Monday morning, and Roberts plans to have a conversation with him soon about configuring his throwing plan leading up to regular season play. Per Roberts, Ohtani threw four innings in a simulated game while with Team Japan last Thursday.
“He’s going to get here and throw a bullpen,” Roberts said, adding: “I’m trying to figure out when we can get him into a game, but it should be here in the next day or two, to take some at bats. But as far as his progression, there’s going to be a bullpen soon, and [we’re] trying to figure out what day he’s going to pitch this week. It should be this week, but I’m not sure which day yet.”
Ohtani has not pitched in a Cactus League game and did not pitch in the WBC. Roberts does not expect the four-time MVP to be fully stretched out by the start of the regular season. Still, as Roberts notes, he’s further along than he was at this time a year ago, when he was working his way back from Tommy John surgery.
“I think this year we’re certainly north of that, I don’t see how we won’t be able to get to three or four innings in a major league game, so that’s certainly a better jumping-off point than last year, so we’ll see how it goes,” Roberts said.
Beyond Yamamoto, Ohtani and trusty veteran Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers’ back end of the rotation is still taking shape. Though Roberts had considered a six-man rotation to begin regular season play, he indicated Monday that he expects the club to use a five-man rotation, noting that things are still “fluid.”
Last week, Roberts said he “didn’t see a world in which Roki Sasaki doesn’t break [camp] as a starter.” That would leave one rotation spot up for the taking, with 25-year-old Justin Wrobleski, 26-year-old Emmet Sheehan and 27-year-old River Ryan among those in the running.
BERLIN — Juergen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96.
Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that “Germany and Europe have lost one of the most significant thinkers of our time.”
Merz said that “his sociological and philosophical work had an impact on generations of researchers and thinkers.” He praised “Habermas’ intellectual forcefulness and his liberality” and said in a statement that “his voice will be missed.”
Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume “Theory of Communicative Action.”
Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of a new era in 1945 and his coming to terms with the reality of Nazi crimes as something without which he wouldn’t have found his way into philosophy and social theory. He recalled that “you saw suddenly that it was a politically criminal system in which you had lived.”
He had an ambivalent relationship with the left-wing student movement of the late 1960s in Germany and beyond, engaging with it but also warning at the time against the danger of what he called “left-wing fascism” — a reaction to a firebrand speech by a student leader that he later said was “slightly out of place.” He would later recognize the movement as having driven a “fundamental liberalization” of German society.
In the 1980s, Habermas was a prominent figure in the so-called Historians’ Dispute, in which Berlin historian Ernst Nolte and others called for a new perspective on the Third Reich and German identity. They tended to compare what happened under Adolf Hitler to atrocities carried out by other governments, such as the deaths of millions in the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin. Habermas and other opponents contended that the conservative historians were trying to lessen the magnitude of Nazi crimes through such comparisons.
Habermas supported the rise to power of center-left Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 1998. He was critical of the “technocratic” approach and perceived lack of political vision of Schroeder’s conservative successor, Angela Merkel, complaining in 2016 of the paralyzing effects on public opinion of “the foam blanket of Merkel’s policy of sending people to sleep.”
He was particularly critical of the “limited interest” shown by German politicians, business leaders and media in “shaping a politically effective Europe.” In 2017, he praised newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron for laying out of plans for European reform, saying that “the way he speaks about Europe makes a difference.”
Habermas was born on June 18, 1929, in Duesseldorf and grew up in nearby Gummersbach, where his father headed the local chamber of commerce. He became a member of the Deutsches Jungvolk, a section of the Hitler Youth for younger boys, at 10.
He was born with a cleft palate that required repeated operations as a child, an experience that helped inform his later thinking about language.
Habermas said he had experienced the importance of spoken language as “a layer of commonality without which we as individuals cannot exist” and recalled struggling to make himself understood. He also spoke of the “superiority of the written word,” and said that “the written form conceals the flaws of the oral.”
His wife, Ute Habermas-Wesselhoeft, died last year. The couple had three children: Tilmann; Rebekka, who died in 2023; and Judith.
“Beast Mode” started as a phrase people used to describe the running style of former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.
“I think it was just my relentlessness and my no-back-down type of demeanor when it came to running the ball, like, ‘Boy, that boy a beast,’” Lynch said. “And it’s like, yeah, when I get the ball, that’s what type of mode I’m in — I’m in beast mode.”
Lynch played 12 seasons for the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders, amassing 10,413 in 2,453 carries with 85 touchdowns. Somewhere along the way, he said, the phrase “Beast Mode” evolved into “this persona bigger than myself.”
“The way that I get approached by kids and fans, like the way that they approach me is almost as if I am like a character so to speak, and I don’t think that I was doing it justice because I’m like, ‘Well s—, I’m just only a man,” the Super Bowl XLVIII champion said.
“But I believe in their mind what they had made up as Beast Mode is this larger-than-life, kind of surreal individual.”
An early look at a page from the upcoming “Beast Mode 510” graphic novel, starring Marshawn Lynch as the title character. Text will be added closer to the Oct. 6 publishing date.
(Art by Denys Cowan / Courtesy of AWA)
Lynch is embracing that perception of himself … and Beast Mode is about to become a literal comic book hero.
On Friday, Arists Writers and Artisans announced the graphic novel “Beast Mode 510,” which is scheduled to be released Oct. 6. Written by NAACP Image Award-nominated author Sheldon Allen and illustrated by Eisner Hall of Fame artist Denys Cowan, the book was “inspired and guided by” Lynch and is a “deeply personal love letter” to his hometown Oakland, according to a news release from AWA.
“At its center is Beast Mode: the 510’s legendary fixer and freelance sleuth whose rough exterior hides a code of loyalty and willingness to deal with problems others won’t touch,” the release reads. “If you’ve got a problem the authorities won’t handle, Beast Mode will. No invoices. No contracts. Just results.”
AWA chief creative officer Axel Alonso said when he was approached by Lynch and his team about possibly working on a project together, the idea of turning Beast Mode into an almost superhuman crime fighter quickly came to mind.
“To use a football analogy, when Marshawn and his people came to me and said, ‘Can you do anything with this, Beast Mode?’ it was like they gave me the ball on the one-yard line and I had to just walk it in — and Pete Carroll wasn’t the coach, so I could just go right in,” Alonso said, referring to an infamous play at the end of Seattle’s loss to New England in Super Bowl XLIX.
“It was as easy as that. I was like, come on, ‘Beast Mode’? So automatically I talked with Marshawn and said, ‘What’s important to you?’”
Lynch’s input has been key every step of the way, Alonso said, with the five-time Pro Bowl selection getting final say on every aspect. Lynch said he appreciates having his voice heard and being able to put his stamp on the project.
“From the start, we just sat down and had a conversation about where it was that we wanted to go, what is the kind of feel, the look that we want, the kind of tone that we want to tell the story,” Lynch said.
Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch #24 of the Seattle Seahawks runs for a 67-yard touchdown against the New Orleans Saints during an NFC wild-card playoff game Jan. 8, 2011, at Qwest Field.
(Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
An early look at pages from the upcoming “Beast Mode 510” graphic novel starring Super Bowl champion Marshawn Lynch as an underground crime fighter.
(Art by Denys Cowan / Courtesy of AWA)
“I can’t draw or nothing like that, but any type of update or anything Axel will get over to me and, you know what I mean, yea or nay. And then when it comes to like how certain characters would look, certain names, individuals — I would say I’m involved, but I’m not stepping on their toes.”
For Lynch, one of the top priorities was to bring attention to all the unique aspects of his beloved city.
“We kinda have Oakland being a character of its own,” he said. “The personality of what Oakland stands for is something that I would really like to highlight ‘cause I feel that my city gets overlooked. And then the amount of individuals that we have coming out of area, it’s also an opportunity to show a nod to a lot of the Bay Area cultures and icons that we have.”
Even though the book is fiction, Lynch insisted on authenticity in the depictions of the city and the people who live there, including the way they look, act and speak.
“I think the biggest thing will probably be just the way that I speak in general,” Lynch said. “Mother— from where I’m from, we talk with a certain type of a tone, a type of swag.”
An early look at a page from the upcoming “Beast Mode 510” graphic novel. Marshawn Lynch says his character was inspired by the larger-than-life persona fans sometimes associate with him.
(Art by Denys Cowan / Courtesy of AWA.)
And, judging from Lynch’s signature way of talking, a lot of profanity.
None of Lynch’s ideas has been toned down.
“This is an R-rated book,” Alonso said.
“I want this s— to be turned up to the max,” Lynch added, “so if a mother— do pick this up to read, it’s gonna be like, ‘Oh, this some real s—.’ As well as entertaining, as well as insightful and impactful.”
Lynch is used to keeping people entertained, including as the co-host of the “Get Got Pod” with former Seahawks teammate Mike Robinson and as an actor with numerous roles in TV and film (including a breakout performancein 2023’s “Bottoms”).
He said he’s proud of how the project is turning out.
“When you see work and be like, ‘Damn that s— was nice’ and you start thinking about the thought process and how they got to those points, how they got to those things that drew you in, those things that give you that warm feeling,” Lynch said, “I’m feeling like I’m living that as this s— is going.
“Which is crazy as f— because I played in Super Bowls, I walked the red carpet of f—in’ premieres, and this one feels like, out of a lot of s—, this one is capturing that feeling for me. I’m a [Black man] — you know we don’t feel too much. But when we do, we be like, ‘Oh yeah, you know this s— is special.’”
I couldn’t stop looking at the thick bunches of California brittlebush, their bright yellow daisy-like flowers bursting alongside the sandy trail at Eaton Canyon.
I’d last walked the path a week after the Eaton fire, when I observed that “charred limbs of manzanita and other small trees and shrubs jerked out of the earth like seared skeletal remains. Heaps of leathery brown prickly pear pads sagged into the dirt and ash. Even the rocks were burned.”
Last Saturday, almost 14 months later, I marveled at how healthy Eaton Canyon looked as I attended L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation’s launch of its Landscape Recovery Center. This is in large part thanks to volunteers who’ve dedicated hundreds of hours to restoring the canyon. I’m excited to tell you how you can be a part of those efforts.
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The Department of Parks and Rec’s effort is a major step in repairing the damage wreaked by the Eaton fire that started Jan. 7 of last year.
The center includes a nursery full of native plants that will be used not only in Eaton Canyon but also in six other parks damaged by fire, including five in Altadena, and Castaic Lake State Recreation Area. Workers will also reestablish vital tree canopy lost in the fire, planting coast live oak, Engelmann oak and Western sycamores.
Native plants at the nursery at the Landscape Recovery Center at Eaton Canyon.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
L.A. County is partnering with the Theodore Payne Foundation and the Altadena Seed Library to achieve two key goals: 1) Grow the plants in the recovery center’s nursery from locally sourced seeds. 2) Build decentralized seed banks by procuring seeds from L.A. County nature centers.
The latter involves the “process of conserving plant genetics by dehydrating and securely storing seeds for future potential restoration or research projects,” said ecologist Nina Raj, founder of Altadena Seed Library, who is working with the county to develop the seed bank project.
“By carving out space at existing nature centers for a bit of tabletop equipment and storage space, the seeds from their adjacent natural areas [will] be conserved alongside backup populations from partnering nature centers — like an insurance policy in case of, or rather, in preparation for the next natural disaster,” Raj said.
A path near the parking lot of Eaton Canyon Natural Area, as seen on Jan. 14, 2025, and on Saturday.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
In the coming months, officials estimate that more than 100,000 seeds sourced from Eaton Canyon will be propagated to aid recovery efforts. The county has also purchased more than 1,000 native shrubs and understory plants, chosen not only for their ecological value but also their cultural significance to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians Gabrieleno/Tongva, whose leaders have been advising the county on its canyon restoration efforts.
The county also bought 200 native trees whose seeds came from “mother” trees grown in soil “extremely compatible with the organic matter here at Eaton Canyon,” said Norma Edith García-González, director of L.A. County Parks and Recreation.
All of this intentional sowing and planting is a 180-degree turn from previous recovery efforts. After the Kinneloa fire burned through Eaton Canyon in 1993, officials rushed to stabilize the hillsides. An expert team recommended grass seed be dropped from helicopters all over the hillsides, which present-day experts say may have introduced nonnative grasses to the region.
The nursery at L.A. County’s Landscape Recovery Center at Eaton Canyon.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
“The Landscape Recovery Center represents a best-practice model for restoring nature, rebuilding habitat diversity and supporting disaster recovery,” García-González said. “[We are] rebuilding with intention, using climate-resilient native species informed by both ecological science and cultural knowledge.”
Most of Eaton Canyon, including its beloved nature center, burned in the 2025 fire. The recovery center’s modular building and the land around it are among the first built improvements, and the area now has electricity, water access, irrigation systems and restrooms. (The recovery center’s footprint is south of the burned nature center, and no announcement was made Saturday regarding when it might be rebuilt.)
These improvements will allow the Landscape Recovery Center, which will have five full-time and four part-time staff members, to host volunteers interested in caring for habitat, supporting the plant nursery or working in local outreach or on community science.
Volunteer events, including hands-on nursery work, will be scheduled Tuesday through Saturday, with times varying depending on the program. Those age 14 and older can sign up by calling or texting (626) 662-5091. (A quick note: Eaton Canyon remains closed to the public, outside of volunteer opportunities.)
A cultural sign welcomes visitors to Eaton Canyon.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Many volunteers have already been hard at work. Organized by the Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates, volunteers have donated hundreds of hours to clear out short-pod mustard, castor bean, tree tobacco and fountain grass, which choke out native plants and serve as flashy fuel for wildfires.
All of this work must be done before hikers and other outdoors lovers can return to Eaton Canyon.
Jeremy Munns, a trails planner for L.A. County Parks and Recreation, said rebuilding the Eaton Canyon Trail and other county trails in the Eaton Canyon Natural Area will be part of a future phase.
The fire and subsequent flooding washed out the trail and caused hillsides to collapse into and around the canyon. Contractors, county staff and conservation corps crews will need to install retaining walls, repair drainages and add rock walls (called rock armoring) to stabilize the canyon and protect it from further erosion, Munns said.
A path near the Landscape Recovery Center.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Munns said there isn’t currently a plan to include volunteers in that work because of safety concerns.
“In the future, there will be opportunities for volunteers to help with the maintenance of these trails, but the timing of that has not yet been determined,” he said.
As I walked through the nursery during Saturday’s event, I found myself feeling hopeful. Several rows of California sagebrush, California buckwheat, chaparral beard tongue, sticky monkey flower and more sat in their pots, awaiting their new homes in the nearby ground.
It’s easy to imagine a future in which the entire canyon is healthy once again.
3 things to do
Workers tend to plants growing at the Santa Monica Mountains Fund seed farm.
