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Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Orange Coast College students release 200 sea bass into the ocean
Marine biologist Nancy Caruso notes how for less than $70, a person can get a fishing license to take sea life from the ocean. Putting fish into it, however, is much less common. 'There's only a few people who put things in,' Caruso said. 'That's what makes this program so special.' Caruso is the founder Get Inspired, a nonprofit working with Orange County schools of all ages to nurture white sea bass, green abalone, Pismo clams and other species before releasing them into the ocean. On Friday afternoon, Orange Coast College students in the aquarium science program released 200 tagged white sea bass into the ocean at Bayside Beach, near the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol Division office. The students spent the last few months caring for the fish on-campus, said Mary Blasius, instructor and aquarium coordinator for the Orange Coast College Dennis Kelly Aquarium. Get Inspired has teamed up with OCC for about a decade, Blasius said, with the junior college raising and releasing about 3,000 fish in that time. The eggs and hatchlings are provided by Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. 'The fish have a very mild taste and make great fish tacos,' Blasius said. 'They're a popular recreational fish. There's nothing wrong with fishing. We want people to be able to enjoy it, we just need to make sure we're doing it in a sustainable way. 'This is great, because the students get hands-on skills that they can use in the industry. Many of our students get full-time positions at aquariums, at hatcheries, with the state of California.' The white sea bass population was decreasing during the mid- to late-20th century due to over-fishing and habitat degradation, but has rebounded. Hayley Heiner, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute education and outreach manager, said nearly three million fish have been raised and released back into the ocean since the 1980s. Analysis has shown that 30% of adults sampled from the wild originated from the hatchery program, while 46% of smaller fish less than 2 years old caught in the wild were also hatchery fish. Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley and Newport Beach City Councilmember Robyn Grant, who had an understandable interest in the project as an environmental attorney, also attended the release. 'I'm so proud of all of the students and the young people, but also everyone else that wanted to come and participate in really protecting, restoring, revering our environment,' Grant said. She added that the bay and ocean was not only Newport Beach's most prized asset, but the world's as well. Get Inspired first focused on restoring all of the kelp forests in Orange County, and has now turned its attention to other species that needed help, Caruso said.
Los Angeles Times
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
A contest to crown L.A.'s best community college culinary program
As a graduate of Orange Coast College, I'm honored to speak to community college students whenever I can. That's why I was more than happy to accept an invitation months ago to be a judge at something called the Culinary Cup, which happened Friday at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar. I figured I'd taste a couple of dishes, say some inspirational words, and that would be that. Oh, how wonderfully wrong I was. The Culinary Cup is a tournament between Mission College, L.A. Trade-Tech College, and L.A. Harbor College going on five years. Hundreds of people streamed into Mission College's huge Culinary Arts Institute building to cheer on the dozens of students ready to face off in three categories centered around Caribbean cuisine: savory, pastry and tablescaping — the art of setting a table that's as exacting as it sounds. I was assigned to tablescaping along with Greg Martayan, representing the Valley Economic Alliance. We were asked to judge as meticulously as possible, down to inspecting glasses to make sure there were no water spots and looking for any stray wrinkle on a folded napkin. 'Looks like it's going to be a 15,000-calorie day!' Martayan joked as we pregamed on Bananas Foster French toast and strawberry tarts. The competition itself was less 'Top Chef' and more of an open house. Guests peered into industrial kitchens to see students prepare their dishes, or sat in on demos ranging from how to make Belizean stewed chicken over coconut rice to an ice sculpture presentation by Trade-Tech professor Martin Gilligan. The president of each college strolled around in chef's jackets. Other Mission College departments also participated: The school's choir sang calypso and reggae standards while wearing tie-dyed shirts, and photography students staged dishes to take photos worthy of Serious Eats. Instructors stood by to cheer and mentor participants. One of them was Diamond Bar Golf Course executive chef Fionna España, who was in charge of the tablescaping competition. 