Here is a list of dance performances in L.A. for Nov. 17-24:

Dance/Back 2019 Works by BrockusRED and rising local choreographers are featured in this annual benefit. Madrid Theatre, 21622 Sherman Way, Canoga Park. Sun., 6 p.m. By donation. (818) 347-9419. brockusproject.org

L.A. Dances Two-month festival, with three distinct programs, features classic and contemporary works by Kyle Abraham, Bella Lewitzky, Benjamin Millepied and others. L.A. Dance Project, 2245 E. Washington Blvd., L.A. Sun., Thu.-next Sun., 8 p.m.; ends Nov. 24. $45. (213) 422-8762. ladanceproject.org

Nutcracker Tea Dancers from Los Angeles Ballet perform highlights from the holiday favorite as part of this annual fundraiser. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, 9850 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Sun., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. $75, $150. (310) 998-7782. losangelesballet.org

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So You Think You Can Dance Live! 2019 Finalists from the TV dance competition perform. Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. Wed., 7:30 p.m. $41 and up. dancelivetour.com (Also in Thousand Oaks, Dec. 1)

Hildegard Herself Heidi Duckler Dance presents the second half of a site-specific work inspired by 12th-century abbess, composer and mystic Hildegard von Bingen. St. John’s Cathedral, 514 W. Adams Blvd., L.A. Fri.-Sat., 7 p.m. $35, $50. heididuckler.org

Masterpieces Kazakhstan’s Astana Ballet performs a mix of classical, modern and contemporary dance as part of its West Coast tour. The Saban Theater, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Fri., 8 p.m. $85-$155. eventticketboss.com

The Spectacular Society Entity Contemporary Dance performs choreographer Marissa Osato’s work inspired by the U.S. government’s internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Navel LA, 1611 S. Hope St., L.A. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. $20-$30. (213) 340-4213. entitycontemporarydance.com

Things to do

Pasión Española Roberto Amaral and dancers of the Amaral Studio, with guest artist Misuda Cohen, are featured in a program of flamenco plus classical and contemporary Spanish dance. Lanterman Auditorium, 4491 Cornishon Ave., La Cañada Flintridge. Sat., 8 p.m. $25, $35. (800) 838-3006. brownpapertickets.com

Through the Pages Redondo Ballet celebrates classic fairy tales. Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach. Fri., 7 p.m. Free; advance tickets recommended. (310) 292-4572. redondoballet.com

Sonikete Blues: Woodshedding Forever Flamenco presents featured dancer Cihtli “La Gallardi” Ocampo, the Ethan Sultry Group and others in this mashup of flamenco, jazz and delta blues. The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., L.A. Next Sun., 8 p.m. $30-$50. (323) 663-1525. fountaintheatre.com

First, on Oct. 29, Los Angeles International Airport banned taxis, Uber and Lyft from curbside pickup and ordered them (and their traveling customers) to use LAX-it, a new pickup lot east of Terminal 1 at World Way and Sky Way. Next came long lines and delays during peak travel times, howls from frustrated travelers and an apology from airport leadership.

Now, as the holidays approach and with them, crowds, comes “Son of LAX-it.”

On Nov. 6, LAX responded to complaints by adding three lanes to the pickup lot, expanding its size by about 50% in hopes of getting more travelers on the road faster.

These changes in the way cabs and rideshares are handled are vital, LAX officials say, because of the congestion that ride-hailing services brought to the traffic horseshoe serving the terminals, compounded by lane closures that are part of construction projects that will continue for years.

The construction will continue until the airport’s automated people mover opens in 2023. Which means that for the next few years, LAX-it will be a reality for anyone leaving LAX in a taxi or standard ride-hailing vehicle.

Here’s how to manage it:

• If you’re flying out of LAX, nothing changes in terms of getting to the airport. Drop-offs remain at the same places on the upper level.

• If you’re picking up friends or family on the lower level of LAX, you can drive around the horseshoe to the terminals, but you’ll need to head for the outer median rather than the curb nearest the terminal doors. (LAX officials call this the “curb-flip.”)

