Off-Ramp® | 89.3 KPCC Off-Ramp ® is a lively weekly look at Southern California through the eyes and ears of radio veteran John Rabe. News, arts, home, life... covering everything that makes life here exciting, enjoyable, and interesting. George Takei on how he took his internment camp musical, 'Allegiance,' to Broadway https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2018/02/16/44419/george-takei-tells-us-how-he-s-taking-internment-c/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2018/02/16/44419/george-takei-tells-us-how-he-s-taking-internment-c/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/6b3b52e29bd5c8dd8a17004740501689/111386-small.jpg" width="2564" height="2775" alt="" /> <p><i>Brad and George Takei, the new typical American married couple.; Credit: John Rabe/Grant Wood/Michael Uhlenkott</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p><strong>UPDATE</strong>: “Allegiance” will be performed Feb. 21-April 1, 2018, at the <a href="http://www.jaccc.org/allegiance">Aratani Theater</a> at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center in downtown L.A.'s Little Tokyo.</p> <p><em><strong>ORIGINAL STORY:</strong> In an intimate interview, George Takei tells Off-Ramp host John Rabe about crafting the Japanese-American internment camp history into compelling Broadway musical theater. <a href="http://allegiancemusical.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwsb-vBRCLj7TvqpGx_MoBEiQALgFGnr5PyGxMsoRmVw1oCObZY7oUKgdWbfSOZ46WC2_ZHCgaAjv-8P8HAQ#jopo7QuMxP64RHeC.97">"Allegiance,"</a> with Takei, Lea Salonga and Telly Leung, played at the Longacre Theater.</em></p> <p>George Takei and his husband Brad were putting their house in mothballs when I arrived for our interview in August. They'd already been spending a lot of time in New York because of George's recurring role on "The Howard Stern Show," but now, with the Broadway opening of "Allegiance" just a couple months away, they were preparing to move for as long as the musical brings in the crowds.</p> <p>While Brad went off to deal with the mundane domestic tasks around the move, I sat with George in their living room to talk about turning one of America's most shameful episodes — the internment of some 120,000 loyal Japanese-Americans during World War II — into a musical that could make it on the Broadway stage.</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://www.thepublicreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/George-Takei-Allegiance-620x330.jpg"></p> <p><em>George, you just sent an email to your fans with the subject line: "I've Waited 7 Years to Send You this Email. Seven years!" Inside, you wrote: "Few things are as difficult and complex as taking a show to ‪Broadway‬. It's both thrilling and terrifying." What was terrifying?</em></p> <blockquote> <p>"The terrifying part is, you've poured your passion, your energy, your resources ...  you make all that investment in that project, and then you're hoping the seats are going to be filled.That 'what if' is terrifying. But in San Diego, we had a sold-out run and broke their 77-year record. But now we're going to Broadway, and that same fear is there. Will they come? What will the critics say? Because it's life or death."</p> </blockquote> <p><em>It took a long time just to get a Broadway theater.</em></p> <blockquote> <p>"It took a <em>long </em>time to get a theater.You think there are a lot of Broadway theaters, but there are even more productions that want those chunks of New York real estate. So we thought we'd get in line. But then the other discovery we made is that the theater owners have relationships with grizzled old producers who have brought them a vast fortune with enormous hits, and they can cut in line. They have a track record. And so, 'will we ever get a theater' became a big question. But we have this time now — let's use it creatively, productively."</p> </blockquote> <p>So, Takei says, the team tweaked the show, removing parts that didn't work didn't advance the story, inserting numbers that worked better and kept the story moving. They doubled down on social media, building and proving demand in the show.</p> <blockquote> <p>"We have a Shubert theater (the Longacre), and Bob Wankel is head guy there, and I remember pouring my heart out, telling the story of my parents, hoping that touches. And he was understanding, but I understood his problem, too. Everybody is trying to get a theater and he has to make a good business decision and was initially skeptical. An internment camp musical? But music has the power to make an anguished painful situation even more moving, even more powerful. It hits you in the heart."</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="https://youtu.be/K5kLdfw7DxE" title='Highlights from "Allegiance" at the Old Globe in San Diego'>Highlights from "Allegiance" at the Old Globe in San Diego</a></p> <p><em>This is your Broadway debut, right? Are you petrified?</em></p> <blockquote> <p>"Yes, yes. I've done a lot of stage work, and I've done a lot of public speaking, but it's Broadway, and I'm a debutante... at 78 years old! And it's the critics, too. The New York Times, Ben Brantley. That's who I'm going to be facing, and so it's both exciting and absolutely filling me with ecstasy, but what makes it ecstatic is the fear."</p> </blockquote> <p><em>For much more of our interview with George Takei, listen to the audio by clicking the arrow in the player at the top of the page ... and hear George Takei and John Rabe's duet of "Tiny Bubbles."</em></p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2018/02/16/44419/george-takei-tells-us-how-he-s-taking-internment-c/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:53:00 -0800 Mayor Garcetti's Q&A in John's car was almost over... until Hizzoner saw the backgammon game https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57712/mayor-garcetti-s-q-a-in-john-s-car-was-almost-over/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57712/mayor-garcetti-s-q-a-in-john-s-car-was-almost-over/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/006654f33ef9163595b87a45e5e6b37a/164289-small.jpg" width="2016" height="1512" alt="Garcetti Backgammon" /> <p><i>Off-Ramp host John Rabe and Mayor Eric Garcetti playing backgammon in John’s car. Julian “The First Lady of Off-Ramp” Bermudez in the passenger seat with camera. ; Credit: Andrea Garcia</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>John Rabe’s last show coincides with Eric Garcetti’s inauguration for his second term as Mayor of Los Angeles. In John's car, the two talked about:</p> <ul> <li>The joys of exploring Los Angeles</li> <li>The time the future Mayor's mom and dad took his drivers' license away</li> <li>Where Justin Trudeau should visit when he comes to LA</li> <li>And how the drop in crime has led to more people doing the Off-Ramp thing</li> </ul> <p>The Mayor also did some slam poetry, and then played a competitive game of backgammon. Listen with the audio player to see who was brown and who was white. And listen to Off-Ramp on the radio to find out who won the game! (Saturday at noon/Sunday at 6pm)</p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57712/mayor-garcetti-s-q-a-in-john-s-car-was-almost-over/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Thu, 29 Jun 2017 14:41:46 -0700 Kings of Kitsch Nichols and Phoenix (mostly) manage not to talk over each other on the last Off-Ramp https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57676/kings-of-kitsch-nichols-and-phoenix-mostly-manage/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57676/kings-of-kitsch-nichols-and-phoenix-mostly-manage/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/2065b71a98a455074e2dc6aa06231017/164241-small.jpg" width="1280" height="960" alt="Phoenix Nichols " /> <p><i>L-R: Three Southern California retro fanatics, John Rabe, Chris Nichols, and Charles Phoenix; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Is it possible that the two titans of retro Southern California - Charles Phoenix and Charles Nichols - have never been on Off-Ramp at the same time? But maybe that brings up a larger question. Is it even possible for them to exist in the same place, at the same time, or would their meeting cause a cosmic singularity, an undarnable rending of the time-space continuum?</p> <p>The answers are, stupidly, yes; and thankfully, yes.