(Jacsen Donohue / Santa Monica Mountains Fund)
1. Nurture yourself and nature in Newbury Park The Santa Monica Mountains Fund and Second Nature Collective will host a yoga and volunteer day from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday in Newbury Park. Participants will first be led through a 45-minute mindful and meditative yoga session before placing hundreds of native plants in the ground. Register at eventbrite.com.
2. Nosh on nonnative plants in Studio City Urban forager Nick Mann will lead a 3-mile foraging walk from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday through Fryman Canyon. He will teach participants how to identify edible nonnative plants commonly found along local trails. Donations requested but not required. Register at eventbrite.com.
3. Ride the river near Azusa Active SGV will host a 12.4-mile bike ride from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday along the West Fork National Scenic Bikeway north of Azusa. Carpooling is encouraged, as the parking lot at the trailhead fills up. Register at eventbrite.com.
The must-read
Condor A1 (a.k.a. Hlow Hoo-let) soars across the sky in far Northern California.
(Matt Mais / Yurok Tribe)
In a potentially historic win for condor conservation, Yurok wildlife officials say there might be a condor pair tending to an egg in the tribe’s Northern California homeland — where condors haven’t nested for more than a century. Times staff writer Lila Seidman wrote that condors vanished from the state’s North Coast because of violence carried out by European settlers. “The pair believed to be nesting in Yurok country were captive born and released in 2022, as part of the first group reintroduced in that region,” Seidman wrote. “The pair, formally known as A1 and A0, are the oldest birds from their release cohort at nearly 7 years old — and the only ones old enough to reproduce.”
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
It’s officially baby season at the San Dimas Raptor Rescue. The L.A. County facility, which rehabilitates birds of prey, took in its first great horned owlet in early February. The center anticipates taking in dozens of great horned owlets who are found starving and need to be nursed back to health before being released. Generally, the center tries to release a bird back to the area where it was found. In this little baby’s case, that would be Venice Beach. The center is run, in part, by volunteers who are trained by the county before working with the birds. If you ever find a raptor that you perceive is in need, you can call the center at (626) 559-5732 before interacting with the animal. A great service to our local wildlife!
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo scored 83 points Tuesday night, the second most in an NBA game in history, surpassing Kobe Bryant’s iconic 81 points two decades ago.
Congrats to Adebayo, I guess.
The way it went down was highly questionable. Nothing romantic or real about it. We thought flopping and foul-baiting made for unethical hoops, but those are but basketball misdemeanors; Adebayo’s big night was felonious.
Tuesday’s game featured intentional clock-stopping, game-extending fouls by the Heat. And it was ripe with free-throw-abetting fouls by the Washington Wizards, an actively tanking team that got itself blown out, 150-129.
So, no. Bryant’s necessary, organic 81 this was not. The Lakers trailed that game against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006 at halftime and actually needed Kobe’s 55 second-half points to pull away for the win.
The Heat were up by as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter with Adebayo continuing to play pop-a-shot in the historic farce — which also moved him past LeBron James, whose 61 points in 2014 stood as Miami’s previous franchise record.
“Honestly, it hurts,” said Los Angeles’ Erik Ortiz, who was 6 years old when Bryant had his 81-point night. “And it’s kind of messed up. All those free throws? No disrespect, but it didn’t feel earned.”
“A disrespect to the game,” said Robert Horry, who played with Bryant in L.A. for seven seasons. “To me, don’t cheat the game. If you’re gonna play like that, that’s cheating the game.”
“But,” Horry added, diplomatically, “scoring 83 points is still hard regardless if you cheat the game or not.”
Lakers star Kobe Bryant scores in front of Toronto’s Matt Bonner on his way to scoring 81 points during the Lakers’ 122-104 victory on Jan. 22, 2006.
(Matt A. Brown / Associated Press)
JJ Redick offered his most diplomatic two cents: “It’s incredible what he was able to do.”
The Lakers’ coach described walking in and seeing the Heat leading with three minutes left, on the verge of winning their sixth consecutive game and Adebayo on the free-throw line (naturally).
“I said to my coaching staff, ‘Ah, the Heat are rolling.’ And they kind of looked at each other and they were like, ‘Are you kidding right now? No, Bam has 77!’ I watched the last three minutes and … that was a different type of basketball.”
Adebayo scored 31 points in the first quarter, 12 in the second and 19 in the third — a legitimately impressive career-high 62 points, and in just three quarters. Precisely the same number of points that Kobe had after three quarters when coach Phil Jackson pulled him from a blowout win against Dallas a few weeks before he dropped 81.
But on Tuesday, Adebayo kept going, for no reason but to pad his points tally in pursuit of Kobe.
If only Adebayo, well respected by peers and fans alike, could’ve taken the baton from his basketball hero while playing regular old basketball. Lakers fans know ball; they wouldn’t have held it against him, they would have saluted.
Heat players celebrate with center Bam Adebayo after he scored 83 points, the second-highest single game total in NBA history, against the Wizards on Tuesday in Miami.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
But Adebayo shot 3 for 8 from the field in the final period, including 1 for 6 from three-point range. And he went 14 for 16 at the line in the final frame, bringing his free-throw shooting total to a historic 36 for 43 from the charity stripe, so aptly named this game.
There’s magic, and then there are magic tricks, manufactured illusions, sleight-of-hand acts of pseudo-sorcery. That’s how we should remember Adebayo’s 83. That’s how we should explain that game to our children and grandchildren.
It isn’t as though Kobe’s 81-point output wasn’t going to be eclipsed. It was only a matter of time, especially considering the offensive emphasis in today’s NBA.
In 2024, then-Maverick Luka Doncic scored 73 points in a 148-143 win against the Atlanta Hawks. But Doncic went just 15 of 16 from the free-throw line that night, and 25 for 33 from the field, including 8 of 13 from behind the arc.
Or imagine, going forward, what 7-foot-4 center Victor Wembanyama could be capable of if the San Antonio Spurs force-feed him offensively for a full game.
But records are made to be broken, not stolen. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters he was “caught up in the moment like everyone else, and I didn’t want to get in the way.”
Travis Kelce is on his way back to the NFL for a 14th season, and it was reported Monday that his destination will be a return to the Kansas City Chiefs, the only team for which he has played.
The Chiefs don’t have as much money to spend in free agency as many other teams, but Kelce, 36, is expected to turn down more lucrative offers to stay with the Chiefs, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said.
The Chiefs have $23 million–$25 million in available salary cap space. The team created room after restructuring quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ contract, releasing veteran tackle Jawaan Taylor, and trading elite cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams.
Kelce, one of the most popular players in the NFL and a certain Hall of Famer, contemplated retirement after the 2025-26 season. The Chiefs cratered to a 6-11 record, losing their last six games and finishing a distant third in the AFC West behind the Denver Broncos and Chargers. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Kelce admits to having lost a step, but he still finished with 76 receptions on 108 targets and 851 receiving yards. He was voted to the Pro Bowl for the 11th year in a row and moved up to eighth on the all-time receiving list. He has more career receptions (1,080) than any tight end besides Tony Gonzalez (1,325) and Jason Witten (1,228).
His decision to return for one more season followed weeks of discussion with Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, teammates, family and close confidantes — including his fiancé and music megastar Taylor Swift. Kelce co-hosts the popular “New Heights” podcast every Wednesday during the NFL season with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles six-time All-Pro center Jason Kelce.
Kelce, who has made about $112 million in salary, is expected to take a pay cut and play the 2026-27 season for about $10 million. His two-year, $34.25 million contract extension expired after last season, making him a free agent.
“I just love this team,” Kelce said in January after the Chiefs’ last game. “I’m proud of the way we finished this, even though it ended the way it did. The guys still showed up and gave it their all. That’s all you can ask for, man. I’ve got so much love for this team, this organization and the people here.”
A week earlier, he admitted retirement had crossed his mind after the Chiefs’ last home game.
“A whole lot of emotions,” he told reporters. “You’ve got everybody in the world watching you. You get to go out there with the young guys on prime-time television. Young guys getting an opportunity to taste what this NFL life is like.”
Yet he also savored the moment, and hinted that he might enjoy the adulation of Chiefs fans a bit longer.
“You only get a few of those where you get to stand there and appreciate 70,000 Chiefs fans cheering for you,” he said. “I always embrace that moment.
“You feel the generations of happiness and the love [the fans] have. It’s a beautiful thing, man.”
“Pond rules” dictate that if an animal is hungry, the creature that’s about to become a meal should accept its fate. That’s the first lesson that Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), an idealistic university student whose mind is transferred into the body of a robotic beaver, learns while interacting with wildlife as one of their own in Pixar’s inventive “Hoppers.” In typical human fashion (we love to meddle with nature), Mabel ends up breaking that directive by saving a “fellow” beaver, the slumberous Loaf (Eduardo Franco), attracting unwanted attention that leads her to a wacky group of characters who will transform her rigid young worldview.
For his second feature, Daniel Chong, best known for creating the popular “We Bare Bears” series for Cartoon Network, has unleashed a hilariously unexpected and outrageous crowd-pleaser with “Hoppers.” Recently, I bemoaned that a movie like Sony’s “Goat” stood as further proof that talking-animal animated films had mostly run their course. Chong and screenwriter Jesse Andrews swiftly push back on that read with this environmentalist tale in defense of people who stand up for something, even when it seems no one is willing to stand beside them.
“Hoppers” is Pixar by way of a creator, Chong, whose career isn’t exclusively tied to the studio. That’s likely why his movie is more daring in its humor and tone, bringing a refreshing infusion of mischief to Pixar while maintaining the genuine emotional gravitas that has endeared the company to audiences for over 30 years.
Why is Mabel’s psyche roaming around inside a fake beaver à la “Avatar”? After discovering that this technology has been developed by one of her professors, Mabel thinks it could be the answer to saving the local forest glade where self-aggrandizing mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) wants to build a highway. Mabel’s grandmother instilled in her an appreciation for nature as a reminder that she’s part of something greater than herself. Collecting signatures isn’t yielding results to stop construction, so, to the dismay of the scientists in charge, Mabel hops into the human-made mammal to learn from the creatures themselves why they’ve left the glade, giving Jerry carte blanche to destroy their home.
The poignancy-to-comedy ratio is precisely calibrated. Sharp gags, whether visual or in superbly timed lines of dialogue often laced with irony, work on multiple levels. A few moments like an accidental death or the wild introduction of an aquatic character are so wonderfully out of left field they make one’s head spin. That also goes for instances late in Mabel’s adventure in which “Hoppers” steps into amusingly creepy terrain, paying homage to the horror genre. These impish touches involve a wicked caterpillar (Dave Franco) whose mother, the Insect Queen, is voiced by acting royalty Meryl Streep. Each group of animals has its own ruler.
Since most scenes occur in the forest glade, the artists at Pixar have created strikingly rendered settings which, while aiming for photorealism, also have a fantastical glow to them, highlighting the inherent magic of nature. That such a seemingly commonplace location is elevated to feel mesmerizing speaks to how animation can make the mundane anew. That’s on top of how the rotund beavers in “Hoppers” have been conceived for maximum cuteness. One of them, Mabel’s guide through this ecosystem, is the disarmingly adorable King George (Bobby Moynihan), who wears a tiny crown (Where did he get it? No one knows) and rules over all mammals with a gentle hand.
Mabel’s friendship with King George, who doesn’t know she is human, becomes the movie’s heartstring-pulling core. The jovial royal believes he can persuade Jerry to change course. Mabel, conversely, doesn’t think Jerry will listen. Her cynicism and King George’s sincere faith in others clash. Among Mabel’s non-furry pals, Tom Lizard (Tom Law) becomes a scene-stealer. (The crazy-eyed, eloquent reptile first became an online sensation as part of a post-credits scene in “Elio.”)
Chong and his team include a minuscule but brilliant detail that illustrates how character design can have major narrative impact: When the animals are speaking among themselves, their eyes are large and expressive, full of life. But when the film takes the perspective of a human looking at the forest dwellers, their eyes appear small and dark, almost nondescript. It’s a subtly visual symbol for how we often fail to gaze at others with understanding.
There are many heavy hitters still to come, but “Hoppers” feels like the first great animated movie of the year. At a time when our right to protest is under siege, this sci-fi yarn exalts the way an individual’s conviction can plant seeds of change, leading to a stronger sense of community. Neither simplistically optimistic nor preachy, “Hoppers” smuggles timely ideas inside a rodent body. Pond rules would probably call that a beaver victory.
‘Hoppers’
Rated: PG, for action/peril, some scary images and mild language
Many of us go into the mountains to think and practice gratitude.
For the hundreds of thousands of Muslims across Los Angeles County observing Ramadan this month, spending time in nature can offer an opportunity for quiet reflection and growth.
“This sacred month provides an opportunity to merge the spiritual with the physical, finding solace and inspiration in nature,” nonprofit Muslim Outdoor Adventures notes. “Through mindful hiking, we aim to embrace the challenges of staying active during Ramadan, using the trails as a space for reflection and collective growth.”
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Ramadan is considered the holiest month of the Islamic calendar. The holiday typically lasts 29 or 30 days, and during that time, Muslims will fast from sunup to sundown, including not drinking water. This excludes those who are exempt from fasting or not observing the holiday.
This year’s Ramadan started in mid-February and will end around March 19. (The Islamic calendar is based on lunar events, so Ramadan’s start and end dates vary from year to year.)
For fasting hikers, it’s important to ensure you plan accordingly, given your limited daily water and food intake.
Nadiim Domun, materials engineer at INOV8, said in a blog post that fasting hikers should plan ahead, and if they feel up to it, plan to break their fast at the top of a hill, taking their time to arrive at sunset. “On some days you’ll feel better than others. Be kind to yourself and only go hiking on days when your body feels up to it,” Domun said.
Below you’ll find three hikes and walks in places open after sunset. If observing the holiday, may your fasting be easy. Happy Ramadan!
A view of the Griffith Observatory with downtown Los Angeles in the background.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
1. Crystal Springs – Atwater Park in Griffith Park
Distance: 2.7 miles Elevation gained: 130 feet Difficulty: Easy Dogs allowed? Yes Accessible alternative:Los Angeles River Bike Path
The Crystal Springs – Atwater Park route is a 2.7-mile easy stroll through the southeast side of Griffith Park that includes a quick side trip over the L.A. River.
Griffith Park is open from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., although you’ll want to mind where you park, as some areas are open only until sunset.
To begin, you’ll take the wide dirt Main Trail north for just over half a mile before reaching a tunnel. Congrats! You’ve just completed the hilliest portion of this hike. It’s time to turn on that headlamp as you take the tunnel beneath the 5 Freeway, marveling at the wonders of human ingenuity.
