Front Pages

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Out of the (Bento) Box

WITH A DECEMBER REOPENING, Sushi Performance & Visual Art emerges again as San Diego’s venue for contemporary performance. Known for its diversity of ethnic, cultural and sexual perspectives, Sushi presents international, national and regional performance-based artists in the East Village’s Icon building (390 11th Avenue at J Street). While founder Lynn Schuette describes it as a “road show for contemporary artists,” others have invoked descriptors such as “out of the mainstream,” “edgy” and “an adventurous urban art experience.” Whoopi Goldberg is counted among Sushi’s past performers.

Schuette established Sushi in 1980 across from the downtown library (at Eighth Avenue and E Street). When she left in 1995 to pursue a painting career, Vicki Wolf took the reins. She moved the then-homeless Sushi into the ReinCarnation Building (now Icon), where it resided until 2004, when it was forced to vacate due to redevelopment. Without a performance home, artistic director Allyson Green brought Sushi’s work to the public through “Sushi: Take-Out” performances. (One program, dubbed “4x4,” featured performers on a 4-by-4-foot stage at North Park’s Bluefoot Bar & Lounge.) Now, thanks to a successful fund-raising effort, Sushi returns to a new space in Icon, which includes 6,000 square feet of performance space and a visual-arts exhibit area.

Sushi has its formal opening December 6 with The New Barbarian Collection, Winter 2009, billed as an “Xtreme” fashion show by Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s San Francisco–based La Pocha Nostra group. Admission for the grand opening is $100, but the January-May 2009 season offers “pay what you can” admission for all performances. 619-235-8466; sushiart.org. ——KAREN KENYON

Test of Time

FOR THOSE DOOMSDAYERS waiting for their houses to crumble in Southern California’s next big quake, the Cosmopolitan Hotel has some bad news. The nearly 200-year-old structure in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is still standing——and archaeologists say the mud structure’s design is strikingly simple.

Juan Bandini built the Cosmo, then called La Casa de Bandini, between 1827 and 1829. When it later became the Cosmopolitan Hotel, it was San Diego’s premier stagecoach destination and the de facto cultural center of the city (before downtown shifted from Old Town to its current location). In 2007, the contemporary lessee of the building, Delaware North, Parks & Resorts at San Diego LLC, began a nearly $4 million restoration of the historic site. According to California law, any new construction site (or rehabilitation to an existing one) has to be excavated by a licensed archaeologist to determine historical value before work can begin.

Led by Larry Felton of California State Parks, district engineer Robert Robinson and archaeology project manager Nini Minovi, a team of researchers has made some interesting discoveries. For starters, the 179-year-old Cosmo has a traditional adobe foundation, with an extensive network of football-size stones (a marvel when you consider the thousands of earthquakes it has survived). Even more surprising, the second level of the building, constructed of wood and added in 1869, isn’t structurally attached to the first level——it was simply built on top.

The building is now under restorative construction and slated to open in late 2009 or 2010. ——S.D. LIDDICK

The Shirts Off Their Backs

POPULAR LOCAL TV sports anchor C.S. Keys is rallying his celebrity friends——mostly professional athletes——around a new Web-based charity venture, Celebritees. Keys and business partners Steve Horowitz and Angela LaChica asked pro athletes——from football players and basketball stars to Ultimate Fighting champions and golfers——to come up with a word or phrase that motivates them, or a value that has inspired their individual path to success. That word is then featured in a T-shirt design that can be purchased on the Web site, mycelebritees.com. Proceeds from each sale go to the celebrity’s charity of choice.

“We want to inspire, motivate and give back,” says Keys, sports director for San Diego 6 News. “We’ve teamed up with celebrities who are also passionate about giving back to the community in a positive way.”

Among top-selling T-shirts: Lofa Tatupu’s RESPECT, Luis Castillo’s RESPONSIBILIDAD, Terrell Owens’ BLESSED and the TEAM ABOVE SELF tee from Todd Clever. C.S. Keys has his own design (FAITH), which is also among the more popular sellers. He plans to expand the line to include musicians and other pop-culture personalities with a mind for philanthropy. ——JULIA BEESON POLLORENO

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