</p> <p>Over the 11 years of Off-Ramp, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/God-Bless-Americana-Charles-Phoenix/dp/1558686444">God Bless Americana</a>" author Charles Phoenix and <a href="http://www.lamag.com/author/chris-nichols/">Los Angeles Magazine's</a> Chris Nichols have played a large part in bringing interesting and endangered places to our listeners. From Pomona to Chatsworth to Bellflower to Anaheim, both men have made careers of highlighting and preserving things that in their day were seen as expendable, flavor-of-the-month, mass marketed creations. Like <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2015/01/20/41179/roll-out-the-barrel-first-look-inside-restored-idl/">programmatic architecture</a> (buildings that look like what they're selling or making, i.e. the Donut Hole in La Puente, the Idle Hour - a giant wine cask - in NoHo).</p> <p>Yet, with hindsight, we've been able to see them as archetypal and<a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2014/06/12/37889/route-66-icon-wigwam-motel-s-owner-to-be-crowned-a/?slide=7"> important touchstones of our region</a>.</p> <p>For their final appearances on the show, they got in the Mercedes and shared their love of getting lost in Southern California.</p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57676/kings-of-kitsch-nichols-and-phoenix-mostly-manage/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Thu, 29 Jun 2017 14:22:45 -0700 Off-Ramp Recommends: 'Stay young, go dancing' https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57709/off-ramp-recommends-stay-young-go-dancing/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57709/off-ramp-recommends-stay-young-go-dancing/ Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/67572c3fff3af55f4d41861f3c73b241/90374-small.jpg" width="3872" height="2592" alt="peanut butter wolf dj" /> <p><i>Stones Throw DJ Peanut Butter Wolf spinning.; Credit: Photo by Maris Kaplan via Flickr Creative Commons</i></p> <p><address>Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>For the final Off-Ramp recommendation, we scoured the internet far and wide for options that really speak to Angeleno culture and the show's mission of spreading LA love far and wide. However, upon thoughtful reflection, we've decided the show has always been about getting out and trying fun, new things and learning something. Every engaged community member getting out in Southern California adds to the cultural wealth of the city and so this weekend, let's get out and play/shake it fast and loose.</p> <p>LA has multiple cheap or free events this weekend to get you out into the city, meeting new people, and that will have you considering shaking your groove-thang on a sliding scale, from gingerly to furiously.</p> <p><strong>1. Dance DTLA</strong></p> <p>During summer, <a href="https://www.musiccenter.org/">The Music Center</a> celebrates multicultural dance with alternating lessons and performances, each Friday. Friday the 30th will feature a DJ set curated by local label <a href="https://www.stonesthrow.com/">Stones Throw</a>'s golden boy Peanut Butter Wolf. The night will include sets by Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Steve, Vex Ruffin, and Jimi Hey playing the 80's and 90's hits that inspired their music careers. The performances will include Funk, Soul, Disco, New Wave, and Rap reimaginings. The event is entirely free and begins at 9pm at 200 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles, 90012.</p> <p><strong>2. Grand performances: First </strong><strong>peoples</strong><strong>, New voices.</strong></p> <p>As part of their free summer concert series, <a href="http://www.grandperformances.org/season">Grand Performances</a> has curated a line-up of fantastic Hip-Hop performers, emboldened with an indigenous perspective. The MCs are encouraging Hip-Hop fans to come experience "raw lyrics, urgent poetry, and iconic dance" by a selection of performers representing native Southern California groups, spreading their culture and passion. The event runs 8pm-10:30pm on Saturday at 350 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, 90071.</p> <p><strong>3. House Party LA + </strong><strong>DoLA</strong><strong>: The Biggest Dollar Party Ever!</strong></p> <p>Event group <a href="http://housepartyla.com/dollarparty/">House Party LA</a> has outdone themselves on this Saturday's event. Yes, there will be great performers: Tiger, Suga Shay, Gianna Lee, and DJ Damage. Yes, admission is $1, or $5 without a facebook RSVP. But here is the <em>real</em> draw: slices of pizza are just $1. Cheap fun, music, and cheap pizza? That is the selling point to end all selling points. Unless they were giving out free cars and puppies... which we can't rule out just yet, you had best to go and investigate for yourself. The event starts at 9pm and will run until 2am at the Regent, located at 448 S Main St, Los Angeles, 90013.</p> <p> </p> <p>A fond farewell to all the Off-Ramp recommendation readers and takers. It's been a pleasure.</p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/29/57709/off-ramp-recommends-stay-young-go-dancing/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Thu, 29 Jun 2017 12:30:26 -0700 Queena Kim, Off-Ramp's first producer, sheds light on the show's beginnings https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57671/queena-kim-off-ramp-s-first-producer-sheds-light-o/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57671/queena-kim-off-ramp-s-first-producer-sheds-light-o/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/b6bb4b1ce103cdab597a61fb3b877e0c/164224-small.jpg" width="2304" height="1712" alt="queena" /> <p><i>Off-Ramp producer Queena Kim acts on behalf of millions of Angelenos. The meter didn't stand a chance.</p> <p>; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Off-Ramp began eleven years ago, just as digital technology was beginning to overtake radio. No more cassette tape or mini-discs; host John and producer Queena Kim thought they could take on all of Los Angeles with two digital audio recorders and a different approach to public radio.</p> <p>Short-handed as they were, John and Queena had to adopt slash-and-burn tactics to get each show produced on time. The majority of interviews were conducted in the field; at the homes, workplaces, and favorite hang-outs of their subjects (instead of waiting for guests to come to the station) and many of the stories were edited as simple two-way interviews with life in Southern California picked up as ambient, background noise. After all, a show called Off-Ramp had better be ready to brave some LA traffic.</p> <p>At this juncture, John feels free to say what he has always wanted to, but hasn't for fear of self-aggrandizement: "I think we were trendsetters. I think Marketplace and NPR heard the stuff we were doing, and started doing stuff like it." Once again, Kim chalks it up to being in the right place at the right time technologically, and the two person team's willingness to break out of the old-school, public radio way writing a story: with a very clear sonic difference between studio narration and field audio.</p> <p>Of course, it wasn't just Marantz recorders and minimal rewriting that gave Off-Ramp its flavor. There was a whole lot of weird spewing up out of Los Angeles during the show's formative years and Kim's tenure (2006-2010). She recalls covering <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2007/06/02/3638/">a ten-theremin orchestra at Disney Hall</a>, and the excitement of working on a show that let her (and the listeners, vicariously) do things she always wanted to do. "It was almost like having a free pass to the city."