Puppet Theater Tangled in Debt

Bob Baker, 84, Must Raise $30,000; Says Venue Will Not Close

by Anna Scott

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, an easy-to-miss white box in City West, has entranced the young and young-at-heart with its string-operated figurines for 45 years. But the country’s oldest puppet theater finds itself in a financial tangle.

The theater, at 1345 W. First St., has fallen into debt, and 84-year-old owner Bob Baker has been told by his mortgage holder that he must raise approximately $30,000 to avoid foreclosure proceedings, said theater assistant manager Richard Shuler. A Dec. 3 deadline was recently extended, as negotiations are ongoing.

In an attempt to raise the funds, Baker earlier this month hired a real estate firm to put the property up for sale, hoping to find a buyer who would lease him back the space. By last Thursday, however, Baker’s spokesman said it was no longer on the market. Baker, who can still be found

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New Late-Night DASH Offers Holiday Hours

News Brief

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The city Department of Transportation has introduced a late-night Downtown DASH bus route that will run through the holiday season. LADOT officials, along with Councilwomen Jan Perry and Wendy Greuel, announced the new route, which began operating on Nov. 21 and will continue through New Year’s Eve, during a press conference last Thursday outside of Walt Disney Concert Hall. The DASH runs Friday and Saturday nights from 6:30 p.m.-3 a.m. The line parallels portions of the Metro Red Line, which is also operating until 3 a.m. during the holidays. The new route travels from the Convention Center to the Seventh Street/Metro Center Red and Blue line station before turning east to head up Main Street with stops at Sixth, Fourth and Second streets. It then connects with the Red Line again on First Street in the Civic Center before looping back south along Grand Avenue, stopping at Disney Hall, Pershing Square and the Fashion

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What a Way to Make a Living

Dolly Parton’s Toe-Tapping Songs Stand Out in Premiere of ‘9 to 5’

by Jeff Favre

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – After only three songs, technical malfunctions stopped the opening night performance of the world premiere musical 9 to 5 for 15 minutes – and the crowd was thrilled.

That’s because the show’s composer, country music legend Dolly Parton, led the audience in a sing-along of the title number, which she wrote for the 1980 movie.

Parton also filled time by introducing her co-stars from the hit film, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman, who were sitting in the audience with her, before the glitches were fixed and the onstage entertainment resumed without incident.

Audiences during the rest of the performances through Oct. 19 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles – or during its planned Broadway run next year – likely will be less forgiving of unexpected stoppages unless Parton is there to save the night.

Still, if all

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Gone Fishing

New Downtown Sushi School Plans to Teach Traditional Skills

by Richard Guzman

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi admitted that as a kid, he wasn’t exactly a great student, which makes his role as the head of a new Downtown Los Angeles school somewhat ironic.

But this is a school where Uechi is right at home doing what he does best: preparing sushi.

There is also a noble purpose, implied Uechi, who founded the small Katsu-ya restaurant chain in 1998. He has partnered with Noritoshi Kanai, president of the Japanese food-importing business Mutual Trading Company and a pioneer in bringing sushi to America, partly because he is concerned about maintaining the authenticity of traditional Japanese sushi. He also noted a shortage of qualified chefs.

Located at 843 E. Fourth St., in a gritty industrial section of the Arts District, the Sushi Institute of America opened this month and will teach a maximum of 20 students per session

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The New Face of Theater

New LATC Launches 2008 Season With Three-Month World Festival

by Kathryn Maese

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – When the New LATC raises the curtain on its second season this Friday, theatergoers will get a rare chance to see Mexican icon Ofelia Medina, who dazzled audiences as Frida in the eponymous 1984 film, perform her one-woman show based on the book of poems Poesia No Eres Tu.

With Intimamente – Rosario de Chiapas, the actress, writer, director and activist will open the New LATC’s 2008-2009 season in dramatic fashion as part of the three-month Face of the World Festival, which features 25 shows on four stages. It’s a fitting choice, since Medina’s exploration of happiness, solitude and the search for freedom mirrors the LATC’s own tumultuous journey in recent years.

The Latino Theatre Company won a contentious fight to operate the city-owned theater under a 20-year contract and, following a $4 million renovation, reopened the venue last year. The space

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Hometown Sounds

Pershing Square Amps Up Its Summer Lineup With Well-Known Acts on Wednesday Nights

by Julie Riggott

We’re an L.A. band, so if we can’t give something back to the city, what good are we?” said Burleigh Drummond, whose group Ambrosia will play a free Pershing Square concert this week.

Ambrosia, a Grammy-nominated band with a following of progressive rock and R&B fans, is the first of four national acts scheduled in the new Pershing Square Downtown Stage Summer Concerts, taking place Wednesdays from 8-10 p.m. After Ambrosia’s July 30 concert, Pedestrian takes the stage on Aug. 6. Sophie B. Hawkins performs on Aug. 13, and the Gin Blossoms wrap it up on Aug. 20.

Despite the fact that the city Department of Recreation and Parks is only paying expenses for the bands, Drummond said Ambrosia is excited to play on the Downtown Los Angeles stage again. (They actually played there about a decade ago.)

“We come from L.A., and we’re

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Farmlab Gets Technological

This week’s Farmlab salon confronts the computer age’s latest multiple personality disorder: avatars. An avatar is a computer user’s icon or representation of himself to another party in a chat, instant messaging or multiplayer gaming session. It’s a caricature, not a realistic photo, and can be a simple image or a bizarre fantasy figure. In the noon Friday, May 16, salon called Identity and Virtual Space (Or, Are We Our Avatars?), a panel of experts will discuss just that – the meaning of relationships, fame, experiences and community in a virtual world. Among them are Sean Percival, a Second Life expert, and Kristen Rutherford, an actress and writer who starred in the Alternative Reality Game ilovebees (and whose voice, they readily admit, still terrifies the game’s players). Farmlab Public Salons are at 1745 N. Spring St., #4, (323) 226-1158 or farmlab.org.

Justice at Last for Kent Twitchell

Government, YWCA, Others to Pay $1.1 Million for Destroyed Mural; Artist Hopes to Recreate It Downtown

by Richard Guzman

It has been nearly two years since Kent Twitchell’s massive mural of pop artist Ed Ruscha was rudely painted over by work crews.

Now, following last week’s $1.1 million settlement between the artist, the federal government and 12 other defendants – including the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, which was readying the building at 1031 S. Hill St. for a new YWCA Job Corps Center when the mural was painted over – the 70-foot-tall “Ed Ruscha Monument” could find a new home in Downtown.

Although there are no solid plans yet, Twitchell last week told Los Angeles Downtown News that he hopes to salvage what he can from the mural and reproduce it on another building Downtown.

“I’m sure it’s not going to be very smart to try to put it back where it is because it’s hostile ground,” Twitchell said

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A Walk on the Wildflower Side

Downtown Gets a Springtime Surprise, as Cornfield Site Blooms

by Richard Guzm�n

It took about two years for this piece of art to bloom. Now that it has, the blanket of green, purple, pink and gold that dances with the breeze will only live for a few more weeks.

But that’s just long enough to leave an impression on those who walk through the unexpected piece of natural art in Downtown Los Angeles.

“It’s really beautiful, and you don’t really expect to see this here. It almost feels like you’re in a painting,” said 32-year-old Ernesto Mendoza as he and his girlfriend, Ana Maria Torres, strolled through the field of wildflowers at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. The 32-acre plot, which a few years ago was a dead brown patch of earth, is in a largely industrial area at the northern end of Chinatown.

Thanks to this year’s wet winter, more than a dozen types of California wildflowers have

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