• FlyAway buses (which serve Hollywood, Long Beach, Van Nuys and Union Station in downtown Los Angeles) continue to pick up passengers leaving LAX on the lower/arrivals level. Shared-ride vans such as SuperShuttle also continue to pick up passengers leaving LAX on the lower/arrivals level, under orange signs.

• As a just-arrived air passenger planning on using Lyft or Uber, whether you’re walking or taking a shuttle to the LAX-it area, LAX officials say, you can call your ride-hailing company while you’re still at the terminal. If you prefer, you can wait until you’re on the bus or arriving at the LAX-it lot.

• If you’re flying into Terminals 1, 2, 7 or 8 with only carry-on bags and you’re comfortable walking a few hundred yards, don’t bother with those green LAX-it shuttle buses. Instead, follow the abundant sidewalk signage to the LAX-it lot, which has restrooms, phone-charging stations, a limited amount of shade and usually a food truck and coffee truck. It will probably take you less than 10 minutes.

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• If you’re flying into Terminals 3, 4, 5 or the Bradley International Terminal, your walk will be closer to 20 minutes (and you may have more luggage), so the shuttle bus may be a better option. If you use a walker or wheelchair, the LAX-it buses will accommodate you.

• If you still want curbside pickup, you can get it (at the outer island median, arrivals level) by paying more. Many limousine and transport services, including Blacklane, 24-7 Ride, Uber Black, Uber Black SUV and Lyft Lux, hold Transportation Charter Party permits allowing pickups.

• The LAX-it bus fleet was designed to pick up travelers curbside on the lower level of the terminal loop, with buses appearing every three to five minutes and making no more than two stops, delivering travelers to LAX-it within 15 minutes. When the system struggled at first, LAX officials increased the size of the fleet.

• At the LAX-it area, you’ll see seven lanes for cars making pickups, with a long sidewalk for travelers on foot in the middle. You’ll find Lanes 1-4 on the left, 5-7 on the right. Lanes 2-4, color-coded green, are reserved for Uber. Lane 1, color-coded yellow, has taxis, ride-hail company Opoli and pool services such as UberPool. Lanes 5-7, to the right and color-coded pink, are reserved for Lyft. For help, look for one of LAX’s lane managers in green vests. Lyft representatives wear pink vests; the Uber representatives, black.

• When travelers use their ride-hailing apps to summon a driver during busy hours, instead of identifying drivers by their names and license plate numbers, Uber and Lyft will send PINs to LAX-it travelers. The travelers then line up to be matched with drivers, much as taxi customers are lined up to be matched with cabs. This is where the delays set in during the system’s first week, but LAX officials hope that with additional lanes and more familiarity among Uber and Lyft drivers, pickups will happen faster.

• Under current plans, a coffee truck will be present 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a second shift will run from 3 to 11 p.m. A food truck is scheduled from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., then 4 p.m. to midnight.

Dear Liz: I just got a message about thousands of dollars I have in a 401(k) account from a job I had over 10 years ago. They are asking me what I want to do with the money, roll it over into an IRA or cash it out. What should I do?

Answer: Don’t cash it out.

Unexpected money can feel like a windfall, and it’s natural to dream about potential splurges you could afford. But this cash didn’t fall out of the sky. This is money you earned and that could grow substantially if you make the right moves now. If you cashed it out, you’d lose a substantial chunk to taxes and penalties, plus you’d lose all the future tax-deferred growth that money could earn.

Your best option probably would be to transfer the money directly into your current employer’s retirement plan, if you have one and it allows such transfers. Employer plans may offer lower-cost access to investments than you’d get with an IRA, plus consolidating the old plan into the new means one less account to monitor. Also, employer plans may offer more protection from creditors, depending on where you live.

Rolling the money directly into an IRA is another good option. You’ll need to open an account, preferably at a discount brokerage that keeps costs low. An IRA would give you access to more investment options, but beginning investors might just want to opt for a target date retirement fund or a robo-advisory service that invests using computer algorithms. With either option, the mix of investments and the risk over time would be professionally managed.

Whichever you choose, make sure the old plan sends the money directly to your chosen option, rather than sending you a check. If a check is sent to you, 20% of the money would be withheld for taxes and you’d have to come up with that amount out of your own pocket within 60 days or that portion would be considered a withdrawal that’s taxed and penalized.

