Lisa See talking with Off-Ramp host John Rabe about Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy, two bestselling novels about the Chinese-American immigrant experience.
Lisa See chronicles the Chinese-American immigrant experience in "Shanghai Girls" and "Dreams of Joy"
On Monday, February 6, Lisa See Tweeted: "The day before Dreams of Joy comes out in paperback. Facial, foot doctor, buy melatonin, think about what to wear. The practicalities."
It's important. Lisa See, the LA author who chronicles the Chinese-American experience, is beginning a nationwide tour in support of the paperback release of "Dreams of Joy," the bestselling historical novel and sequel to "Shanghai Girls."
I interviewed Lisa See about both books on park benches in Chinatown, and in this special Off-Ramp podcast, bring the long versions of the interviews together for the first time.
If you want to meet Lisa, she's doing readings locally before starting the tour:
Tuesday, February 7
12:00 PM
VROMAN'S BOOKSTORE
Literary Lunch
695 East Colorado Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91101
Store: 626-449-5320
7:00 PM
DIESEL BRENTWOOD
Talk, Q&A, Signing
Brentwood Country Mart
225 26th Street, Ste. 33,
Santa Monica, CA 90402
Store: 310-576-9960
Wednesday, February 8
12:00 PM
PAGES (A Bookstore)
Lunch, talk, signing
904 Manhattan Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Store: 310-318-0900
7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
Discussion, signing
Amerige Heights Town Center
1923 West Malvern Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92833
GOOD Magazine tries to find the next big thing for 2012
Founded in 2006, GOOD Magazine dedicates itself to finding ideas that are sustainable, prosperous, productive and creative. In their latest issue, they try to find the next big thing. Ideas that would have an impact in the immediate future.
Amanda Hess, the Lifestyle Editor for GOOD, followed a porn star named James Deen who doesn't have the typical fan base one would expect. Hess says that "the community that seems to be most impressed by him are really young girls and I think part of that is because he's also young comparatively. He's 25 years old". Deen has been changing the way the porn industry utilizes male porn stars. His approachable looks and sensual gestures while he's in action "makes it really accessible and fun and not scary" for women according to Hess.
Zak Stone, the Daily Editor for GOOD, thought that high end expensive coffee bars would be the next big thing. "A lot of people in the coffee world will say that right now is the golden age of coffee. People in cities around the world have access to the best coffee that they've ever had access to," he says. Pricey places such as Intelligentsia and LA Mill in Silverlake serve coffee that costs up to $6.00 a cup. These places are continually expanding with places like Cafe Dulce popping up in Little Tokyo. Pasadena is now home to the newest Intelligentsia coffee house.
While Stone believes that high end coffee bars are on the rise, Time Fernholz, the Business Editor, predicts that Azteca TV, a Spanish language network in Glendale, might be the next big thing. Fernholz believes that "their challenge is that they want to reach younger people. There are a lot of second and third generation Latinos in the United States who don't necessarily want to watch what their parents and grandparents have been watching for a long time". Unlike Univision and Telemundo, Azteca focuses on programing that aims at a younger crowd, such as reality TV. Fernholz believes that it's a bold move for Azteca, one that could possibly affect his credibility as a Journalist. "If it works, maybe they will have a huge success and I will look really smart. But if they fail, then I'll just look like a big idiot, so that's Journalism."
Fighting anti-gay bullying in the classroom with... theater
The death of Laurence King – killed by a junior high classmate in Oxnard in 2008 – highlights a big problem: If you're a teacher, how should you deal with homophobia in the classroom? One group is using theater to teach teachers how to counteract sexual bias in Southern California classrooms.
The teacher training program starts with a staged scene. Students walk into their high school English class talking about a kid who got beat up the day before.
Bruce boasts, “If Travis wanted gay rights, he got 'em. Rights, lefts, uppercuts, a kick to the face! Bam!” Ally says, “It's not funny, Bruce. He could have been killed!” The baiting escalates, and all the teacher, Mr. McGregor, can manage is “Uhhh, guys please, stop playing around.”
The program is put on by Encompass, a non-profit group that focuses on diversity issues in California schools, and I sat in on a preview session held for a group of school administrators, counselors, and teachers. The actors are students from the LA County High School for the arts.
According to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, by the time they get to high school, ninety percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered students have experienced physical, verbal or sexual harassment at school. They’re more likely to skip school out of fear, don’t do as well academically as their straight peers, and are less likely to graduate.