'It's humbling, but it makes [students] say, 'I need to do better,'' she replied when I asked what was the value in having students compete against each other. 'It's a good thing because in the world, judging is happening constantly.' Success stories were everywhere. One of them was 53-year-old Sam Arenas, who played baseball for Mission College 30 years ago before embarking on a successful career in car sales. He recently retired to reenroll at Mission College and pursue his true passion: food. He wants to open a restaurant based on his grandmother's recipes. 'This is a great way to be under pressure but still have fun,' Arenas told me over shouts of 'Behind!' and 'Corner!' He was finishing up a Jamaican beef patty with colors that represented the country's flag: a crust tinted black from activated charcoal, spinach sauce and a mango chutney. 'To be able to start over in my career is just a blessing. But an even better blessing would be if our team wins!' Upstairs, Linden Grabowski was making nonalcoholic cocktails in the VIP reception — I especially liked her ginger-spiked Jamaican punch. Last year, the Santa Clarita resident was part of Mission College's tablescaping team. She's going to transfer to a four-year university after finishing degrees in culinary arts, restaurant management and professional baking. 'If you were to have told me two years ago I'd be at this point, I wouldn't have believed you,' Grabowski said. Political heavyweights showed up, like San Fernando Mayor Mary Mendoza, L.A. Community College District trustees David Vela and Kelsey Iino, and even longtime Congressman Tony Cárdenas, who retired last year. I caught him in line waiting for jerk chicken, picanha and lobster. I asked if he had ever been invited to judge. Cárdenas immediately shook his head no. 'You have a bunch of competitors and just one winner. You don't need a bunch of people mad at you.' The competition ended with a delicious buffet lunch attended by 500 people. I unfortunately had to leave before the winners were announced, so didn't have the chance to congratulate Mission College, which swept all the categories and thus won the Golden Chef's Hat Trophy. Harbor College will host next year — see you there! Andrea says, 'Ripple by Grateful Dead.'Pamela says, 'Dancing Queen by Abba.' Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. Today's great photo is from Friends of Big Bear Valley at the nest of two eaglets, Sunny and Gizmo, who are expected to fly for the first time soon. Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Los Angeles Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Artist installs an ICA L.A. homage to construction crews — with her dad's help
Jackie Castillo was walking through her Mid-Wilshire neighborhood when she heard ceramic crashing against metal. She looked up to see orange terracotta tiles sailing down, one after the other, from the roof of a 1920s Spanish Revival home. The tiles whirled, twisting and turning like helicopter seeds or bird wings, before hitting the metal dumpster below. Castillo captured their descent on film, compelled by each tile's momentary transformation into something vivid and alive just before its demise. Eight years later, she has channeled that memory into 'Through the Descent, Like the Return,' an installation on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles through August: Four groups of five steel reinforcing bars either ascend from the concrete floor or descend from the ceiling of ICA's first-floor gallery. On each bar, five reclaimed terracotta tiles are arranged at various levels and angles, recreating the twists and turns from the film stills. To stand in the middle and view them in the round is to see how ruin and repair, falling and rising, are inexorably bound. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Castillo was born and raised in a working-class community in Santa Ana. She first discovered photography in a darkroom at Orange Coast College before completing her degree at UCLA. 'Taking photos is about reacting to the world and framing it, while developing them is a slow and tactile process,' she says. 