KNOWING HORROR: As the nation looks back...

KNOWING HORROR: As the nation looks back this month at the Holocaust a half-century ago, Hooman Mobassery, a senior at UC Irvine, urged the UCI Student Center to do something special. The result of his efforts: A two-day session called “Never Again” begins on campus today. Panel discussions cover World War II genocide plus similar tragedies in Bosnia and elsewhere. . . . A special session: A candlelight memorial outside the student center at 7:30 tonight for the children of the Holocaust.

SOMEBODY’S ART: Do rap music and graffiti-inspired paintings by such artists as Chaz Bojorquez deserve the same valid cultural expressions as, say, the Mona Lisa? Yes, says Andrew Connors, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution. It’s among the topics he and Bojorquez will discuss Saturday at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, part of a four-day cultural series (F3). . . . “You don’t have to appeal to all people,” Connors says. “There’s not a single work of art that everyone can agree that they like.”

MIGHTY BRONZE: You say you’re a true Mighty Ducks fan? You’ve got the official horn, T-shirt and cap, even one of those Mighty Ducks pucks you’ll never use? But . . . do you have a limited edition bronze sculpture of Wild Wing, the mascot? The work is called “Defending the Pond,” and it was created for Disney by veteran hockey sculptor Steve Landis of Denver. They’re available in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square--for $975. . . . And yes, fans are buying: Four have sold there so far.

DATE WITH AN ANGEL: Curt Earnest of Westminster has skipped work the past 12 years to be at Anaheim Stadium for the California Angels’ opening day (B1, C1). So no surprise that Earnest, 32, and a friend had their car first in line waiting for the gates to open at 11 a.m. Monday. . . . “We thought they opened at 10:30. We wanted to get here as early as we could,” Earnest said, “just to soak it all up--batting practice, getting autographs. It makes it more exciting.”