</p> <p>In order to capture what was new and exciting, John and Queena both agree that it was absolutely vital to abandon the reporter's instinct for safely packaging the story ahead of time. John cites his editor at Minnesota Public Radio's philosophy, Mike Edgerly; "Go find what the story is, go out and explore and figure out what the story is. Don't figure it out at your desk first." The collaboration between John's ideas and Kim's sense of logistics formed a dialectic relationship, valuing the "third, better idea" over either of their original perspectives. In light of that, John says Queena Kim was the perfect person with whom to start Off-Ramp. </p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57671/queena-kim-off-ramp-s-first-producer-sheds-light-o/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 28 Jun 2017 15:33:26 -0700 Benmont Tench - of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - says goodbye to John with the most Off-Rampy song ever https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57669/benmont-tench-of-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-s/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57669/benmont-tench-of-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-s/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/ec0ed2685f8adebbb4b3d9fc1fb9c495/164217-small.jpg" width="1280" height="960" alt="Rabe Tench Keyboard" /> <p><i>; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Off-Ramp fan, <a href="https://scprcontribute.publicradio.org/contribute.php?utm_source=kpcc&amp;utm_medium=directmail&amp;utm_campaign=MailToWebConversion">KPCC member</a> (!), and Tom Petty and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench III joined John in his old Mercedes with his large, but portable Casio.</p> <p>Tench has lived in the hills of Tarzana for decades, in a perfectly good house, but in the 100-degree heat, John outfitted his car with condenser mikes to record a farewell ode to Off-Ramp, Tench's "Like the Sun."</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgd0HYph3zE" title="The full band version of Benmont Tench III's &quot;Like the Sun&quot;">The full band version of Benmont Tench III's "Like the Sun"</a></p> <p>"Like the Sun" helped Tench get back in the songwriting groove a decade ago after he burnt out on being professional songwriter in Nashville. He based the lyrics on tours of Los Angeles given to him by a friend, and takes the listener (with his Southern accent) from a restaurant called Michoacan to a hill top tent city. Tench also told John how he and his wife Alice explore Los Angeles.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57669/benmont-tench-of-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-s/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:47:00 -0700 Food writer Russ Parsons brings Rabe a pie (not in the face) for the Off-Ramp finale https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57667/food-writer-russ-parsons-brings-rabe-a-pie-not-in/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57667/food-writer-russ-parsons-brings-rabe-a-pie-not-in/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/ffa6df23c98eb0eb824993b323d99f9c/164215-small.jpg" width="1280" height="960" alt="Rabe Parsons Pie" /> <p><i>Former LA Times food writer Russ Parsons offers John Rabe a piece of pie, in John's Mercedes; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Semi-retired, former LA Times food writer Russ Parsons appeared often on Off-Ramp over the years, helping to explain the city’s communities through their food, as well as <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2014/07/03/38195/recipe-if-you-grill-your-hamburger-you-re-doing-it/">giving solid cooking advice</a>. For the final edition of Off-Ramp, John picked up Russ <a href="https://thebakenbroil.com/">at Jongewaard's Bake-N-Broil</a>, a Long Beach institution.</p> <p>Parsons brought John an olallieberry pie (a cross of 'Black Logan' blackberries and youngberries), whilst the inimitable Parsons -- author of "How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table" and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-French-Fry-Intriguing/dp/0618379436">"How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science"</a> -- opted for the coconut cream.</p> <p>Listen to the audio for John and Russ' observations on how food brings the disparate cultures of Los Angeles together, and to hear about which part of hosting Off-Ramp is as humbling for John as it is for Parsons when readers tell him <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2013/11/15/34692/3-reasons-you-should-dry-brine-your-turkey-this-th/">they cook his food at Thanksgiving</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/28/57667/food-writer-russ-parsons-brings-rabe-a-pie-not-in/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:01:07 -0700 Searching for Ruth Batchelor: founder of the LA Film Critics Association https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/23/57555/searching-for-ruth-batchelor-founder-of-the-la-fil/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/23/57555/searching-for-ruth-batchelor-founder-of-the-la-fil/ R. H. Greene | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/365cf176fc6445509db7232b972595d2/163600-small.jpg" width="2576" height="1932" alt="" /> <p><i>The back cover photo splash from Ruth Batchelor's album "Songs for Women's Liberation: Reviving a Dream"; Credit: </i></p> <p><address>R. H. Greene | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>I’ve been a member of the LA Film Critics Association since 1999. LAFCA is a good group - collegial and filled with real movie lovers. But it has a problem.</p> <p>It's a professional organization, meaning a baseline for membership is you have to have a job, and film criticism is overwhelmingly white and male. 78 percent of the top critics listed on RottenTomatoes are male, and women write only 18 percent of the major reviews. So LAFCA is like the profession itself: overwhelmingly a platform for white men.</p> <p>It's trying to diversify. It has been for years. But how do you do that when the pool you draw from has a huge institutional bias? According to film critic Claudia Puig, "Criticism has been a white male dominated field for very long. And it continues to be. And not just white males, but middle aged."</p> <p>Claudia is the current LAFCA president - and a legendary critic, who wrote lead reviews for 14 years at USA Today, and now appears regularly on KPCC’s Film Week.</p> <blockquote> <p>"Very few movies pass the Bechdel Test. Women are often just girlfriends, wives, mothers. They don't get to have a story arc of their own. But if you had more women reviewing these movies, they would point out certain things that people might not notice as potentially offensive. Because we have been harassed, or we have experienced any number of things. It's something I've grappled with through my entire career." - Claudia Puig</p> </blockquote> <p>I'm on a committee with Claudia for the LA Film Critics. The concept is to mentor young writers - to generate diversity, from the ground up. One idea is to have a scholarship for aspiring female film critics. We thought it would be good to name it after a prominent woman from the group's past.</p> <p>So I went to Myron Meisel, who joined LAFCA in 1979, just four years after it formed, and I asked him, "Is there a woman you can think of who played an especially prominent role in the history of the LA Film Critics Association?" "Oh!," Myron said. "Ruth Batchelor was the founder and driving force..." "Wait, what?" I asked. "LAFCA was founded by a woman?"</p> <blockquote> <p>"We weren't shocked. You had Ruth, who was very much concerned with creating a Los Angeles equivalent to the New York Film Critics Association. Which she largely pulled together by force of will. While Ruth was the moving force, you really can't discount her ability to martial the enthusiastic support of Charles Champlin as a co-founder, and the imprimatur of the Los Angeles Times behind him. Ruth had an enviable ability to make everything she undertook seem inevitable." - Myron Meisel</p> </blockquote> <p>It's poignant, isn't it? And a little creepy. A prestigious group commits to gender diversity, and somehow, it doesn't have the institutional memory to know that the pivotal figure in its history was a woman.</p> <img src="#"> <p>How could we forget Ruth? Batchelor was nothing if not memorable. Before she became a pundit, she was a successful pop songwriter in the style of Neil Sedaka, or Goffin and King. She wrote dozens of songs, recorded by everybody from Phil Spector to the Partridge Family. She wrote Elvis Presley numbers, including "Cotton Candy Land," which might be the most hated track in the Presley catalogue.</p> <p>But Batchelor also wrote "Where Do You Come From?", which is beautiful.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZNbFYf32zM" title="Elvis Presley performing Ruth Batchelor's &quot;Where do you come from?&quot;">Elvis Presley performing Ruth Batchelor's "Where do you come from?"</a></p> <p>Where <em>do</em> you come from, Ruth?