CyberFrequencies talks with Ray Bradbury ... A new documentary: "Finding God in the City of Angels" ... Karen Fritsche invents the Love-o-Meter to weigh driving and dating ... A new butcher in Los Feliz ... Jeff Girod says Obama was right about Vegas ... "Lincoln Echoes."
Don't disappoint Grandma - give today and cut a day off the member drive!
You know Grandma. She's 80 and she doesn't see her grandkids (Julian Bermudez, above left, and Off-Ramp host John Rabe) nearly enough. John and Julian want to drive to The Comptons to see Grandma on Friday, February 26, but the fundraiser may still be going on then. Will you help end the fundraiser a day early? Click here to give to KPCC and not make Grandma cry.
Valentine's Day: We figure out how to balance love and commuting
KPCC's Karen Fritsche faced a common LA dilemma - how do you manage your love life in SoCal, where dating can involve hours of driving? Karen came up with a scientific solution.
(Since this piece originally aired in 2009, Karen found true love, married him, and had a baby. So: her system worked.)
Ray Bradbury talks about his musical "Wisdom 2116" and living forever!
Ray Bradbury wrote the musical “Wisdom 2116” for an old couple he’d befriended as a young man. And it’s taken Bradbury more than 50-years to see the musical performed on stage. “Wisdom 2116” is a love story about the secret to staying young!
We also spoke to the legendary science fiction and fantasy writer at his home in Los Angeles. He tells us about writing Fahrenheit 451 and the secret to living forever!
To see videos of the legendary writer and the musical "Wisdom 2116" AND to sign up for the CF podcast, go to www.cyberfrequencies.com
Wisdom 2116
1000 Fremont Ave.
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 441-5977
President’s Day: Composer blends Obama, Lincoln, and Roosevelt speeches with orchestral music
A Southland composer has set out to introduce and remind listeners about the fundamental beliefs of American democracy. He's doing so through a symphonic work that blends soloists, a choir, a full orchestra, with the speeches of two iconic presidents - and the present one. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman Lopez reports.
UCLA music professor David Lefkowitz composed “Lincoln Echoes” to commemorate the university’s new liberal arts and free institutions center and the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Lefkowitz said words from this country’s founding document frame the composition. "The first movement is entitled 'Fundamental Freedoms.' So it begins with the choir singing the opening sentence from the Declaration of Independence. 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal...'"
Words from an Abraham Lincoln speech echo, and ponder, the founding fathers’ weighty ideal that all men are created equal. "And so they established those great self-evident truths that when, in the distant future, some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or no one but white men, or none but Anglos-Saxon white men, were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Lefkowitz is far from the first composer to test the interplay between music and the statements of national leaders. Plenty have done it for laughs. Guitarist Steven Drozd’s put to music words from a press conference in which former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared to ramble about "known unknowns."
More than 60 years ago modernist composer Aaron Copland created “Lincoln Portrait” to uplift Americans in the months following the beginning of World War II. Copland interspersed grandiose harmonies with excerpts from Lincoln speeches, including the Gettysburg Address.
Unlike Copland, composer David Lefkowitz wanted to pair Lincoln’s words with those of other presidents. He combed through all the presidential speeches since Lincoln in search of words that sang. Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama filled that bill. In the composition, the narrator speaks Lincoln’s words while a tenor sings those of Roosevelt and a baritone sings Obama’s parts.
The piece’s fourth movement explores the economic turmoil that affected each presidency. Roosevelt's words are sung by tenor John Duykers. "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
UCLA music professor Michael Dean sings President Obama's speeches. "We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage... the fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great."
Copland offered a polite back-and-forth between Lincoln’s words and the composition. Lefkowitz has staged a rhetorical wrestling match across time between Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Obama. It’s a friendly bout in which the oratory and instrumentation demonstrate the fundamental values of American democracy.
Lefkowitz recognized that Obama’s a polarizing political figure – and he said he didn’t include the 44th president for partisan reasons. The composer combed through the speeches of “The Great Communicator,” President Ronald Reagan. While Lefkowitz regarded them as sharp, he didn’t consider Reagan’s speeches as stunningly gorgeous as those of Obama and the other presidents.
Besides, Lefkowitz said, he chose the current president’s election night and inaugural address speeches, and others, that touched on bedrock principles that transcend partisan politics. "He’s talking about American values and I don’t think that there’s anything in this list – honesty, hard work, courage, fair play, tolerance, curiosity, loyalty, and patriotism. You run those eight items or so by any die-hard conservative and I don’t think that they would complain."
Composer Lefkowitz calls “Lincoln Echoes” a secular cantata. In its 18th century form the cantata was the ultimate expression of Christian religious beliefs as turmoil challenged those beliefs. Lefkowitz said his new work calls on faithful adherents to American democracy to return to the history and pillars of governance that have guided this country for 233 years.
Presidents Day: Lincoln impersonator says some kids love him, some yell, "Fraud!"
President's Day is Monday, which means work for actor Barry Cutler, who travels the country to bring Abraham Lincoln to life for K-12 students. Some days, he plays Honest Abe for 2,000 kids.
Designer Nick Verreos boosts Rabe’s ego at FIDM Oscar costume shindig
We attended the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising Oscar costume party last weekend, and met top designer Nick Verreos, of Project Runway fame ... and discovered his secret. (Come inside to find out what it is.)
(2-6-2010: Nick Verreos, Julian Bermudez, and John Rabe at FIDM. Photo courtesy FIDM.)
Nick turned to talk with my husband Julian. I, of course, continued talking. Suddenly Nick turned to me and said, “Now I know where I know you! I didn’t recognize your face but I knew your voice!” Turns out, Verreos not only listens to KPCC, but he’s a big fan of Off-Ramp.