Next, you’ll head over to the North Atwater Bridge, or La Kretz Bridge, an impressive modern design you’ve probably noticed from your car in gridlock traffic.
The North Atwater Bridge, or La Kretz Bridge, over the L.A. River.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
The route next takes you to North Atwater Park. This area was separated from the rest of the park when the 5 Freeway was built in the late 1950s, resulting in 200 “prime acres of parkland” being destroyed, according to Friends of Griffith Park. Perhaps you’ll notice the squawk or chirp of birds settling in for the night.
From here, the path loops around the area for about a third of a mile before taking you back to the bridge. You’ll pass a corral and interpretive signs, among other things.
After crossing back over the bridge and under the tunnel (headlamp!), you’ll have a clear view of Beacon Hill, another great hiking destination in the park that offers stunning views of downtown L.A. You will head north again on the Main Trail, walking parallel to the 5. Hopefully the sound of the freeway is blocked by the lush trees that line the path.
You’ll take the Main Trail for about a third of a mile. At 1½ miles in your hike, you’ll bear left (or west), passing the Anza Trail Native Garden, planted by volunteers using seeds harvested from the park.
You’ll loop southwest around the path, passing the golf course and a baseball field before arriving at the newly renovated Griffith Park Visitor Center, open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (It also has restrooms!)
From the visitor center, you’ll head east along a dirt path before looping back up with the Main Trail, which you’ll take south back to your car.
And if you’d like to go with a group, L.A. City Department of Recreation and Parks’ junior ecologist Ryan Kinzel and Emerson College professor Jacob Lang are hosting a free night hike through Griffith Park this Thursday.
So grab your headlamp, and have a great time!
Louisa McHugh, of San Pedro, jogs at Cabrillo Beach.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
2. Beach path at Cabrillo Beach
Distance: 1.6 miles Elevation gained: Minimal Difficulty: Easy Dogs allowed? No Accessible alternative: The route below is a paved flat path.
This 1.6-mile beach walk is a gentle stroll along the mile-long Cabrillo Beach, where during the day you might spot kite surfers, barges and Catalina Island in the near distance.
To begin, start your walk in the northeast corner of the parking lot where the sidewalk begins. Walk south down the sidewalk, unless you’d like to walk on the sandy beach instead. Near the Cabrillo Beach Bath House, the path will curve east. You’ll continue east along the jetty until you reach the Cabrillo Beach Pier, where you might spot people fishing. You can pause to take in the views for as long as you’d like before heading back.
Although there are many beach walk options in Southern California, the reason I’m recommending Cabrillo Beach is because it’s a great place to observe grunion runs. At night, these small silvery fish come completely out of the water to lay their eggs in the wet sand, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Beachgoers witness an unusual fish spawning ritual known as a grunion run on Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
“Grunion make these excursions only on particular nights and with such regularity that the time of their arrival on the beach can be predicted a year in advance,” according to the agency.
Depending on how late you’d like to stay up, you can take a beach walk and stay for the grunions, which are expected to arrive at 10:25 p.m. Thursday and 10:50 p.m. Friday.
Hikers walk down a path at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
3. Gwen Moore Lake to Western Ridgeline in Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
Distance: Around 2½ miles Elevation gained: About 300 feet Difficulty: Moderate Dogs allowed? Yes Accessible alternative: Gwen Moore Lake path
This 2½-mile journey through Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area will take you past a charming lake and will gain just enough elevation to provide you with striking views of the city. It is more challenging than the other two paths, so please plan accordingly. (And pack that headlamp!)
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The park is around 330 acres and includes the stunning Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, which thousands access every year via a straight staircase with 282 steps.
Upon arriving at the park, you’ll pay $10 to park. Ask the staff member at the toll booth whether they have a map, as it’s great to have one on hand as you hike. For this hike, I’d recommend parking near the Gwen Moore Lake if you can.
To begin the hike, you’ll start at Gwen Moore Lake. You can either take the paved path that takes you along the western side of the lake or the straight paved path on the eastern side of the lake. It will take you due south.
About a third of a mile in, you’ll walk east past the Kenneth Hahn Visitor Center before quickly joining with the Park to Playa Regional Trail, a 13-mile path that guides hikers from near Windsor Hills to the ocean (near Ballona Creek). That’s an adventure for another day!
You’ll take Park to Playa, a short jaunt, bearing left (northwest) toward a large green space to join the Bowl Loop Trail, or on some maps, Park to Playa Alternate. Follow this path in the northerly direction until it jags left where you’ll join the Western Ridgeline Trail (or Park to Playa Alternate, depending on your map). From here, say hello to beautiful views of the city!
You will next take Diane’s Trail (who is she?) just over half a mile before heading down via the Forest Trail. Pause along the way to appreciate more gorgeous views of the city, including of downtown L.A.
Head south past the Japanese garden, and then take the paved road from the Japanese garden back to where you parked, hopefully near the lake.
3 things to do
During a previous Dana Point Festival of Whales, guests attend a sacred ceremony given by the Acjachemen Nation and observe the Dana Point Surf Club as their members paddle out to welcome the whales to Dana Point’s shores.
(Dana Point Harbor)
1. Whale-come the cetaceans in Dana Point The 55th Annual Dana Point Festival of the Whales, which celebrates gray whale migration, is scheduled for Friday through Sunday in Dana Point Harbor. Visitors can attend the “Welcoming of the Whales” ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Ocean Institute, or on Saturday, observe the cardboard boat race, learn at the marine mammal lecture series or chow down at the clam chowder cookout. On Sunday, attendees will pick up trash at 9 a.m. near at the Richard Henry Dana Jr. statue before attending a concert from noon to 5 p.m. performed from a floating dock. Learn more at festivalofwhales.com.
2. Stand up for public lands in Ventura Environmental advocacy groups Los Padres ForestWatch and Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas will host a hike at 11 a.m. Sunday through the Harmon Canyon Preserve in Ventura. Group leaders will educate hikers on the Trump administration’s proposal to open 850,000 acres, including about 400,000 acres across Central California, to oil and gas drilling. After the hike, participants are invited to make posters to spread awareness of the threat to public lands. Register at eventbrite.com.
3. Kick back with a kite in Redondo Beach The 52nd Annual Redondo Pier Kite Festival will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Redondo Beach Pier (100 Fishermans Wharf). This free community event will feature live music, face painting and a kite flying contest. Kites will be available for purchase on the pier while supplies last. Guests can also bring their own kites. Learn more at redondopier.com.
The must-read
Visitors take the chair lifts at the Mt. Baldy Resort.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The ski world is becoming increasingly owned by large corporate chains, but small shops like the Mt. Baldy Resort continue to hang on. Times staff writer Jack Dolan wrote about how Mt. Baldy Resort, just over an hour from downtown L.A., works hard to remain competitive. The resort offers a quick escape for Angelenos who want to ski and appreciate “the wide expanse of the Inland Empire stretched to the Pacific Ocean nearly two vertical miles below,” Dolan wrote. Many of its guests find its old-school style more welcoming than the ritzy lodges in Taos and Tahoe. “There’s big conglomerates trying to buy everybody up, and I don’t want that,” said Chris Caron, a 65-year-old retiree who lives 20 minutes down the road from Mt. Baldy Resort. “That’s what I love about here. It’s not so commercialized.”
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
Porkchop is free! A month ago, I featured a story by Times staff writer Lila Seidman, introducing Wild readers to Porkchop, a three-flippered sea turtle who was being rehabilitated by the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. “Many Angelenos don’t know Eastern Pacific green sea turtles are swimming in their proverbial backyard, but they are — and they’re thriving,” Seidman wrote. “It’s estimated that about 100 of the hulking-yet-graceful animals live in the lower stretch of the San Gabriel River, where salt and freshwater commingle.” And thankfully, it’s now about 101, as Porkchop was released back into the wild on Friday. I’m not crying, you’re crying!
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Los Angeles has a secret magic to which you have to earn access, and the way you earn it is by making it, becoming a contributor to the city’s misapprehended culture of spectacle and soul, diversity and monolithic elitism. It’s a get-in-where-you-fit-in or get-edged-all-the-way-out kind of city, wherein a deceptively laissez-faire game of musical chairs can determine your fate. Kahlil Joseph has a private magic to which you have to earn access, and you earn it by resonating with the untapped nerve centers of Black culture that animate this city, and even then you might be denied.
Joseph is like the city (Los Angeles, not Hollywood), and the city enforces confidentiality, drive, wit, style and devotion often mistaken for diva-ism. The filmmaker and video artist moved to Los Angeles from Seattle for university, and was quickly followed by his brother, the painter Noah Davis, who would found the Underground Museum, a venue and near-speakeasy with West Coast casual gravitas and pan-African rigor and breadth, which became as important to the zeitgeist of Black Los Angeles as both brothers have.
Movie still from Kahlil Joseph’s film “Blknws: Terms & Conditions.” Funmilayo Akechukwu (Kaneza Schaal) channels a 93-year-old W.E.B Dubois, 200 years in the past.
In somewhat rapid succession, Joseph lost his father, Keven Davis, an accomplished attorney who represented the likes of the Williams sisters and Wynton Marsalis, in 2012, and his brother Noah in 2015. Joseph navigated those years in the wake with unadorned reverence, while starting a family of his own and directing some of the most transcendent music videos of the 2010s. As testament to his resilience and that of the community around him, grief sharpened Joseph’s purpose and became a kind of grace he transmuted into moving images so saturated with feeling, sans easy pathos, they offered new ways of seeing. The stakes were higher and layered with the existential absurdity of abrupt shifts, which he carried with an elegant, slightly seething temperament that has found its expression in the work. It’s relevant that he shares a birthday with Miles Davis — this is Los Angeles, where it’s customary for a person to request your cosmic DNA before asking your name — and it’s relevant that like Miles, Joseph’s vocal tone is whisper-pitched, toward the mode of retreat that begets echo; you lean in and hear him twice. His quiet tone is not shyness or false modesty but circumspection and a sense of boundaries that imply respect and love for real communication. You sense this in his work ethic and what it produces, an intimacy of form that implies an almost ritualistic attentiveness to the world around him on its own terms. In the 2012 Flying Lotus music video “Until the Quiet Comes,” directed by Joseph and set in Los Angeles, death and rebirth are addressed as a duet, companions in the expansion of collective consciousness instead of foils or adversaries, as a fallen child leaves his body and returns more alive than before he was bloodied on screen. And the violent scenes aren’t grotesque or didactic — think of Miles’ muted trumpet sound reconfigured as resurrection visuals, of his ability to play and stage ballads so well that their uptempo momentum moves into territories too macabre to mute. Like Miles, Joseph tests and stretches his range.
With the closure of the family-run Underground Museum, first in 2020 and then officially in 2022, the path uptempo was visited by more obstacles and disappointments, a shift, if temporary, in Joseph’s role in the local community, as he became more private and distant from public elegy. On the phone recently, Joseph and I discussed the trauma economy, how much of a trap it is for Black art and artists, especially in this post-BLM, post-Obama, post-neoliberal dominance, post-nonprofit industrial complex dominance territory we’re all in now, whether we face it or not. As antidote and balm to the market for repackaged abjection, Joseph adapted the sensibility that makes his music video landscapes so lush and transgressive for the art world with “Blknws,” which debuted in 2019 as an imagined syndication or television network, a nonlinear merger of digitized Black archival material pulled from the center to the margins and the radical academic avant-garde — an infinitely looping ensemble wherein Fred Moten enters into conversation with memes of ghetto-fabulous street gymnasts doing backflips into a fried chicken spot, for example, collapsing so-called high and low into an endless woodshed for an impossible concert.
The result was so compelling that the project was commissioned by A24 as a feature film sans script, then purchased from them by Rich Spirit and released last year as “Blknws: Terms & Conditions.” In this longer and more structured form, what began as an intentional scattering of ashes becomes an elegiac letter home mediated by shipwreck. Joseph weaves together an imaginary “Transatlantic Biennial” and W.E.B. Dubois’ “Encyclopedia Africana” — a project that Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah transformed into a book, which Joseph’s father had given his brother before they passed. In this way, the film becomes a manifesto for alternate destinies within the Black experience, and a semi-formal goodbye letter to the delusional but politically expedient optimism of the 2010s, wherein the end of the neoliberal order becomes a gateway to renewed self-possession and agency. Since our grief is less of a ready-made commodity lately, we can reorient it around ourselves, a little safer and more sovereign from the gnawing public gaze. And we can be more honest about its paces and paths in that more autonomous landscape. “Blknws” arrives how a successful jazz album does, belligerently inconclusive about the next stylistic leaps the music might make but clearly in the process of launching in that unknown or unspeakable (perhaps secret) direction. The film is agitation made vivid and precise in the dialectic between theorized “Black Study” and practical applications of Black marronage, where we realize that big disembodied ideas are no more sophisticated than what can be danced and gestured at and spoken in our real and virtual conversations. Here, the multiverse becomes one transcendental, transatlantic consciousness where past and present, life and afterlife, blur the way they do in Joseph’s interpretation of “Until The Quiet Comes” to give us a film with a song-like hook and an album’s non-sequitur whimsy.
Movie still from Kahlil Joseph’s film “Blknws: Terms & Conditions.” The underwater study of Funmilayo Akechukwu (Kaneza Schaal) located in the hold of the ship.
Over the last several months, I’ve discussed with Joseph what might become of the momentum propelling “Blknws: Terms & Conditions,” after the film’s run, as speculators enclose searching for clues and stake in his next project. He’s considered its potential evolution into a media company, a real paper, a production house, a series of related films, or a hybrid of all of these endeavors. Alongside his experience on all sides of the art world, he has an acute awareness of the wayward state of print and digital culture, writing and production, the constant closure or downsizing of veteran media outlets, the aftermath of diversity fever in the form of shrinking major magazines often starting with those who cover culture explicitly, the mass turn toward brand-name digital platforms that become extractive monopolies and diminish what can be covered and produced as writers and artists are overworked, understaffed and undervalued. Galleries are also closing and downsizing, and films that don’t oblige the content farm aren’t solicited as readily as influencer-helmed or easily digestible projects that can be played as background noise for scrolling.
After a screening last December of “Blknws: Terms & Conditions” at 2220 Arts + Archives, a space I co-curate, the rapt audience of local cinephiles seemed eager for some magic-bullet insight into Joseph’s path to creative breakthrough and relative creative freedom. Rather than hacks and shortcuts, he shouted out collaborators and inspirations — Wales Bonner, who hand-stitched garments for the film’s Ghana-based scenes; British composer Klein, who helped score the film; Joseph’s time in Brazil, where his father was from and where he went to high school. Sensibility and natural eclecticism, rather than unchecked ambition, is what propels Joseph; he has an innate knack for assembling bands and ensembles, good taste and good timing.