</p> <p>It wasn't easy to find out.</p> <p>Batchelor's New York Times obituary was full of false leads. It said she was a critic for National Public Radio. She wasn't, but when NPR searched their archives, they unearthed a lead: a Film Comment article from 1982, where Batchelor is described as "Ruth Batchelor of National Public Radio's 'As it Happens.'" "As It Happens" airs on Canada's CBC.</p> <p>So I placed a call. And I waited.</p> <p>Meanwhile, I found a blog post about Batchelor as a songwriter on an excellent site called "<a href="http://www.zeroto180.org/">Zero to 180 - 3 Minute Magic</a>." The title of the post was riveting: "First 'Women's Liberation LP.'"</p> <img src="#"> <p>It turns out in 1971, Ruth Batchelor self-produced and financed a concept album called "Songs for Women's Liberation: Reviving a Dream." </p> <p>Myron Meisel told me about Ruth's earthy sense of humor, and it's right there in the first write-up's, where her working title is "A Quarter for the Ladies Room." A Billboard article from August 1971 quotes Batchelor about the album: "Right now I have an album of dirty Women's Liberation poems recorded, and I'm trying to sell the master." Then she laughs. "The last record company I recorded for folded."</p> <p>Batchelor shopped her record. There were no takers.</p> <p>But Batchelor proved unstoppable. She created her own record company and called it Femme Records. Then she put out what the leftist journal Broadside called "the first feminist record album," all by herself. "Reviving a Dream" is forgotten, bordering on lost. It's never been available for streaming, or released on CD.</p> <img src="#"> <p>Batchelor's record is a pastiche of radio styles from her era. There's Joan Baez folk, two drawling country laments, even some call and response stuff Batchelor probably learned from Phil Spector and his girl groups.</p> <p>Are Batchelor's songs any good? They're amazing. Amazing just because they exist.</p> <p>She fits into the churning sea of anonymous faces so seamlessly it takes awhile to realize: She's Ruth Batchelor. The woman who founded the LA Film Critics. A group currently struggling with gender diversity.</p> <p>LAFCA prez Claudia Puig agreed to an interview knowing it had to do with LAFCA, but not what it was about. I played her Batchelor's song "Drop the Mop." Batchelor intended it as an anthem, scored to a tempo of marching feet.</p> <p>The listen was awkward - like force feeding a roommate your iTunes playlist. Claudia took notes the whole time, to occupy her critical mind, but I could see when it ended that she was moved.</p> <p> "Yeah, it's a really interesting song," Claudia said. "My reaction is sort of...ummm..."</p> <p>Claudia hesitated, looking for words.</p> <p>"And this was the origin of the group. Yeah. It really kind of... It is really interesting. I'd never heard of her. She was right there, fighting that fight." </p> <p>"And here, we were looking for an avatar," I said.</p> <p>"Right. Right. It means something. This is a really important discovery that you made."</p> <p>A piece of the portrait was missing - an essential one. It came courtesy of Kevin Robertson, a producer for "As It Happens" at the CBC. Batchelor had been the show's "Hollywood Correspondent" in the early 1980s. There was audio in the archives. Kevin provided me with five MP3s.</p> <p>Batchelor's CBC brand was gender traditional. She was the tinseltown gadfly, a niche created by Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons in the 1930s. There was gossip about Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson. Richard Burton's widow. Marvin Hamlisch. TV's "Gomer Pyle."</p> <p>It was kitsch heaven, so I wasn't disappointed. Not exactly. But it was still a bit like listening to Wonder Woman try to be ordinary, because hey, we all gotta eat.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erv5XZXC5Ww" title="Ruth Batchelor's &quot;Mr. Principal&quot;">Ruth Batchelor's "Mr. Principal"</a></p> <p>The LA Film Critics get a cameo in Batchelor's Oscar season broadcast, when she mentions her LAFCA Awards vote. For awhile, I thought that would be the only audio connecting the "As It Happens" Ruth Batchelor to the feminist fireball she wanted to be.</p> <p>Then Batchelor starts riffing on "Partners," a buddy cop farce about a straight cop who goes undercover as a gay man. The film had sparked protests from the gay community. Batchelor is unsympathetic, which is surprising in a civil rights pioneer. Her reasoning is devastating.</p> <p>"You know if women got angry every time there was a movie against women," Batchelor says, "there wouldn't be any movies."</p> <p>Batchelor died of cancer early - she was just 58. 25 years later, men still direct most mainstream movies - 93 percent as of 2015. They have 70 percent of the speaking parts, and play 88 percent of the leads.</p> <p>While women get to be naked twice as often in American movies.</p> <p>Men review almost all movies too. Maybe that's why Ruth Batchelor founded the LA Film Critics. Because she lived in that world. She covered it. Spoke to it. Fought hard against it.</p> <p>And then left behind a hidden legacy.</p> <p>"She is our avatar," Claudia says, as our interview time runs out. "It sort of makes me want to redouble our efforts to honor her spirit."</p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/23/57555/searching-for-ruth-batchelor-founder-of-the-la-fil/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Fri, 23 Jun 2017 08:20:48 -0700 Interview in the mausoleum with relics expert Elizabeth Harper https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57520/interview-in-the-mausoleum-with-relics-expert-eliz/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57520/interview-in-the-mausoleum-with-relics-expert-eliz/ John Rabe | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/c53ea1231654659becb403fe72d5f01f/163498-small.jpg" width="3066" height="1897" alt="" /> <p><i>Elizabeth Harper, a relics expert, at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena; Credit: John Rabe</i></p> <p><address>John Rabe | Off-Ramp®</address></p><blockquote> <p>"Reach a certain moment in your life, and you discover that your days are spent as much with the dead as they are with the living." – Paul Auster</p> </blockquote> <p>This has been one of my favorite quotes for a long time. To me it means that when you get older and your friends, relatives, and heroes start dying, you have a choice. You can either stop thinking about them because they're dead, giving up, as it were, the pleasure of their company; or you can keep them in your life. To me, that's not denial; it's being realistic.</p> <img src="#"> <p>So, it makes sense that I felt a kindred spirit with Elizabeth Harper, who keeps <a href="http://www.allthesaintsyoushouldknow.com/">the website All the Saints You Should Know</a>, when we met at a beautiful mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena to talk about the history of cemeteries, relics, castrated Italian avuncular mummies, and the best spots in Los Angeles to commune healthily with death.</p> <h2>Elizabeth will be part of the team when Atlas Obscura <a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/events/the-cathedral-of-our-lady-of-angels?utm_source=Obscura+Society+Los+Angeles+(Atlas+Obscura)&amp;utm_campaign=d560d7be7b-LA_Our_Lady_of_Angels6_1_2017&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_aefe2fa0cb-d560d7be7b-60143497&amp;mc_cid=d560d7be7b&amp;mc_eid=01127042b2">leads tours of The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels</a> on Saturday, July 1. It's billed as "A celebration of life, death, architecture, and the patron saint of Los Angeles."</h2> <p>Here are some highlights of my mausoleum conversation with Elizabeth Harper:</p> <p><strong>At first glance, she says, all of the tombs are very similar.</strong></p> <blockquote> <p>And that was one of the things, when we started making modern cemeteries, outside the city lines, they wanted them to be regular and not so expressive and macabre. But people leave little things behind. On a lot of these (crypts), you can see a little emblem of something that was important to them. If they were a Mason or if they served in the Army. I like the (cremains) urns that are shaped like books. I have a friend who is a librarian and she was very taken with the idea of being in a book.