This week on Off-Ramp, named best public affairs program by the LA Press Club: Will lowering the speed limit on the 110 between downtown and Pasadena automatically make it safer? What happens when 71 artists fill a sketchbook? (They help build 4 libraries.) And one of the greatest music festivals you've never heard of, Wattstax, which happened 40 years ago.
Transit officials want to make the Arroyo Seco Parkway safer, and preserve its history
The Arroyo Seco Parkway - formerly the Pasadena Freeway - is one of the oldest freeways in the west. Opened in 1940, the narrow, windy road connecting Pasadena and downtown served the city well for decades. But over the last 20 years both motorists and transit officials have seen the peaceful mountain pass turn into a high-speed raceway. It's caused a number of accidents and constant headaches for local residents.
"It's sketchy, especially at night," says a Highland Park resident named Ephraim. "I've almost been in a couple of accidents, getting on and off the freeway. But I've been here for 5 years, and I've almost gotten used to it."
Ephraim lives 2 blocks from the 110 on Avenue 57. He says he's learned to maneuver the nearest on-ramp, but it's still scary. "It's basically a stop sign like you'd have at an intersection between side streets. Except you're stopping and then getting on the freeway, instead of making a left or a right or whatever you would do at a normal intersection. So you're going from zero to sixty as quickly as possible to make sure the people behind you aren't getting backed up."
Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson also lives in Highland Park, and he knows the challenge all too well. "The 110 is a very windy freeway," says Ferguson. "A lot of these onramps, you don't know what's coming up because it's right at the end of a curve."
In fact, since as far back as the early 90's, commuters have voiced their frustrations with the once state-of-the-art Arroyo Seco parkway. For some, an easy solution would be to straighten or widen the freeway. But that's easier said than done, particularly because the Arroyo Seco Parkway is an historic freeway and there are laws protecting it. On top of that, there isn't a whole lot of space to work with in the corridor; some houses and apartment buildings sit right up against the road.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has therefore had to think creatively. In its first initiative, finally completed in 2011, they re-classified the freeway as a parkway, giving them permission to lower the speed limit to 55 miles an hour. While Caltrans is not an enforcement agency - it's up to the CHP to do that - they say changing the name should help change peoples' attitudes about the road.
"Hopefully that changes peoples' perceptions when they're driving it," says Caltrans Senior Planner Linda Taira, "so that they're not thinking that they can be racing down the roadway at 80 miles an hour. "They should be thinking of it more as an arterial, as a regular street."
Taira says the new parkway branding and the new speed limit signs are just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month, Caltrans and its partners released the results of a 20-year-long, $650,000 research project that looked at ways to improve the long term safety and mobility of the Arroyo Seco Parkway. The study recommends potentially further reducing the speed limit to 45 miles an hour, and also suggests re-working the parkways' outside lanes.
"Our folks have been looking at an option in which we would stripe the outer lane in a certain way so that when you're driving you know that it's different," says Taira. "When you come to that stop sign and you're trying to get on, that outer lane is intended for traffic that will be slower."
The study also suggests implementing a dynamic system similar to the one currently used at the northbound 110 to I-5 interchange. Depending on traffic, a series of lights on the 110 either turn on or off to designate a 2nd exit lane onto the I-5. Taira says the system has faced mixed reaction at public meetings, but that a recent UC Berkeley study claims that accidents have dropped significantly in that area.
Maybe the most daunting part of this project is the fact that these traffic problems plague nearly the entire 6 mile stretch between Pasadena and downtown. Anyone who's driven on the parkway knows many people speed and that it's pretty easy to want to join them. And the on and off-ramps on that stretch, especially around Highland Park, are all pretty treacherous. The southbound exit on Avenue 60 leaves you with about 20 feet off the freeway before you have to come to a complete stop. The southbound exit at Avenue 52 comes to an intersection at the top of a hill, where a stopped car is almost completely out of sight when you're exiting.
Kevin Ferguson has his own favorite: an entrance going northbound at Avenue 43. "You have about 5 seconds notice whether a car will be in your lane," he says. "As soon as that looks clear, or relatively clear, you take your foot off the brake and you floor it. And you just hope that anybody who happens to be coming around the bend at that time sees you for long enough that they'll slow down."
Caltrans has posted its recommendations to their website, and say they want a thorough public discourse to give commuters the improvements that they want.
'Silence!' An interview with the creators of 'The Silence of the Lambs' parody/tribute musical
"Silence of the Lambs" is about using a maniac to catch a serial killer. It's gruesome and disturbing, and considered one of the best movies ever made. In 2002, two huge fans of the movie, Jon and Al Kaplan, took the next natural step, turning it into a musical.
