Another take on the late Daryl Gates - spymaster ... Tom Hanks on public radio, World War Two, and more ... deaf and hearing actors in play about famous French murder case ... Kitty Felde talks with Vin Scully - in 1983! ... CyberFrequencies and life on the web ...
Arrivederci, Maestro!
UPDATE 4-27-2010: Alan Rich, the dean of the classical music critics, died Friday in his sleep at the age of 85. He could be crusty and impatient, but he was always relevant and never boring, and I'm sorry he only appeared on Off-Ramp once: When I was looking for someone to put Esa-Peka Salonen into perspective last year, he was the perfect choice. He welcomed me into his house on the West Side, and was gracious and friendly -- even when my batteries died midway through the interview and we had to start again. RIP, Alan Rich, and thanks. -- John Rabe
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As Esa-Pekka Salonen concludes his tenure as the music director of the LA Philharmonic, John Rabe talks to classical music critic Alan Rich about an end of an era.
Tom Hanks on life, art, and war -- an exclusive interview with Off-Ramp's John Rabe
Tom Hanks has been a big KPCC supporter for years, and gladly agreed to attend a KPCC donor event on the West Side this week to show his love of the station. He also agreed to let me interview him at the event. The only thing we kept off-limits -- in a wide ranging interview about World War Two, Abe Lincoln, "Philadelphia," and the extent to which KPCC invades his checkbook -- were the shooting locations for his upcoming movie, "Larry Crowne," starring Hanks and featuring another KPCC supporter, George Takei.
We Talk Education with Gates Foundation's Adam Porsch and Crenshaw High's James Altuner
This week, we talk about where kids are with technology and then where many of our public schools are.
Check out the Tetris video and the skateboard-keyboard at CyberFrequencies.
Daryl Gates, Spymaster. Journalist David Cay Johnston now tells what the LA Times wouldn't.
Friends and admirers of the late LAPD chief Daryl Gates may think I’m piling on by adding more negatives to the former chief’s history, but it’s not journalism’s job to be respectful. It’s our job to fill-in the picture when it matters. And what journalist David Cay Johnston has to say about Gates matters. Johnston -- no conspiracy blogger but a Pulitzer and Polk winner -- makes a convincing case that Gates ran a local and international spy organization that he used to prevent politicians and publishers from going after him or the department. COME INSIDE for a link to his article in LA Observed.
Read Johnston's special article on Gates for LA Observed.
Deaf West Theatre takes on famous French murder case in “My Sister in This House”
80 years ago, the story of the Papin sisters took France by storm. They were white slaves to an upper class family, and it drove them to murder. Playwright Wendy Kesselman wrote “My Sister in This House,” a play based on the sisters’ story, in 1982. Now, with the help of director Michael Unger, she has adapted the script for a non-hearing audience at Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood. KPCC’s Steve Julian met with Unger, the deaf actresses, and their speaking counterparts. COME INSIDE for details and a transcript of Steve's story.
THE DEAF WEST PRODUCTION OF "MY SISTER IN THIS HOUSE" STARS TWO DEAF ACTRESSES, DEANNE BRAY AND AMBER ZION. THEY PORTRAY CHRISTINE AND LEA PAPIN.
ONSTAGE, THEY USE SIGN LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER AND WITH MANY IN THE AUDIENCE. FOR THOSE WHO HEAR, THEIR WORDS ARE SPOKEN BY ACTRESSES DARRIN REVITZ AND LINDSAY EVANS.
IT SOUNDS A LITTLE COMPLICATED BUT, TRUST ME, AFTER SEEING DEAF WEST’S PRODUCTION OF “PIPPIN” LAST YEAR AT THE MARK TAPER FORUM, IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
FOR OUR INTERVIEW, I WAS JOINED BY ELIZABETH GREENE WHO TRANSLATED FOR AMBER, WHO PLAYS LEA, AND DEANNE, WHO PLAYS CHRISTINE.
EG: [Interpreting for Christine] It’s clear that Christine believed that, in a past life, she was Lea’s husband.