Kahlil Joseph with friends at the screening of “Blknws: Terms & Conditions.”
“I found the encyclopedia at the Underground,” he explains, of the DuBois work that became central to “Blknws.” “It seemed no one had looked through it, as if my dad and brother left it for me in the future.” And instead of ruminating on the weight of that inheritance, he integrates it into his film, whose refrain-as-question is do you remember the future? As if his father and brother are awake in some scenes, asking him to remember. Another resurrection. “I just want to make films,” Joseph reaffirms as a personal coda when the questions get too meta or abstract, never conflating the material conditions of the craft with the magical thinking that can unfold in scripts and on screen. Most everyone in attendance at 2220 seemed to be there to meet or support one of their favorite artists, one of the devout purists of our time who manages to remain that without getting smug, lazy or feral, all common pitfalls.
Last October, I gave Joseph a copy of Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast,” which I’d just finished reading myself for the first time. I was impressed to the point of restlessness with the authority of Hemingway’s memory, his recall; it’s one of those books you wanna throw at the wall and absorb word for word at the same time. Hemingway seemed to effortlessly savor and store every detail of his days, while remaining agile and present enough within them to focus on writing one true thing after another, in his daily sessions at the typewriter, as if possessing two coterminal minds and the capacity to access or silence both at will. A juggler too advanced for the circus, language’s great folk hero. Joseph is kind of like this, capable of intense simultaneous focus on both creative and mundane tasks without complaint, and he took to the book as I expected he might, sharing my sense of awe over the writer’s command of time and scene. They are both among the artists who have a polite way of making those around them feel like a team and want to work a little harder and little less aggressively (more communally) at the same time. Editors at his post-production studio have come from all over the country to work with him based on that leadership.
Joseph’s next feature, he suggests, will certainly be more narrative, more of a linear beginning-middle-end story, more Hemingway-esque in its commitments to the blunt daily reality that “Blknws” blurs with Black myth. He and his family have sacrificed unquantifiably in effort to defy stale archetypes and outdated patterns of art practice, and it might be his time or turn to be reciprocated for having endured those risks, time to give his family unequivocal and vivid afterlives on and off screen.
There were tears (and cheers) for Catherine O’Hara. Rhea Seehorn explained “Pluribus,” or at least tried to. Harrison Ford was celebrated at the “half-point of his career.” And, because the show’s on Netflix, there were a few well-placed F-bombs, not including the swears muttered by the actors who didn’t win.
There were TV awards presented too. But we pay attention to the Actor Awards because the show takes place while Oscar ballots are out and are, for the most part, a reliable precursor to the Academy Awards. How trustworthy will they be for the acting winners this year? Let’s take a look.
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The past: The winner of this award has gone on to take the best picture Oscar in 15 of 30 years, making it basically a coin flip and easily the Actor Awards’ least trustworthy Oscar precursor. (The ensemble prize wasn’t awarded in 1994, the ceremony’s first year.) Oscar also-ran “Conclave” won last year, ending a three-year streak — “CODA,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Oppenheimer” — where the winner of the cast prize went on to take best picture.
Will history repeat itself? If “Sinners” had simply taken this award and nothing else, I would say “One Battle After Another” would still be the overwhelming favorite to win the best picture Oscar. But snagging this prize and Michael B. Jordan winning lead actor gives one pause, doesn’t it? Again, the cast award is not a reliable best picture precursor. A Ryan Coogler movie (“Black Panther”) won in 2019, but lost the Oscar to “Green Book.” And while “Sinners” did haul in a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, “One Battle” wasn’t far behind with 13, just one shy of the previous record. It’s easy to get carried away with the way the room exploded when Samuel L. Jackson announced the winner, but “One Battle’s” Producers Guild win carries more weight. I’ll need a couple of days to sit with this.
Female actor in a leading role
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Winner: Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
The past: SAG and the academy have matched 21 of 31 years. The last two years have seen the groups split, with Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) winning her second Oscar over SAG winner Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) in 2024 and Mikey Madison prevailing for “Anora” over Demi Moore, who won over SAG-AFTRA voters and earned a huge standing ovation when she took the stage for her gonzo comeback turn in the body horror movie “The Substance.”
Will history repeat itself? Buckley has been a lock for the lead actress Oscar since “Hamnet” premiered in September at the Telluride Film Festival, her searching, searing turn as the film’s grieving mother producing the kind of visceral reaction that guts audiences and wins awards. And, boy, has she won awards these last few months, taking pretty much everything save for the major critics groups. The naysayers decried the acting as overripe, sniffing instead of sniffling. Monsters. There’s no denying Buckley goes big with her emotions here, but the magic in her work also can be seen in a much-used still photo from “Hamnet,” the one where she’s resting her elbows on the Old Globe stage, hands clasped, face transfixed, heart opened. You know the shot. And you’re probably getting a little verklempt just thinking about it.
Male actor in a leading role
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Winner: Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”
The past: This category has been the most reliable indicator of Oscar victory, with SAG and the academy matching 24 of 31 times. There are exceptions, though, such as just last year when Adrien Brody won the Oscar for “The Brutalist,” prevailing over SAG winner Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”).
Will history repeat itself? Entering the month of February, it looked like Timothée Chalamet was a shoo-in for playing a talented, self-promoting ping-pong player in “Marty Supreme.” In fact, some know-it-all called this race more or less over just a week ago. (That was me.) Chalamet could still win. Maybe SAG-AFTRA voters didn’t want to give him the award again, just a year after they honored him for his lead turn in “A Complete Unknown.” Maybe SAG-AFTRA voters felt he was a bit, shall we say … “brash” in the way he marketed the movie and needed to be taken down a peg.
So now, entering March, it’s looking like “Marty Supreme” could be this year’s version of “The Irishman,” a film that earns a lot of nominations (in this case, nine) and comes away with nothing.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s big swing movie star turn in “Sinners,” playing twin brothers Smoke and Stack, was the best work of his career. That scream that Viola Davis let out when she opened the envelope spoke to the enthusiasm in the room both for the actor and the film. Momentum definitely seems to be on Jordan’s side right now.
Female actor in a supporting role
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Winner: Amy Madigan, “Weapons”
The past: The Actor Award winner has gone on to take an Oscar 23 of 31 times, including last year, when Zoe Saldaña won for “Emilia Pérez,” one of countless prizes she won that season. (Note: One of those 23 winners, “The Reader’s” Kate Winslet, was nominated for — and won — the 2009 Oscar for lead actress for that performance.)
Will history repeat itself? Who knows? This category has been all over the place, but as Madigan said in her speech, she’s been doing this a “long ass time” and there’s a lot of love for this 75-year-old acting great. Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”) took the Golden Globe, and Wunmi Mosaku (“Sinners”) won at the British Academy Film Awards. And the “they’re due” narrative doesn’t always play at the Oscars. (Just ask Demi Moore or Glenn Close.) Will a “One Battle” sweep carry both Taylor and Sean Penn? Or is there room for an outlier? It’s tempting to lean toward Madigan.
Male actor in a supporting role
Winner: Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”
The past: The SAG winner has gone on to win the Oscar 22 times in 31 years, including the last dozen, the longest streak of any category.
Will history repeat itself? Penn did not attend the Actor Awards, the only thing less surprising than this win. Coming on the heels of taking the supporting actor prize from BAFTA last weekend (Penn didn’t go to that ceremony either), it’s looking likely now that Penn will win his third Oscar. He’s barely campaigned and remains a divisive figure. But his menacing turn as the outrageous Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, a man given to zealotry and tight T-shirts, is the best work he has done in years. Will he go to the Oscars, if only to collect the trophy so he can give another statue to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky? We’ll soon see.
With control of the House — and Trump’s virtually unchecked authority — dangling by a gossamer thread, he reckoned correctly that Republicans were all but certain to lose power this fall unless something unusual happened.
So he effectively broke the rules.
Normally, the redrawing of the country’s congressional districts takes place once every 10 years, following the census and accounting for population changes over the previous decade. Instead, Trump prevailed upon the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to throw out the state’s political map and refashion congressional lines to wipe out Democrats and boost GOP chances of winning as many as five additional House seats.
The intention was to create a bit of breathing room, as Democrats need a gain of just three seats to seize control of the House.
In relatively short order, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, responded with his own partisan gerrymander. He rallied voters to pass a tit-for-tat ballot measure, Proposition 50, which revised the state’s political map to wipe out Republicans and boost Democratic prospects of winning as many as five additional seats.
Some of those efforts continue, including in Virginia where, as in California, voters are being asked to amend the state Constitution to let majority Democrats redraw political lines ahead of the midterm. A special election is set for April 21.
But as the first ballots of 2026 are cast on Tuesday — in Arkansas, North Carolina and Texas — the broad contours of the House map have become clearer, along with the result of all those partisan machinations. The likely upshot is a nationwide partisan shift of fewer than a handful of seats.
The independent, nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which has a sterling decades-long record of election forecasting, said the most probable outcome is a wash. “At the end of the day,” said Erin Covey, who analyzes House races for the Cook Report, “this doesn’t really benefit either party in a real way.”
Well.
That was a lot of wasted time and energy.
Let’s take a quick spin through the map and the math, knowing that, of course, there are no election guarantees.
But suppose Texas Republicans gain five seats as hoped for and California Democrats pick up the five seats they’ve hand-crafted. The result would be no net change.
Elsewhere, under the best case for each party, a gain of four Democratic House seats in Virginia would be offset by a gain of four Republican House seats in Florida.
That leaves a smattering of partisan gains here and there. A combined pickup of four or so Republican seats in Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri could be mostly offset by Democratic gains of a seat apiece in New York, Maryland and Utah.
(The latter is not a result of legislative high jinks, but rather a judge throwing out the gerrymandered map passed by Utah Republicans, who ignored a voter-approved ballot measure intended to prevent such heavy-handed partisanship. A newly created district, contained entirely within Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County, seems certain to go Democrats’ way in November.)
In short, it’s easy to characterize the political exertions of Trump, Abbott, Newsom and others as so much sound and fury producing, at bottom, little to nothing.
But that’s not necessarily so.
The campaign surrounding Proposition 50 delivered a huge political boost to Newsom, shoring up his standing with Democrats, significantly raising his profile across the country and, not least for his 2028 presidential hopes, helping the governor build a significant nationwide fundraising base.
In crimson-colored Indiana, Republicans refused to buckle under tremendous pressure from Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other party leaders, rejecting an effort to redraw the state’s congressional map and give the GOP a hold on all nine House seats. That showed even Trump’s Svengali-like hold on his party has its limits.
But the biggest impact is also the most corrosive.
By redrawing political lines to predetermine the outcome of House races, politicians rendered many of their voters irrelevant and obsolete. Millions of Democrats in Texas, Republicans in California and partisans in other states have been effectively disenfranchised, their voices rendered mute. Their ballots spindled and nullified.
Final Oscar voting began yesterday. How many of the nominated movies have you seen? Are you doing your due diligence in all the categories before the March 15 ceremony or, given the summer weather outside your window, might the mountains be calling?
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. It’s never too early for flip-flops, is it?
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This may seem obvious. But until this year, the motion picture academy operated entirely on the honor system, strongly encouraging members to see everything before voting.
Now voters have to show their work — up to a point.
This year, academy members are required to certify through the group’s screening room portal that they have viewed all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in that category. Since nominations were announced in January, the academy has been emailing voters with updates on their progress, indicating where they’re cleared to vote and where they still have work to do.
One wrinkle, and it’s not a small one: Members can simply check a box indicating that they’ve watched a movie outside the academy’s platform. Perhaps they saw it at a festival, on a streaming platform other than the portal or the place God intended films to be seen — a movie theater.
Whether they actually did watch the movies is left to the honesty of the voter. It’s still an honor system, and members do not need to show movie stubs, tickets or receipts.
Talking with academy members, there seems to be a little wiggle room when it comes to having a clear conscience.
Take the voter who loved Ethan Hawke‘s lead turn as legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon,” but hated “Marty Supreme,” turning it off 20 minutes after starting it. Since the academy’s screening room counts a movie as watched only if it’s viewed in its entirety, this voter told me they planned on restarting “Marty Supreme” one night and running it on mute so he could vote in the lead actor category.
“I’d seen enough,” he said. “Watching [Timothée] Chalamet play another pingpong tournament wouldn’t make me change my mind.”
Other academy members told me they were OK marking the “watched” box next to a movie they hadn’t seen, provided they had viewed four of the category’s other nominees. By and large though, they were the outliers. Most voters said they were happy to abstain from voting in a category in which they hadn’t watched all the nominated work. (As academy members may not publicly state voting decisions or preferences, voters spoke on the condition of anonymity.)
“I don’t need to see another ‘Avatar’ movie,” a producers branch member said. “So I’m fine not voting for visual effects or costume design this year. Life is short.”
“I like the idea that I can abstain from categories without any guilt,” an Oscar-nominated writer noted, adding that she thought the new system has been “helpful, reminding me to watch things.”
To that effect, academy members have been receiving a flurry of emails and texts that would give off Big Brother vibes if it didn’t simply boil down to an admonition to watch “Frankenstein” so they could vote in the nine categories where Guillermo del Toro’s monster movie is nominated.
It really isn’t that big an ask, as in recent years the Oscars have become increasingly dominated by a smaller number of movies vacuuming up a greater share of the nominations. This year, the five movies earning the most recognition — “Sinners,”“One Battle After Another,” “Marty Supreme,” “Frankenstein” and “Hamnet” — hauled in 56 nominations.
If an Oscar voter viewed the 10 best picture nominees, they’d be eligible to mark their ballots in best picture and eight other categories — supporting actor, adapted screenplay, casting, cinematography, film editing, production design and original score. Add Hawke’s “Blue Moon” and that opens up lead actor. Make it a double feature with “It Was Just an Accident” and original screenplay becomes available.
“You don’t really need to be much more than a casual moviegoer to knock out most of your ballot,” an actors branch member told me, “except for things like animation and documentaries and the shorts. I don’t know how many people watch all of those.”
Nobody does, save for the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants counting the ballots. The question vexing both voters and the awards consultants paid to persuade them is how this new, formalized voting will affect the results. As Oscar winners are sometimes the movies that are the most-watched, might requiring voters to see all the nominated work boost less-publicized efforts?
“If ‘Sirât’ wins sound over ‘F1,’ then I think it’s a new ballgame,” one veteran campaigner said. “Right now, though, nobody knows.”
We will soon. In the meantime, with Oscar voting running through Thursday, some academy members tell me their weekend is booked.
“Three nights, three movies,” one voter said. “And then I’m watching ‘Bridgerton.’”
There’s a new team with plenty of quality young players to get excited about in high school basketball.