'It was my language, and I couldn't stop once I understood that.' Although photography is at the heart of her practice, she frequently merges filmic images with sculpture and installation, as exemplified by her show at the ICA as well as her recent USC master's degree thesis presentation, which included mixed-media sculptures like 'Between No Space of Mine and No Space of Yours,' a monochromatic photo of an abandoned lot printed on uneven stacks of cement pavers. 'From my first studio visit with Jackie, I was struck by the clarity and sensitivity she brought to her photography,' says ICA senior curator Amanda Sroka. 'She's both formally advancing her medium and adding a very human dimension to the larger arts landscape we find ourselves in.' For Sroka, it was important to offer Castillo creative support and the opportunity to broaden the context for her commentary on land development and labor — especially given socioeconomic changes in the museum's Arts District neighborhood. 'In poignant and poetic ways, she reveals what's erased and gives voice to what's silenced,' Sroka says. Jackie sought the support of her father, Roberto, who immigrated to the United States from Guadalajara in his 20s, with the conception and creation of the lilting terracotta and rebar sculpture. While her work has long centered on the visible and invisible labor of immigrant communities, especially as it pertains to the material and cultural history of urban environments, she still felt a disconnect between her life in Orange County and her artistic practice in Los Angeles, where she has lived for a decade. 'Making art has often felt like a very solitary pursuit, or questioning, and completely separate from seeing my family,' Jackie explains on the sunny afternoon we met at the ICA. 'For this exhibition, I wanted to find a means to unite the two and spend more time with them along the way.' Although Roberto's electrical engineering degree didn't transfer to the United States, Jackie grew up watching him build whatever the family needed. Roberto helped her determine the exact height and angle of each tile and to fabricate a means of securing them in place along the steel stake. 'I learned so much from our conversations about everything from aesthetics to mathematics,' Jackie says. 'We think of artists as looking this one way, but given the space and the resources, it's amazing what working-class people can do.' The individual tiles and reinforcement bars create a striking impression of an enthralling and vertiginous centrifugal motion. 'The exact sequencing of each stack corresponds to a fall captured in a film still,' she says. 'They're not arbitrary or merely aesthetic, but tied to a specific moment in time linked to a specific person's body in an act of labor.' By exposing the industrial rebar responsible for a building's structural integrity, Jackie also draws attention to the workers responsible for the building's construction, maintenance and repair. Beneath the facade of every home, school, business and community center lie layers of material meaning and memory that bear forth records of the minds and hands that envisioned and assembled them. The innumerable lives lived within their walls and the storms weathered from without leave lasting marks. On the salvaged tiles alone, you can find salt efflorescence, water stains, fretting, lichen, smears of soot, scratches and gashes. Though the evidence may be imperceptible to the untrained eye, they also hold the memory of the earth from which they were formed and the traditional methods of molding and firing clay. That history is what gets lost when old materials are tossed in dumpsters and replaced with newly fabricated products. Photographs incorporated into the installation recreate this layering effect. On the right side wall, an image of twin rebar pillars jutting up toward a brilliant cerulean sky is interrupted by the trace of hardly discernible letters and numbers. At first glance, the illusory text appears to be part of the photograph; on closer inspection, it becomes clear that it is on the cement board beneath the image, which is printed on a semi-transparent window screen. 'I wanted to collapse or complicate the space where the photograph exists in these works,' Jackie says. 'This way, they invite a more visceral engagement, requiring viewers to slow down to understand why the image seems to change depending on their perspective.' The installation, as a whole, fosters a similar shift in perception. Standing at the center, I felt as though time had momentarily reversed, and I was witnessing the hand-molded tiles being passed up to the newly constructed roof. Perhaps it is not too late to begin rebuilding differently, guided not by the technology and exploitative practices of the present, but by the craftsmanship and care of the past.
