An in-depth interview with actor Piper Laurie ... AngelIno or AngelEno? ... the best jazz club in LA is a lady's house ... our Crenshaw High grad series continues with Tyris Williams & grandma on making tuition at UC Irvine.
Piper Laurie in-depth, or 'I'll have what she's having, hold the knives.'
(Piper Laurie speaks at The Bowers Museum Sunday, January 13, at 1:30.)
Today, at 80, actor Piper Laurie is grandmotherly. She made me coffee at her house before our interview, and fretted it was lousy. (It was fine.) So it's a little hard to picture her losing her virginity, as she claims in her memoir, to Ronald Reagan, who was playing her father in Louisa (1950); losing her composure in The Hustler (1961) while sitting across the table running lines with Paul Newman; and turning her death scene in Carrie (1976) into a protracted and creepily sexy orgasm.
As she explained to me, she pitched the idea to director Brian DePalma and he liked it.
Our conversation was long and wide ranging, encompassing a very sad few years when she and her sister were virtually exiled to a sanitorium in LA for her sister's health, an audition for Universal that should have led to better roles, three Oscar nominations, and the phenomenon that is Twin Peaks. She's still a little puzzled that it was canceled. She figures the network executives were as frustrated as many of the viewers about the number of loose ends David Lynch has leaving.
We also spoke about her sculpting, which she perfected in Woodstock during the long hiatus between The Hustler and Carrie. This is not the work of an actor/artist; both titles figure equally in her resume.
By the way, when she saw the photo of our Carrie re-enactment, Piper Laurie was appalled that there was schmutz on the blade. It's avocado, not flesh.
Crenshaw High's success stories: Tyris Williams goes to UC Irvine for his whole community
Off-Ramp contributor Tanya Jo Miller is following a couple of young adults who graduated from Crenshaw High in 2012 as they make their way into the adult world. In this piece we meet Tyris Williams, who's starting up a new quarter at UC Irvine. He and his grandma are working hard to keep him in school. It's hard, even for a student like Tyris, who was fortunate enough to get scholarships and grants to pay for college.
I met Tyris just as he was about to graduate from Crenshaw High in South LA (aka South Central), which is still associated with urban decay and street crime. He was heading off to UC Irvine carrying a heavy load. Not a course load. Survivor's guilt, you might say.
Tyris' complicated story begins at birth. He was a twin. His mother, who was already sick, died in childbirth. His father fell into despair and began to drink. So Tyris moved in with his grandmother. Tyris and his twin were born prematurely and as a result, he says his brother had "all kinds of health issues." The state decided Tyris' grandmother couldn't care for his brother because of his special needs and put him in foster care. Tyris feels guilty about this.
"You could have flipped a coin and it could have easily been me."
Unlike his brother, Tyris thrived socially and academically. His high school English teacher, James Altuner, says Tyris raised the entire level of discourse in his class. He says Tyris, always eager to learn, challenged students in a school where kids don't always take kindly to academic critique. "They might not have liked it if another student called them out academically," says Altuner. "But Tyris got a pass because they thought of him as a scholar and they respected that."
A 2004 study shows that peer-to-peer influence in the classroom affects academic achievement. "Classrooms containing high numbers of students with poor academic skills or behavior problems are likely to promote these behaviors in individual students," says a study called Classroom Environment Influences on Aggression, Peer Relations, and Academic Focus. The converse is also true. Strong students promote more learning. Chavin Hannah, a former classmate of Tyris, says when she saw the way Tyris wrote and interacted with teachers it challenged her "to get on his level." "I am jealous of him", Chavin says, "but it's a good jealous."
This year, Tyris started UC Irvine. And while many freshman stepped onto campus with a sense of new-found freedom and weightlessness, Tyris felt the heavy pull from home. He had made it all the way to a top tier university, and now feels a giant responsibility to succeed for his team. The team includes his neighborhood, South Central, his mother who, he says, gave her life for him, and his twin brother, who because of his mental and physical problems, probably won't ever get to college.
But most importantly he wants to do well for his grandmother, who Tyris calls his role model.
"She's my mother, my father and my grandmother," he says. He packs his bags and kisses his grandmother goodbye. "Failure," he says, "is not an option for me."
Reporter Tanya Jo Miller will check back in with Tyris in future Off-Ramp episodes.
Dylan Brody's lament for Newtown
Out of respect for the children
let us not speak of gun control.
Let us grieve in silent outrage
lest one of those small figures
carrying memories of fearful
moments, cupboard cuddled,
waiting with a teacher for an
end to either deadly shootings
or themselves think this horror
might have been averted
had we all been willing, even once
to dream beyond heroic violence
to the far more challenging, more
courageous, more inspiring vision
of heroic peace.
Out of respect for the victims
let us not speak of mental health
but rather, soothe the conscience
of a country with simplistic categories,
good guys, bad guys, innocent and
guilty, lest we lose to shades of gray
our certainty that a culture closed
to those who most need help,
who least are able to afford much-
needed meds, who cry and stamp and
tantrum, is not to blame, but only those
who once cast out and told they can't
be saved return in blazing rage inhabit shadow
and all the rest the pious light.
