The LA Phil's new season includes a tour of LA ... Kevin Ferguson sweats to the oldies with Richard Simmons ... the first annual Ernest Borgnine Awards ...
Will you sit on your hands?
Sitting on your hands is never a good idea.
- If you're wearing corduroy pants, sitting on your hands leaves unsightly lines on your hands.
- If you're sitting on your hands, you can't raise the Golden Mike in victory, as Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson did when Off-Ramp took the prize for best local public affairs show.
- If you sit on your hands, you can't vote for Mayor or President.
- If you sit on your hands, someone has to feed you; and
- If you sit on your hands, it's much harder to get noticed if Warren Buffett shows up and asks, "Who wants a million dollars in cash?"
But most of all, if you sit on your hands, you miss out on the opportunity to participate in our Spring Membership Drive, which is happening for just the next few days.
Why didn't I just say, "If you sit on your hands, you can't give during the fundraiser?" Because it's more than giving money. It's about not sitting on your hands, not sitting on the sidelines, not letting someone else do what you should do, not being a passive member of your community.
Also, the amount of money you give isn't important. What's important is that you give.
I'll let you in on some behind-the-scenes fundraising stuff. You may have noticed that a few years ago, we used to have dollar goals for each hour of our fundraisers. We'd say, for example:
"We need to raise $5,000 in this hour. But it doesn't matter how much you give..."
Well, that didn't make any sense at all. So, we shifted paradigms.
Instead of talking about how much money we needed to raise, we started setting member goals.
"We need to hear from 50 of you in the next hour to stay on track! New, renewing, prodigal members ... online, phone line ... And how much you give doesn't matter. Just become a member right now."
And you know what?
We found that when people call or click and give whatever amount is right for them, they're generous, and the dollar goal takes care of itself: the Rita Wilsons & Tom Hanks of the world tend to give tens of thousands of dollars, the schoolteachers and fire fighters give hundreds, the students and seniors give $89, and kids on allowances give a few bucks.
But none of them sit on their hands. And you shouldn't either. Please become a member right now, giving what you can, and help keep Off-Ramp strong.
Thanks.
-- Team Off-Ramp (host John Rabe, producer Kevin Ferguson, and interns Mukta Mohan & Robert Garrova)
(Photo: Compton "Kitarettes" at 22nd annual Watts-Willowbrook Parade, 1986. Credit: James Ruebsamen/LAPL/Herald-Examiner Collection.)
LA Phil's new season includes first tour of Los Angeles
Monday, the LA Philharmonic unveiled its new season, which will start by celebrating the tenth birthday of Walt Disney Concert Hall. The hall was designed by architect Frank Gehry, and the news conference featured a tape of Gehry and LA Phil President Deborah Borda reminiscing about the hall.
Before construction was complete Gehry says he called then-Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen and asked him to come over. Salonen brought Concertmaster Martin Chalifour, who played unaccompanied Bach on his violin as Salonen and Gehry listened, as Gehry described it, holding hands, they were so nervous. It sounded so good, the maestro broke into tears.
The 2013-2014 season features 11 world premieres, the first time all of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels will be played by an orchestra, and a series of free community concerts across LA. In athe news release for the new season, Dudamel said:
This season, I am excited by all of our musical offerings, from the works that inspired me to become a musician to the numerous commissions and premieres that have become a trademark of the LA Phil. An additional delight for me is to have my two musical families, the LA Phil and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, working together once again – this time with Tchaikovsky. As a young boy, I discovered Tchaikovsky through great recordings and he has had a very special place in my heart ever since. I hope that you will join us to celebrate this great hall and great music.
Oscars, Schmoscars! Sean Penn wins first annual Ernie award
From Marty to McHale to Mermaidman, the late Ernest Borgnine worked for six decades, parlaying his unconventional leading man looks into a phenomenal career in film and TV. The New York Times wrote about his approach to acting in his 2012 obituary.
Asked about his acting methods in 1973, Mr. Borgnine told The New York Times: “No Stanislavsky. I don’t chart out the life histories of the people I play. If I did, I’d be in trouble. I work with my heart and my head, and naturally emotions follow.” Sometimes he prayed, he said, or just reflected on character-appropriate thoughts. “If none of that works,” he added, “I think to myself of the money I’m making.”
Borgnine might be gone, but his legacy lives on in his characters, and his often impolitic utterances, and on the newest acting award, the Ernies. The first Ernest Borgnine Movie Star Gala happened Saturday night at the Sportsmen's Lodge. The winner of the first Ernie was Sean Penn, who sent word that he couldn't accept the award because he's back in Haiti, helping earthquake victims. But he sent a letter that reads, in part:
While I'm genuinely sorry to not be in the location that Ernie is most likely to be staring down at tonite, if only so I could look up and say "Hey!," I'm very pleased to be acknowledged with anything bearing his name.
Off-Ramp correspondent Christopher Murray (Dean Rivers, Zoey 101; Nick Newport Sr., Parks and Rec; Phil Mathewson, Mad Men) attended the event, with his date Loretta Swit, and amidst all the TV and film celebs who no longer make the front pages, received this nugget of wisdom from Leonard Maltin:
Just because you're not on the hot list of the moment, doesn't mean you don't matter anymore. This is a town that can be very fickle sometimes. Sure, there are other parties going on this weekend where you'll see current box office names, but it doesn't mean that people who've been paying their dues a long time don't still matter very much.
By the way, that's Christopher Murray with John Rabe in the opening and closing scenes of John's parody song, "Call Me Rabe."
Suicide by train: A growing trend in SoCal
In 2010, Ron Iseli was fired from his job and faced eviction from his apartment. “I refused to be homeless. I would rather kill myself than be homeless,” says Iseli. When the money ran out, Iseli went to the Hollywood and Vine metro station and jumped in front of a moving train.
Reporter Charles Fleming interviewed Iseli in his piece about train suicides called, “The End of the Line,” for July’s Los Angeles Magazine. “2012 is already on track to be one of the worst years on record,” say Fleming. In 2010, there were 16 fatalities just on the Metro alone. The following year reached a death toll of 14 people, and in 2012, that death toll has already been matched.
L.A. County has some of the highest train fatality rates in the country and one of the highest for presumed suicides by train. It’s something every engineer has to deal with. Fleming says, “They know that they couldn’t have stopped the train, and yet, they are haunted by this idea that maybe something could have gone differently and this wouldn’t have happened.”
Often, the last thing that happens when the train hits a body on the track is, “the person turns and locks eyes with the engineer,” says Fleming. That was Ron Iseli’s last memory before the train struck him. He woke up with the train right on top of him, and his very first thought was, “Oh boy, I can’t even do this right.”
He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai hospital and went under for two days. When Iseli woke, he said, “I knew that I lived for a reason.” Before the incident, Ron was an atheist, but lying in the hospital bed, he got a sense that there was something watching over him.
The main regret Iseli has is not taking the train engineer into account. He planned his suicide for months and didn’t want to kill himself in his apartment where his roommate would find him. Instead, Ron thought the best way for him to go was to jump in front of a train. Charles Fleming says, “They may not have any concept that when they’re doing this—when they’re ending their lives in this way—that they’re affecting anybody but themselves.” Ron says he hopes the engineer who was driving the train can forgive him.
Ron Iseli is now managing a transitional house a mile away from the Hollywood and Vine metro station where he tried to commit suicide. He’s helping others recover from their addictions.