The musical, "Silence! The Musical," opens August 31st in Los Angeles at the Hayworth Theatre.
It's about time. "Silence! The Musical," won the 2012 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical, and the New York Post said "This Lambs parody is as irreverent, filthy and funny as The Book of Mormon. The difference is you can afford the tickets."
The musical is not for kids. But our interview — KPCC's Steve Julian talking with the Kaplan's — is clean.
Matt DeBord - The Saab Slob
KPCC business reporter and frequent Off-Ramp guest Matt DeBord kept putting it off. He had better stuff to do than wash his car. In Los Angeles. And him a former auto industry journalist. He'd have been laughed out of the LA Auto Show, mocked at the River Rouge plant, but he has no shame. He does, however, have some damn fine cassettes.
We asked Matt how he allowed it to get to this point. Here's what he offered:
Well, it's somewhat professionally humiliating. I'm one of those people who's always telling people to get their car washed once a month, to clean the interior as often as possible. That's how you maintain value! Resale value! Plus, we live in L.A. Clean cars here are part of the culture. To look at my Pig-Pen ride, you'd think I was navigating the highways and byways on the Maine seacoast in December.
With my old Saab, I just...well, I let myself down. And then I let myself down some more. And then I just keep right on truckin' with the whole letting myself down thing. Luckily, Saabs — like Volvos and made-in-the-U.S.A pickups — look equally good dirty or clean. They also handle damage with a certain élan: My front fender has been duct-taped together since several Christmases back.
The big question for me at this point is, "Do I dare get my Saab washed?" Something catastrophic could happen. I'm sure the filth is holding some part of the machine together. I have been thinking about it, though.
Of course if I hit the car wash, my daughter, Lucia, won't have anyplace to write "Clean me!" or to draw plaintive hearts that are meant to make me love my car more than I do.
To live and die in LA: Caitlin Doughty, star of YouTube hit 'Ask a Mortician' tours LA's oldest cemetery
Death is one of those things we don't think about much, until someone we know is dying. But Caitlin Doughty wants to change that. She's a licensed mortician in Los Angeles, and she's taken on a lofty goal: to make death a part of Americans' daily culture. She's using her blog and YouTube channel to help spread the message. Off-Ramp contributor Avishay Artsy caught up with her.
Doughty has provided an outlet for people to ask questions, and its popularity shows that people are curious to learn about something they often avoid. She's on her fifth YouTube episode, with each video getting tens of thousands of views. She said she gets all sorts of questions.
"Everything from really, really basic things – what is embalming, how do you cremate a body — to really interesting, weird, you know – if the zombie apocalypse happens tomorrow, what is the rate of decomposing bodies, or can you tattoo a corpse. The more ridiculous, the better," Doughty noted.
Perhaps it's the cheesy music and video effects or her comedic, truthful responses that make the subject more palatable to her viewers. But Doughty's own comfort with death came with time. Her interest was sparked by a traumatic death she witnessed when she was only eight or nine years old.
"I saw a girl fall from a balcony at my local mall and hit the ground – tremendous screams – it was a real, real turning point in my life," she said. "It was quite a psychological thing for me for quite awhile, and I think part of my interest in death might just be a way to figure it out."
Doughty took her fascination with her through college. After studying medieval history left her unsatisfied, she got a job as a crematory operator, earned a degree in mortuary science at Cypress College in Orange County and now works as a licensed funeral director in L.A.
On a visit to Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights, Doughty detailed one of the more hidden features of L.A.'s oldest cemetery.
"Every year, Los Angeles County cremates roughly about 1,600 indigent dead, so homeless, people who can’t afford to pay for a funeral," she explained. "They cremate them and they bury them in a mass grave here."
The burial place is surrounded by barbed wire fencing and flat ground markers that show the year each group was cremated. "It's not like 'Come one, come all, to see the indigent dead.' It's probably not something they're particularly proud of," Doughty added.
While the thought of thousands being buried together may seem morbid, Doughty gets philosophical. "We try so hard in our lives to keep control over our body, and control over individual selves, that the idea of just having everybody in a big pile is kind of strangely appealing," she said.
Her plan is to run her own funeral home, where the dead are buried naturally. Families could even help prepare the body. This runs opposite from the status quo, where bodies are chemically treated in various ways, placed in a big casket and locked in a concrete and metal vault to keep the body from decomposing. Doughty said she prefers natural burials.
"It's just body, dirt, ground, decomposition, done-zo. Two or three weeks, just a skeleton left," she said. "It’s what bodies are meant to do. It’s bodies in their natural state.”