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Napoleon instituted the Edict of Saint-Cloud, which mandated that cemeteries must be outside city limits (for health reasons) and must be toned-down (for no good reason).</strong></p> <blockquote> <p>People did not like the edict. There's a very famous poem called <a href="http://www.classicitaliani.it/foscolo/fosco01.htm">Sepulchers by Ugo Foscolo</a> that was written in protest, that said, essentially, looking upon the graves of strong men strengthens the mind and the spirit.</p> </blockquote> <img src="#"> <p><a href="http://www.allthesaintsyoushouldknow.com/blog2/#/new-gallery/" title="From Slate: Photographing the Real Bodies of Incorrupt Saints, by Elizabeth Harper">From Slate: Photographing the Real Bodies of Incorrupt Saints, by Elizabeth Harper</a></p> <p><strong>Elizabeth often writes about cemeteries and tombs and sometimes posts photos of bodies, which causes a "certain segment" to assume she has no experience with death, or she wouldn't presume to do such a thing. </strong></p> <blockquote> <p>What I want to put out there is that we have this pervasive idea that we grieve and move on, and this moving on is very important, and I think there are multiple ways to incorporate the idea of death in your life, to get used to the idea, without forgetting, that's more of a way of memorializing. When I take these pictures, I'm very aware that these are real people, and I think of myself, what I will be one day, and people I love, who are already there.</p> </blockquote> <h2>Make sure to listen to our entire interview in the audio player to hear Elizabeth's 3 top spots in Los Angeles to consider the place of death in our lives, and to hear about poor old Uncle Vincent, a neutered naked mummy in a small town in Italy who has a large fan base.</h2> <img src="#"> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57520/interview-in-the-mausoleum-with-relics-expert-eliz/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 21 Jun 2017 18:11:11 -0700 Off-Ramp Recommends: Getting 'Off the 405' for La Luz https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57525/off-ramp-recommends-getting-off-the-405-for-some-m/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57525/off-ramp-recommends-getting-off-the-405-for-some-m/ Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/ac4191d8f59c1f8bcad1fa437c4c30ac/163470-small.jpg" width="2048" height="1365" alt="" /> <p><i>Catcus garden at the Getty Museum (Creative Commons via Flickr user Prayitno); Credit: </i></p> <p><address>Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>'<a href="http://www.getty.edu/museum/programs/performances/offthe405.html">Off</a><a href="http://www.getty.edu/museum/programs/performances/offthe405.html"> the 405</a>' is a free night of music, agua-fresca cocktails, and immeasurable views. The Getty Museum stacks their performance calendar with great artists, sometimes indie, sometimes local, always energetic; this Saturday's line-up features the great, all-Angelena rock group, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/laluzusa/">La Luz</a>.</p> <p>The band's sound was deemed "surf-noir" by <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/1476972/la-luz-pink-slime-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/">Stereogum</a>, complete with bright lyrics and haunting harmonies. The band quickly gained notoriety in LA for the energy of their live performances, and Soul-Train style dance competitions during their sets.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUiwINM5lM" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUiwINM5lM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUiwINM5lM</a></p> <p>'Off the 405' takes place from 6pm to 9pm and will feature a cash bar, some light bites, and an opening DJ set as the sun goes down.</p> <p>It doesn't get more scenic and quintessentially Los Angeles than this. So enjoy a free night out, a craft cocktail, and some fantastic music. Don't forget to snap a skyline-selfie and send it to Team Off-Ramp!</p> <p><em>The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in LA, roughly 12 miles northwest of downtown. </em></p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57525/off-ramp-recommends-getting-off-the-405-for-some-m/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 21 Jun 2017 14:39:16 -0700 Off-Ramp's producer on the first time he ever heard public radio (it was Off-Ramp) https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57487/off-ramp-s-producer-on-the-first-time-he-ever-hear/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57487/off-ramp-s-producer-on-the-first-time-he-ever-hear/ Chris Greenspon and Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/f5dcf5ab3b227e2b8ab40e41ab043a15/163452-small.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="" /> <p><i>Hollywood billboard queen, Angelyne was featured on the first Off-Ramp episode producer Chris Greenspon ever heard.; Credit: Creative Commons via Flickr user Thomas Hawk</i></p> <p><address>Chris Greenspon and Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>After a few semesters of college radio at Mt. San Antonio College, I landed my first radio job: Board Operator! At struggling KFWB Newstalk 980. My career in radio began the way it does for so many, working odd hours and weekends.</p> <p>A few months into my new gig, I was leaving for work and I thought, “You know, if I’m going to work in radio, I should listen to the radio.” I drove over the bridge on Hacienda Boulevard in La Puente, heading towards the 60, and right in front of my on-ramp, there was a big, orange billboard for KPCC. Why not 89.3?</p> <img src="#"> <p>The first thing I heard (and I should clarify that this was also my first time ever hearing public radio) was <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2013/11/04/34495/janis-joplin-finally-gets-her-star-on-the-hollywoo/">Janis Joplin getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame</a>, on Off-Ramp. Clive Davis, the CBS A&amp;R executive who signed Joplin, told the crowd about how Joplin had suggested sealing their new relationship by having sex (though he demurred), and that his heart was broken when she died. Then Kris Kristofferson sang “Me &amp; Bobby McGee,” and I was smiling, until I heard a chorus of hippies singing "Mercedes Benz." Pee-yew!</p> <p>“Should I stay?” I asked myself. How could I not, when someone named <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2013/11/07/34560/dylan-brody-let-slip-the-dogs-of-war-and-cry-get-o/">Dylan Brody came on and told a story about letting his dogs poop on the neighbor’s lawn</a>? But then, the real cheese, for a 20-something year old, biracial kid who loved space ships and tough punk girls; <a href="http://www.scpr.org/events/2013/11/04/1176/jaime-hernandez/">"Love and Rockets" cartoonist Jaime Hernandez talking about drawing for Junot Diaz</a>.</p> <img src="#"> <p>All this was to say nothing of the loud, defiant-sounding host, who kept saying. "This is Off-Ramp, I’m John Rabe." I listened to him slide between all of these topics, and even report from the field himself, talking about museums in a way that wasn’t – boring. After a few more pieces and a few more uses of the Off-Ramp theme song, I had a new favorite show. And I suspect a few other people did too.</p> <p>That was November 2013. Five months later, I was on the show. At the end of the episode, I noticed that they had an intern in the credits, and after many repeated scourings of the KPCC careers page, the position finally opened up. So what’d I do? I went out with my chintzy audio recorder, and recorded a story so if I got an interview, I wouldn’t go in empty-handed. I didn’t get the internship then, but John did buy the piece. Remember the one about <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2014/03/13/36470/restaurant-find-the-golden-owl-brings-burmese-stre/">the Burmese Café run by an ex-biologist</a>?</p> <img src="#"> <p>I kept freelancing after that, and honestly, I got a lot of my ideas from stuff that Off-Ramp wasn’t doing. John would have Angelyne, and her famous Hollywood billboard, but what about <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2015/03/04/41668/off-ramp-solves-the-mystery-of-rose-hills-cemetery/">the giant neon sign at Rose Hills Cemetery</a> in Pico Rivera? Kevin Ferguson would hang out with Mike Watt from the Minutemen, but what about <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2014/10/15/39838/la-punk-experimentalists-the-flesh-eaters-remember/">punk supergroup, the Flesh Eaters</a>? And could we talk about a domestic violence shelter in a Thanksgiving Special, or the fact that a home-abortion movement started in Los Angeles?