KPCC's John Rabe makes the Weekly's Couples Issue

John Rabe, the host of "Off-Ramp" on KPCC, and his husband Julian Bermudez are one of the six featured couples in the current issue of LA Weekly. Also included are Michael Ritchie and Kate Burton, "the first couple of L.A. theatre." Here's an excerpt from the piece (and a link to the overall feature.)

John Rabe, 46, and Julian Bermudez, 38, met at the close of a sunny day in Malibu in 2001, when separate afternoons spent sunbathing on the shores of El Matador beach led both to the Friendship on West Channel Road. The nautical-themed watering hole, one of L.A. County's oldest gay bars, was a popular alternative to the club-heavy scene in West Hollywood, Rabe recalls. You could go just to talk, not necessarily to hook up....

Long before Rabe and Bermudez met, Christopher Isherwood, who lived nearby in Santa Monica Canyon, depicted the landmark affectionately in his novel A Single Man, "down on the corner of the ocean highway, across from the beach, its round green porthole lights shining to welcome you."

Rabe bought Bermudez a $1 burger, and they were a half-hour into their first chat when the friend Bermudez had arrived with decided he was ready to go home. Rabe insisted that Bermudez give him his number first. "And don't give me a fake one," he said.

Bermudez's friend warned him not to get involved with the tall Midwesterner. He was obviously a hustler, he cautioned. But Bermudez ignored him.

Bermudez is the owner and curator of Bermudez Projects, a gallery on the eighth floor of the Anjac Fashion Building in the downtown Fashion District. He had an opening reception this weekend for an exhibition of photos by Rabe.

Cropped photo of Bermudez, left, and Rabe by Star Foreman/LA Weekly