Bishop Amat (28-5), led by sophomore Aiden Shaw and freshman Omar Cox-Labomme, put together a near-perfect performance on Saturday at Toyota Arena in a 71-48 victory over Hesperia to win the Southern Section Division 2 championship for coach Brandon Ertle, the team’s first title since 2002.
Shaw made nine of 11 shots, had four assists, three blocks and five steals while finishing with 20 points. Cox-Labomme made three three-pointers and had 16 points. For players 16 and 15 years old, respectively, to deliver with poise and confidence on such a big stage speaks to a bright future.
“They didn’t seem like they are a freshman and sophomore since the first game of the season,” Ertle said. “Not nervous or afraid of the moment. I think these are pretty good players.”
The Lancers also did a good job containing Hesperia’s 6-foot-7 Nolan Newman-Gomez, who finished with 17 points.
Murrieta Mesa 65, Aliso Niguel 58: Jagger Saul scored 18 points to help Murrieta Mesa win the Southern Section Division 3 title. Jayden Mysin had 18 points for Aliso Niguel.
Verdugo Hills 62, RFK 40: The Dons won the City Section Division III championship. Alex Kasumyan scored 13 points and Jordan Vargas added 12 points.
Rialto 59, Salesian 31: Lionel Madrid scored 16 points and Wayne Johnson had 14 points for Rialto in the Division 7 final.
Colton 55, San Bernardino Pacific 42: Andres Elenes scored 23 points for Colton in the Division 9 final.
Girls’ basketball
Sierra Vista 52, Desert Hot Springs 42: Cailei Buna finished with 19 points, making nine of 10 free throws, in the Southern Section Division 9 final.
Bishop Diego 42, Burbank Burroughs 41: Eden Synne finished with 16 points for Bishop Diego in the Division 5 final. Burroughs had a chance to tie in the final second but a free throw was missed.
DENVER — Renee Good loved sparkles and laughter and any excuse for a celebration. She loved pretty much everyone she met, and was late for pretty much everything.
“She had this way of making you feel special and loved that I didn’t even understand … until we lost her,” Donna Ganger said Friday of her daughter, who was shot and killed by an immigration officer during the federal crackdown in Minneapolis.
She was “slow to anger, quick to love, quick to care,” said her father, Tim Ganger. “That’s the essence of who she was.”
Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed Jan. 7 as immigration agents surged through the Minneapolis area, sparking waves of protests. Her death and that of another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, weeks later in Minneapolis sparked outrage across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement.
In a wide-ranging interview in Colorado, where some of the family lives, Good’s parents and two of her brothers, Brent and Luke Ganger, talked to the AP about the joy Good found in life, their grief and their hopes that her death can bring about change in a deeply polarized nation.
“It’s going to be hard in the future,” Donna Ganger said. “It’s going to be kind of a constant pain.”
Settling in Minneapolis
Good, who graduated from college later in life, was volunteering in a local school district and working as a substitute teacher when she was killed, her parents said.
“She was working so hard to get her education, and then she was finally able to use it, and I could just tell how happy she was and how fulfilled,” Donna Ganger said.
Good, her 6-year-old son and her partner, Becca Good — the women were not legally married, according to a family lawyer, but referred to each other as wives — had only recently relocated to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Mo., settling on a quiet residential street in a tight-knit neighborhood known for its progressive activism.
In social media accounts, Renee Good described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” On Pinterest, a profile picture shows her smiling and holding a young child, alongside posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.
The family “settled very quickly into the community in Minneapolis,” said Donna Ganger, describing how the neighborhood had also welcomed the rest of the family when they came after the shooting. They see that as the result of the love that Good had showed her new neighbors.
“It was incredible to receive that back,” Luke Ganger said.
Donna Ganger held a stuffed toy owl as she spoke, a gift from her daughter, who knew how much she loved the birds. It had sparkles on its feet, a reminder of Good’s love for glitter.
At Good’s memorial service, a table of glitter had been set out for guests. Donna Ganger had put a piece on a lens of her glasses and it’s remained there.
“She just kind of sparkled all the way through,” said Donna Ganger. “I think of her and I look down and see my little sparkle.”
‘A very American blend’
The family is “a very American blend,” Luke Ganger said recently in testimony to Congress. “We vote differently, and we rarely completely agree on the finer details of what it means to be a citizen of this country.”
Yet “we have always treated each other with love and respect,” he said.
On Friday, the family didn’t want to discuss the specifics of their differences, but Donna Ganger said she’d long prayed for guidance: “Before all this happened, I said, ‘Make me a wise woman.’”
In the hours after Good’s death, Trump administration officials said she had been shot as she tried to drive her car into an immigration officer. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good had committed “an act of domestic terrorism.”
But as video evidence and other details of the confrontation emerged, and criticism of the crackdown began growing, administration comments softened.
President Trump said he’d been told that Tim Ganger had supported him.
“He was all for Trump, loved Trump. And, you know, it’s terrible,” he told reporters. “I hope he still feels that way.”
Tim Ganger declined to talk about his political affiliation or whether it had changed with his daughter’s killing.
“I think I’m just going to leave that go,” he said. “There’s so many other important things” to deal with now, he added.
But family members said they hoped their ability to get along would be an inspiration.
“Our purpose through this whole tragic, difficult, unbelievable time, is to have something good come out of this,” Tim Ganger said. “Otherwise the senselessness of this is overwhelming.”
Sadness echoed in Donna Ganger’s voice as she talked about navigating family differences.
“Sometimes I’m just silly, you know, and I joke with them and I’m goofy,” she said. “But I want to be able to talk about hard things — and that’s hard sometimes with your own family to talk about hard things that maybe you don’t agree on. And I don’t want there to be any hardships between us or hurt.
“But it’s important that we learn to be careful with our words, but share them in a deep way,” she said. “It’s really important.”
Family members spoke only in general ways about the change they’d like to see come from Good’s death.
“I think it’s evident that something is broken, right?” said Brent Ganger. “And when something is broken, you have to take a deep look to see what it is that can be changed and fixed in order for it to not happen again.”
The morning of the shooting
On the morning of the shooting, as immigration raids and protests were flaring across the city, Becca Good has said she and Renee stopped their car in the street to support neighbors during an immigration operation.
Video shows Renee Good in a maroon SUV blocking part of the road and repeatedly honking her horn.
Two immigration officers get out of a truck and one orders Good to open her door. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel as the officer says again, “Get out of the car.” Almost simultaneously, Becca Good, standing in the street shouts, “Drive, baby, drive!”
When Good begins pulling forward, an ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle — later identified as Jonathan Ross — pulls his weapon and fires at least two shots into the car, through the driver’s-side corner of the windshield and the driver’s window, killing Good.
Weeks later, Tim Ganger said he hoped the family’s tragedy would lead to change, though “I’m not even sure what that will look like.”
“But for something good, for people to stop and take a breath and take a look and have a dialog,” he said. “That’s the broader mission of what we want, for people to come together and take care of each other.”
The Justice Department has said it sees no basis to open a federal civil rights investigation into Good’s death, but the family has hired a law firm that is conducting its own investigation and exploring potential legal action.
Family members said no one from the federal government has contacted them about Good’s killing, and they are unsure whether anyone will be held accountable.
“All we can do is speak out and hope that our sincere words are enough to enact some kind of change,” Brent Ganger said.
Slevin and Sullivan write for the Associated Press and reported from Denver and Minneapolis, respectively.
Editor’s note: Although there will be references to the Eaton fire in this newsletter, there won’t be any images of active fire or burned buildings.
The Mt. Wilson Trail in Sierra Madre recently reopened after being damaged last January by the Eaton fire and subsequent flooding.
When the city of Sierra Madre announced the trail was fully open again, I was initially eager to return to this stunning trek in the San Gabriel Mountains.
But part of me felt anxious. What if the fire had killed everything I remembered so fondly from time spent on the trail?
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Shortly after the Eaton fire, I scoured maps to discern which trails likely burned in the blaze. I remember my heart sinking when I saw the fire had scorched the entire Mt. Wilson Trail. It’s an area of Angeles National Forest with a significant amount of local history.
The first known trail to Mt. Wilson was established by Indigenous people, a trail they used to carry wood down the mountains when Spanish missionaries forced them to build the San Gabriel Mission in 1771, according to the Mt. Wilson Trail Race.
Then, in 1864, Benjamin D. Wilson built the first version of the current Mt. Wilson Trail. He was “following an ancient Tongva footpath,” according to a sign near the trailhead. It is the oldest trail in the San Gabriel Mountains, according to former Times hiking columnist John McKinney.
Water rushes through Little Santa Anita Canyon near the Mt. Wilson Trail north of Sierra Madre.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
The hike from Sierra Madre to Mt. Wilson is a suffer fest: It is a 14½-mile out-and-back journey where you climb just over 4,800 feet in elevation. It’s thrilling, though, once you’ve completed it, because you can look up at the towers at Mt. Wilson from L.A. and know you climbed that whole mountain.
It’s a hike that every L.A. hiker interested in upping their game should try at least once. Pro tip: I don’t consider it cheating if you hike from the trailhead in Sierra Madre to the top — and then get your nonhiker friend to pick you up where the trail ends in the Mt. Wilson Observatory parking lot. If it’s open, you could even treat them to a meal at the Cosmic Cafe!
On Saturday, I had planned to hike to Orchard Camp, a 7.2(ish)-mile journey that gains about 2,200 feet. It is one of my favorite places in the San Gabriel Mountains, and I was eager and anxious to see how it was doing.
Plants with blooms along the Mt. Wilson Trail, including, from clockwise, Menzies’ baby blue eyes, a poppy, longleaf bush lupine, streambank spring beauty and western wallflower.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
The site has a lengthy history. It was first home to Half-Way House, a repair station and rest stop built by the trail’s builder Don Benito Wilson in 1864. He named his establishment as such because Orchard Camp was the halfway point between Sierra Madre and Mt. Wilson.
The site was converted in the 1890s to Orchard Camp, “a resort named after the groves of apples, plums, cherries and chestnuts whose harvest was sold to travelers using the camp and trail,” according to a sign at the site.
In an advertisement published in The Times in 1908, Orchard Camp Resort told prospective guests it offered furnished tents and a “fine stream of water runs through camp.” By 1920, the accommodations had improved mightily, with the camp advertising “tennis, dancing, croquet and hiking,” and groceries, baked goods and meats at the camp store. (I can confirm the stream, hiking and, should you choose, dancing are all still available.)
To begin your hike, you’ll drive north through Sierra Madre. You’ll find the trailhead near the aptly named Mt. Wilson Trail Park, a small stretch of grass with a playground and, a rare luxury for hikers, a flush toilet. You will park on the street, close to the park if you arrive with the early birds.
Next to the park, you’ll find Lizzie’s Trail Inn and Richardson House, which the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society operates as living museums. Inside, you can learn more about the trail and other local history. They’re open most Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon.
Two hikers head up the first mile of the Mt. Wilson Trail near Sierra Madre.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Head north onto Mt. Wilson Trail, a paved road, which will take you behind homes before reaching the large Mt. Wilson Trail entrance sign. It’s only up from here!
The first part of the trail is in direct sunlight until late afternoon and has minimal to no shade. The upside is that it offers incredible views of the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. I quickly spotted Santiago Peak, the highest point in Orange County, which was about 43 miles southeast from where I stood. The snow-covered Mt. San Jacinto, which was 82 miles away, came into clearer view as I gained elevation.
In the first two miles of the trail, I was delighted to discover several blue, purple and pink wildflowers blooming, including wild Canterbury bells, stinging lupine (don’t touch it!) and chia. These plants are known as “fire followers,” as they quickly sprout after an area burns. Later in my hike, I also noticed baby blue eyes, cardinal catchfly, lots of coast morning glory and exactly two poppies.
Two hikers consider the best path across a water crossing along the Mt. Wilson Trail.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
I was also surprised by just how many waterfalls I could see from the trail, including one just under a mile in that was gushing down the rocky canyon.
My first stop was First Water, which you’ll reach at just over 1½ miles in. You’ll find a short path at First Water that will take you off the main trail and next to the Little Santa Anita Creek.
If you’ve hiked this trail before, you will notice substantial differences in the trail to reach First Water. It is steeper and a bit more technical, but still an easy enough jaunt down to the creek.
The Little Santa Anita Creek at First Water.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
One of the starkest differences, though, comes about half a mile north when Mt. Harvard comes into view. I was expecting more healthy green slopes, and instead, I spotted rows and rows of burnt, dried-out trees. As I neared Orchard Camp, I passed burned manzanita and other trees with blackened bark, but the majority of what I observed was nature in recovery.
One hiker had told me there wasn’t any shade at Orchard Camp, and while I was skeptical, I was prepared for the worst. Instead, I arrived just before 2 p.m. and found several oaks and other trees, still healthy and growing, and thick green grass and other plants. I laid down on a boulder near a wooden bench and basked in the sun like the happiest fence lizard in all of the forest — although there were plenty of shady spots where I could have laid down.
Orchard Camp, a shady stop along the Mt. Wilson Trail.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
I didn’t go past Orchard Camp because I knew I’d hit snow. I don’t own crampons, which are needed to hike safely in the snow on any sort of incline. (That said, Luis De La Cruz, the Vamos Hiking Crew leader, whose group hiked to the top Saturday, told me that the trail is in good condition from Orchard Camp although there is some erosion.)
Leaving the trail just before 5 p.m., I felt immense gratitude for the hundreds of hours that volunteers with the Mt. Wilson Trail Race put into restoring the Mt. Wilson Trail to its current glory. I spoke to several folks along the path who felt similarly.
A trail recovering.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
It’s a feeling this trail elicits. As a Times story noted in 1915 about this hike, “Once this trip is taken, a desire for a repetition clings to the lover of the outdoor life.” May we all be so lucky!
3 things to do
Attendees of a full moon hike at Elysian Park hosted by We Explore Earth.
(Chiara Alexa / For The Times)
1. Marvel at the moon in Elysian Park Outdoors nonprofit We Explore Earth will host a free sunset hike Tuesday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in Elysian Park. After the hike, guests are invited to participate in yoga, a sound bath and music, all as the full moon rises over L.A. Register at eventbrite.com.
2. Connect with fellow humans in Ascot Hills Park Intermission, a community-focused wellness company, will host a free sound bath at 11 a.m. Sunday in Ascot Hills Park. Guests will need to take a short hike to reach the hilltop where the sound bath will be offered. Learn more at Intermission’s Instagram page.
3. Crunch along the trail in Orange Save Orange Hills, a local advocacy group, will host a bilingual 3-mile hike from 10 a.m. to noon Sunday through Irvine Regional Park in Orange. Barefoot Joel and Scott Keltic Knot will guide hikers along the Horseshoe Loop Trail, observing wildflowers and wildlife along the way. Guests might spot the locally rare Catalina mariposa lily. Tickets for participants 12 and older are $12.51 while children younger than 12 are free. Park entry is $5. Register at eventbrite.com.