How Medicare, COBRA interact

Dear Liz: You recently wrote about how Medicare coverage interacts with employer coverage. My husband will retire next year at age 65. His company has over 20 employees, so it’s considered a large company plan that won’t require him to sign up for Medicare. Is it better for him to elect family COBRA coverage for 36 months and defer Medicare coverage, since his company healthcare plan will be superior to Medicare? Can he elect Medicare coverage once COBRA terminates? Coverage matters more than costs.

Answer: He shouldn’t put off signing up for Medicare, because COBRA won’t insulate him from penalties.

The previous column mentioned that Medicare Part A, which covers hospital visits, is usually premium-free, but people generally pay premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor’s visits, and Medicare Part D, which covers prescription drugs.

Failing to sign up when you’re first eligible for Part B and Part D typically means incurring permanent penalties that can be substantial. You can avoid the penalties if you’re covered by a large employer health insurance plan — but that plan must be as a result of current employment, either yours or your spouse’s. Once your husband retires, his employment is no longer current, so he should sign up for Medicare to avoid penalties.

If you or any other dependents need coverage, he may end up paying for additional insurance through COBRA on top of what he pays for Medicare. He can have both COBRA and Medicare for himself if his Medicare benefits become effective on or before the day he elects COBRA coverage. If he starts Medicare after he signs up for COBRA, his COBRA benefits would cease but coverage for you and any dependent children could be extended for up to 36 months. Another option to consider would be to cover you and any dependents using a plan from an Affordable Care Act marketplace. You may want to discuss your options with an insurance agent before deciding.

In fact, getting expert opinions is a must, because Medicare rules and health insurance in general can be so complex. Anyone nearing 65 also would be smart to discuss their individual situations with their company’s human resources department and then confirm the information with Medicare before deciding when and how to sign up.

Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com.

With companies such as Uber Technologies Inc., Slack Technologies Inc. and Pinterest Inc. going public this year, the question has been: How many millionaires will Silicon Valley mint? What’s not being asked is how much of that new wealth will go to women.

The answer, according to a new study released last week, is: not much. Carta, an equity management platform, crunched data from more than 300,000 employees at 10,000-plus companies, and found 4 in 5 paper millionaires are men.

The jobs that land the biggest equity packages tend to be held by men in C-suite roles, said Emily Kramer, Carta’s vice president of marketing. “As wealth goes up, the percentage of millionaires who are women go down because they are not CEOs, CFOs or founders,” she said.

Chief marketing officers, the most common executive role held by women, have the lowest median equity award, 39% less than that of chief financial officers, who tend to get the most generous packages after chief executives.

Among the world’s 500 richest people, there are just two female technology billionaires, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. MacKenzie Bezos, a major shareholder of Amazon.com Inc., is worth $36 billion, and Zhou Qunfei, founder of Lens Technology, is worth $5.9 billion. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, who is not in the top 500, has a net worth of $2.1 billion.

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Carta last year for the first time identified an “equity gap,” finding women in Silicon Valley held 47 cents of equity for every dollar of equity men held. Carta this year found a slight improvement: Women hold 49 cents for every dollar in stock options men do, a 2 percentage point increase from last year. Women make up more than a third of all employees but hold only 20% of equity wealth, the study finds.

Although most equity ends up being worth nothing, when a start-up goes public or gets acquired, stock grants can result in a big payday, creating the next class of angel investors and entrepreneurs. And even with underwhelming valuations from tech companies this year, underrepresented employees are getting the “short end of the stick” and become “collateral damage,” said Henry Ward, chief executive of Carta.

The gender equity gap exists for a variety of interconnected reasons. Early employees often get better stock options than those who join later, and younger companies tend to have smaller proportions of women. There’s also a lack of representation on founding teams. Women make up only 13% of all founders in the data pulled by Carta, and female-founded teams got only 2.2% of venture funding last year.

Women also say they don’t know what to ask for during already opaque salary negotiations. One woman who worked for a unicorn start-up, who asked not to be identified to avoid alienating her former employer, said she didn’t know to ask for refresh grants after getting promoted several times. When the company went public, she ended up getting $20,000 (before taxes); she calculates she could’ve been a millionaire.

