J Paul Getty Center

Struggling to cope with the overwhelming popularity of the $1-billion Getty Center in Brentwood--and bracing for an even larger demand during the spring holiday period--the J. Paul Getty Trust has issued a warning that visitors who arrive at the center without parking reservations may encounter long lines and possibly not be admitted. Before the center's Dec.

The Getty Museum, the $1-billion showcase of architectural magnificence, is long on art treasures but short on key creature comforts: restrooms and drinking fountains. "This is one of those unfortunate things that can happen in large construction projects. You realize you made a mistake well into the project, but by then it is too late," said Barbara Whitney, the Getty's associate director for administration and public affairs.

The giant puppets were the big hit--14-foot monsters wrapped in greens and golds that alternately thrilled and frightened the children crowding around them in the courtyard of the Getty Center on Saturday. The puppets, together with storytellers, musicians and hands-on crafts, were the extra attractions at the Getty's first Family Festival, which continues today.

Who says art and commerce don't mix? The overwhelming demand to peruse six centuries of paintings, etchings and decorative arts at the new Getty Center in Brentwood has spawned a cottage industry engaged in shuttling visitors unable to park at the hilltop complex.

The technology-savvy Getty Center has created several Web sites to cultivate appreciation for art and culture. If you haven't made it to the new Brentwood campus--or if you have and are hungry for more--check out some of these highlights: * http://www.getty.edu/digital/surfsup/index.

A culture clash of sorts is underway at the new Getty Center in Brentwood. While the heart of the museum's ancient Greek and Roman collections consists of sculptures, urns and other antiquities, the Getty is embracing 21st century computer-networking technology to help cultivate appreciation for that art and culture.

Alexis Smith is a culture scavenger. For 25 years, she has drawn quotes from authors as disparate as Jane Austen and Jack Kerouac and combined them with found objects such as posters, matchbooks, ticket stubs, toys, puzzles, car parts, costume jewelry or whatever else might catch her magpie eye. Quirky, amusing and wry, she has been labeled a principal second-generation inheritor of the L.A. Pop tradition.

Breathing easier now that opening festivities are behind them, Getty Center staffers are mapping out the rest of the year. One of the new ventures is a weekly performing arts series called Friday Nights at the Getty in which an eclectic mix of dance, music and theater will be presented. Performances will be free, but reservations will be required. The focus will be on local artists. The target audience: 18- to 30-year-olds who don't see themselves as museum-goers.

Seeking to appease neighbors around the newly opened Getty Center, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer has proposed continuing parking restrictions in the neighborhood around the mountaintop museum until the end of the year. The council agreed last month to temporary parking restrictions around the popular museum complex after neighbors complained that parking in the residential area had become so bad that some could not pull out of their driveways.

This will be the year Southern Californians can view a new version of the future from Disney, walk among sharks at a world-class aquarium, ride a high-wire bicycle without fear of falling and dance again to big-band music at classy nightclubs, including one that was a hangout for spies during World War II.