The must-read
Ed LaRue, a longtime desert tortoise advocate and surveyor, looks for tortoise burrows in Johnson Valley.
(Ethan Swope / For The Times)
Desert tortoises are what scientists categorize as a “keystone species,” meaning other animals depend on them for their survival. In this case, it’s for the burrows that tortoises dig. Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth wrote that that’s a key reason why U.S. District Judge Susan Illston recently ordered the federal Bureau of Land Management to shut down 2,000 miles of off-roading trails, saying the vehicles are “a significant ongoing cause of harm” to the tortoise population. And although climate change-supercharged droughts and large-scale solar development across the Mojave also threatened the tortoises and their habitat, off-roading trail use is different, biologist Ed LaRue said, because it’s “one of the threats that we could ostensibly control.”
I am not an off-roader, but I do want to acknowledge the outcome of this ruling: It is heartbreaking whenever you lose access to an outdoors space you love. “The vastness and the quiet and the peace you get here is unlike anywhere else you can find in California,” said Lorene Frankel, an off-roader who’d planned to launch an off-roading business with her husband. “It is devastating to realize a massive amount of land will be completely inaccessible.”
Even if you agree with the closure order’s purpose — protecting precious habitat for a critical species — it is important that we remain sympathetic to each other’s reasons for loving the outdoors.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
Have you ever tried to reach Griffith Park without driving there? You probably discovered it wasn’t a straight-forward journey. Metro, our local transportation agency, is developing a plan to make it safer and easier to reach Griffith Park and the L.A. Zoo by transit, on foot and by bike. And you can give feedback on how to make that happen. Streets Are For Everyone will lead a workshop from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Autry Museum of the American West where the organization will gather feedback on these proposed improvements for reaching Griffith Park. Participants will discuss a proposed transit route to Griffith Park as well as pedestrian and biking connections between the Hollywood Bowl and the Ford. As a bonus, attendees will get free museum admission after the workshop. Register using this Google Form.
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
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Across five novels and three story collections, Lauren Groff has merged wide-screen history with intimate stories about women seeking and confronting power, including in her latest spirited — and triumphant — release “Brawler.” Along the way, Groff has become the rare literary-fiction author who’s a mainstay on the bestseller lists, and a three-time National Book Award finalist as well. On Tuesday, she’ll discuss her work at a Vroman’s Bookstore event at Pasadena Presbyterian Church with Danzy Senna, acclaimed author of “Colored Television” and other novels.
If you’re new to her work, here is where to start with Groff’s sprawling canon, which spans from steamy Florida swamps to medieval abbeys with a gift for the unexpected.
“The Monsters of Templeton: A Novel” by Lauren Groff
(Grand Central Publishing)
“The Monsters of Templeton” (2008): Groff’s debut novel pays tribute to her hometown of Cooperstown, N.Y., featuring baseball lore, a strange aquatic creature and a young woman investigating her family history. It’s overstuffed but establishes some of her key themes: broken families, mythology and everyday misogyny.
“Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories” by Lauren Groff
(Grand Central Publishing)
“Delicate Edible Birds” (2009): Groff’s first story collection includes “L. DeBard and Aliette,” an off-kilter love story set during the 1918 flu pandemic that caught the attention of her longtime agent, Bill Clegg. Groff’s skill at historical detail is on fine display here, shifting from the World Wars to the present day, with particular sensitivity to the ways characters evolve over decades.
“Arcadia: A Novel” by Lauren Groff
(Grand Central Publishing)
“Arcadia” (2012): Groff’s breakthrough novel features a lead character, Bit, facing two forms of pressure: First, a New York ’60s hippies commune that slowly fails to live up to its values, then a near-future America ravaged by climate change. Deftly written, funny and spiky, it showcases Groff’s ability to conjure storms both internal and external.
“Fates and Furies: A Novel” by Lauren Groff
(Riverhead)
“Fates and Furies” (2015): Groff’s masterpiece upends the familiar domestic novel, studying the fracturing marriage between Lotto, a successful playwright, and Mathilde, his seemingly devoted spouse. Through some inventive structures and a playful rewiring of romantic tropes going back to Homer, Groff stitches together a portrait of a marriage that she then carefully unravels. As one character puts it: “Marriage is made of lies. Kind ones, mostly.”
“Florida” by Lauren Groff
(Riverhead)
“Florida” (2018): Set in Groff’s adopted home — she owns a bookstore called The Lynx Books in Gainesville, Fla. — her second story collection is concerned with troubling ferality. Here, snakes hiss, as do catcalling men, girls are abandoned, hurricanes blow through. Myth and metaphor still abound, but they’re more rooted in the everyday reality of a troubled parcel of the country.
“Matrix” by Lauren Groff
(Riverhead)
“Matrix” (2021): The first of a planned trilogy of historical novels, “Matrix” is set in an English abbey in the 12th and 13th centuries. Marie, who becomes the prioress of the abbey at 17, begins a rise to power — or as much power as a woman is permitted — using her fellow nuns to fight off political and violent incursions. The theme and premise owe much to Margaret Atwood, but Groff’s gift for the long view is wholly her own.
“The Vaster Wilds,” by Lauren Groff
(Riverhead)
“The Vaster Wilds” (2023): The New World of the 17th century, in all its beauty and violence, is the setting for her latest novel, a potent study of a young woman who escapes the safety of her British settlement and sets forth on a solo trek toward Canada. Dangers are ever-present, but the novel is a study in unsentimental indomitability, as the hero reckons with the elements and her past on her way to a heartbreaking coda.
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“That’s my pot dealer!” exclaimed Michelle Phillips in a crowded movie theater in 1977. Months earlier, the Mamas & the Papas singer had only known Harrison Ford as a stoner-carpenter with a few bit parts to his credit. Now he was Han Solo in “Star Wars,” directed by a young upstart, George Lucas. Clearly the world was changing.
How much, though? Conventional wisdom about the Hollywood renaissance of the ‘60s and ‘70s suggests that starting with “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Easy Rider,” a batch of emerging auteurs shook the studios out of a rut and transformed American film. There’s plenty of truth to that: Francis Ford Coppola’s shift in 10 years from a director-for-hire on an old-hat musical, “Finian’s Rainbow,” to the auteur behind “Apocalypse Now” is just one of the era’s most remarkable achievements.
A pair of new books, though, suggest that the overall shift was only so modest, ultimately shoring up not just the old-school studio system but the social norms the interlopers were supposed to be upending.
Paul Fischer’s lively history of the new wave of California directors, “The Last Kings of Hollywood,” concentrates on Lucas, Coppola and Steven Spielberg. (New York contemporaries like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma are present but relatively off-screen.) Fischer has a gift for highlighting the ways that moments that we now accept as inevitable were often the product of dumb luck, pyrrhic victories and tough decisions. Coppola made “The Godfather” out of financial desperation, averse to adapting a mob novel; Spielberg’s “Jaws” was beset with mishaps, from a foolhardy attempt to train a real shark to its malfunctioning mechanical one; only when Lucas learned that the rights to Flash Gordon were unavailable did he pursue a space-opera concept all his own.
Their brashness and can-do spirit were worth cheering for: As the trio delivered films that broke box office records — ”The Godfather,” “American Graffiti,” “Jaws” and more — there were reasons to believe that big-budget films could operate outside the studio system. Lucas in particular was driven as much by resentment of the old as passion for the new. He never forgot how Warner Bros. manhandled his debut feature, “THX 1138” and was driven to muscle “Graffiti” into existence to spite the suits who said he couldn’t. In 1969, Coppola and Lucas launched their own studio, American Zoetrope, in San Francisco, with a passel of scripts in progress (including “Apocalypse Now” and “The Conversation”) and a $300,000 investment from Warner Bros. But Coppola wasn’t much of a businessman, and he had an easier time putting the office’s fancy espresso machine to work than the suite of state-of-the-art editing bays: “He ran his business like he ran a film set — on vibes,” Fischer writes.
A decade later, both Coppola and Zoetrope would declare bankruptcy, and he would split with Lucas, who’d used the success of “Star Wars” to cut his own path as a Hollywood kingmaker via his own production company, Lucasfilm. It allowed him to indulge his love of classic cliffhanger serials, and he tapped Spielberg to direct “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But Fischer frames Lucas’ career arc as a disappointment, despite all those dollar figures — Lucas wanted to return to artsier “THX”-style fare, but needed cash flow. “If George was ever going to be independent from Hollywood, he thought he wouldn’t get there by making abstract mood poems,” Fischer writes. By the ‘80s, with two “Star Wars” sequels done, Lucas was out of the mood-poem business entirely.
While “Last Kings” focuses exclusively on directors’ relationship to movie economics, Kirk Ellis’ “They Kill People” considers “Bonnie and Clyde” and the New Hollywood from a variety of angles — filmmaking, the social turmoil of the ‘60s, America’s complex relationship with outlaws in general and guns in particular. It’s a meaty yet accessible book that captures the lightning-in-a-bottle nature of the generation’s ur-text, capturing the unlikely nature of its creation and the somewhat dodgy nature of its legacy.
“Bonnie” was such a provocation — nakedly, almost giddily violent — that its studio, Warner Bros, all but willed it not to exist. It was given a shoestring budget, was mocked by studio chief Jack Warner (who sarcastically referred to director Arthur Penn and producer-star Warren Beatty as “the geniuses”), and initially released largely in Southern drive-ins. “They figured the redneck kids would like the guns,” Penn said.
Everybody liked the guns. A few scolding critics lamented the film’s violence, especially its then-shocking bloody finale, but Beatty and co-star Faye Dunaway were deeply seductive onscreen. (Ellis notes that the two are always the best-dressed characters in the film.) And its outlaw sensibility resonated with young audiences in the late‘60s. Moreover, writes Ellis (a historical-drama screenwriter best known for “John Adams”), it represented the culmination of decades of American culture that equated American gun culture with freedom — a notion that would’ve baffled the founding fathers, who dwelled little on gun-rights matters in the Federalist Papers and other constitutional drafting documents, but gained traction thanks to gun manufacturers. “In the printed legend of American history, guns and freedom have become synonymous,” Ellis writes, but it was a new legend — stoked in part by “Bonnie and Clyde” — not America’s origin story.
It’d be a mistake to reduce the New Hollywood to the filmmakers highlighted by these two books — though, focused as they are on white men, they echo the way women and people of color were largely shut out of the system, or relegated to more marginal blaxploitation work. Artists looking to operate outside the system have plenty of inspiration to draw from in the ‘70s. Yet the books also expose how commerce does what it always does — take provocations and sand the edges off of them, then look for ways to make them profitable. In the early ‘80s, a decade after Coppola and company stormed the barricades, Paramount chief Michael Eisner shared a fresh and contradictory vision, such as it was: “We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.”
It would take another decade — and auteurs on the East Coast — to launch another attack on that sensibility, via films like “Do the Right Thing” and “sex, lies, and videotape.” They would help usher in the Miramax era — but that’s another story, with its own problematic twists.
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love Timothée Chalamet? I mean, besides the old-timer Oscar voter who recently told me he doesn’t like the young man’s “shenanigans.”
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. Calico Mine Ride or Timber Mountain Log Ride? That’s a 1A / 1B ranking decision. It all depends if I’ve just eaten a slice of boysenberry pie.
Now … back to Timothée …
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Did you catch any of the screenings during the American Cinematheque’s recent eight-film retrospective celebrating Chalamet’s career? Or perhaps you landed at the motion picture academy’s Samuel L. Goldwyn Theater on Monday when Chalamet was mobbed following a Q&A after a showing of “Marty Supreme” for guild voters.
If you witnessed a moment during this weeklong celebration — this Chalamania, if you will — you saw a young man whose talent as an actor is matched only by his genius at promotion.
And yet, there has been a lot of postulating that maybe one of the other nominated actors — Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”), Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”) and Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”) — has a chance. You know … if things fall just the right way, there’s a path!
I get it. This year’s awards season has felt endless, and the Oscars are still more than three weeks away. Stories must be written, possibilities explored, no matter how remote.
But c’mon. Chalamet has this Oscar locked, just like “Hamnet” lead Jessie Buckley has owned the lead actress trophy since her movie premiered at Telluride in September. Admittedly, the lack of drama isn’t fun or exciting. Pine for an upset if you must, though it might be more fun to just surrender and celebrate Chalamet, a gifted actor and certified movie star who has stockpiled a remarkable body of work over the last decade.
This isn’t to say that you can’t make the case about who should win. DiCaprio continues to be one of our great comic actors and deserves attention just for the master class in phone acting he gives in “One Battle.” Moura carries “The Secret Agent” with an intense, brooding charisma that, one year shy of his 50th birthday, should push him to even greater recognition. Playing the desperate, despairing lyricist Lorenz Hart, Hawke empties his soul and his vocabulary, venting his way through the entirety of “Blue Moon.” And Jordan connects on the biggest swing of his career, playing twin brothers in “Sinners.”
So why is Chalamet winning in a walk? It’s a process of elimination. DiCaprio and Jordan are out as “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” are ensemble films. (Even with the dual roles, Jordan is only in half the movie.) Moura’s work in “The Secret Agent” is sublime, but the Oscars rarely reward subtle acting. (This is a category that has gone to Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Brendan Fraser in “The Whale” and Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker” in recent years.) And Hawke’s nomination is but one of two for “Blue Moon.” Not enough. Even the execrable “The Whale” managed three.
Chalamet already won the Golden Globe for performance by a male actor in a motion picture musical or comedy for “Marty Supreme.” Our columnist predicts an Oscar is next.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Meanwhile, Chalamet is Marty Supreme, the undeniably talented, relentless self-promoter careening toward his goals of fame and fortune with little regard to the damage he is inflicting on others. (That’s Marty, not Timothée.) Marty’s despicable, but also, as played by Chalamet, winningly charming.
No, you’re not supposed to like the guy, which, for voters who, say, blanched at supporting DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” might be a problem. But the academy has changed a lot since Scorsese’s wildly entertaining movie screened for academy members at the Goldwyn and an unnamed screenwriter, seeing Scorsese, DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and writer Terence Winter emerging from an elevator afterward, ran over to them and started screaming, “Shame on you!”
It’s true that not everyone embraces the anxiety-inducing cinema that is the brand of “Marty Supreme” co-writer and director Josh Safdie. Not everyone embraces Safdie himself, after a noisy tabloid story resurfaced allegations of a toxic work environment on the set of the 2017 film “Good Time,” which Safdie directed with his brother, Benny.