</p> <img src="#"> <p>John eventually asked me to intern after turning the Jim Tully mini-documentary in, and even after joining the company, writing these kinds of stories for Off-Ramp was still not easy, but there was room for all of them. I would be beyond thrilled if somebody heard even one of them when they heard Off-Ramp for the first time.</p> <p><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br>  </p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/21/57487/off-ramp-s-producer-on-the-first-time-he-ever-hear/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 21 Jun 2017 13:22:06 -0700 The Cinderella story of Trap Girl's trans front woman https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/16/57332/the-cinderella-story-of-trap-girl-s-trans-front-wo/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/16/57332/the-cinderella-story-of-trap-girl-s-trans-front-wo/ Chris Greenspon | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/898053b6ef8afd97517cf804afdc7215/162774-small.jpg" width="1200" height="800" alt="Trap Girl cross" /> <p><i>Drew Arriola Sands, left, sings in the South Gate band Trap Girl at La Conxa, 2017.; Credit: Amina Cruz</i></p> <p><address>Chris Greenspon | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Growing up, Drew Arriola-Sands' music was "too weird for the weird kids." Her first band couldn't even get a backyard gig, but since Sands transitioned in 2013, her current band, Trap Girl, have been at the center of an exploding queer hardcore scene in Los Angeles. </p> <p><em>NOTE: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/382949785434830/">Trans Pride L.A.</a> is taking place this weekend, Saturday June 17, at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. To hear a preview of the event with organizer Gina Bigham, listen to the extra audio on this post.</em></p> <p>Sands is 28 now, but she's always been drawn to glamorous women with big hair. Her mirror is adorned with pictures of Ronnie Spector, Dolly Parton, and Jayne Mansfield. Wig idols, she calls them. Sands has a large collection of wigs, and even makes her own, but it all started 20 years ago.</p> <p>"When I was a little kid, my mom always had short black hair," Sands remembers. "And then one day, getting ready for school, she walked out of the bathroom with a long, thick, black braid with a ribbon on it, and it freaked me out, because I never saw her with long hair. So I was like, 'That’s weird! What is it?'" She was eight years old. For weeks to come, Sands would lock herself in the bathroom and stare at the extension braid in it's clear, Avon box until her mother threw it away without warning. The seed had been planted, though.</p> <img src="#"> <p>Her love of singing came at an early age too. As a child, Sands would stand up on a chair while watching baseball with her father to sing the national anthem. Her mother would scold her for being loud and tell her that she could sing at a baseball game when she was older. At 11, her father put her in little league.</p> <p>We look at a picture of young Drew in a baseball jersey. Sands was a chubby little kid, biting down a smile, and burying her hand in her mitt. "I was a 'catcher' even then," laughs Sands.</p> <img src="#"> <p>"I was told I was gay before I even knew I was gay, because people saw I was feminine, did things a little different, spoke a little different, a little more sensitive," says Sands. Bullying was a consistent part of her childhood, with no one incident standing out because there was always "80 more horrible ones," she says. But she found ways to cope through her hobbies.</p> <p>Her father said if she wasn't going to play a sport, she had to play an instrument. The first instrument she started with in earnest was the guitar, before picking up bass and more. "Nirvana was still the biggest band in the world. Everyone at my junior high who played guitar learned how to play 'Rape Me' or 'Smells like Teen Spirit' as their first song" says Sands. The first song sands learned on guitar was Nirvana's "About a Girl," and the first album she bought was Hole's "Live Through This."</p> <blockquote> <p>"One of my first jobs, actually, was making burnt cd’s for a guy who sold them at the alley, and he made me copy Trina cd’s, ten at a time. She had songs on there like 'Nasty Bitch,' things like that, and I just loved it! But it was like a guilty pleasure, 'cause I was still a rock kid."  - Drew Arriola-Sands</p> </blockquote> <img src="#"> <p>By her early twenties, she started her first real band, <a href="https://theglitterpath.bandcamp.com/">The Glitter Path</a>; Sands describes it as something like Daniel Johnston, the schizophrenic outsider musician, mixed with Patsy Cline - extremely emotional, "lying across the road, ready to die type of music." It didn't fit in in the "very straight, very cis, surf rock-indie" backyard scene, says Sands. She can't remember the band playing more than two or three shows, anywhere, but she says she doesn't hold any grudges.</p> <p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/theglitterpath/wear-a-wig-from-bitches-with" title="The Glitter Path's &quot;Wear a Wig&quot;">The Glitter Path's "Wear a Wig"</a></p> <p>We look at another photo of Sands from her Glitter Path days. She points out the increasing number of women’s accessories she was wearing at the time. She was starting to feel a change coming.</p> <p>"I was in a relationship in 2013 with an artist, but I was male presenting, and I had these feelings of identity and gender, and I expressed them to him, and he accepted them," Sands says,  "but didn’t know how to deal with me and I didn’t know how to deal with myself." Sands boyfriend broke up with her, and she reevaluated her emotional state. "My mental health was not going to get better if I did not come out [as a trans person]," she decided.</p> <p>She had a much easier time dating after transitioning, and one chance hook-up set Sands down a new musical road.</p> <blockquote> <p>"So this guy I was hooking up with at the time would play the Damned in the room while we were hooking up. I had a guitar in the room, and he didn’t know I played music and said, 'Do you play guitar?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, you should start a band, like the Damned, and play guitar. It’d be good, looking the way you do, and wear ball gowns.'” - Drew Arriola-Sands</p> </blockquote> <p>Sands started Trap Girl, not as guitarist, but as lead singer, in 2014.</p> <p>The early shows were backyard gigs in South Central. Songs like “<a href="https://trapgirl.bandcamp.com/releases">Dead Men Don’t Rape</a>” went over well, but Sands wasn’t out as a trans performer yet. Maybe people could read between the lines though, with a name like Trap Girl. Sands offers a few definitions for Trap Girls/Trap Queens (though she has never settled on just one).</p> <ul> <li>A woman who helps out a "trap lord," or drug dealer</li> <li>A very convincing transvestite</li> <li>A girl trapped in a man's body</li> </ul> <p>Throughout 2015, Trap Girl built their following Downtown and on the Eastside, with Sands finally out as a trans artist.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5qGYYYca8s" title="Trap Girl live at Xicana PUNK Night">Trap Girl live at Xicana PUNK Night</a></p> <p>"I started this band alone," explains Sands. "I didn’t know any queer people, I didn’t know any trans people, I didn’t know who was gonna help this band. Who was gonna give us a shot? So, I was ready to defend this band, even though there was no one defend it from."</p> <p>Rather, Trap Girl were embraced and found sisterhood in bands like Sister Mantos and Yaawn. In 2016, Sands took it a step further and organized the first annual Transgress Fest (at the Santa Ana LGBT Center), for trans performers. "We had people as young as twelve to people as old as sixty in the audience," she says. "We had a huge turnout. I never expected that."</p> <img src="#"> <p>Transgress Fest is coming back in November. In the meantime, Trap Girl are getting ready to release their second EP, "The Black Market." The title track grapples with the question of whether or not a trans person needs surgery.