As WeWork prepared to go public, Trista Kempa, who says she was the 17th employee, said she wasn’t offered options at all. “I was 23, naive, and didn’t know what equity or options were — I certainly didn’t know how much it could impact my financial future,” she tweeted.

WeWork did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company wound up withdrawing its IPO.

Carta offers educational materials that teach women how to negotiate their liquidity preferences and ask for a fair equity offer upfront.

“It’s not a matter of getting in the door,” said Carta’s Kramer, who is also head of Table Stakes, an initiative highlighting the gender gap in equity at venture-backed companies. “It’s about advising employees on how to avoid a WeWork situation.”

The Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona is preparing for contract talks with Liberty Media, and the venue is hoping to remain the home of the Spanish Grand Prix beyond 2019.

At a time when the future of several historical European races – Silverstone, Hockenheim and Monza – remains uncertain, Barcelona’s management joins the chorus of tracks seeking better financial conditions with Formula One.

However, the venue’s negotiating power could be limited given that Liberty Media has “alternatives” to Barcelona.

“We have to know how to play the cards we have,” said Circuit de Catalunya boss Vicenc Aguilera.

“When we face a contract renewal, we must look at our ability to generate revenue, what we pay for the contract, the conditions under which we manage the grand prix — there are many variables and we will see how it progresses.”

Silverstone boss won’t pay ‘any price’ to retain British GP

Like other circuits, Barcelona relies on subsidies to make ends meet with F1’s demands. But according to Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo, the local government’s financial aid is set to be cut from 2.5M euros to 1.5M euros.

“The health of the circuit is clearly good in its structure,” said Aguilera, “but financially it is mediocre.

“We are not able to generate resources and cope with losses due to the current harsh conditions. We need extra contributions.

“We have had an agreement that has lasted three years and now we have to consider what to do for 2020. In 2019 there are elections right after the grand prix and we will see what happens.”

Formula 1 will visit Barcelona twice next year, for the Grand Prix scheduled at mid-May, and two and a half months earlier for pre-season testing which will take place February 18-21 and February 26-March 1.

Despite the adverse weather that wreaked havoc on this year’s pre-season testing at Barcelona, fellow track boss Joan Fontsere convinced F1 teams to return to Catalunya this winter.

“It was the hardest negotiation that I have faced to date,” he said.

“This year’s snowfall did not help because the teams want to test in optimal conditions, but the commitment to improvement and those who appreciate the circuit in technical terms meant they decided to stay.”

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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The Trump administration’s trade war is ravaging exports to China across the U.S. and well beyond the farm belt, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show.

More than 30 states, stretching from Florida to Alaska, suffered double-digit drops in merchandise exports to China through September. Sales to the Asian nation fell 39% in Texas, the No.1 China-exporting state with a heavy concentration on oil and gas products.

In Alabama, which touts its status as the No. 3 auto-exporting state in the U.S., total shipments to China plunged 49% in the first nine months of the year. Florida’s merchandise sales to the country slumped 40% in the period, while West Virginia and Wisconsin each saw drops of about 25%. Product exports to China from the U.S. as a whole dropped 15% to $78.8 billion.

California, the second-largest state exporter to China, has fared better than many other states, but still saw its outbound shipments drop 8%.

“Chinese demand for imports overall has been weak,” said Brad Setser, senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. The recovery time for various U.S. products will depend on the nature of the trade deal, he said.

“In some cases, U.S. exports will never recover,” he added.

Washington state, home of Boeing’s industrial base, saw total Chinese merchandise exports fall 45% through the third quarter amid the grounding of the 737 Max, the company’s best-selling jet.

China has struck back in the trade war by imposing duties on about $135 billion of U.S. goods, targeting farming products such as soybeans and pork, motorcycles, cosmetics and wigs. With talks underway for a phase-one deal, Beijing has re-upped its demands for the removal of tariffs that the U.S. has put on $360 billion of Chinese imports.

Exports to China support more than a million U.S. jobs, according to the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents American companies doing business in China.

Amid the Chinese export carnage are a few bright spots. Buyers are still snapping up semiconductors made in Oregon, primarily by Intel Corp., which operates one of its biggest manufacturing plants in the state. Oregon’s total exports to China surged 65% in the nine months, according to the data. Only about a third of the state’s products are affected by the proposed tariffs, according to Business Oregon spokesman Nathan Buehler, who said semiconductors for the most part are exempt.