I was pleased as punch.
For more photos of FIDM’s exhibit of costumes from the 2009 crop of movies, check out Nick’s blog.
(Check out John's blog.)
New Documentary: "Finding God in the City of Angels"
Southern California is not only one of the most ethnically and racially diverse parts of the world, but religiously as well. A new documentary, “Finding God in the City of Angels,” gets a private screening this weekend, but will be shown in several L.A. communities in the coming weeks.
It focuses on what “scripture” means for all belief systems. KPCC’s Peter Stenshoel spoke with director, cinematographer and producer, Jennifer Jessum, and her husband, Simon Joseph, the film’s writer and co-producer. But first, they listened to the trailer. (The doc was commissioned by Claremont Graduate University’s Institute for Signifying Scriptures.) We've posted a short and long version of Peter's interview.
Come inside for showtimes ...
Off-Ramp commentator Jeff Girod says, "Obama's right. Avoid Vegas if you're trying to save money."
Off-Ramp commentator (and IE Weekly columnist) Jeff Girod was ticked off when people jumped on President Obama for saying that gambling in Vegas isn't bright if you're in bad financial straits.
(Photo: Rev. Billy Graham stumping for God in Las Vegas, February 5, 1978. Credit: LA Public Library - Herald-Examiner collection.)
Dinner Party Download co-host visits new Los Feliz butcher & finds a man in love with his work and his wife.
If Dinner Party Download gives you the meat and potatoes for good cocktail party conversation, co-host Brendan Newnam, unrepentant carnivore, offers the meat ... and for Off-Ramp this week, he visits the brand new McCall's Meat & Fish at 2117 Hillhurst in Los Feliz.
Yorba Linda family's drag racing dynasty gears up for 50th Winternationals
The National Hot Rod Association kicks off the drag racing year Thursday with the 50th Winternationals in Pomona. In the Funny Car division, there’s a family dynasty. John Force Racing has won 16 championships in the last 20 seasons.
Drag racing might have powered itself on the drive and charisma of guys like 60-year-old John Force. He says it took him 15 years to win a drag race, but Force now has 126 victories as a Funny Car driver.
"Besides trying to get that 8,000 horsepower 330 mile-an-hour race car down a quarter mile in 4 seconds," Force explains in his signature race-track shout. "It’s all about that 'Christmas tree,' too, reacting trying to beat that other driver off the line."
Just four seconds of pure acceleration. The "Christmas tree" is the post of multicolored lights the two racers watch to know when to put the pedal to the metal. If John Force is the legend, son-in-law Robert Hight is the new kid on the strip. He won his first Funny Car title last year.
"To see cars like the top fuel dragsters or the Funny Cars like we drive accelerate from zero to 100 in less than a second and you know, go over 300 miles an hour or upwards of 310 (mph) in 1,000 feet, " says Hight. "You can feel the ground shake. It is so loud"
Ashley Force Hood is one of John Force’s four daughters and the first woman to race in a Funny Car final. She insists that fans flock to drag races for more than speed and noise.
"Every ticket, it’s a pit pass so they can go down into the pits, they can meet the drivers, get autographs," she says. "They can stand five feet behind an 8,000 horsepower race car that’s warming up. If you choose to not go up into the stands and you want to stay in the pits, that’s entertainment on its own because you can watch a team pull back into the pit, completely tear apart the car, work on all the parts and pieces, put it all back together and then pull up to make a run."
Since drag racing is a touring sport, Ashley Force Hood grew up following her dad from race to race. Now she happily competes against him in the same category.
"He beats me sometimes, and I beat him."
Ashley’s older sister Adria is the money manager of John Force Racing, Inc. And she’s married to Robert Hight – Ashley’s racing rival. Ashley and Robert battled one another for the championship last year, which made family gatherings interesting.
"Thanksgiving was a little tough," joked the patriarch John Force.
"I wish we’d had four turkeys stacked up, because Ashley was looking at Robert. Robert was looking at Ashley, because he had beaten her. But at the end of the day, we’re still a family. They fought heads up, and he won. They beat a lot of competition."
The victory was the completion of a comeback for John Force Racing, which had suffered from the dangers of the sport. In March of 2007, a test drive crash killed team member Eric Medlen. Six months later, John Force was in a crash that nearly ended his career. He recovered, but daughter Ashley says it was time to focus on safety.
"You can’t just jump back in these cars and put those things to the side," she said, recalling the accidents. "Obviously, they are dangerous and we know that, but we also knew we could make it better."
Robert Hight says the safety improvements – better helmets, tougher seatbelts, a new chassis – did not reduce the team’s ability to compete. He figures the cars are now 7 times stronger than the ones Medlen and his father-in-law were driving at the time of their crashes.
"The very first race we went to (with the new safety enhancements) was the 2008 Winternationals and I won that race with this brand new car that we just thrashed all winter long to get."
John Force grew up in Bell Gardens and started his business 35 years ago, back when the only races he could afford to take his car to were at Pomona. He now employs more than 70 people in Yorba Linda and Indiana. Not bad for a guy who's first home was a small trailer home.
"You kinda set on the toilet and pull the chain, and take a shower at the same time," he remembers. "I grew up with five brothers and sisters, and when you wake up every morning with your brother’s toe up your nose, you'd better be about family, or you can’t get along."
This weekend’s Winternationals will test the Force family. John – once the sport’s greatest funny car driver – was winless last year, while daughter Ashley and Robert Hight are expected to compete again for the championship. Still, a win for one Force is a win for the whole family.