The Brief

The Getty Villa museum will look a little different when it reopens next week.

While the ancient relics and art pieces were protected from the Palisades Fire behind sealed fire doors and flame resistant walls, much of the outer grounds were damaged or destroyed. It forced the museum to close for five months, allowing staff to deep clean ash from the walls, purify the pools and replant its gardens.

But next week on June 27, visitors will get to see their remediation work and visit the Getty Villa for the first time since the January fire. Here's what you'll find:

What’s the drive up like? 

Roughly 1,400 trees were destroyed or damaged by the fire, meaning about 40% of the trees had to be cleared. Without them, you now have a clear view of the ocean.

Brian Houck, the museum's director of grounds and gardens, says regular visitors will also notice a difference on the drive up from Pacific Coast Highway.

“Most of the trees are gone. It used to look like this forest canyon, and now it’s just like bare hillsides," Houck said. "So they’ll get their first impression before they park.”

The Getty Villa lost about 40% of its trees to the Palisades Fire.

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Julia Paskin

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LAist

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Staff at the museum spent months cleaning ash and shoot off the property.

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Brian van der Brug

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Getty Images via Los Angeles Times

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What you’ll see when you arrive

Once guests reach the museum they may notice more exposed earth without its usual shrubbery.

”Normally, you wouldn’t even see the hillside," said Houck. “We would have green on it because we would want a green backdrop.”

The fire also burned some of the rosemary that used to hug the concrete buildings.

Discerning eyes may also notice parts of outer grounds and herb gardens are less manicured and a little crispy. The irrigation system melted in the fire, so watering will be a little less efficient through the summer months, according to Houck.

The good news is the groundskeeping team is expecting the greenery to return as they continue to refresh the landscape.

Les Borsay is the emergency planning specialist for the Getty Villa and helped protect the property from the Palisades Fire.

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Brian van der Brug

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Preserving for centuries to come 

Emergency preparedness specialist, Les Borasy, was on small team that guarded the museum when the fire was active. He said there were some close calls, including an aerial water drop that likely saved the original Getty Ranch House.

The Getty Villa staff work to remove ash from the outer halls and walls of the Getty Villa ahead of its reopening.

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Julia Paskin

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”When I was able to walk through [there] the next morning to take pictures to show that everything was fine, it hit me a little bit," said Borsay. “We’re responsible for this so that in 2,000 years somebody is going to be able to come and see these.”

Borsay said it can be a little overwhelming to think about protecting the campus and ancient art.

He gestured to a bust of Julius Caesar and said, "This sculptor probably saw him, Caesar. You can’t recreate that.”

When you can visit 

The Getty Villa reopens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday, starting June 27. Online reservations are required. Only 500 guests will be allowed daily.

Tickets are still free, and parking is $25.

In the first week of Black History Month, President Donald Trump posted a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on social media — a video clip showing the Obamas' faces on apes. The post was later deleted, and the White House blamed a staffer for "erroneously" posting it. On Friday evening, Trump refused to apologize for the post: "I didn't make a mistake," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The post was one of dozens Trump shared in the middle of the night on his platform Truth Social and came at the end of a minute-long video promoting conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the clip before it was deleted, saying, "Please stop the fake outrage."

Leavitt said it was from an "internet meme" that depicted Trump as king of the jungle while Democrats were shown as characters from The Lion King. Trump's clip did not include any of the longer video Leavitt referred to, which also includes other Democrats, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, depicted as animals.

The racist trope depicting Black people as apes or animals has historically been used to dehumanize Black people and to justify slavery.

Criticism of Trump and his post came swiftly, including from some otherwise allied with Trump.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican, said he was "praying it was fake."

"It's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The president should remove it," said Scott, who is Black.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday evening that he had spoken to Scott, adding, "He's a great guy. He understood that 100 percent."

Asked if the post had hurt Republican support amongst Black voters Trump said no.

"We did criminal justice reform. I did the historically Black colleges and universities — I get them funded. Nobody has been — and that's why I got a tremendous, the highest vote with male Black voters that they've seen in many, many decades.

Trump went on to insist that he was the "least racist president you've had in a long time."

Trump has a history of making racist remarks toward Black people and other people of color.

For years, he pushed the false narrative that Obama was not born in the U.S., and he has previously used derogatory language to describe African countries.

