Fountains

Who knew the downtown grounds of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power could be so picturesque? In this photo, Times reader "kayone73" captures the complex's fountains at dusk. On the left is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion , home of the Los Angeles Opera. Hidden behind a stream of water in the back right is the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall , one of the world's most acoustically sophisticated concert halls. View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.

Players in the Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoffs can dream about celebrating a championship at Dodger Stadium, but giving legitimacy to the dream only occurs after a team proves it can win with its No. 2 pitcher. That's why what transpired Tuesday afternoon in Placentia could be a defining moment for No. 3-seeded Studio City Harvard-Westlake. Coach Matt LaCour hadn't won a playoff game with his No. 2 pitcher since he took over the program six years ago. He decided it was time to put Conor Cuse in the spotlight.

Oil was poured Wednesday into a dry fountain in front of the Exxon building in Manhattan, and a caller claiming responsibility said it was in retaliation for the company's giant oil spill in Alaska. A caller identifying himself only as an Alaskan told the Associated Press that he and a fellow Alaskan had dumped 50 gallons of oil in the Exxon fountain, which has been under repair. The caller said the pair put the oil in the fountain so Exxon executives "might feel a little closer to the story" of the oil that spilled March 24 from the tanker Exxon Valdez and "to protest that it's taking a long time to clean up."

Two years ago Stephen Sachs began working on a play about the philosophy and practice of flamenco. He figured he had all the material he needed, having spent years in close proximity to flamenco dancers as the co-artistic director of the Fountain Theatre, home of the long-running performance series "Forever Flamenco!" But after further research, he realized that the Spanish art form intertwined deeply with certain existential preoccupations that also inhabited his writer's mind. "The older I get, the more aware I have become of the loss of loved ones, the time in front of me and how I'm spending it. You start to wrestle more with these things," observes the 53-year-old playwright and director.

As Laguna Beach struggles to keep the Festival of the Arts from moving to San Clemente, the city is looking to rid itself of another, less popular piece of public art: the water sculpture in front of City Hall. It's never been among the more popular pieces of artwork in the arty town, this 12-foot inverted cone that splashes water onto a tiny walled-in area. It's never worked right.

Fantasy buildings are so last century in Las Vegas . Now the buzz is about fantasy experiences, the latest of which are tied to an MGM Resorts casino loyalty program called M life Players Club. The payoff isn’t just in coupons for dinner or hotel room deals but also in the kinds of special-access events at MGM properties that merit bragging rights -- a day of directing the songs at the Fountains of Bellagio , a cameo appearance in a Cirque du Soleil production at Aria Resort & Casino , or cooking lessons with celebrity chef Rick Moonen at Mandalay Bay .  To give travelers a taste of the new idea, MGM Resorts is simultaneously launching a sweepstakes that will accompany the Jan. 11 start of M life.

I was intrigued by a quote in your March 1 story, "Plaza del Sol: Eastside Mall Seeks Sunshine." Stella Bustos, described as a former public relations director and manager of Plaza del Sol, reacted to the absence of a drinking fountain in the mall with: "I am somewhat angry at the mentality of these Anglo men who come in and think Mexicans don't get thirsty." Times have changed. When the same thing happened at Dodger Stadium 25 years ago, we understood the fountains were omitted not because baseball fans didn't get thirsty, but because water was free whereas beer and sodas produced profits.

The aging Neptune Fountain at Malaga Cove Plaza in Palos Verdes Estates will get a much-needed face-lift as soon as a restoration of the surrounding plaza has been completed. The City Council has approved spending $101,578 to refurbish the 19th-century white marble fountain at the center of the plaza. The fountain is a replica of the famous bronze Neptune fountain in Bologna, Italy, and was part of an old villa in Venice for more than a century before it was donated to the city in 1930.

Kentuckians gathered Friday evening on the banks of the Ohio River for the dedication and first performance of the 400-foot-high Louisville Falls Fountain, billed as the world's tallest floating fountain. The fountain, on an octagonal barge 39 feet across, is a gift to the city from Mary and Barry Bingham Sr., who donated $2.6 million for its construction and maintenance for three years. Bingham, patriarch of a three-generation media family, died Monday at age 82.

When Palos Verdes Estates became a city nearly 60 years ago after a close incorporation election, the victors were said to have danced around the landmark Neptune Fountain at Malaga Cove Plaza. Now, residents in the seaside community have another reason to do a celebration dance: They have finally raised enough money to restore the aging fountain and give the surrounding outdoor plaza a face-lift.