Similarly, South Carolina’s sales to China jumped 30% through September, partly on airplane exports. Some Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner planes are made in the state, and about 17% of those aircraft to date have been sold to China. The Chinese were set to buy 100 more Boeing wide-body jets, including the 787 and 777X, but the deal has stalled on trade uncertainties.

Indeed, neither South Carolina nor Oregon officials are complacent about the future of their Chinese exports.

“It’s the uncertainty that provides so much concern,” Buehler said, noting that potential new tariffs are an obstacle for existing exporters and a barrier for companies weighing the costs of entry. “There’s lots of angst.”

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When Los Angeles’ Red Line subway was completed in 2000, it’s northernmost station appeared desolate above ground.

People arriving in North Hollywood on the underground train rode up a grand escalator past tile murals to find themselves on an expanse of asphalt parking lots, where commuters could rush through free of temptation to linger over so much as a cup of coffee. It looked like what it was — the end of the line.

Thousands of apartments and some plush office buildings have been added nearby in intervening years, but the prime real estate around the portal is still mostly bare, waiting on a long-imagined development where people might live, work, shop for groceries and have drinks or dinner.

That vision is finally taking shape, with developers and transit officials set to apply Monday for city permission to build a $1-billion mixed-use complex that would surround the subway entrance and adjacent hub for connecting bus routes, including the well-traveled Orange Line to Warner Center and Chatsworth.

The latest proposal by developer Trammell Crow Co. and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls for a village called District NoHo that would include apartments, offices, stores, bars and restaurants. It would be the largest development at an MTA station in an era that has seen a flurry of construction around train stops as new rail lines branch out around the county.

“We probably won’t have an opportunity like this again,” said Wells Lawson, a senior director in the MTA’s joint development group.

Development sites around the NoHo train station were assembled by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which was disbanded in 2012. Other new stations such as those being built along Wilshire Boulevard are in densely developed neighborhoods, making it harder to find adjacent sites for new construction.

But in North Hollywood, Trammell Crow and its housing group High Street Residential have nearly 16 acres to create a community with 1,500 apartments, a 10-story office tower and various dining and entertainment options. There would be about three acres of open space that could be used for leisure or public gatherings, including live entertainment events.

“Our goal is to create a project of regional significance that would bring to the Valley a live-work-play dense urban environment,” said Brad Cox of High Street Residential. “The east Valley doesn’t really have a true urban node.”

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The apartments are to be divided among six different buildings, with two of them containing a combined 300 units designated affordable, or 20% of the total. Renters who earn no more than 60% of the area’s median income at the time would qualify for a lottery to become residents.

The other 1,200 units are to rent at market rates, and Cox anticipates that many of the occupants will work in the entertainment industry. Nearby via train are Universal City, Burbank and Hollywood.

North Hollywood, meanwhile, has long been known as a home to people in performing arts, and the arrival of the subway two decades ago only bolstered its reputation, said Abbey Ehman of Trammell Crow.

“It’s considered the dance capital of the world,” Ehman said, and the NoHo Arts District near the station has about 20 live theaters including the El Portal, which opened as a vaudeville house in 1926.

A few paces from the transit terminal on Lankershim Boulevard is the home of the Television Academy, where a gold 27-foot Emmy Award statue commands its courtyard.

“There are a lot of working artists in the community,” Lawson said. “Ensuring they have a place to live and work in the community is really important.”

Retaining artists in gentrifying neighborhoods historically has been tricky; it’s a common pattern that artists help make an inexpensive neighborhood such as New York’s SoHo hip but end up being displaced by wealthier newcomers attracted to the vibe.

Many artistic people moved to North Hollywood in recent years because it was a bit more attainable than other desirable neighborhoods, the developers said.

Average monthly apartment rent in North Hollywood was $2,371 in September, according to Zillow, up about $25 from the same month a year ago.

In addition to outdoor performance space that may be used for theater and dance, District NoHo would have public art integrated into the buildings in murals, sculptures and their actual forms, Lawson said. “We’re looking at the buildings themselves to be artful. It should be something that stimulates you.”