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
For a Padres rookie, path to majors paved by legendary coach who perished with Kobe Bryant
SAN DIEGO — One day five years ago, shortly after a tragic accident claimed the lives of his college baseball coach and eight others, David Morgan had a permanent reminder tattooed into his skin. A string of Roman numerals runs down the right side of his neck. Each symbol is filled with meaning. Alyssa Altobelli wore No. 5 as a member of the girls' basketball team coached by legendary NBA star Kobe Bryant, coincidentally donning the same number Morgan had as a high school infielder. Alyssa's father, John Altobelli, wore No. 14 for almost his entire tenure as a highly successful baseball coach at Orange Coast College. In 2019, to honor an OCC player who unexpectedly died a decade earlier, Altobelli wore No. 22. Advertisement On Jan. 26, 2020, two days before Morgan's sophomore season at OCC, grief again enveloped the program: John, his wife Keri and Alyssa, along with Bryant and his daughter Gianna, were among the victims of a fatal helicopter crash. In the weeks that followed, as tributes poured in for Bryant, so did remembrances of a junior college coaching icon and a father figure to scores of ballplayers. The young men Altobelli mentored across multiple decades at OCC included a freshman infielder who would eventually become a big-league pitcher in a moment of serendipity. When the San Diego Padres called up Morgan from Double A last weekend, the San Antonio Missions were on the road in Amarillo, Texas. Inside the visiting clubhouse, Morgan was occupying a locker labeled with the number 14. The 25-year-old relief prospect had spent the first month of the Missions' season wearing, for the first time in his career, No. 22. He would arrive at Petco Park on Sunday, which happened to be the birthday of Lexi Altobelli, John and Keri's surviving daughter. A little more than 48 hours later, Morgan stood inside the Padres' clubhouse as the seventh OCC alum coached by John Altobelli to reach the majors. He was the first to do so from Altobelli's final team, and he could end up being the last. It felt, Morgan said, like Altobelli was looking down on him. 'If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be where I am now,' Morgan said. 'It was always the goal to get here, but he was the reason I found the path of how to get here.' Tony Altobelli, the longtime sports information director at OCC, oversees media relations for 25 sports programs. His job precludes him from playing favorites in a professional sense. Still, he cannot help but gravitate to a certain team. The youngest of seven children, Altobelli played baseball growing up. So did John Altobelli, a fellow Chicago Cubs fan and the sibling closest to Tony in age. So did their oldest brother and their father. Advertisement In 2019, after John led OCC to a school-record 39 wins and his fourth California community college state title, Tony wrote a book chronicling the eventful final 26 hours of the program's championship run. At one point during the reporting process, Tony asked his brother for his thoughts on the team's starting third baseman. 'Love that kid,' John immediately replied. John, Tony recalled, went on to detail his affinity for David Morgan's work ethic and 'grinder' mentality, his willingness to take on any assignment, and his determination to get the most out of a 6-foot frame. 'I think John saw himself in David,' Tony said. Months earlier, Morgan had arrived on campus as something of a project. 'I wasn't quite that guy,' said Morgan, who came from nearby Mission Viejo High School. 'I was very small, trying to learn how to work, trying to learn how to compete. He taught me how to be competitive, the person I am now.' John Altobelli also instilled a certain sense of belief. The day they first met, the coach told Morgan he possessed the talent to play pro ball. Within his first week at OCC, Morgan received phone calls from a couple of major-league organizations. His athleticism and defensive ability had attracted early interest. So had his connection to a widely respected coach. 'He put me on the radar,' Morgan said. Morgan soon repaid Altobelli's confidence. The freshman appeared in 45 games, hitting .306, stealing 11 bases and filling a variety of lineup spots without complaint. He displayed rare arm strength from the hot corner, prompting OCC coaches to wonder aloud if he could pitch. His defense seldom wavered, even that May when he fell into a small slump. Then, in one 26-hour span, Morgan delivered five hits, including a two-run, go-ahead double in the final game of the season. Advertisement 'Probably the biggest hit of our year,' said then-assistant coach Nate Johnson. 'When we needed him the most, he came through for us.' 