</p> <blockquote> <p>"Being a woman doesn’t mean you have to look like a woman. I didn’t know any trans people at all before I transitioned, so automatically, my idea was to think that I needed to present as feminine to be accepted as a trans person, but little did I know, that that’s the last thing you need to be a trans person. Not all people can pass, and that’s ok." - Drew Arriola-Sands</p> </blockquote> <p>Sands says the takeaway from "The Black Market" is not to risk your life with black market cosmetic procedures. "These girls are killing themselves to achieve their looks," says Sands. "They’re getting it offline [sic], off Craigslist. You know, they go to someone’s basement and get their ass injected with cement, and then they go home and get a blood clot in their lungs, and they die." "The Black Market" EP is due for release this summer.</p> <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/trapgirlmusic/">Trap Girl</a> is singer Drew Arriola-Sands, bassist Ibette Ortiz, drummer Jorge Reveles, and guitarist Estevan Moreno.</p> <img src="#"><p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/16/57332/the-cinderella-story-of-trap-girl-s-trans-front-wo/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Fri, 16 Jun 2017 11:12:31 -0700 CAAM exhibits the diversity of the disappearing black woman https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/15/57360/caam-exhibits-the-diversity-of-the-disappearing-bl/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/15/57360/caam-exhibits-the-diversity-of-the-disappearing-bl/ Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/270ba3d953090c884303a6750e4fd5d8/162947-small.jpg" width="4000" height="2667" alt="" /> <p><i>"Dispersion" (detail). Acrylic ink and paint on canvas. (Courtesy of Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle); Credit: </i></p> <p><address>Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle's "The Evanesced" was inspired by the #SayHerName movement against police violence, as well as Los Angeles's Grim Sleeper serial killer. Hinkle depicts black women in the nude, twisting and writhing, as though they're sinking back into the canvas. Or are they reemerging from it?</p> <p>Deputy Director of the California African American Museum Naima Keith says Hinkle's exhibit looks at the "historical present," the way in which history still affects us today, harkening back to slavery and Jim Crow. Keith says the main issue Hinkle is addressing is the invisibility of black women, especially those who are abused or in danger. </p> <img src="#"> <p>Hinkle was particularly inspired by the South LA serial killer "The Grim Sleeper." He is accused of <a href="http://www.lapdonline.org/grimsleeper">murdering over one hundred women</a> from the 1980's onward, until being captured in 2007. Many of his victims were women of color according to the Los Angeles Police Department.</p> <p>"He had been killing prostitutes and runaways and drug addicted women," says Keith, noting that some saw these deaths as occupational hazards.</p> <img src="#"> <p>Most of Hinkle's subjects in the paintings and sketches in "The Evanesced" are clearly nude. This was a deliberate choice to showcase femininity, according to Keith. She says:</p> <blockquote> <p>She’s talking about being women... There’s love, there’s joy, there’s pain. All things we experience as all women... But [nudity], I think, allows us to focus on the female form, not necessarily get caught up on what they are wearing or what they’re doing.</p> </blockquote> <img src="#"> <p>In the artwork, viewers can see that every face, body, and hair style is completely unique to each sketch or painting. Keith says this helps the viewer appreciate the diversity amongst women of color. She says:</p> <blockquote> <p>You have women that are smiling. You have women that are looking at you- you know- lovingly, shyly. Not every one, not every image in the show is about negativity, disappearance, or sadness. There is a bit of celebration. There’s interaction between multiple women. That’s what makes the body of work so interesting: it’s not just seeing women of color through one lens. There’s the possibility of seeing them through, like I said, disappearance, and also the freedom to have a wide range of emotions.</p> </blockquote> <img src="#"> <p>There is one painting that continues to draw Naima Keith back to it. It is called "Uproot 2017" and it features a feminine figure with three exposed breasts. She says this painting speaks to her about motherhood and the connection women have with their changing bodies. Keith says:</p> <blockquote> <p>I asked Kenyatta why she depicts women with multiple [extra] breasts and we had a conversation about being moms. Kenyatta and I are both mothers of young children... As moms, we just kinda talked about how things aren't what they used to be, in terms of where they used to be. Like I said, becoming mothers, you have this different relationship with your body in relation to someone else.</p> </blockquote> <p><em>Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle's "The Evanesced" runs at the <a href="http://www.caamuseum.org/web_pages/current_exhibitions_evanesced.htm">California African American Museum</a> through June 25, 2017.</em></p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/15/57360/caam-exhibits-the-diversity-of-the-disappearing-bl/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Thu, 15 Jun 2017 14:17:26 -0700 Off-Ramp Recommends: Spending a day with your "dad" https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/15/57371/off-ramp-recommends-spending-a-day-with-your-dad/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/15/57371/off-ramp-recommends-spending-a-day-with-your-dad/ Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/72332eb241809b4619ea6b4def9928bb/163118-small.jpg" width="2432" height="1800" alt="" /> <p><i>Off-Ramp's Rosalie Atkinson, her dad, and her dad's mustache circa quite a few facial hair fads ago. (Credit: Rosalie Atkinson); Credit: </i></p> <p><address>Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp®</address></p><h2>These cool tips would have landed in your in-box with no extra effort on your part IF you'd subscribed to Off-Ramp's weekly e-newsletter. We send out a recommendation every week, along with all the latest Off-Ramp news. <a href="http://info.americanpublicmediagroup.org/LP=174">Sign up now!</a> </h2> <p>Father's Day is coming quick! But before you run to Walgreen's Sunday morning to find they are sold out of touching cards for the father figure in your life, let us help you curate a fun day out with dad.</p> <p>Thinking about significant-figure holidays, there seems to be more of a method for planning Mother's Day surprises. You get the breakfast-in-bed together quietly for mom or grandma or aunt, etc., wake her up early on a Sunday, she quickly scrambles to hide the fact that she decided to sleep pantsless, then you present her with some poorly made waffles and juice which she will inevitably spill on her white sheets.</p> <img src="#"> <p>But what about your father-figure? A card? Yes. Maybe a golf ball? Okay. A mug you Amazon Prime'd to him in a last-ditch effort that says "Captain Dad?" Don't do that. It might be weird to ask the men in our life, "What the hell do you want?" under the veil of Father's Day, so to spare you we've compiled some ideas.</p> <p><strong>Idea #1: Take your father to get pampered! </strong>Spa days are are not gender-specific and when was the last time someone even looked at your dad's feet? Hollywood salon <a href="http://www.hammerandnails-salon.com/">Hammer &amp; Nails</a> focuses on men's cuticle care. Treat your dad to a MANi-pedi, and he'll also enjoy a glass of bourbon, a personal flatscreen TV with noise-cancelling headphones, all while relaxing in an over-sized leather chair. Although Hammer &amp; Nails targets men, women are also welcome.<em> </em><em>8257 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046.</em></p> <p><strong>Idea #2: Take in a tasting.</strong> Greenbar Distillery is LA's first spirit distillery since the Prohibition was repealed in 1933. They boast the "World's largest portfolio of organic spirits." Take a tour, pose with their gigantic copper stills and whiskey barrels, sign up for a class, or just taste some of their 16 spirits and five bitters. Their tours are reserved for Saturday so consider this a pregame to your other Father's Day plans. <em>2459 E 8th St, Los Angeles, California, 90021.