In an effort to make the complex more visually interesting and less homogeneous, the developers hired three different architecture firms that specialize in urban infill projects: Gensler, HKS and KFA. A network of pedestrian and bicycle paths would link residents and office tenants with restaurants, bars, stores and transit.

Included in the mix of tenants would be a grocery store, Ehman said, in keeping with MTA’s desire to have businesses in the complex’s 100,000 square feet of retail space dedicated to serving neighborhood residents.

“District NoHo retailers will be a mix of local neighborhood businesses and national brands,” Ehman said.

The 400,000-square-foot office tower on the southwest corner of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards would hold about 1,000 workers each day, and the apartments would be home to about 3,000 people, Cox estimated.

District NoHo is to be developed in a public-private partnership that requires Trammell Crow to pay for public improvements including upgrades to the station and the consolidation of bus arrivals on the west side of the station, intended to make transitions between transit lines more efficient.

The company expects to spend about $100 million on transit improvements and rent to the MTA on a ground lease giving Trammell Crow control of the land for its for-profit developments.

The developers would extend existing streets into the complex and create parking for more than 4,000 cars, including at least 900 spaces for drivers getting on Metro lines. About 28,500 weekday travelers come into or leave North Hollywood on Metro now, but the total is expected to increase as people move into District NoHo.

Trammell Crow would be required to finish the public improvements and one building of affordable housing before constructing the offices, shops and market-rate apartments.

If approved by the city, the first phase of construction would begin in late 2021 and proceed in phases tied to market demand for the new housing. Completion would take six to eight years, Lawson said.

The MTA met with local residents before preparing guidelines to develop the site, he said, and found them generally willing to back a large-scale project.

“The community has been exceptionally supportive of higher densities at this location,” he said, “which helps make it an interesting project.”

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We see you, @ThierryLasry! So much fun collaborating, #BarbiexThierryLasry is here! ? #barbie #barbiestyle

A post shared by Barbie® (@barbiestyle) on Nov 11, 2019 at 4:25pm PST

The @BarbieStyle Instagram account has further cemented the doll’s aspirational status among millennials. The account now boasts 2.1 million followers compared with the younger-focused @Barbie account, which has 1.5 million followers.

For 27-year-old Chelsie Hill, an influencer and disability activist, there is a poignant reason for the doll’s ongoing appeal.

Hill, who uses a wheelchair, told The Times, “I love Barbie, especially now because [Mattel is] being so diverse, and their big thing right now is including people with disabilities.”

In June, Mattel launched a doll with a prosthetic leg and another that comes with a wheelchair. Both are part of the Barbie Fashionistas line and have been featured on the high fashion-focused @BarbieStyle Instagram account.

Although most of the products in the Barbie truck are aimed at adults, Barbie hasn’t forsaken her core audience. (Prices for items range from $16 for a holographic cosmetics pouch to $70 for a denim jacket.) There is also merchandise suited for younger fans, including a Barbie logo necklace ($15) and a pin set ($26).

Six-year-old Kaui Yip, who, together with her brother, Kingston, has amassed more than 20,000 followers on Instagram, is a Barbie fan. She said the fashion toy now fights for her attention. She’s also into her L.O.L Surprise dolls and her iPad.

Despite technology advancements and newer rival dolls, there’s one area where Barbie is ahead of the competition: her wardrobe. “I like that they have a lot of accessories,” Yip said.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” says Drew Coblitz with a laugh. The 31-year-old Philadelphia-based luxury expert and entrepreneur is the owner of Singer Vehicle Design’s latest work of art, a gloriously up-leveled and optimized 1990 Porsche 911. I’m laughing too, but mostly because of the visceral reactions his meticulously specced, inky-blue-black car is provoking in me.

For a few high-speed moments I’m the lucky one in his driver’s seat, a work of woven-leather art in its own right. With the hand-carved ebony wood shifter knob in my right hand (pretty much every detail, from the car’s tuning down to literal nuts and bolts, is customized by Singer for each client) and my feet dancing across all three pedals in the footwell below, I’m in internal combustion heaven. Coblitz’s one-off is a formidable yet nimble sports car with a howling, high-revving soul, hellbent on devouring the curvaceous canyon road we’re on as though it might never see another.

For the record:

10:34 AM, Nov. 16, 2019
In an earlier version of this article, an inaccurately rendered quote by Rob Dickinson suggested that hip hop-mogul Jay Z had been interviewed on TV while driving in one of Dickinson’s customized vehicles. Dickinson was referring to himself, not Jay-Z, in the quote.

Singer Vehicle Design is a skunkworks hidden away in Sun Valley that optimizes Porsche 911s from 1989 to 1994, the era that purists consider the pinnacle of the German manufacturer’s air-cooled engineering. These are not merely restored sports cars, though, these are masterpieces of next-gen engineering, materials science and haute couture-level interiors. Think of them as the automotive equivalent of Faberge eggs on steroids. Or to personify it all, imagine Sean Connery’s 007 crossed with Charlize Theron and blended with a dash of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker: sexy, strong, audacious — and ultimately brilliant.

The man behind Singer is Rob Dickinson, a wickedly witty Brit and former songwriter and lead singer of the ’90s rock band Catherine Wheel. Since the first 911 he spotted on the road in 1970 as a 5-year-old, he’s been smitten with them. Finally, after a stint designing at Lotus Cars before focusing on his music and a world tour with his band ahead of their breakup in 2000 — with lots of tinkering on his own cars in between — Dickinson landed in Los Angeles to buy a 1969 911 E and fell in love with its rich car culture. By 2009, he started Singer. “We’re taking a legend that Porsche put to one side 20 years ago to pursue other, forward-looking cars,” says Dickinson. “We have the benefit of hindsight, and I’d like to think we are shining quite a bright light on Porsche’s heritage.”

So what does an “insane” Singer detail look like? On every production car, even Mercedes and Ferrari models, there’s a gap between each panel — the door and the rear fender, for example — and something called flush. Run your hand over the gap between panels and if one is higher or lower, the flush is off. “If you take a caliper and measure our gaps and flush, they will be perfect on every car,” says Mazen Fawaz, Singer managing director, tech entrepreneur and Formula One legend Jenson Button’s teammate for this year’s Baja 1000. “It sounds silly, but you have one shot at getting those perfect. If they aren’t, a car doesn’t leave our hands.”

Every car that passes through a Singer transformation requires a minimum of 4,000 human hours to transform. Customers can spend up to a year choosing the right bespoke combinations of leathers and paint colors, trim and multiple transmission and suspension parameters. There are 500 leather colors, 13 leather types to sort through (each car uses seven hides) and limitless paint options. The leather is hand-stitched in the company’s Orange County-based interiors studio, overseen by Andy Harrison, who has masterminded the insides of important machines such as the McLaren F1, Formula 1 cars, Lotuses, Jaguar super cars, the DeLorean and even SpaceX rockets. “One owner showed us a photo of a sunset,” says Harrison. “We ended up using nearly a dozen different colors in the weave for the seats — a weave that is only achievable by a few companies in the world.”

Coblitz, one of Singer’s youngest customers, went into the commissioning of his car with a specific vision too. “I wanted to do a murdered-out Singer because people very often go for the very pretty, very bright colors or the heritage colors, which are awesome,” he says. “But I wanted something more modern and edgy.”

That led to months of testing dozens of exterior paint solutions. Through the process, Coblitz realized that black, even complex versions, was too pedestrian. He finally landed on a shade of dark blue that looks black in certain light conditions, while others highlight the depth of the navy. He also worked with the Singer team to change all the brightwork on the car —the metal trim — to dark nickel, another nod to his desired look, and one no other customer had requested. He even came up with a name for the car that Singer turned into a dark nickel-plated aluminum alloy nameplate on the rear deck lid: SINQNON, a reference to the Latin for “essential to existence,” sine qua non. “I don’t usually name my cars,” Coblitz says. “But it was my take on Rob’s ‘everything is important’ mantra.”

He’s referring to a now-hallowed moment early on at the Singer headquarters when late one evening Dickinson, frustrated by others not grasping the depth of his desire for perfection, grabbed a can of black spray paint and memorialized those words on the original shop wall.

It’s time, though, to rip the bandage off and talk price. A 911 reimagined by Singer will set you back a minimum of $475,000 for a classic coupe, not including the “donor” car that each customer must provide. In today’s collector-car market, that base vehicle can cost on average from $48,000 and up. (Singer Vehicle Design isn’t a dealer, but the company can offer some direction.) “There’s a high cost to what we do but everything we do doesn’t have to be expensive,” Dickinson says, “but it does have to be brilliant; I only want to build cars that make my mouth go dry I want them so much.”

That may not sound like a winning business model — the road is littered with failed attempts to restore, modify, hot rod or otherwise tweak famous models — but against all odds, Singer is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and steadily growing. The company has delivered 130 cars to date and has as many on order.

Dickinson’s vision, while laser-focused on making brilliant machines, also has a restless side. Last year the company debuted an ultra-rare, limited-edition version referred to as the DLS. It was co-created with the engineering arm of the U.K.-based Williams Formula 1 team, Michelin and other partners. Only 75 will be made, with a base price of $1.8 million.

The company’s design standards have branched out beyond automotive. In 2017, Dickinson collaborated with Italian watch designer Marco Borraccino, former head designer at Panerai. The resulting company, Singer Reimagined, is creating high-end watches that pay homage to the iconic sports models of the 1960s and 1970s. They are as authentic and expensive as Singer’s cars: up to $85,000 for what is a unique solution in the watch world, just as Singer’s cars reinvent in their own realm.

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And while he won’t comment on future plans, Dickinson acknowledges that he’s only just begun to apply his aesthetic to objects he deeply desires. So stay tuned.

I asked him when, in the flurry of the last 10 years’ worth of hard labor, occasional cash flow worries and scaling a custom-car business into a limited-production concern, he picked his head up and realized his success. “The first time, it was walking into a Starbucks in Northern England and being recognized — not for my music but because they’d seen all of our car videos on YouTube and were die-hard fans,” Dickinson says. “The second moment was when my son saw a journalist interviewing me while driving together in one of our cars. He turned from the TV to look at me with an awe and respect I’d never seen before.”

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 

The Dutch version of St. Nicholas arrived Saturday in the Netherlands in an annual children’s party that has become the backdrop for increasingly acrimonious confrontations between supporters and opponents of his sidekick, “Black Pete.”

White people often don blackface makeup to play the character in parades across the country.

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Opponents say such depictions promote racist stereotypes, while supporters defend the helper of Sinterklaas, the white-bearded, red-robed Dutch version of St. Nicholas, as a traditional children’s character.

Though the two sides faced off along the route of parades in a number of towns, there were no reports of serious violence. Police presence was high in towns where demonstrations were organized.

The nationally televised arrival parade happened amid tight security, in the central city of Apeldoorn. Thousands of children and their parents cheered as an actor playing Sinterklaas arrived. His helpers handed out candy and high fives.

For the first time, there were no “Petes” in full blackface at the official arrival. Organizers instead put smears on their faces to represent soot from chimneys they climb down to deliver gifts to children. The “soot” ranged from light to dark dustings.

Dutch media reported that the leader of the Netherlands’ arm of anti-immigrant movement PEGIDA — wearing a Pete costume and blackface makeup — was detained by police in Apeldoorn.

Police said in a tweet that a number of people were peacefully detained for refusing to go to locations set aside for demonstrators.

Hundreds of anti-“Black Pete” protesters gathered in a park in The Hague, where blackface Petes formed part of the official parade, for a peaceful demonstration.

A row of three umbrellas carrying the messages “Black Lives Matter,” “Black Pete is Racism” and “Stop Black Face” was laid out on the grass by demonstrators.

Mariam El Maslouhi told the crowd she hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to protest in the city again next year.

“The Netherlands has heard us, The Hague has heard us, Parliament has heard us,” she said.

Some Dutch cities, including the capital, Amsterdam, have stopped using blackface makeup in their Sinterklaas parades.

But the changes anger some.

Overnight in The Hague, supporters of the traditional version of the character put up hundreds of posters that superimposed the face of the leader of anti-Pete activists on a blackface depiction of Pete.

Last week, a group of protesters vandalized cars and threw fireworks at the venue of a meeting of anti-Pete activists in The Hague. On Thursday and Friday police detained three people for making online threats to the festivities in Apeldoorn.