'He didn't show a lot of emotion,' Morgan said of Altobelli, 'but when I hit that double, I remember seeing him at the end of the dugout and he was fired up.' That game, it turned out, would be the last Altobelli ever coached. A half-decade after his death, after he amassed more than 700 wins across 27 seasons and sent hundreds of players on to Division I schools, Altobelli's legacy lives on. In OCC's John Altobelli Park, also known as 'The House That Alto Built.' In major leaguers such as New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge, who played for Altobelli in the 2012 Cape Cod League and, a decade later, hit two home runs in a game against the Cubs, pointing after each blast to Tony Altobelli in the Yankee Stadium crowd. (Tony, who was wearing an OCC baseball cap that night, captured Judge's attention before the game by yelling, 'Aaron, Alto's watching you today!') In Johnson's efforts as Altobelli's successor to foster a competitive yet inclusive environment despite the high turnover rate of junior college ball. And in an undersized but gifted prospect who embraced the opportunity to return to OCC. On Jan. 28, 2020, two days after the deaths of John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli, Morgan batted cleanup and started at shortstop in an emotional season opener. A crowd of about 2,000 showed up for a junior college game, more evidence of John Altobelli's impact. Morgan, OCC's lone returning starting hitter, would move up a spot in the lineup the next game. He mostly stayed there the rest of that spring. 'Knowing that I had him at shortstop every single day and hitting in the three-hole, it calmed our pitchers down,' Johnson said. 'It calmed me down.' Advertisement The relative serenity would not last. Twenty games in, the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season. The amateur draft was shortened from 40 rounds to five, quashing the possibility that Morgan would be drafted out of OCC that summer. Yet the Pirates, the junior college ones, harbored broader ambitions. Before the games were stopped, they had won nine of their past 12. They rallied around the objective of winning another state title. And there was more to it: They wanted to win it all for Altobelli. 'Coming to the field and coming together and playing there was kind of our way to just honor him, and having that shut down was pretty rough,' Morgan said. 'It kind of sucked.' It was around the same time that Morgan decommitted from the University of Oregon, which had offered him the chance to play Division I baseball. He resolved to come back to OCC for what he hoped would be a full season. He didn't quite get one. As the pandemic continued, the start of the 2021 season was delayed. The Pirates found themselves limited to competing for an Orange Empire Conference title, with no regional or state playoffs on the potential schedule. So, they won their fourth consecutive conference title. 'Winning that conference championship, in my opinion, was just as special as any of the four of John's state championships put together,' Tony Altobelli said. 'Because that's as far as we could go.' In the moments after the triumph, Altobelli addressed the team. He had done so throughout the season, mostly managing to keep his emotions in check. But now, as his father Jim stood nearby, something welled inside of him. 'I just said, 'You made an old man really happy today,' and I pointed to my dad,' Altobelli said. 'And I said, 'You made a slightly old man very happy today, too,' and I pointed to myself. That's basically all I could get out before I just completely lost it.' Advertisement In Altobelli's recollection, Morgan was one of the first players to come up and hug him. The infielder told the sports information director he loved him. He told Tony he loved John, too. 'That was the goal,' Morgan said. 'It was, come back and win it all for him.' Pitching was never part of the original goal. Morgan took the mound as a Little Leaguer, but he didn't in any of his high school games. After years of cajoling, he relented to throwing a bullpen session at OCC in 2021. The results seemed to support his insistence that he was not meant to be more than a position player. 'It was all over the place,' Johnson said. 'It was like, we're not going to be able to do anything with that right now.' Already, however, Morgan's decision to return to OCC had set off an unintended chain of events. After going undrafted for a second consecutive summer, the infielder initially committed to spending the 2022 season playing shortstop for Kansas State University. He later was informed, he said, that he had taken too many junior college classes; if he transferred to a Division I school, he would have to sit out a season. Eager to keep playing, Morgan settled instead on Hope International University, an NAIA program fewer than 20 miles north of OCC in Fullerton, Calif. He quickly encountered more coaches hoping to unleash his arm. This time, he agreed. 