It’s a tough situation for any teacher, but Skyler Jackson of Encompass says California teachers don’t have a choice after state lawmakers amended the education code in 2000 to “include sexual orientation and gender identity and those that are perceived to be different based on sexual orientation to be protected from bullying and harassment in schools. “
“They think in these trainings that we’re coming in to attack their views,”Jackson says, “particularly if their views are a bit more conservative than our organization. But he says there’s no “gay agenda.” Rather than taking sides, the training offers tools to help teachers recognize and address those issues in their class.
The teachers watching the scene where the classroom explodes were asked to come up with strategies for how the ineffectual Mr. McGregor could have acted differently at each of the crucial moments – starting with the talk about the fight. As people come up with solutions, Jackson writes them on the board: acknowledging the students’ concerns, not condoning hate speech, in one case using literature to address the kids’ issues.
Then, the scene is repeated, with the actors improvising based on the teachers’ suggestions. Things play out differently this time. The more aggressive students dial back their behavior. The name-calling and baiting stops. Mr. McGregor is in control – and the students are able to focus on their lesson. There’s no guarantee it’ll work like this in the real classroom, but Robert Sowell, who does diversity training for LA County Community Relations, says it was helpful and powerful to see the strategies acted out. “It made the teaching come home.”
Student actor Drew Cameron says, “hopefully teachers are watching this and thinking, here’s some students that are putting on a scene for us. Here are some students who are showing us how to be better teachers. “
… better teachers in a school where every student feels safe to focus on the job of learning.
Peter Mac as Judy Garland - a 3 dimensional tribute
UPDATE: Peter Mac is working on a special Mother's Day Judy performance! See his website for info.
Writer Jackie Collins said what Peter Mac does "is not a drag show," that his Judy Garland is "brilliant." Mac, a New York transplant, has been performing tributes to Judy Garland for 11 years and brings all of Judy to the stage, not just her addictions. Mac and musical director Bryan Miller have secured a long-term gig at the French Marketplace in West Hollywood, and Off-Ramp was there opening night.
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.”
5th graders know what love is, tell commentator Hank Rosenfeld
To me, love is stubbing out a menthol cigarette in a cup of coffee, an empty bottle of whiskey by the side of the road, a shuttered motel in 29 Palms. That’s why I loved my job at a Santa Monica elementary school. The 5th graders there kept me sane when Valentine’s Day approaches. They don’t have those kind of memories … yet.
I ask Krshna, "What’s your definition of love?" Without blinking, he says, "The definition of love is me liking Sophie." Not "a" definition or "one" definition, but "the definition." It’s crystal clear.
5th graders have lots of crushes. Not that they are all as willing as Krshna to talk about them. And of course they’re too young to understand what Strindberg called "the inevitably primal confrontation between men and women." They’re too busy playing. They’re 10 or 11 years old, running around with their shoes untied. And my job is to help them with their poems that go, "Love is like a hot fudge sundae."
When Amy tells me quietly, "Love is a strong thing. It’s when two people really care about each other," I think of that quote about love from Martin Buber. He called it "a vague instinctual overwhelming feeling."
If the girls are a little quieter, the boys who want to talk really want to talk. Noah and Vincent grab the mike and basically start doing a radio show.
Noah: Valentines isn’t about who’s the coolest, the hottest. It’s about who you love, right, Vincent?
Vincent: Right. You have to spend time with your girlfriend or your loved ones and you have to just realize how beautiful Valentine’s is.
Noah: I mean if you don't have Valentine’s Day, if you’re married, how will you ever say to that special person “I love you?”
Wasn’t it Blake who said, "we’re all here to bear the beams of love?" That may seem a bit above the pay grade of an average adult, but children send out those beams without even trying. Krshna, before he went back to class, left me with this. "Love is a real right thing and I think everyone needs love to feel happy and stuff like that. And I hope Sophie becomes my girlfriend, and I hope you find love Mr. Hank."
O Krshna, I don't think there’s anything in that grab bag for Mr Hank. I was in one relationship for six years. We used to break up every Valentine’s Day. We’d get back together around Easter or Passover; something to do with resurrection, or guilt.
But the 5th graders are studying the circulatory system right now, and in the standard California science book, it says that the heart is actually hollow. But when it gets to beating and rhythmically pumping the blood around the body, well, it feels alive.