</em></p> <img src="#"> <p><strong>Idea #3: Younger kids? Let's play! </strong>Sunday, the Autry Museum of the American West is opening a <a href="https://theautry.org/exhibitions/play">new exhibit</a> about the history of play. Experience the next generation of toys and games, but also see how they differ across generations and cultures. The exhibit is very interactive and the museum is in beautiful Griffith Park, so there are plenty of hiking trails, picnic spots, or viewpoints to snap some pictures with your man/men. <em> 234 Museum Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90065 .</em></p> <img src="#"> <p><strong>Idea #4: The Abbey's annual Father's Day Brunch. </strong>For the past six years, The Abbey in West Hollywood has hosted a brunch in celebration of LGBT families or those considering starting one. There will be a breakfast buffet from 9am-1pm and attendees can get more info about fostering opportunities. $18 per person. <em>692 N Robertson Blvd, West Hollywood, CA </em><em>90069 .</em></p> <p>Much love to all the dads, uncles, grandpas, friends, and men nurturing other people!</p> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/15/57371/off-ramp-recommends-spending-a-day-with-your-dad/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Thu, 15 Jun 2017 12:22:48 -0700 Neil deGrasse Tyson shares his top 3 StarTalk guests https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/14/57384/neil-degrasse-tyson-shares-his-top-3-startalk-gues/ https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/14/57384/neil-degrasse-tyson-shares-his-top-3-startalk-gues/ Chris Greenspon | Off-Ramp® <img src="https://a.scpr.org/i/c6711635b9fb1029c35d47c5d831d3de/163031-small.jpg" width="5389" height="3535" alt="Degrasse Tyson Cinematheque" /> <p><i>L-R Access Hollywood film critic Scott Mantz moderates a talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, June 9, 2017. Courtesy of the American Cinematheque; Credit: Robert Enger</i></p> <p><address>Chris Greenspon | Off-Ramp®</address></p><p>Neil deGrasse Tyson came onto the science-themed, late night talk show circuit with some clout. The "Cosmos" host, author, educator, and Hayden Planetarium director's first guest when StarTalk "jumped species" from podcast to television was Whoopi Goldberg. </p> <p>On Friday June 9, 2017, Tyson opened up a screening of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" at <a href="http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/calendar">the American Cinematheque's</a> Aero Theatre in Santa Monica with a talk on his career as an astrophysicist-turned-broadcaster. Access Hollywood's film critic, Scott Mantz, moderated the event and asked Tyson for his three favorite StarTalk guests.</p> <h2>1. Nichelle Nichols</h2> <p>While StarTalk was still just a podcast, Nichols appeared on StarTalk twice. Tyson learned that Star Trek had been a holdover gig for Nichols while paying her dues to land dancing parts on Broadway. Tyson didn't think being Lieutenant Uhura was anything to sneeze at. "She is actually in the chain of command to be captain of the ship," remarked Tyson.</p> <p>Early on into the series, Nichols decided it was time to go back to New York and find her dream job, Tyson said. However, before leaving she attended a party where she bumped into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. </p> <blockquote> <p>"And he says, 'Oh, my children! We line up at night, and you make us all proud.' And she said, 'Oh, thank you, but I'm going back to New York,' and he said, 'You can't do that. There are no other black people on television. Much less, what there are, they're not in any kind of role of responsibility, and integrity, and dignity.' And he convinced her to stay with the series." - Neil deGrasse Tyson</p> </blockquote> <p>Tyson teared up, searched for tissues, and said he opened up a bottle of wine at eleven in the morning during the taping with Nichols. "And then, I think it was only one and a half glasses of wine," Tyson said, before he asked Nichols about her and William Shatner's interracial kiss on Star Trek, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/20/world/first-interracial-kiss-on-tv/index.html" title="maybe the actual first interracial kiss">one of the first interracial kisses on television</a>. Tyson said Nichols told him that the producers of the show wanted to film a version of the scene without the kiss, but that she and Shatner purposefully kept messing up the non-kiss until they ran out of filming time so that the editors of the show wouldn't have any such scene to work with.</p> <p>Nichols then asked Tyson if he wanted to see what a "racial kiss" was, and then she kissed him.</p> <p>Tyson also recognized Nichols for her role in recruiting women and people of color for NASA space missions from engineering schools across the United States. Tyson said Nichols was able to find these recruits by looking where NASA had not been looking.</p> <blockquote> <p>"You were only looking at the U.S. Naval Academy and not Tuskegee Institute where they have a huge engineering group. So she laid out this recipe, and that first astronaut class: it had black people, it had Asians, it had women. And they were at the top of their class when they came out of college and graduate school, so she shaped the modern view of NASA."</p> </blockquote> <h2>2. Biz Stone</h2> <p>"The name doesn't even sound real," said Tyson, referring to the co-founder of Twitter. Tyson counts Stone among the great entrepreneurs who never finished college: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg.</p> <p>"Until he described how he envisioned Twitter, I had not fully appreciated what it was," said Tyson. Stone asked Tyson if he had ever seen birds suddenly take flight and flock together after behaving independently, and then, just as swiftly as they started, return to their posts and be "individuals again."</p> <p>"Twitter is a flocking mechanism for humans," Tyson said. "I live near Ground Zero in New York City," Tyson recalled what could be described as a Twitter moment from 2011. "I'm watching TV, all of a sudden I heard noises in the street. Crowds were developing. I said, 'What's going on?'" While Tyson was sitting in his home, it had been announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.</p> <p>Tyson got on the internet and read the news. "I missed all that, but all these people got the tweet, and everyone gathered back at Ground Zero." That realization of the nature of social media made Biz Stone Tyson's number two guest.</p> <h2>3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</h2> <p>Jabbar's appearance on StarTalk is from the upcoming season, so Tyson did not want to reveal the topics of the episode, but he could not resist including Jabbar because of his numerous qualifications.</p> <ul> <li>He has written a novel about Sherlock Holmes' older brother, Mycroft Holmes (<a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2015/09/22/44565/kareem-abdul-jabbar-explores-sherlock-s-smarter-br/?slide=2">which Jabbar talked with Off-Ramp about in 2015</a>)</li> <li>He had a column in Time Magazine</li> <li>His high scores on Celebrity Jeopardy</li> <li>He's the highest scorer ever for the NBA, with 38,387 career points (Kobe Bryan is third with 33,643 points)</li> <li>He played in the All-Star Game 19 times out of his 20 NBA seasons</li> <li>He has six NBA Championship rings</li> <li>And he was in "Airplane!" and Bruce Lee's "Game of Death"</li> </ul> <p>Tyson gives us one giveaway though, from Jabbar's interview. The one film role that Jabbar is disappointed about never being cast in was Chewbacca in "Star Wars."</p> <p><em>Neil deGrasse Tyson's new book is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Astrophysics-People-Hurry-deGrasse-Tyson/dp/0393609391/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Astrophysics for People in a Hurry</a>. Thanks to him and the American Cinematheque for allowing us to excerpt their presentation on Off-Ramp.</em></p> <p> </p> <ol> </ol> <p><a href="https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/06/14/57384/neil-degrasse-tyson-shares-his-top-3-startalk-gues/">This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.</a></p> Wed, 14 Jun 2017 18:53:30 -0700