'Because I was at such a small school, I was like, 'I'll throw a little bit off the mound and just see if that gives me a better shot at getting drafted,'' Morgan said. The ensuing experiment produced immediate intrigue. In a fall scrimmage against his old school, Morgan touched 96 mph. When the spring season opened for Hope International, he moved from shortstop to center field to preserve his arm. He appeared in eight games as a pitcher before a thumb injury paused his progress. Advertisement Morgan resumed pitching that summer, beginning his transition to full-time relief with the Portland Pickles of the collegiate West Coast League. There, Padres area scout Justin Baughman saw what another team official described as 'outlier' talent. Weeks later, after impressing in a predraft workout at Petco Park, Morgan signed with the Padres as an undrafted free agent. He called Johnson and told his former coach he would open his professional career as a full-time pitcher. Johnson responded by suggesting that Morgan might make it to the majors in three years. 'From the time that he stepped on campus to the time that he left, his arm is still probably one of the best arms we've had in the infield,' Johnson said. 'That kind of an arm is only going to be able to stay in the minor leagues for so long.' That prediction was validated on Sunday when the Padres promoted Morgan. His trajectory the past two seasons has featured steady improvement and, more recently, an eye-opening surge. With Double-A San Antonio this season, Morgan sat in the mid-to-high 90s with a potentially plus slider. In 8 2/3 innings, he struck out 19 batters and walked only one. When the Padres, temporarily carrying a nine-man bullpen, saw Logan Gillaspie go down with an oblique injury, they opted for Morgan's hot hand. In Orange County, people in and around the OCC baseball program exulted. 'He texted me (Sunday) and said, like, 'Man, I'm super excited. You guys meant a lot to me. I know Alto would be proud,'' Johnson said. 'Obviously, stuff like that gets you choked up.' Added Tony Atobelli: 'I have kids come and go every single year, but you never forget a kid like that. And regardless of state championships or not, he was just a good dude that you appreciated.' Meanwhile, Morgan found himself headed to San Diego, a city that holds special meaning. Before his parents married and settled down in Mission Viejo, Calif., they began dating in San Diego. Morgan grew up attending occasional games at Petco Park and consistently cheering for the Padres. Advertisement His full-circle moment, he believes, is no coincidence. It was more than six years ago that John Altobelli sent him down a particular path. Now, Morgan is awaiting his big-league debut. No matter what happens, he will always be able to say that he proved Altobelli right. 'He always talked about making every day the most important day of your life,' Morgan said. 'You never know when you're not going to get to keep playing, right? You never know when you don't wake up. He unfortunately passed away. That impacted me a lot, but it pushed me to be better. All the things he taught me pushed me through my failures, and (through) the lonely days of all the hard work, I would think about what he did for me. 'He was the greatest human being that I've come across in my baseball career. Every day, I think about just hoping I made him proud.' (Top photo of David Morgan: Courtesy of Orange Coast College Athletics)
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Beloved Kobe and Gigi Bryant Mural Vandalized in Downtown Los Angeles
A beloved mural honoring and his daughter Gigi Bryant has been vandalized in downtown Los Angeles. The beautiful piece of artwork was created by artist Louie 'Sloe' Motion to pay homage to the father-daughter pair who tragically died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020. Bryant, who was 41 years old at the time, and Gigi, who was 13 years old at the time, were en route to a youth basketball tournament for Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California. The helicopter went down in Calabasas, California. Seven other individuals were also on board and tragically lost their lives. John Altobelli was the head baseball coach at Orange Coast College. He was traveling with his wife, Keri, and their daughter, Alyssa. Christina Mauser was the assistant basketball coach at Gigi's school, Payton Chester was Gigi's teammate traveling with her mother, Sarah, and Ara Zobayan was the pilot. There are countless murals honoring Bryant and Gigi in Los Angeles. This one, in particular, depicts the basketball legend kissing his young daughter on the cheek while they are both dressed in Lakers jerseys. Thankfully, a GoFundMe has been started to restore the mural. 'I am reaching out to the community to help restore the beautiful Kobe & Gigi mural that has brought inspiration and unity to so many,' the artist, who organized the GoFundMe, writes.'This mural was a special collaboration with [the] NFL for Super Bowl LVI. Over time, the mural has faced wear and tear, and I am eager to bring it back to its original glory,' Louie 'Sloe' Motion adds. 'Your generous donations will go directly towards the materials needed for the restoration process, including high-quality paints, sealants, and other essential supplies.' At this time, it's unclear who vandalized the mural. However, TMZ is reporting that it may be the result of 'apparent beef between street artists.'