SketchTravel: 71 artists collaborate on a sketch book that traveled 75,000 miles and is helping build libraries
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with animation expert Charles Solomon and Disney artist Paul Felix (art director, "Winnie the Pooh" and "Bolt") about SketchTravel, a new book of sketches by famous artists. The book was the brainchild of Japanese artist Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi and illustrator Gerald Guerlais, and proceeds benefit Room to Read's efforts to build libraries and improve literacy in Southeast Asia.
From Charles Solomon's introduction to SketchTravel:
The original SketchTravel Book was passed from hand to hand like an Olympic torch in an artistic relay of almost 75,000 miles. The results represent the personal visions of 70 exceptional illustrators, animators and comic book artists from North and South America, Europe and Asia. Guerlais got the idea that would grow into the SketchTravel project: "We were coming back from a bookstore on the bus, and Dice was drawing in his sketchbook, which he did constantly. I said to him, 'Imagine how cool sharing the same sketchbook among all of us would be!' Tsutsumi says, "Passing sketchbooks has been done many times--that's not new. But as we developed the idea, we realized it's not the drawings that would make this book special, it's the connections between the artists. That's why we decided on the hand-delivery rule between participating artists." Guerlais explains, "By the end of that day we had a list--and one that wasn't very different from the final list. The process was very subjective: we invited artists we admire. Not every artist they invited agreed to participate. Some couldn't fit the additional work into already overcrowded schedules; others were too difficult to reach--or too modest to accept. The SketchTravel Book reflects the diversity of contemporary graphic art. Erik Tiemens evokes the look of 17th century Dutch landscape in his brooding landscape, while Dominique Bertail gives new meaning to the term "water polo" in a sunlit scene that recalls David Hockney's Southern California landscapes. M.C. Escher might envy the interlocking patterns of the crocodiles in Nicolas Marlet's sketch, while Juanjo Guardino pays homage to some of his favorite cartoon characters. Husband-and-wife team Sylvain Marc and Veronique Joffre share their visions through a small window cut into the page they share. Although the artists who participated in the SketchTravel Project represent the pinnacle of their professions, no one took any money for their work. The book was conceived as a benefit, and the recipient the artists chose is Room to Read.
Charles Solomon's latest book is The Toy Story Films: An Animated Journey.
40 years ago, Wattstax festival brought 112,000 African Americans to the LA Coliseum
The story starts in Watts -- ten miles South from the Los Angeles Coliseum -- seven years before festival took place.
Here's a newsreel from the era:
34 people died during the Watts Riots. Thousands more injured. $40 million in damage. But injuries weren't just physical: images of the riots travelled far and wide and gave Watts and its nearby areas a reputation some say it still hasn't lived down.
At the time, Al Bell worked for Stax Records, the Memphis based soul label. He'd eventually become president.
"The idea came from Forrest Hamilton who ran the West Coast office for Stax. To come here and put on a small concert to help draw attention to, and to raise funds for the Watts Summer Festival," said Bell. "To create, motivate, and instill a sense of pride in the citizens of the Watts community."
What came out of that was more than a small concert. On August 20, 1972, Wattstax took over the LA Coliseum. Performers included some of Stax records' biggest names: Isaac Hayes, Albert King, the Staple Singers, Jonnie Taylor. Charging just one dollar a head, the festival brought in 112 thousand attendees and raised thousands of dollars for local causes.
The concert was filmed and released as a movie under the same name--directed by Mel Stuart, the same guy who made Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory just three years prior. Early in the day at the Coliseum, Reverend Jesse Jackson gave a speech. He ended with a poem. 100,000 people joined him in reciting I Am -- Somebody, a poem.
"If you'll notice, it was up on the screen--'I am somebody'--well all those people knew that. When he started, that 112 thousand people were saying with him 'I am somebody.' Well, I get chills saying that to you right now," said Bell. "It caused us to begin to see ourselves differently."
Bell said he was proud of how the festival turned out--despite what he said were security concerns from Los Angeles officials. "You saw the Crips and Bloods sitting side by side--no problems," said Bell. "At that point of time there was a concern that anytime you got more than two black people, there was a reason to be frightened and afraid of that."
Highlights from that day included a performance by the Staples Singers of their hit "Respect Yourself" earlier on in the festival. "That of course was part of the the philosophy that I was trying to get to our people," said Bell, "to respect yourself.
Bell said that while areas like Watts still face troubles, the message of Wattstax is still relevant today. "Forty years later, I hear African Americans in the audience reacting to the same scenes, the same way they did forty years ago."
One of the festival's last performers that night was Isaac Hayes. Here's a video of Hayes performing "Shaft."