But that has nothing to do with Chalamet, who did not work on the movie, or his ferocious, frenetic work in “Marty Supreme.” The biggest knocks against Chalamet seem to be the unorthodox ways he goes about promoting his movie (and himself) and his age (he just turned 30). Historically, the lead actor Oscar goes to men with a few more miles on the odometer. Adrien Brody is the youngest winner, taking the trophy in 2003 for “The Pianist” when he was 29.
But, as noted earlier, things have changed since the film academy began greatly expanding its membership over the past decade. This new academy gave its best picture and three acting prizes to “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a bonkers movie that embraced chaos, fingers made of hot dogs and sex toys used as weapons. The new academy just crowned indie auteur Sean Baker king of the world for “Anora,” a Cinderella story about a stripper and a Prince Charming who knows where to score the best ketamine in Vegas.
You think these voters are going to care that Chalamet hasn’t “paid his dues,” an idea that’s patently silly on its surface anyway as this is his third Oscar nomination? He’s the youngest actor to earn three Oscar nominations since Marlon Brando did it, at age 30, in 1954.
By the way, Brando won the Oscar that year for “On the Waterfront.”
MILAN — He’s as smooth as a bobsled track and sharp as a skate blade.
Snoop Dogg, the rap rapscallion who puts the OG in Olympic Games, plopped down on a couch in the NBC green room and muted the TV. It’s exhausting being everywhere at all times at the most spread-out Winter Games in history.
Whether he was carrying the Olympic torch, skiing with Picabo Street, sliding a curling stone or driving a Zamboni, Snoop was everywhere. He finished each day with a highlight show from the Milan studios.
So ubiquitous was the so-called Ambassador of Happiness, you’d swear NBC duped a Snoop — or maybe two.
Snoop Dogg, right, and five-time Olympic gold medalist former speedskater Eric Heiden watch speedskating at the Milan-Cortina Olympics on Feb. 11.
(Ben Curtis / Associated Press)
“The Winter Olympics are underrated,” he said in an interview Friday at the network’s Olympic complex. “It’s not highly touted like it should be. This is an event that is just as good as the Super Bowl, as the Summer Olympics. There’s so much action and there’s so much happening, and it’s not just one day. It’s not just four quarters. It’s weeks of great competition — on ice, for the most part.”
It’s almost as if the angular, 6-foot-4 Snoop is on ice as he glides through the back halls of NBC’s temporary headquarters, wearing a white turtleneck under a red, white and blue leather jacket with “COACH SNOOP” across the front. He’s wearing a gold-rope chain with the Universal logo as a pendant, and gold-rimmed sunglasses that are square and lightly tinted.
He greets everyone he sees and a friendly assistant follows him, handing out Olympic pins of a tiny, cartoonish Snoop with his arms raised at his side, standing in front of an American flag.
Is it any wonder this guy creates a buzz in every venue he enters? He is the No. 1 celebrity sighting at the Games.
“Snoop has a joy about him, a childlike curiosity, and he’s also a people person,” said Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of programming for NBC’s Olympics coverage. “He wants to lift people up in all aspects of his persona.”
NBC began using the rapper as part of its Olympic coverage during the Tokyo Games in 2021 with the streaming Peacock show “Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart & Snoop Dogg.” Many of their playful clips and humorous commentaries went viral and were especially appealing to younger viewers. Snoop genuinely enjoyed the competition, even though a lot of it was new to him.
Three years later, as the network was preparing for the Paris Olympics, executives were looking for ways to enhance the prime-time coverage, much of which would air on tape because of time-zone differences. They decided to expand Snoop’s role to give the perspective of a “superfan.” With these Olympics, his role further evolved into an experiential one, and to serve as an informal mentor and ambassador to the athletes.
“This is the biggest stage in the world,” he said. “Nobody gets to perform in front of the world like they do, with the whole world paying attention. To have all of that pressure of [something] you’ve been working for four years … Some of these girls and guys get that one shot, their event is only one time.”
As a roving correspondent, he did … well, some serious roving.
That included making the drive from Milan to Cortina for curling, sliding and women’s ski racing. That’s a four-hour van ride each way, some of it winding into the Dolomites.
“Trying to sleep with my head up against the window, with turning curves and every mountaintop,” he said. “Sliding by trains and traffic, and oh my God, I couldn’t drive out here. One-way streets. Little-bitty trains coming this way, that way. Bicycles, mopeds. It’s a lot.”
He also made a 3½-hour trip to Livigno to watch snowboarding — and said that if he had to pick a sport to compete in, that would be his choice.
“I could get good in snowboard, because I just like the creativity of when you’re in the air you have full control but you in the air,” he said. “I just feel like that’s something I could really be good at.”
So he must have skateboarded as a kid growing up in Long Beach, right?
“Never,” he said. “That’s what I’m saying. None of these sports are near and dear to me. That’s why it’s gonna be a first-time trial. But I know who I am. I don’t like to fail. I don’t like to lose. So I’m just such a perfectionist that I will get good enough to be good enough.”
He’s 54 and concedes his body can’t always accomplish what his mind thinks it can. He tried running the 200 meters at the Olympic trials in Oregon before the Paris Games and did so in 33 seconds, but he limped away with an injury. So he has a goal for when the Summer Games come to Los Angeles in two years.
“When we get to L.A., my mission is for me to run the 200 in under 30 seconds,” he said. “In 2028, I should be 56 years old. So if I can run it in under 30 seconds at 56, that’s a gold medal for me.”
Solomon said NBC is still brainstorming about how Snoop’s role will evolve for the 2028 Games.
Honorary Team USA coach Snoop Dogg throws a curling stone as Americans Daniel Casper and Tabitha Peterson Lovick watch on Feb. 6 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
(Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
“Of course, L.A. is Snoop’s hometown,” she said. “So he will be a hometown hero.”
Snoop said his love for the Olympics dates to the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He didn’t attend any events at the time, though, noting that for a 13-year-old kid growing up in Long Beach, the city felt “like a whole state away.”
“We were watching on television,” he said. “We never thought we could physically be there. … It just felt good to be an American, to watch us compete against the whole world and to see how great we were.”
He’s particularly interested in flag football — which will make its debut in the Los Angeles Olympics — and created a youth football league that counts among its alumni NFL standouts C.J. Stroud and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
“Flag football is a sport the whole world can grab ahold of,” Snoop said. “There are so many athletes that are in the NFL that are from different parts of the world that they’ve grown the sport from them just making it to the NFL and being an inspiration for the next generation.”
The following article contains spoilers forEpisode 7, “1:00 P.M.,” of “The Pitt” Season 2.
The education begins almost immediately. A young woman who has just experienced a sexual assault is in triage, and “The Pitt’s” Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) enlists Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) to assist charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) with the patient.
“We can call for a SANE,” another nurse suggests when Dana says she’ll be occupied.
“On a holiday? Could be hours,” responds Dana, a veteran who knows better, as the Fourth of July shift enters afternoon hours. “We’re not going to make this patient wait. And since I’m the only SANE on staff …”
A what? The quick reference sets in motion what “The Pitt” aims to shed light on: a sexual assault forensic exam, also known as a rape kit exam. The episode delves into the confidential medical procedure to collect DNA and evidence and gives one of the most detailed depictions of the process for television.
But before cameras venture into the room with the patient, Dana gives recent nursing school graduate Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) — and the audience — an overview. A SANE is a sexual assault nurse; they perform forensic exams, collect evidence and hand it over to the police, if a report is made. They also provide resources, support and may even testify in court.
The storyline serves a dual purpose, according to Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman, who co-wrote the episode with the show’s creator, R. Scott Gemmill. “We wanted to highlight the very important and incredible work of a SANE, especially in the department setting,” she says. “And we also wanted to see the bravery it takes for a survivor to come forward, let alone do a rape kit … It’s not an easy decision for somebody to make, and it’s not an easy process for somebody to go through.”
“I wanted people to understand the extent of the exam, I think that’s a misconception among a lot of people,” said Dr. Kathleen Sekula, a SANE at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh who also consulted the show’s team.
Ilana (Tina Ivlev) arrives at the ER in Episode 7 of “The Pitt.”
(HBO)
The case in Episode 7, “1:00 P.M.,” involves a visibly shaken young woman, Ilana, played by Tina Ivlev. The writing team knew they wanted to detail the process, not the trauma, Pierre-Geyfman said, so the information about what Ilana experienced is minimal: She was at a barbecue with friends when she was assaulted by a male friend.
“The thing that struck me was the fact the other shows might focus on what happened and then dive into that,” Ivlev said. “What I loved about this, the minute she starts talking about it, they cut [away]. There’s so much underneath it. I wanted it to be similar to real life when you have a traumatic situation happen — sometimes you can be hyperfocused on certain details, then other things are cloudy. Her head is spinning. She’s in shock.”
As with many of “The Pitt’s” cases, the story serves to bolster the emotional arc of the show’s healthcare providers, in this case Dana, who assists with the exam from start to finish as the department’s certified SANE nurse. Last season, she was brutally punched in the face by a disgruntled patient while taking a smoke break. That violent attack left her rattled and contemplating an exit from the job, but after taking a few weeks off, she ultimately returned to work — though the assault’s lingering impact has sharpened her edges.
“With Dana’s arc and her own assault last season, she’s definitely calcified a little this season,” Pierre-Geyfman said. “She’s trying to create a little bit of distance between her and her patients, and is really trying to prioritize her nurse’s safety. You see her struggle a little bit with that with this patient. She’s wanting to do more for her.”
On screen, the assessment begins with Dr. Al-Hashimi checking to see if Ilana has any injuries that need immediate attention and getting an intake of prescription medications and any known allergies to medications. Securing two triage rooms to complete the exam as a way to ensure privacy in the busy emergency department, Dana, with help from Emma, begins the evidence collection while carefully outlining the process to Ilana. For starters, once Dana opens the kit, Ilana cannot leave the room but is free to take a break as needed.
To avoid contamination, Dana puts on a face shield and opens the kit, which is a rectangle-shaped box that contains items like paper bags to store evidence and swabs for collecting biological samples. The first step requires Ilana to change into a robe, undressing on top of pads placed on the floor so each item of clothing can be packaged into separate bags and collected as evidence. She’ll be given new clothes, Dana assures her. Dana raises a large piece of cloth to give Ilana privacy as she completes the process.
Eventually Dr. Al-Hashimi returns to examine Ilana, checking for any pain on her body or need for X-rays or imaging — she notes two areas of bruising to be documented by Dana with photos. Dana seals the camera’s memory card in an evidence envelope. Next, with the lights off, Dana runs a black light over Ilana’s body. Dana relays that if there’s a part of Ilana’s skin that glows, she’ll swab it with a wet, then dry, cotton swab. Dana next swabs Ilana’s mouth — the inside of her cheek and along the gum line — and her finger nails. At various points, Dana is careful to assess Ilana’s comfort with each step and uses statements like “This will not define you,” while Ilana shows signs of stress about the length of the process.
Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) assists Dana (Katherine LaNasa), who leads the exam as the SANE (sexual assault nurse) on duty.
(HBO)
At one juncture, an advocate from Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, otherwise known as PAAR, arrives to further detail the resources and assistance they can offer, a service that’s available regardless of whether a patient decides not to complete the rape kit exam. Throughout the process, Ilana is assured that she can complete the exam even if she’s vacillating on whether to file a police report — that decision can be made at a later time and none of it goes on her permanent medical record. But when the exam pivots to external and internal vaginal collection, Ilana panics once she’s instructed to place her feet in stirrups to get into position. Dana suggests a break.
“I don’t want a break, I want to stop,” Ilana proclaims. “He’s my friend. He knows all my friends. It was just a dumb — he was drunk. He didn’t mean — it didn’t mean anything.”
It brings a pause to the process, which will carry over into Episode 8. In trying to show the scope of the exam, the medical drama takes liberties in its completion time. Sekula said it’s rare for an exam to be completed in under three to four hours.
Not all nurses are certified to be a SANE, and certification requirements vary by state, according to Sekula. It’s a role that requires extreme attention to detail and thoroughness, as their work bridges the healthcare and legal systems. While preparing for the episode, Hollard said she marveled at the precise protocols involved and the support that’s provided.
“On a technical level, it’s so meticulous,” Hollard said. “There’s so many parts, so many envelopes. You have to take these swabs and they can’t touch each other. And the legality of it all — the way this kit is happening is how they would do it with PAAR in Pittsburgh, but that’s not the same way they do it in California, or [the way] they do it in different states.”
While “The Pitt” is frequently recognized for its hyperrealistic medical procedures, the episode’s director, Uta Briesewitz, knew she wanted to film the exam in a way that mirrored the sensitivity healthcare professionals strive to exhibit, with shots that weren’t invasive or fixated on Ilana’s body. For example, when Ilana is undressing, the camera is fixed on Dana being mindful to give her privacy even in their close proximity — an out of focus glimpse of Ilana’s bare backside comes only when getting a reaction of Emma taking in the weight of the moment. Later, when the blue light is being run down Ilana’s body, her hospital gown is carefully place to avoid exposure. In addition to a SANE consultant being on set to assist with queries about the process, there was also an intimacy coordinator to help with the comfort level of filming the scenes.
“On a technical level, it’s so meticulous,” said Laëtitia Hollard of the process. “There’s so many parts, so many envelopes. You have to take these swabs and they can’t touch each other.”
(HBO)
“It was a very sensitive line because women can get re-traumatized,” Briesewitz said. “I remember one of our more detailed conversations with our SANE nurse was about when Dana had to look with the black light for bodily fluid. How do we make sure she would not miss anything but, at the same time, give the victim the feeling that they’re still protected? It was super helpful to have our SANE advisor on set to say the way she would do it. ‘One arm comes out of the sleeve, then I hold up her gown this way, and I would do it like that …’”
LaNasa found her time at the UCLA Health Rape Treatment Center crucial to chart both her character’s ease in the room and her sensitivity to the task at hand: “I went back a second time because I knew I was going to have to use the kit … I wanted it to look like I had used the kit many times and I knew what I was doing.”
Reflecting on the case as a mirror to her character’s journey, LaNasa pointed out that Dana never pressed charges against Doug Driscoll, the man who assaulted her.
“It’s different in this situation,” LaNasa acknowledged. “I thought it was great information that we got out of this, which is that you can go and do a rape kit, you can have the evidence collected, and you don’t have to decide on that day when you’re traumatized if you want to press charges or not. I think that part of Dana’s hypervigilance is probably because there was no justice for her. I think why she’s cracked this season is because she didn’t take care of herself. She’s reeling from that. She let him beat her up. At the same time, she doesn’t want Tina’s character to feel any pressure, but I think she wants it for her. She wants her to have the ability to change her mind later.”
“We’re going to hear Dana, later in the season, refer back to this process that these people have to go through, in defense of a sexual assault victim,” LaNasa teased. “It’s big on her mind. She’s been doing it quite a while.”
