We celebrate TV pioneer Lucille Ball on her Centennial ... Kevin's grandma remembers WW2 and the USS Indianapolis ... The LA Jewish Symphony plays Bible stories at the Ford Ampitheatre ... a trip down Wilshire in 1970s photos ...
New Lucy "FAQ" Book Marks Her Centennial
Lucille Ball would have turned 100 on August 6th. Pretty much everyone knows Lucy's TV shows, knows her as a star. But far fewer know that she and Desi revolutionized the industry. How she did it, and everything else, is in the new book "Lucille Ball FAQ," as in Frequently Asked Questions, by James Sheridan and Barry Monush. Off-Ramp host John Rabe called them in New York.
Remembering Taylor Negron and Lucille Ball
UPDATE 1/12/15: Performer Taylor Negron died Saturday of cancer at the age of 57. In 2007, he recorded this story, about Lucille Ball giving acting and life lessons, for Off-Ramp.
LA Jewish Symphony Exalts at Ford Amphitheatre Aug 14
Sunday, August 14, the LA Jewish Symphony will be performing a program called Exaltation!, with the symphony and special guests playing music that tells Bible stories. The program features the group's usual mix of classical and pops, instrumental and vocal. Off-Ramp's John Rabe talked with the LA Jewish Symphony's founder and artistic director, Maestra Noreen Green.
NEWS RELEASE FROM LA JEWISH SYMPHONY
The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony (LAJS), lauded for its exploration of Jewish culture, presents
EXALTATION! BIBLICAL STORIES THROUGH MUSIC, a performance celebrating music inspired by the
Bible’s rich literary heritage, on Sunday, August 14, 2011, 7:30 pm, under the stars at the Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. The concert, led by Artistic Director Noreen Green, features a variety of classical, film and musical theatre works. Among the guest artists are celebrated vocalist and two-time Grammy nominee Amick Byram and fifteen-year-old violin virtuoso Stephen Waarts, described by critics as “poetic,” “engaging” and “something special.”
“The Bible is a source of inspiration and tradition for many of the world’s religions,” says Green, who has brought neglected as well as new and familiar orchestral works on Jewish themes to the concert stage. “Our program celebrates the commonality of the Bible’s timeless and heroic stories of love and betrayal, of prophets and people, of kings and shepherds and of good and evil, which serve to link different religions and cultures together.”
The evening includes music from Franz Waxman and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, two film composers among the elite group of European émigrés that immeasurably enriched the cultural life of Los Angeles. On the program are Waxman’s lushly romantic film score, The Story of Ruth, a stirring depiction of loyalty, romance, faith and devotion; and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s brilliant and seldom-played Violin Concerto #2, subtitled The Prophets, a musical portrait of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Elijah, featuring Waarts. Additionally, Byram performs music from stage and screen ranging from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Steven Schwartz’s Prince of Egypt to Jerry Bock’s The Apple Tree, Alan Menken’s King David and Shuki Levy’s Masada The Musical Saga. Byram was in the original cast of Masada The Musical Saga, which was presented in Israel for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state.
DATE/TIME: Sunday, August 14, 2011, 7:30 pm
PLACE: Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068
PARKING: On-site, stacked parking costs $5 per vehicle. FREE non-stacked parking serviced by a FREE shuttle to the Ford is available at the Universal City Metro Station lot at Lankershim Blvd. and Campo de Cahuenga. The shuttle, which cycles every 15-20 minutes, stops in the "kiss and ride" area.
INFORMATION:
www.FordTheatres.org or (323) 461-3673 or www.lajewishsymphony.org
Memorial Day, WWII a family affair for Kevin Ferguson
8/1/2011 - A SAD UPDATE: Kevin's Grandmother passed away early Sunday morning. She was 87. Team Off-Ramp and all of KPCC send condolences to Kevin's family.
For most historians, there are few stories more compelling than that of the USS Indianapolis: a heavy cruiser that had seen battle for nearly all of World War Two. Its final voyage was one of the most integral, yet disastrous missions in the history of the US Navy. And for Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson, it’s a story that hits very close to home.
A photo tour of Wilshire Boulevard 30-plus years ago
The Los Angeles Public Library has just revealed an enormous new collection of over 900 color photos – all of Wilshire Boulevard in it's entirety, from downtown to the sea. The photos were taken between 1978 and 1979 by L.A. native Annie Laskey – who was just 15 years old at the time – and her mother. Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson talked with Annie about the newly unveiled collection.
A transplant from Grand Rapids, Marlene Laskey, Annie's mother, was fascinated by Los Angeles' sprawling landscape. When Annie was 15, the two got to work: Marlene brought a notebook, and Annie brought the camera.