Cormac is a law-school-bound young man living in a cramped apartment in New York's West Village with his financially strapped mother. Iris is a blogger, working from home in Queens, who hires "Mac" to spiff up her website. The love story that develops between them in Ken LaZebnik's drama "On the Spectrum," now at the Fountain Theatre, would be traditional to a fault were it not for a salient difference: Mac and Iris are characters with autism. Mac has Asperger's syndrome and lives a fairly mainstream life with help from his mother, who is there to nudge him when he gets stuck in one of his obsessive loops.

Spacecraft software developer Rik Knablein was sitting in front of his computer at Northrop Grumman in 2009 when he saw the handwriting on the wall. He would leave his computer keyboard behind and begin designing and manufacturing fountain pens, he decided. "I wanted to do something more artful," said the Hermosa Beach resident who helped develop the software that controls the Hubble Space Telescope, ground-level radar, and tracking and data relay satellites that NASA used to replace ground tracking stations.

Rome's 18th century Trevi Fountain, famed as a setting for the film "La Dolce Vita," is getting a $2.9-million restoration courtesy of the Fendi fashion house. The 20-month project on one of the city's most iconic fountains was unveiled at a city hall news conference Monday featuring Fendi designers Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi, who said the project combined a love of Rome's past with a need to preserve its future. It's the latest example of Italian fashion companies coming to the aid of Italy's chronically underfunded cultural heritage.

The biggest trends at the SAG Awards on Sunday night were black, white and dark blue hues, sheer accents, corseted bodices and side-swept  Veronica Lake  hair according to T imes fashion critic Booth Moore, who live-blogged the red carpet. [Los Angeles Times] SAG Awards 2013: Best and worst dressed Italian luxury brand Fendi will be funding the restoration of the famed Trevi Fountain in Rome, the fashion house announced Monday. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

A Fountain Valley councilman is leading the charge to block a delegation of business and government officials from Vietnam, saying it will unleash a storm of protesters in the increasingly immigrant city. Mayor Pro Tem Michael Vo said an official visit from a country "without human rights and respect for freedom will not be accepted by the Vietnamese community, many who live here. " Vo said it would be fiscally irresponsible to pay for police services for a likely protest, which he predicted could draw hundreds.

When Caron Ory's father was diagnosed with diabetes and struggled to stop eating sugar, the trained dietitian told him not to worry. "I'll create something for you," she promised. Through two years of research, trial-and-error recipes and taste tests, Ory came up with Eco-BeeCo, a natural sugar alternative with a tad of freeze-dried honey that passed her requirements nutritionally and her father's gustatory muster. But when Ory wanted to share her product outside of family and friends, she ran into a hurdle.

ITALY * A man banned from fishing coins out of Rome's Trevi Fountain was arrested after police said he collected a 50-pound bag of money from its waters. Roberto Cercelletta, 50, was taken into custody for investigation of theft and resisting arrest, police said. Tourists toss money into the fountain in keeping with a legend that says those who toss coins into its waters will return to Rome someday.

At New Tomorrowland, the future smells of chlorine. Oh, not everywhere. The landscaping at the updated Disneyland section is edible, after all. So keen noses may well detect a whiff of basil near Astro Orbiter, the old "rocket ships" ride now adorned with earth-toned, Leonardo da Vinci-style whirligigs. But continue past the all-new, misfiring, closed-for-repairs Rocket Rods ride and the odor of pool chemicals fills the air. The source: Tomorrowland's central fountain, Cosmic Waves.

The Lantern House, used as a single-family compound but legally a trio of cottages, has become a Venice landmark over the years. The funky vibed, colorful dwelling is being offered fully furnished, including the larger-than-life movie props, artwork and fountains. Location: 745 Milwood Ave., Venice 90291 Asking price: $5.4 million Year built: 1923 Last sold: 1988, for $232,000 Cottage sizes: Unit 1: one bedroom, one bathroom; Unit 2: one bedroom, one bathroom; Unit 3: one bedroom, one half-bath Lot size: 5,399 square feet Features: Den/office, dining room, living room, eat-in kitchen, vaulted ceilings, skylights, French doors, five fireplaces, lantern-filled trees, extensive decking, outdoor dining room, lighted deck stair risers, decorative wrought-iron gates, outdoor bathtub About the area: In the third quarter, 59 single-family homes sold in the 90291 ZIP Code at a median price of $1 million, according to DataQuick.

A word of advice: Don't strike up a conversation with Mandy Patinkin if you've got anywhere you need to be. Unlike Saul Berenson, the tight-lipped CIA Middle East division chief he plays on the Showtime drama "Homeland," Patinkin is a talkative sort, prone to lengthy but wonderfully entertaining digressions about, say, his bathroom reading habits or the career advice he once got from Gene Kelly. Take, for instance, his response to a question about whether his wife of 32 years, actress Kathryn Grody, minds the thick beard he wears to play Saul Berenson.