Jose Alfredo Jimenez

A SHORT STROLL FROM downtown Los Angeles, across the First Street Bridge, the junction of Boyle Avenue and First Street forms a little plaza framed by a doughnut shop and a Marlboro man riding atop his billboard horse. On any given night, as day fades behind L.A.'s mirrored skyline, scores of mariachis gather here, carrying guitars, accordions, violins, trumpets, big bass guitarrons. They come to join their bands, look for jobs, exchange gossip and perhaps find a way out of obscurity.

Picture a mariachi: Is he mustachioed, maybe a little grizzled? Does he wear boots and embroidered pants? Is he a he? How about sweet 16 and about to go shopping for dresses? You know, something to wear at the Kennedy Center in Washington? When it comes to mariachis, any stereotypes are old sombrero.

The toughest part of an up-and-coming boxer's first defeat isn't necessarily the loss itself. It's the road back and how he navigates it. Julio Diaz, 22, had the momentum on his side last summer. His sterling and unblemished resume spoke volumes and an impending title shot was on the horizon. And, he said, a $1.3-million contract offer from HBO was staring him squarely in the face. All the lightweight from Coachella had to do was get by an aging and seemingly shot Angel Manfredy.

Aaron Lines "Living Out Loud" (RCA) ** This 24-year-old Canadian has quickly become a hot property in country circles with his first single, "You Can't Hide Beautiful," this year's ultra-romantic ballad a la John Michael Montgomery's "I Swear" and Lonestar's "Your Love Amazes Me." He's got several more in the same vein on his debut album, in stores Tuesday, creating a textbook exercise in what could be labeled PC music-making.

WHEN Lila Downs joins the polyglot Tucson rock band Calexico in a Christmas concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight, the border-busting Mexican singer will add to a list of notable Los Angeles area performances, including appearances at the World Festival of Sacred Music, the Getty Center, an Orange County Performing Arts Center world music showcase and a bill of "Latin Divas" at the Greek Theatre. A classy resume, but come 2006, Downs is thinking about trying something a little earthier.

Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish attended its luxurious opening in 1918. About 150 Hollywood films premiered there in the 1920s. By the 1950s, the postwar rush to the suburbs was taking its toll, and what had been a glamorous downtown movie house began to fade, reemerging as a showcase for Latino music performers. And on Friday, the long ride of the Million Dollar Theater at Broadway and 2nd Street will yet take another turn.

I have nothing against religion, but I got a sinking feeling when I noticed La Iglesia Universal's message on Broadway the other morning: It said: "Jesucristo es el Senor." Normally, I welcome proclamations affirming Jesus Christ as the Lord. But this sign was on the marquee on the Million Dollar Theater, and that's what bothered me. The church set up shop in the movie house last week after the Million Dollar's management decided it was losing too much money showing movies.

Fermin Herrera recently returned to Mexico City's Plaza de Garibaldi to recapture the mariachi sounds he had heard as a boy in Oxnard cantinas. The Chicano Studies professor from Cal State Northridge didn't like what he heard, though. "Very few of them could play the sones abajenos " (the traditional dance accompaniments developed in the rural towns of Jalisco and stairway plateaus of western Mexico).

Like most Latinas her age, 18-year-old Natalie feels equally comfortable listening to 'N Sync and Enrique Iglesias, Eminem and Ricky Martin. And she definitely enjoys the salsa records her parents spin at their North Hollywood home. Mention some popular traditional Mexican artists such as Los Tigres del Norte, Los Temerarios and Conjunto Primavera, however, and Natalie will laugh in your face. "That stuff is sooo not cool," she says. Natalie is not alone. The touted conquest of the U.S.

This much is clear about the Port of Los Angeles' new, $14-million, black granite fountain with Las Vegas-style synchronized lights, water jets and music near the San Pedro waterfront: People either love it or wish it were someplace else. Even before its coming-out party Friday, critics were taking potshots at the massive, sail-shaped welcoming monument built by the same company that created the fountain at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.