He also falsely claimed former Vice President Kamala Harris "turned Black" during the presidential campaign. Harris identifies as Black and Indian American.

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The noon deadline to file papers to run for L.A. mayor is just hours away, and the field of challengers to Mayor Karen Bass is becoming clear.

L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman has entered the mayoral race. Stella Stahl, her communications director, told LAist.

The news comes as the field of high-profile candidates has thinned in recent days and weeks. Last night, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced she will not run for mayor, ending months of speculation.

Horvath said she was skipping the race to focus on her reelection bid.

" I am choosing not to run for mayor and instead to focus on my reelection for Los Angeles County supervisor, not because I'm stepping away from a challenge. I'm stepping even more into the one we've already started," Horvath said.

Days ago, former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner dropped out after the death of his daughter.

Developer Rick Caruso said last month he would not make another bid after running in 2022.

Other challengers to Bass include reality TV star Spencer Pratt and community organizer Rae Huang.

Voters will head to the polls June 2 for the primary.

Singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam has lived in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. But coming up during the 1980s in the clubs of L.A. and the San Fernando Valley, you might say his style is more California Country than anything.

Yoakam recently sold out The Roxy for a concert benefitting Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. The 69-year-old musician and actor had a lot of backup from a younger generation of country acts.

He was joined on stage by Grammy-nominated people like Lukas Nelson — as in Willie’s son — guitar prodigy Marcus King and others.

Dwight Yoakam and Lukas Nelson (center) take the stage at The Roxy.

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Brian Bowen Smith

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“It’s flattering on a personal level that five artists of that generation would come and collaborate with me to do this. But more importantly it was gratifying to hear their response to the charitable cause of Children’s Hospital,” Yoakam said.

Yoakam and wife, Emily Joyce, had a very personal inspiration for organizing the benefit concert. In 2020, during the peak of COVID, their own infant son was seen at Children’s Hospital. They were relieved it was nothing, but an experience Emily relayed to Yoakam changed him.

“She heard the little boy behind in another recovery bed come to. Five or six. And his eyes opened — I guess his father was there with him at his bedside. And he said ‘Was I brave daddy?’ And I said: ‘Wow, it puts everything in life in quick perspective.’"

Yoakam said the experience stuck with Joyce so much that she was determined to put a benefit show together. And it was heartening having so many of his friends back him up for the "Rockin’ for the Kids" concert, Yoakam said. The night even had a surprise on-stage FaceTime call from actor Billy Bob Thornton. The actor and director — who cast Yoakam in his 1996 film Sling Blade — was originally scheduled to help emcee the event, but was stuck at an iced out movie shoot in New Jersey.

Los Angeles calling

Yoakam came out to the warm California sun in the late 70s, and it wasn’t long before he was gigging hard at long gone honky-tonks like The Palomino and The Corral in the San Fernando Valley.

“[I] spent a year of my life on the off nights [at The Corral] — let me tell you — that’s the real world,” Yoakam recalled. “The time I was out there doing, you know, five sets a night. You’d start at nine and end at two in the morning... And you know I really made my bones there.”

It wasn’t long before Yoakam’s California Country music was mixing and merging with a new scene in L.A. One that blended the punk rock ethos with the twang of country.

“The crossroads of time and place happened again in the early 80s with the quote ‘Cowpunk’ movement. A lot of them were punk rock bands. Like The Dills became Rank and File. The Plugz — with a Z — became Los Cruzados,” Yoakam said.

He would go on to share the bill with bands like X and The Blasters. And Yoakam was embraced by crowds of punk rockers too.

“I said, ‘You know what? We don’t have to play The Roundup out in the Valley, we don’t have to play just The Palomino. I said ‘We can go over the hill,’” he said.

Yoakam remembered it was Bill Bentley, a former music editor for the LA Weekly, who saw him performing at The Palomino and then invited him to play Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd.

“That introduced me to a different audience. And then we started playing... the rock n’ roll side of the hill,” Yoakam said.

By 1986, Yoakam was playing at The Roxy for the record release party for “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.” The live performance was recorded and included on later releases of the album.

“We did the record release party, 40 years ago in March, at The Roxy. It was kind of a full-circle moment. Interesting book-end, if you will, from 1986 to now,” Yoakam said.

Yoakam will play Ontario’s ONT Field on March 21, right before heading out on tour with ZZ Top.

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.