"Wilshire is one of the main thoroughfares of Los Angeles. It bisects the city. You go from downtown to the ocean," said Annie. "Everything happened on Wilshire."
The duo started their photographic journey downtown, where the street begins. And unlike more famous street-based photo series like Google Street View and Ed Ruscha's Sunset Strip project, the Wilshire series isn't necessarily comprehensive.
"We tried – especially at the beginning – to take establishing shots of the street, and then close-ups of one building or one storefront, and then closeups of details on that particular building," Annie said.
Here's a slideshow of some of Annie's favorite photos from the collection. Scroll through and listen to Annie's thoughts by clicking the playhead:
There are statues, buildings, billboards, storefronts and more in the series – whatever caught Annie's eye. The series ended in early 1979, when the pair reached the ocean. For viewers, the photo series offers a snapshot in time of a city in transition.
The city of Los Angeles was preparing itself for the upcoming Olympics. For Annie, it's even more. It's a way to remember her mother, who passed away in 1989, and a reliable conversation starter.
"I always thought it was sort of a great party story. I have 1400 slides of Wislhire Boulevard, what have you got?" she said. "It was really fun."
You can view the full collection by going to the LA Public Library photo archive and searching for "Anne Laskey."
Isamu Noguchi: California Legend
The Laguna Art museum is currently celebrating the legendary, late artist Isamu Noguchi, who was born in Los Angeles. They're showing two exhibitions at the museum and giving a special focus to California Scenario, a garden in Costa Mesa and one of Noguchi's last public pieces. Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson met with curator Grace Kook-Anderson at the site of California Scenario.
Noguchi: California Legacy is on display through October 2. Next Sunday, August 7, the museum hosts lecture from one of the country's leading Noguchi experts
Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls" sequel, "Dreams of Joy" ... or "Joy Has Two Mommies"
UPDATE: "Dreams of Joy" comes out in paperback Tuesday, and See will be touring to support the book. Here's our interview from July, 2011.
If you read Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls" and couldn't believe the NYT bestselling author would leave you with such a cliffhanger - Joy running away to Communist China leaving her mother and aunt in anguish - it's payback time. And payback is the historically rich and impossible to put down See-quel, "Dreams of Joy," which follows Joy and Pearl to China during the so- called Great Leap Forward.
Off-Ramp host John Rabe went to Chinatown to talk with See about the new book, and about the movie version of her novel "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan."
The fantastic and freaky films of Sion Sono
Japanese cult writer-director Sion Sono started out as prolific poet until he took up filmmaking. He earned worldwide critical acclaim for his film "Love Exposure" — a four-hour epic that tackles life's biggest issues: love, death, sex, revenge, religion and up-skirt panty photography. His latest is "Cold Fish," which screens at Cinefamily on Aug. 6 and 7. It's a tale of a tropical fish salesman who’s drawn into the dark orbit of a charismatic, middle-aged serial killer, based on a true story. He talked with Off-Ramp’s Lainna Fader on his last trip to L.A.
I was first introduced to Sono's films when I worked at Cinefamily a few years ago. Cinefamily's programmers received a handful of screeners from the New York Asian Film Festival to review and I hung out with them and watched them all. "Love Exposure" was my favorite by far. Since then, I've watched every Sono film I could find—including now cult classic "Suicide Club" — and "Love Exposure" is probably still my favorite of his, though I love all his work.
"'Amanojaku' in Japanese is exactly what I am," Sono said. "How shall I put it in English? I can think of it only in Japanese. If the content of "Suicide Club" was something people would like—if everyone else was making movies similar to "Suicide Club," I would have been making love romance movies. I just like to do things contrary to others."
Sono pushes forward with his perverse sense of humor, tales of brutal murders—you'll find many scenes of human flesh being gleefully diced up in "Cold Fish" — and more nutjob characters than ever.
The controversial director has also called Yasujiro Ozu — one of Japan's most revered filmmakers — the anti-Christ, the anti-God. "He is too much of a "god" in Japanese movie history, and the history cannot be refreshed unless we become anti-Ozu. I have nothing personal against him, but I have to declare I am anti-Ozu in order to move forward," he said.
Cold Fish:
Love Exposure:
Suicide Club:
Dinner Party Download go back in time with rickenbacker guitars and talk occasional celebrity with Don Cheadle
The Dinner Party Download is a fast and funny ‘booster shot’ of news and culture designed to help you dazzle your friends and family at this weekend’s dinner party. Hosts Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam set the table every Friday.