My friend Andrea and I had hiked about 3½ miles before we perched ourselves atop boulders near the Brown Mountain Dam waterfall. We eagerly pulled out our sandwiches, jalapeño pimento cheese, and chips and queso we’d carried in our backpacks.
Nearby, a small group of hikers glowered at us, eating jerky and protein bars, commenting on the resplendent meal before us (which we’d purchased from local deli Maciel’s). It seemed they were rethinking their food choices. 💅
I love spending time in nature, regardless of whether I’m lounging on a blanket with a friend at a park or hauling my body up a steep fire road to summit a local peak. But the uniting factor of many of the best experiences I’ve had outdoors is great food.
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Below you’ll find three hikes that will lead you to great picnic spots around L.A. You’ll see that I’m defining “picnic spots” as a place that offers enough open space to take a seat, including on park benches, picnic tables and flat ground.
Before we dive in, I’d like to remind you of something I frequently scream on trails: Orange peels are trash! Please don’t leave any food out in nature that you bring with you.
“There is a common misconception that ‘natural trash’ such as orange peels, banana peels, apple cores, and shells from nuts and seeds are OK to leave behind on the trail, in campgrounds, or in other outdoor spaces,” Leave No Trace’s Erin Collier and Brice Esplin wrote in this article. “While these things are natural, they are not natural to the places they are being left. These types of trash attract wildlife to areas with human activity, affecting their health and habits.”
Now that you’ve vowed to pack out what you pack in, let’s dive into this week’s hikes.
Oak woodlands and riparian habitats are among several plant communities in the mountains around L.A., including along the Gabrielino Trail near Pasadena.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
1. Gabrielino Trail to Gould Mesa campground
Distance: 3.6 miles out and back Elevation gained: About 300 feet Difficulty: Moderate Dogs allowed? Yes Accessible alternative: The first mile of this trail is paved!
The Gabrielino National Recreation Trail is a 28.8-mile long journey from Chantry Flat Recreation Area north of Sierra Madre all the way to Ventura Street & Windsor Avenue trailhead near the Hahamongna Watershed Park in La Cañada Flintridge. It is a multi-use trail for hikers, mountain bikers and horse riders.
The trail has several beautiful sections, including from its western entrance in Hahamongna to the Gould Mesa Trail Camp.
To begin your hike, you’ll park at a large free dirt lot near the backside of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. If hiking in a wheelchair or seeking a paved path, I recommend parking at this smaller paved lot.
You can either take the paved trail or an unofficial dirt trail that follows the Arroyo Seco before leading you to the official trail. Either way, it’s a fairly easy stroll along the Arroyo Seco, shaded by coast live oaks, bay laurels and sycamore trees. After hiking about two miles, you’ll reach the Gould Mesa Trail Camp, where you can set up your picnic at one of the campground’s tables, or nearby along the creek.
And if you’d like to go a bit farther, you can continue onward to the Paul Little Picnic Site or the Brown Mountain Dam waterfall that I mentioned above. Regardless of where you stop, I promise you’ll be treated to a stunning landscape and likely hear the chirp and squawk of scrub jays, California quail and more.
Hikers make their way up a trail to the Griffith Observatory.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
2. Griffith Observatory via Fern Dell/Four Loops (Griffith Park Explorer Segment 6)
How often do you act like a tourist in your own city? Well, now’s the time!
The Fern Dell/Four Loops trail is a 4.1-mile figure-eight-shaped looping path through Griffith Park’s southern end. Although it doesn’t officially include a stop at the Griffith Observatory, that’s what I’d recommend, as it is such a serene place to share a meal with family and friends.
To begin, you’ll park in an O-shaped lot north of the Trails Cafe, where you could grab a meal to-go before heading out. You’ll head north from the lot, following the West Trail in a loop back south to the aptly named Loop Trail. After completing the Loop Trail’s loop, you’ll head south before taking the Observatory Trail on your next loop. If following the Griffith Park Explorer map, you’ll want to take note of when to turn to head to the Griffith Observatory.
If the Observatory area is busy, consider going just a little farther north to the Berlin Forest to have your picnic. Just make sure to link back up with the Fern Dell/Four Loops trail so you can not only enjoy the lush greenery in the Fern Dell area, but also make it back to where you parked.
One of many benches on the way to Mt. Thom and Tongva Peak in Verdugo Mountains.
If you’ve ever looked out your plane’s window as you flew out of Hollywood Burbank Airport, and thought, “My, that trail looks hard,” you would have been correct.
The trail from Brand Park in Glendale to Mt. Thom is a grueling dirt trail, but its payoff includes stunning views of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and San Gabriel Mountains. And along the way, you’ll find benches and other lookout spots that would make for epic picnic spots. (Plus, if you do it, you could brag from your plane window, “I hiked up there and had these great tacos from that very peak!”)
To begin your hike, you’ll park near the Miss American Green Cross statue before heading northeast up the trail. Please note that there isn’t any water access on the trail, and it has limited shade outside of its lookout points with benches, which you’ll reach just under a mile in.
You’ll reach Mt. Thom about half a mile farther, but it will be a steep half mile. Keep going for about three-quarters of a mile, and you will find a quick offshoot that’ll take you to Tongva Peak. This is a fabulous place to relax, take in the views and, most importantly, eat.
If you’d like to skip the steep section, I’d recommend parking near the Sunshine Preserve, a critical wildlife passageway managed by the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy. From here, you’ll take Sunshine Drive up to Las Flores Motorway, which offers an easier incline to reach Mt. Thom and Tongva Peak.
Either way, you should spot some benches and flat areas to take a seat or lay out a blanket and enjoy the expansive views of Glendale, Burbank and the cities beyond there. I promise: Your meal will taste even better after the climb to Mt. Thom — especially since it won’t be just jerky or a protein bar!
3 things to do
Runners participate in a previous 4 Mile Hill Challenge run.
(Aztlan Athletics LLC)
1. Frolic for feathered friends in L.A. Athletes from beginner to elite have until Friday to sign up for Saturday’s 4 Mile Hill Challenge, a trail run and walk in Ernest E. Debs Regional Park. Proceeds from the race benefit the Audubon Center at Debs Park. Race onlookers can partake in bird-themed activities as they cheer on their athletes. Register at 4milehillchallenge.com.
2. Get moving in Montebello Montebello Outdoor Adventures will host a hiking trip from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the Puente Hills Preserve. Guests will meet at the Cathy Hensel Youth Center (236 S. Taylor Ave. in Montebello) before being taken by free transportation on the day trip. Registration is required. Register at montebellorecreation.com via the Trips and Tours page.
3. Foster the forest in Sunland-Tujunga The Sierra Club Angeles Chapter will host a volunteer workday from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday in Sunland-Tujunga. Volunteers will water and mulch four or more trees, helping them stave off disease or death, especially in hotter months. Participants should bring gloves and sun protection. Tools provided. Location released upon registration. Register at act.sierraclub.org.
The must-read
A motion-sensor camera captures an adult female mountain lion in the Verdugo Mountains in 2016.
(U.S. National Park Service via Associated Press)
I continue to be amazed by the ongoing legacy of P-22, L.A.’s dearly departed lion king. On Thursday, the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously voted to list six specific mountain lion populations — more than 1,400 pumas — in Southern California and the Central Coast as threatened under state law. “Hemmed in by freeways and housing, cougar clans in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains — both included in the listing — have a 16% to 28% chance of extinction in 50 years if they aren’t able to reach lions to mate with in other areas, providing genetic diversity,” wrote Times staff writer Lila Seidman. It’s hard to imagine this happening without the advocacy for mountain lions stimulated by P-22, whose memorial in 2023 lasted more than three hours and drew thousands of guests.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
Do you have a story of love on the hiking trail? Did someone break up with you atop a mountain? Or perhaps it was a marriage proposal on a peak! On April 3, The Times will host L.A. Affairs Live, a competition show featuring real dating stories from people living in the Greater Los Angeles area. The event is a spin-off of our popular dating and romance column of the same name. Seven to 10 storytellers will be selected to perform 5- to 7-minute relationship stories related to the theme of “Starting Fresh.” A live audience will choose the winner. The winner will get a written version of their story published as an L.A. Affairs column and receive a $400 payment. So, do any of our Wild readers have a lowercase-wild story to tell? Learn more about how to audition here. The deadline to submit is midnight Sunday!
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
“Do you mind if I smoke?” asks German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans with a laugh during a recent video call from his home in Berlin.
As he lights his cigarette, he looks every bit the renegade artist he is known for being. At 57, Tillmans is in the midst of staging his 10th exhibition in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s at Regen Projects. He is one of the most celebrated photographers of his era, with a practice that collapses the distance between fine art and the pulse of street culture, spanning epic abstractions and the familiar textures of contemporary life.
At the same time, Tillmans has another life as a serious electronic musician, recording a series of experimental albums, including his most recent, 2021’s “Build From Here.” He is deeply connected to the music world, and photographed the cover for Frank Ocean’s acclaimed “Blonde,” making him a rare artist to be in major museums while genuinely engaged with popular music and the club scene — a bit of a rock star in his own right.
The official opening of his Regen show, “Keep Movin’,” attracted a line that wrapped around the building. Fans are drawn to his varied strands of work, which move instinctively between disparate approaches and subject matter, from famous faces to images sensitive to light and shape, in subjects as simple as the curve of paper folded softly over itself.
A security guard, right, stands near the work “Robin Fischer, Dirostahl, Remscheid 2024” in German-based photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’ current exhibition, “Keep Movin’,” at Regen Projects.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
During an early walk-through for a few dozen invited guests, Tillmans held forth on his personal cosmos, surveying pictures from the experimental to the deeply intimate. Portraits, politically charged tabletop collages and quiet photographs that capture the simple vibrance of daily life are strewn across Regen’s 20,000 square feet of gallery space.
“I see my work evolve more in evolutions, rather than in revolutions,” Tillmans said, gesturing to a conceptual wall-sized image created with a photocopier.
His Regen show, through March 1, also features short video works and the abstractions of camera-less images he considers “pure photography,” created in the darkroom by shining light directly onto photosensitive paper. There are pictures relating to human sexuality and images from nature. Each subject and approach is an ongoing concern left intentionally open-ended, and never contained within a single project, title or grouping. They are all inseparable in his own mind, free from categories or a finite series of pictures.
“I am aware that these art historical categories exist in my oeuvre, but I’m not seeking them out,” Tillmans explained after the walk-through. His practice is not about “working through one series or genre and then moving on to another.”
Installation view of Wolfgang Tillmans’ “Keep Movin’” at Regen Projects.
(Evan Bedford / Regen Projects)
On his trip to Los Angeles, Tillmans made a long-planned visit to the Mt. Wilson Observatory to satisfy his lifelong interest in astronomy. He used the giant telescope to capture the twinkling of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. This preoccupation resurfaces at Regen in a large-scale print of 2023’s “Flight Honolulu to Guam,” revealing a star field above the clouds.
Tillmans’ interest in stargazing goes back to his adolescence, and images of the moon and cosmos recur in his work. “It gave me a sense of not being lonely, seeing the infinite sky and universe,” he says. “I always felt it was a very grounding experience that all humans share. I always got something from this — besides the beauty and the formal marvel of it all — this sense of location and locating myself.”
His depiction of the heavens is just one of many threads and themes that run through his decades of work.
A piece of work personally hung by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans in his current exhibition, “Keep Movin’” at Regen Projects.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Early in his career, Tillmans began shooting for the British street style magazine i-D, creating portraits of the famous and unfamous, while also documenting club life and gay culture. In 1995, Taschen published his first book, which made a stir with portraits of soft, indirect illumination, emphasizing naturalness. By avoiding the dramatic lighting and exaggerated special effects often seen in pictures of youth culture, he landed on a distinctive visual style.
“I felt the heaviness of life and the joy of life,” Tillmans says. “I saw myself as a multifaceted complex being, not just as young. So I experimented with lighting and film — how can I photograph my contemporaries in a way that approximates the way that I see through my eyes? And that was stripping back anything effectful, almost taking away the camera.”
He continues to do assignment work for magazines, which he considers part of his artistic practice. Several recent portraits are at Regen, including a foundry worker in Tillmans’ hometown of Remscheid and another of actor Jodie Foster. The editorial work brings him into contact with people and places he might not otherwise meet.
In 2000 Tillmans became the first photographer and first non-British artist to win the prestigious Turner Award. Tate Britain staged his mid-career retrospective in 2003 and the Hammer Museum in Westwood mounted his first major U.S. retrospective that same year, which traveled to Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
Coming after major retrospectives at the Pompidou Centre in Paris last year and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, in 2022, the Regen show dispenses with the retrospective frame while quietly performing a similar task — taking in the main currents of Tillmans’ work over the past two decades, and a few images dating to the late ‘80s. His relationship with the gallery began with his first Los Angeles exhibition.
Visitors walk through photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’ exhibition, “Keep Movin’,” at Regen Projects in Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
As ever, the images are displayed in a startling range of shapes and sizes: framed and unframed, huge wall-size prints hang alongside tiny, snapshot-scale pictures. One of the largest, “Panorama, left” (2006), spans nearly 20 feet and hangs only from bulldog clips. Smaller pictures are simply taped to the wall, but nothing is meant to indicate hierarchy.
“The biggest may not be the most important, and the smallest might be overlooked,” he explains. “It’s a little bit like projecting the way that I look at the world.”
In his first decade of exhibitions, he had no frames at all. “I taped those photographs to the wall, not as a gesture of disrespectful grunginess, but as a gesture of purity,” he adds. “That sense of immediacy — and not imbuing something with outside signifiers of value — lets the fragile piece of paper speak for itself.”
One of the current show’s larger conceptual pieces, “Memorial for the Victims of Organized Religion II,” fills a corner with 48 rectangular portrait-sized photographs, all of them solid black or dark blue. It’s a near-replica of a work shown at the Pompidou with the same solemn title, created to recognize those “physically maimed or mentally harmed” by doctrine and intolerance.
“I myself have a spiritual side,” says Tillmans, still grateful for positive experiences attending a Lutheran church in his youth. “But over the years I’ve become ever more distrustful of organized religions and seeing the role of religion in government. I find it incredibly immodest for humans to tell other humans what God wants.”
When he’s not exploring his spirituality and creativity visually, he focuses his energy on the music world. It’s a natural setting for Tillmans, who is increasingly active releasing his own electronic-based pop music. He’s occasionally worked as a DJ, and has been involved in acid house, techno and other electronic music. Despite his notoriety in the art world, he has no concern about hitting the charts.
“This is part of my work. I’m doing it the same way that I’m doing a photograph. I’m not doing a photograph to be peak popular in two months’ time,” Tillmans said. “It’s there and it’s still there in 24 years.”
Wolfgang Tillmans, “Keep Movin’”
Where: Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles
