A reporter asks Kristi Toliver to enjoy the sunshine for him. The new Sparks point guard, back in sunny Southern California for her second stint, chuckles. She will, she assures him.

After signing a three-year contract as an unrestricted free agent Monday, the two-time WNBA champion is happy to return to familiar surroundings. Three years and one championship after leaving L.A., the 5-foot-7 point guard is ready for Round 2.

“When you’re working with great people, when you’re competing at a high level together, great things happen,” the former Washington Mystics guard said on a conference call Wednesday. “So I’m just really looking forward to the challenge, coming back there years later, three years more mature, three years more experienced, and seeing if we can do this thing again.”

The 33-year-old Toliver spent seven seasons with the Sparks, culminating in the 2016 WNBA championship, before playing the previous three seasons with the Mystics and helping the franchise to its first title. During last year’s championship season, Toliver averaged 13 points and a career-high 6.0 assists in 23 regular-season games while shooting 36% from three-point range.

During her 11th year in the WNBA last season, Toliver was the veteran leader for a team that included league MVP Elena Delle Donne and Finals MVP Emma Meesseman. In 2017, Toliver and Delle Donne were in their first seasons with the Mystics. It was a young team, Toliver remembered, for a franchise that didn’t qualify for the playoffs the previous year.

Coming off a championship season with the Sparks in which she played with stars Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike, leading an inexperienced team forced Toliver to “get outside of my comfort zone and use my voice a lot more,” she said.

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“I’ve always led by example,” Toliver said, “so I’ve worked really, really hard taking care of myself and all that, but as far as still using my voice and sharing knowledge and experience, that’s where I was able to grow a lot more.”

A native of nearby Harrisonburg, Va., Toliver said leaving the Mystics was an “extremely difficult decision.” She loved the city, the front office and her teammates. Those three years were “some of the best times of my life,” she said.

With the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, which increased the salary cap by 31% to $1.3 million and more than doubled the maximum annual salary for top players from just over $100,000 last season to $215,000, keeping Delle Donne, Meesseman and Toliver was untenable.

“At the end of the day, I know how hard I work, I know the hours that I put in in the gym and how I take care of myself and what I offer a team,” said Toliver, whose contract terms were not announced, “and I just wasn’t offered the money that I deserve.”

L.A. was one of many suitors for the Maryland alumna. Toliver, who spends her WNBA offseasons as a Washington Wizards assistant coach, said she had discussions with the Phoenix Mercury — which made a big splash Wednesday by trading three first-round picks for four-time Dallas Wings All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith — the Minnesota Lynx, the Las Vegas Aces and the Connecticut Sun.

The Sparks still haven’t hired a general manager since Penny Toler was fired in October, but Toliver signed with the team after conversions with Parker, Ogwumike and coach Derek Fisher.

“He’s a smooth talker,” Toliver said of Fisher, “but just seems like a really genuine and authentic dude, someone that I can see having a great future with, certainly these next three years and hopefully beyond. He just knows the game of basketball and for me, that’s what I love.”

Cal State San Marcos announced Wednesday that two key executives have left the university, the interim provost has resigned his position, and the dean of graduate studies is on administrative leave.

The changes come as the California State University system is preparing to release an audit that examines how and why top CSUSM officials used university funds for first-class flights and five-star hotels, exceeding spending limits.

The spending also has drawn the ire of CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt, who said in a public address last week, “I need you to know that this is unacceptable, and this is not what we are about.

“Moving forward, we are hitting the reset button on our cultural drift.”

The university said Wednesday that Mike Schroder, the dean of extended learning, and Beth Schroder, the senior director of philanthropy, are no longer with the university.

The campus also said that Kamel Hadded, the school’s interim provost, has resigned that position and will go on academic retreat before returning to the faculty next fall. Additionally, Wesley Shultz, the dean of graduate studies, is now on administrative leave, the university said.

“Due to privacy concerns, I’m not able to go into the details surrounding these personnel actions,” Margaret Chantung, associate vice president/communications, said in a statement to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “However, we do expect the CSU Audit and Advisory Services investigation to be made public by the end of the week.”

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Neufeldt could not be reached for comment.

The controversy began in June 2019 after CSUSM received an anonymous tip that one of the school’s executives had engaged in excessive spending.

Neufeldt took office a month later and launched an audit, which led to a larger CSU audit that will be released this week.

The Union-Tribune Watchdog team undertook an investigation in 2019 that revealed questionable spending by CSUSM officials, including Schroder. Documents showed that he had taken chauffeured limousine rides, booked luxury resort stays and purchased expensive meals, including a $110 steak.

The U-T investigation also raised questions about spending by Karen Haynes, the university’s former president. Among other things, Kaynes used university funds for a $760-a-night luxury hotel stay, as well as expensive food and wine.

The investigation also showed that Haynes spent $731 to pay for a chauffeured sedan ride to and from Los Angeles International Airport for an education trip to South Africa in 2018.

Neufeldt addressed the spending issue last Thursday in a public speech, announcing that the school was updating its travel policies and guidelines to prevent potential abuse of travel funds.

“I have to openly acknowledge that there have been a few instances that can’t be excused as mere clerical oversight,“ Neufeldt said.

“We are seeing trends where travelers frequently purchase upgraded airfare or select hotels where the lodging costs exceed the maximum rates. In some rare cases, I’ve seen things that are simply inexcusable.”

San Diego Union-Tribune reporters Jeff McDonald and Morgan Cook contributed to this report.

Authorities Wednesday arrested a man on suspicion of setting a fire that tore through an Orange County apartment building, gutting dozens of apartments, collapsing the roof and displacing about 100 tenants.

Patrick Andrew Ceniceros, 59, of Tustin was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of arson, Tustin Police Lt. Andrew Birozy said.

“Just thank God that we’re not booking him for murder,” given the potentially deadly blaze, he added.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Ceniceros had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Two people suffered smoke inhalation as flames raged through the two-story building in the Chatham Village apartment complex about 3 a.m. Wednesday, the Orange County Fire Authority said.

Residents said police officers pounded on doors and told people there was a fire.

“We were sleeping, you know, it was in the middle of the night. Out of nowhere this loud noise of knocking — boom, boom, boom on the door. ‘Get out, the apartment’s on fire,’” resident Heidi Murillo told KABC-TV Channel 7.

The roof collapsed 25 minutes into the fire. No first responders were injured.

About 120 firefighters put out the blaze after five hours, and 38 of the 40 apartments burned, authorities said.

About 100 people were displaced, and many huddled in blankets in the predawn cold. American Red Cross volunteers set up a care center for the displaced residents.

Birozy said Ceniceros was arrested after he came to the front counter of the police station and offered to speak to detectives.

“He just showed up saying he wanted to talk to us,“ Birozy said. “He made some incriminating statements that led us to believe he was involved in arson at that complex.“

Ceniceros had some connection to the building but it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was a resident, Birozy added.

There was no immediate word on the motive, he said.

SACRAMENTO — 

California voters are about to discard and qualify some candidates for the sprint to the Democratic presidential nomination.

Until now, the race has been a slow marathon. But with Iowa and New Hampshire out of the way and Nevada and South Carolina coming soon (Feb. 22 and 29, respectively), candidates must kick into overdrive.

On Super Tuesday — March 3 — California and 13 other states will hold presidential primaries. They include such wide-ranging states as Alabama, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

California will offer by far the most convention delegates — 415 pledged to candidates on election day, plus 79 unpledged so-called superdelegates to be added later for a total of 494.

By the end of Super Tuesday, more than a third of all convention delegates will have been pledged nationally. And two-thirds will have been chosen by the end of March.

Californians will help decide:

— Whether Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont can remain a front-runner.

Much of the Democratic establishment — especially moderates — are having anxiety attacks over the prospect of the self-described democratic socialist carrying the party banner in November against President Trump. Sanders is too leftist for the battleground states that Democrats must carry to oust Trump, they contend.

Liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t put it that way in a recent interview on ABC’s “The View,” but he acknowledged some fellow Democratic governors are nervous.

“I was just at the National Governor’s Assn., and this is not comfortable for me to say,” Newsom said, “but … there’s deep anxiety [about] what is potentially emerging as a Bernie Sanders ascendancy with the Elizabeth Warren wing of the party and the prospects … that [Michael R.] Bloomberg moves into that and you’re at a place of civil war.

“It’s not my point of view, per se, but it’s the anxiety that is spoken very much universally, but not publicly yet.”

Civil war is what party primaries are all about. But what’s making party leaders and moderate Democrats anxious about Sanders is that his so-called socialist ideas could be a red flag that costs Democrats not only the presidency, but also majority control of the U.S. House.

“When you look back at when Franklin Roosevelt created Social Security, he was attacked as being a socialist,” says Rafael Navar, California director for Sanders. “Social Security became one of America’s most favorable programs.”

Sanders is by far the best organized candidate in California. He has opened 22 offices and has 105 paid staffers, plus many thousands of eager volunteers, especially on college campuses.

“Bernie is the best bet to take on Trump,” Navar asserts. “The antidote for the Trump base is equal energy on our side.”

— Whether moderate former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg can keep challenging Sanders for the lead in a large state with large populations of black and Latino voters.

There were few voters of color in Iowa and New Hampshire, where Buttigieg essentially tied for first and finished a close second, respectively.

In California, a January poll of likely voters didn’t look good for Buttigieg. He was fourth, at 7%, behind Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden in a poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Buttigieg was favored by only 4% of Latinos and 3% of blacks. But he attracted 11% of Asians.

This survey, however, was taken before Americans actually started voting and the running positions changed dramatically. Warren and Biden stumbled badly. Buttigieg sprinted to the front. And Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar took a surprising big leap.

Super Tuesday will tell us how all that is affecting voters’ thinking about electability.

— Whether Biden is toast.

The former vice president needs a huge victory in South Carolina to retain any semblance of electability, his original selling point as a candidate.

He’s supposed to be the favorite candidate of black voters. But in the California poll, he received only 12% of the black vote and 18% Latino support. Sanders had 31% and 38%, respectively.

Biden isn’t exciting anybody. And he needs a lot more money to compete.

— Whether Klobuchar can continue her leap toward the top.

It’s going to get tougher for the Midwesterner because she’s low on money and will need a barrel load to compete competitively in Super Tuesday states.

But she certainly must have already worked herself onto anyone’s shortlist for vice president.

— Whether Warren is a goner.

The answer is probably yes. She’s also short on money, and Sanders is winning the liberal vote.

— Whether Bloomberg can become the moderate alternative.

The mega-billionaire has already spent more than $30million in California and in excess of $300 million nationally, mostly on TV ads.

California has not been friendly to very rich, self-funded candidates running for high office. But the Bloomberg camp points out that this rich candidate is different: He has actually been elected to office, three times as New York mayor.

One strong supporter is Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles mayor and state Assembly speaker. Bloomberg donated$2 million to Villaraigosa’s unsuccessful gubernatorial bid against Newsom in the 2018 primary. But Villaraigosa insists that isn’t why he endorsed the fellow former mayor.

“I’m appreciative,” he told me, “but my decision was based on my working with him for eight years. He’s a uniter, not a divider, at a time we have a divider-in-chief in the White House. And he gets things done.”

On Super Tuesday, California won’t be a kingmaker — or a queenmaker. But it will be a gatekeeper to the sprint track.

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I’ve never managed to master much beyond the nuts and bolts of math. I was an honor student who could ace almost every subject, but ninth grade geometry tripped me up. I slipped through with a C, but needed three tries to pass trigonometry, with a D.

I couldn’t understand the point of all that mathematical mumbo jumbo. And not once in the 40 years since I finished school have I ever been asked to factor a polynomial or calculate the cosine of anything.

Maybe that’s why I’m not convinced that every California State University-bound student needs four years of high school math or quantitative reasoning courses just to be considered for admission.

Do we really want to keep students like me out of college because of an obsession with the supremacy of STEM? After all, there are still plenty of careers that don’t require expertise in the meaning of imaginary numbers or the minutiae of quadratic equations.

As I followed the debate these past months about whether Cal State should raise admission standards by requiring an additional year of math, I couldn’t help but think back to all those nights I spent hunched over homework, feeling dumb because I couldn’t get my head around complicated formulas that I would never need.

I get the goal of the university’s proposed change: to better prepare students to tackle college courses that can lead to high-demand careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

But I think the CSU trustees made a wise move in delaying their decision until they study how it might affect prospective applicants.

The primary complaint, from educators and activists, is that the new standard would disproportionately disadvantage black, Latino and low-income students, who tend to score lower than whites and Asians on standardized math exams — and who are also more likely to attend schools with less experienced teachers, more crowded classes and fewer high-level math courses.

But this is more than an issue of equity. High school is too late to raise the bar.

Fewer than one-third of California’s 11th-graders met grade-level standards in math last year. Scores were up a bit from previous years. But one troubling trend persists. Students post middling math scores in third grade, but their performance drops every year after that.

Instead of toughening standards at the tail end of their journey, how about we better equip them early on to meet the standards we’ve already got?

**

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a math class, so I sought out one of California’s most accomplished math teachers to school me on why our students lag so far behind the goals we’ve set.

Brian Shay has taught all levels of math at San Diego’s Canyon Crest Academy, a public high school with 2,500 students. He was a finalist last year for a national award for excellence in math teaching, he’s helped develop California’s math content and standards, and he mentored hundreds of teachers during his 20-year career.

Shay thinks it would “definitely be a challenge” for many students to successfully tackle another year of high school math. But he also thinks that with a little flexibility, the requirement would be a good thing.

It doesn’t have to be calculus or trigonometry, he said. “It could be a class that teaches life skills, like financial math, or follows a scientific passion,” he said. “It’s intended to build the mind-set of problem solving in real situations, like how does interest compound or what calculations you need on a construction project. “

He believes our dismal math scores would rise over time if we employed that real-world mind-set at every level of math instruction — and if we put as much energy into preparing and supporting teachers as we spend worrying about students’ career choices.

I was surprised to learn that research has shown that many teachers, particularly in elementary school, suffer from unaddressed math anxiety themselves. As a result, they tend to teach in an inflexible manner, discourage questions and focus on rote learning, studies found. Their discomfort can stifle student learning.

“The best way to learn math is to explore and play with it,” Shay explained. “It’s the same way people in science understand how chemicals work, or in language how symbolism works.”

Teachers may need more and better training to move past the conventional textbook-based approach and embrace new ways of connecting with students, he said.

“One of the biggest challenges is that the way we learned math in the past is not the most effective way to learn now,” said Shay, who was taught to “parrot” whatever the teacher said.

“A lot of us just teach the way we learned: ‘Here’s a quadratic formula, so use it to solve these equations.’ But mathematics is a way of thinking about facts and logic,” he said. “There’s no one right route to that single perfect solution.”

Creating lessons that every child can learn from is a challenge for teachers, Shay said. In his courses, he aims to open every class with a project. “Low floor, high ceiling, so everyone can access it and start from wherever they’re at,” he said.

He may have students still struggling with fractions in a class with others who are ready for calculus. “So some will do the basic steps, and others will go a little further. That way the advanced students aren’t bored and the students who need more support aren’t so disheartened that they give up,” he said.

“The best thing to do in a math class is to give all kids an opportunity to find success.”

**

California already has a high-minded conceptual blueprint for teaching math, rooted in the sort of quantitative reasoning skills the CSU system is trying to promote.

And if that isn’t enough, our state’s ambitious science standards also emphasize real-world experimentation and discovery over textbooks and tests.

But we can’t pretend we’re preparing kids for college success or for STEM careers when only 32% of California 11th-graders are up to par in math and 30.4% are meeting science standards, according to the state’s 2019 standardized tests.

It seems to me that education policy makers have done the easy part, but haven’t completed the task. We have a destination, but no strong and unified path toward it.

Our progressive plans are undercut by California’s challenges: many poorly resourced schools, a practice of passing students with weak skills along to the next grade without help, and a shortage of skilled math teachers encouraged to enlist the creativity diverse classrooms demand.

We’re left with the consequences of standards without training. And adding a tough new class won’t remedy that.

Because success in college, career and life rests not on how many math courses we require in high school, but on whether we’re successful at building confidence and competence in students and teachers from the start.

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We all live through change, but processing it while in the midst of it is notoriously difficult. Large-scale shifts in the world around us happen both rapidly and slowly — affecting how we view the past, present and future — and there seem to be very few filmmakers, regrettably, who care about this kind of metamorphosis, probably because it’s so daunting a subject.

But China’s Jia Zhangke is one of them, and it’s his artful, conscientious sense of the small within the large in chronicling the impact of his country’s massive socioeconomic transformation that makes him one of the world’s great directors, from his early portraits of disaffected youth (“Platform”), to his breathtaking stories of everyday lives in limbo (“The World,” “Still Life”), and recently, more genre-inflected examinations of what capitalist priorities wreak on personal morality and relationships (“A Touch of Sin,” last year’s “Ash is Purest White”).

He also makes documentaries, as if the magnitude of the jarring reality Jia’s exploring needs to occasionally be given more direct attention. Though his 2010 film about Shanghai “I Wish I Knew” — now being given its first stateside release — was a commissioned work for that year’s Shanghai World Expo, the director was given leeway to make what he wanted. The resulting mix of image and interview, weariness and wonder, makes for a sober assessment of just how much change China’s largest city has been through since the 1930s due to war, civil conflict, political and social upheaval, cultural representation, and the new economic rapacity.

Jia opens with a worker polishing the bronze lions outside one of the port city’s largest banks, while the soundtrack offers up steady background growls. The vibe is of formidable financial might, a feeling echoed before the end credits by a pair of success stories — including race driver/author/filmmaker Han Han — who relay their money-earning prowess. (One imagines Jia figuring he needed to bookend the movie with commercial boosterism.) But those early roars are also suggestive of memories being awakened, or what the engine of change — good or bad — sounds like. Jia follows those lions with shots of ferries in transit, and the people on them — traveling, yet still, in place. People are moving in China, but is it a willing mobility?

What ensues amidst Jia’s indelible, gliding visuals of modern Shanghai are ruminative testimonials from the breadth of an older citizenry — former soldiers, descendants of gangsters and politicians, and (lots of) artists who endured the city’s turbulent evolution, and who in their stories of family, love and survival form a tapestry of memory and wisdom. Many of them are emigres, and it’s one of Jia’s subtler points that by including footage shot in present-day Taiwan and Hong Kong — where some of his interviewees ended up after fleeing turmoil — he gets to engage with his longstanding theme of displacement without making an overtly political statement about it.

Adding to the air of ruefulness and romance are linking shots of Jia’s partner and muse, actress Zhao Tao, walking through areas of development in Shanghai, images that simultaneously evoke progress and loneliness. Jia also wrestles with how cinema has reflected narratives out of China, whether it’s the still-ticklish memory a retired laborer has from starring in a ’50s propaganda film that presented her as a “model worker,” or filmmaker Wang Toon talking about recreating his family’s escape to Taiwan for “Red Persimmon.”

There are also interviews in “I Wish I Knew” with Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien about “Flowers of Shanghai,” and with actress/singer Rebecca Pan (“Days of Being Wild”), who describes the story of her mother’s forced move from Shanghai to Hong Kong during the civil strife as one of closeness, hardship, opportunity and treasured insight about the lessons of adjustment. When she tears up, takes a moment, then sings a song from her younger days, it’s the melancholy beauty of Jia Zhangke’s focus on momentous change in a single human transition of heartbreaking grace.

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In a Valentine’s Day scramble? In Los Angeles and Orange counties, options for a night out this weekend include Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal’s salute to Leonard Cohen, Lucha VaVoom’s annual Valentine’s show, trumpeter Chris Botti with Pacific Symphony and “Lovers Rock” at Grand Park in DTLA. Four Larks delivers its takes on “Frankenstein” at the Wallis, CAP UCLA presents the dance work “Four Quartets,” the L.A. Phil’s exploration of the music of the Weimar Republic continues, and Gerard & Kelly examine the state of the union in “State of” at MOCA.

Tooting his own horn

Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti, known for his work with Sting, performs a Valentine’s Day-themed sampler of pop, jazz and classical favorites backed by Pacific Symphony. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday. $55 and up. (714) 755-5799. PacificSymphony.org

To the end of love

Leonard Cohen is gone but his legacy lives on in Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal’s “Dance Me.” The company pays tribute to the late singer-songwriter, poet and fellow Canadian in this evening-length work. The Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. $69 and up. (310) 434-3200. thebroadstage.org

Of monsters and men

“Frankenstein” lives! Four Larks blends physical theater, live music and experiential design in this new work inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel about a mad doctor and his monstrous creation. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday; other dates through March 1. $60. (310) 746-4000. TheWallis.org

All hands on deck

Choreographer Pam Tanowitz, composer Kaija Saariaho and modernist painter Brice Marden join forces for “Four Quartets,” a new dance-theater work inspired by T. S. Eliot’s revered poetry cycle. Actress Kathleen Chalfant reads the text and the Knights Orchestra supplies the music. Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Royce Hall, 10745 Dickson Court, Westwood. 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. $28 and up. (310) 825-2101. cap.ucla.edu

Esa-Pekka’s Weimar

The L.A. Phil festival “The Weimar Republic: Germany 1918-1933” continues with conductor laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the orchestra plus Los Angeles Master Chorale and a cohort of singers and actors in a program of musical-theater works by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $20-$185. (323) 850-2000. laphil.com

Oh say, can you see?

Performance artists Gerard & Kelly explore the concept of patriotism and the meaning of national symbols such as the anthem and the flag — via pole dancing — in the U.S. premiere of “State of.” The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo. 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday. Free. moca.org

Things to do

For adults only

Masked wrestlers? Check. Burlesque dancers? Check. Live music and comedy? Check and check. Lucha VaVoom is looking to spice up your love life with its latest Valentine’s spectacular, “Pin Ups ’N Pin Downs.” For ages 21 and up. The Mayan Theater, 1038 S. Hill St., downtown L.A. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday. $40, $55. luchavavoom.com

L.A. is for lovers

Court and spark in the park after dark with “Lovers Rock.” The lights will be turned down low as local DJ Linafornia spins romantic soul and reggae tunes in this outdoor offering that also features a photo booth and food trucks. Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. 7 to 11 p.m. Friday. grandparkla.org

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Art fairs are exclusive, with their tiered ticketing and timed entries, not to mention the invite-only parties and private dinners. On Tuesday evening Frieze Los Angeles held a VIP party — a VVIP event, if you will.

The evening was a welcome for exhibitors, many of whom had just arrived from Europe, Mexico and New York for the art fair, which opens to the public Friday. As guests arrived at the penthouse suite of the Chateau Marmont, there was no shortage of swank: Servers offered trays of Prosecco and mezcal mule cocktails, tuna tartare and beef sliders (organic, grass-finished, Belcampo).

Exclusivity, as pungent as the perfume in guests’ gift bags, permeated the air.

Guests mingled on the patio under a canopy of flickering Fellini-esque lights as the sun set over Sunset Boulevard. A fire roared in the adjacent living room, where a DJ spun rhythm and blues-infused country music. Art-fair-circuit-traveler reunions rippled throughout the crowd — lots of “Oh my God, hi” rose above the din.

Here’s what some Frieze Los Angeles first-timers and returning exhibitors had to say at the start of what’s now known as Frieze Week:

Kimbery Davis, director of L.A. Louver gallery, L.A.: “Art fairs have been coming here since the ‘80s. But they didn’t attract an international audience. We stopped participating in art fairs about eight years ago. But then last year, with Frieze — finally there was an art fair organized enough to draw an international audience. I was surprised how well we did. We sold eight of the nine paintings and 12 drawings [by Gajin Fujita]. But it’s not only about sales, that wasn’t the point. It was about support. We wanted to encourage the scene. And, for, us, it was about reaching new audiences.”

Takako Yamaguchi, represented by As-is.la gallery, L.A.: “I’m an artist, I’m showing with the gallery. It’s my husband’s, it’s our first year. I’m showing small, white-on-white abstract paintings. I’m excited. But, you know, John Baldessari said — and I’m not sure this is exactly the [phrasing], but he said: ‘Artists going to art fairs is like watching your parents having sex.’ That’s creepy. So I’m cautiously hopeful — we’ll see.”

Jo Stella-Sawicka, director of Goodman Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa (as well as London): “This is our first year and it was as much about Los Angeles. I was in L.A. in November for Shirin [Neshat]’s opening at the Broad and what struck me was how artists and curators here play such a role in the intersection of art and activism — that resonates with us in South Africa. So that’s a big reason we wanted to participate [in Frieze Los Angeles]. Sales are critical, you have to do business, but it’s not the only measure. We think there’s deep potential for engagement here.”

Anat Ebgi, owner and director of Anat Ebgi gallery, L.A.: “We did a group show last year — we sold all eight pieces. This year we’re doing a Greg Ito solo show, it’s about floods and fires. We love how the fair is presented, the aesthetic in the tent and on the back lot. So this year we built out a whole living room [in the booth], with burnt furniture. My goal is to present this one artist and bring recognition for the artist and the gallery.”

Nicky Verber, owner of Herald St gallery, London: “It’ll be interesting to see who comes this year, collectors. Last year it was buyers from around the world. We expect that this year too.”

Pilar Tompkins Rivas, co-curator of Frieze Projects: “The momentum is building, there’s a buzz in the air. I just hope that the context and perspective [in the Frieze Projects] regarding questions of representation and equity are understood by a broader audience.”

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How does pole dance become political?

In “State of,” a work by performance art duo Gerard & Kelly, subway pole dance innovator Forty Smooth performs his acrobatic, gravity-defying moves to Whitney Houston’s 1991 rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” while dressed in a deconstructed version of the American flag.

The self-taught Forty Smooth performs alongside classically trained dancer and vocalist Quenton Stuckey and one-half of Gerard & Kelly, the choreographer Ryan Kelly. Dancing on and off the pole, the trio of dancers attempt to interrogate national symbols and whom they represent.

On Saturday, “State of” will make its U.S. premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary warehouse space in Little Tokyo. The event is among screenings, performances and parties surrounding the Frieze Los Angeles art fair.

Gerard & Kelly, who choreographed Solange’s performance art piece “Bridge-s” last year, are known for their minimalist movement, incorporating queer theory and critique of institutions.

They began studying queer and feminist responses to pole dance in 2014 during a residency at New York’s New Museum. There, they met Forty Smooth and other subway pole dancers who use transit architecture to show off gymnastic-style stunts. They also worked with pole dance instructor Roz “The Diva” Mays to learn the intricacies of the choreography.

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One specific move called “the flag,” where a body hovers horizontally against a vertical pole, prompted further questions that eventually informed “State of” — “the idea of the flag, which led into the idea of nation and what does the flag represent and who does it represent,” Gerard said.

In 2017, Gerard and Kelly presented the first version of “State of” in Paris’ Palais de la Découverte museum. “We were trying to think about questions of migration and globalism at that point in the project,” Kelly said.

But they found the scope too large and spent two years honing the work, deciding instead to investigate “this question of American identity,” Kelly said, “and how that experience of being American is impacted by the different ways that we are gendered, our race, our experience with class and sexuality.”

“State of” weaves together several uses of the American flag, the pole and recorded and live versions of the national anthem, incorporating moments of virtuosic dance and moments of stillness.

A meditation on the dancers’ different backgrounds and relationships to dance, “the piece was an opportunity to see what it means to live in a society with such radical differences,” Kelly said.

The work also questions the rise of nationalism, in the U.S. and abroad, Gerard said. Nationalism can be “united around these very old and very violent symbols, like a flag or an anthem. We’re really interrogating that force we see rising by dismantling it, by deconstructing those symbols, by tearing them apart, and also by putting them back together.”

Southern California ski resorts received as much as a half-foot of snow from the weekend storm that continued into Monday. However, strong cross winds kept at least one ski area from opening. A high wind warning from the National Weather Service forecasts 25 to 40 mph winds with gusts up to 65 mph until noon Tuesday.

Mt. Baldy in the Angeles National Forest closed Monday and planned to remain closed Tuesday because of winds. “Although it is a bit of gamble, we anticipate that winds will be past the operating threshold Tuesday,” a statement on the website says. “As a result we will be closed Monday and Tuesday while this system does its thing.” It was planning on opening Wednesday with 4 inches of fresh snow.

Other resorts were luckier.

Big Bear Mountain Resort (Snow Summit and Bear Mountain) in Big Bear Lake received 7 inches of fresh snow and was open Monday. The resort reports a base of 40 inches, and 48 inches at Bear Peak (8,805 feet in elevation). Snow-making will continue as temperatures allow, according to the website.

Snow Valley in Running Springs reported about 3 inches of snow as of Monday, with snow-making under way. However, winds temporarily shut Lifts 6 and 13 high on the mountain; Lifts 7 and 14 for beginner lessons remained open.

“Winter is back!” Mountain High declared on its home page. The resort received 6 to 8 inches of “light, dry snow,” which topped off a foot of man-made snow over last week. It reports a base of 36 inches and a top depth of 42 inches.

The forecast for L.A.-area mountains call for sunny skies with winds decreasing to 25 to 35 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday and Thursday also will be sunny with a slight chance of rain and snow showers on Friday. Anyone heading to the local mountains should check Caltrans road conditions to see whether chains are required on state highways.

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