SJ: Christine and Lea were believed to have become lovers while in their twenties.
EG: [Interpreting for Christine] They were very, very close, but if they were lovers, it was in an innocent fashion.
SJ: When they were working as maids for the Lancelins in Le Mans, France, Christine and Lea were not allowed to converse with the residents, leave the house, or even use the bathroom – they had to use a bucket. Until one day...
EG: [Interpreting for Christine] We exchanged instruments with each other. I did exchange a hammer and other instruments with my sister, and we washed all of the blood off of ourselves. And then, when we came back, we put on our nightgowns and sat in bed, waiting for authorities to arrive.
SJ: They had brutally killed Madam Lancelin and her young daughter. I asked Amber if she could relate to the sense of isolation her character must have felt.
EG: [Interpreting for Lea] Yes, I can relate to it because, growing up deaf, I had a lot of oppression, myself, so I do feel a connection with Lea.
SJ: I could only imagine the interplay between the deaf and speaking actresses – whether either Lindsay or Darrin ever felt they were interpreting as opposed to acting?
DR: No! Because what they’re doing is almost like (EG: No, no, no! laughter) … because what they’re doing—
EG: Christine wants to add input… Christine’s saying, when it comes time for Amber, who plays the character of Lea, myself, to have emotion or to cry, they are sitting in their chairs, our voice actors, with wet tears rolling down their faces. They are doing the crying, the real crying as much as we are. And when that actually happened in rehearsal, Christine says, director Michael Unger spoke up. He said, I don’t see four women. I see two women. [pause]
SJ: Darrin Revitz…
DR: But I do get intimidated sometimes and I don’t know sign language, so it’s hard to communicate, and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable, for lack of a better word, what is my ignorance of their language.
SJ: Director Michael Unger demands a level playing field for hearing and non-hearing audiences. He discovered during previews, for example, that deaf audience members didn’t realize the women were screaming during blackouts. Elizabeth, speaking for Christine, explained…
EG: What they’ve added is some reverberation beneath the seats, plus flashbulbs, a flashbulb approach, of technical lighting. And at the same time the flashbulb goes off, the audience feels a rumbling, so there were moments that had to be shifted and adjusted to make the moment equitable for all.
DR: These worlds are not equal. He wanted the hearing audience to be out of their element for a portion of the show and the deaf audience to be out of their element for a portion of the show, which I think mirrors what you’re seeing on stage in that it’s not a parallel world.
SJ: “My Sister in This House” runs through May 20 at Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood. My thanks to Elizabeth Greene for interpreting the comments of deaf actresses Deanne Bray and Amber Zion. The double murders in 1933 also prompted French writer Jean Genet to write the play “The Maids.” It opens April 29 at The Moth Theatre in Los Angeles. We’ll have all those details at kpcc.org, click on Offramp. For Offram, I’m Steve Julian.
The Dodgers' Vin Scully, 1983 -- Kitty Felde's first interview as cub reporter
In 1983, KPCC Washington correspondent Kitty Felde was enrolled in a Santa Monica College sportscasting class (she was hoping to win a job at KABC). One assignment was to write to a sportscaster and ask for an interview. She wrote to Vin Scully, who by then had been broadcasting the Dodgers for more than 30 years. COME INSIDE for an unexpected picture of the Dodger great, and Kitty's notes to me on the interview.
Kitty writes:
"You'll hear me doing the rookie "uh huh"ing before I learned to just smile and nod my head. It's also a cassette recording, so you might want to process to reduce the hiss. (Rabe: I only added a couple Dodger clips and tweaked the high end and midrange.) But it's interesting. On Sunday, his 60th anniversary date, he was asked what he remembered about his first game. He told his colleagues he didn't remember a thing. But when I spoke with him back in '83, he remembered just fine."
Shirley Jahad Tests Mitsubishi's electric iMiev
A big part of the green revolution is the coming-of-age for the electric car. In the next couple of years, consumers will have several electric vehicles to choose from. KPCC’s Shirley Jahad is one of the first people in the country to drive a prototype Mitsubishi electric iMiev.