Out of respect for the soldiers
let us not speak of peace.
For if a world of diplomatic, thoughtful
problem solving is a possibility, why then
how dare we send our loved ones out
to die, to strive in terror and privation,
to sacrifice their bodies and their minds,
their limbs and senses to explosive conflict
far away, outside the rules of civil conduct
where to kill is just as much a job as filing,
cleaning rooms or sliding cans
past bar-code scanners.
Out of respect for our history,
speak not of genocides committed,
of infected blankets given out,
of trails of tears and wounded knees,
of treaties broken, promises abandoned,
reservations cordoned off and redefined
as minerals emerged and unexpected
resources came to light and seemed
more valuable than earth or sky
or human beings.
Out of respect for tradition
let us not speak of change.
Out of respect for the dead
let us all still our tongues.
Out of respect for the past
let us never speak of the future.
Out of respect for the wealthy
let us not speak of the poor.
Out of respect for the poor
let us not speak of the economy.
Out of respect for the worker
let us not speak of unions.
I am out of respect.
Let us now observe
not a single moment of silence.
Jazz at the A Frame - great jazz in Betty Hoover's livingroom
UPDATE: Jazz at the A Frame, Betty Hoover's delightful home, might be LA's best jazz club. It's probably the best place to hear jazz ... not cell-phones, talkers, or clinking glasses and plates. Sunday, January 13, Betty's bringing in singer Stephanie Nakasian and bop pianist Hod O'Brien. Rounding out the group: Allen Mezquida, alto sax; Jim DeJulio, bass; Paul Kreibich, drums. An excellent opportunity for us to bring back an Off-Ramp favorite.
The new release from jazz sax player Bruce Babad - A Tribute to Paul Desmond - wasn't recorded in a studio or a local jazz club, but in a private home. It happened in an A-Frame high in the Hollywood Hills, whose owner, a Texan named Betty Hoover, hosts Sunday afternoon concerts every month. For $40 or $50, you get wine, a light lunch, and a couple hours of what some consider some of the best jazz in LA. Off-Ramp went to the CD release party last Sunday.
Slideshow: Instagrammers fan out across Downtown LA for meetup in the world's most Instagrammed city
On a drizzly, cold Sunday afternoon on the eastern edge of Downtown Los Angeles, several dozen people wandered through the rain with their phones outstretched and their heads swiveling around the landscape.
This was an Instameet, a group of people who get together for a walk and collective photo session.
The group headed toward the basin of the L.A. River and started snapping away. The diversity of the results reveals the widely varying perspectives of photographers when they all approach one subject.
"I'll take photos of just something that I dream of, or my heart desires. I just kind of make my dream a reality so people can see it and then I add a caption to it. It's kind of like my heart speaks out," said Liz Gomez, a mother who went on the InstaWalk with her husband and two-year-old son.
Los Angeles is the most Instagrammed city in the world. LAX, Dodger Stadium, the Staples Center and the Santa Monica Pier are all in the top 10 most frequently shared places in the world.
Take a look at these Instagrammers we met on the journey through Downtown Los Angeles. They each view the city in their own way:
@dayzdandconfuzd - Los Angeles streetscapes presented in bold contrasts and competing forms.
@whittiersam - Personal stories and portraits from the down and out and downright interesting in Downtown Los Angeles.
@verntakesaphoto - Landscapes, bold colors and a lot of pictures of the artist flying through mid-air.
@ilisii - A mix of fantasy and reality from Southern California.
@visualwhiplash_ - A roving photojournalist with an Instagram addiction.
@diegobot - Epic, high-contrast urban landscapes and art photography from Los Angeles.
@igla - Instagram Lovers Anonymous is based in Los Angeles, but it holds global competitions every week on a theme. If you win, we'll interview you on KPCC.
@kpcc - While you're at it, follow your favorite public radio station.
Voluptua — TV love goddess's reign lasted less than 2 months
UPDATE 1/4/2013: We just learned that Gloria Pall died on December 30. RH Greene filed this piece for Off-Ramp's Valentines Day episode in 2011.
RH Greene tells us about Voluptua, a short-lived 1950s local tv sensation, branded "Corruptua" by Christian protest groups.
Angeleno? Angelino? Angeleño? And how the heck do you say it?
In the world of broadcast journalism, the only practice more important than spelling a word correctly is *pronouncing* a word correctly. For instance: If you live in Los Angeles, are you an Ann-jell-LEE-no? An An-jell-LAY-no? Or maybe you're an Angeleño (An-hell-LAY-nyoh). As Off-Ramp Producer Kevin Ferguson explains--it all depends.
For me and my neighbors in Los Angeles, there's no real consensus over what to call us--or how to spell it. Merriam Webster's goes with "Angeleno." But plenty of people spell it "Angelino." Just North of the 101 freeway you'll find a small, residential neighborhood called Angelino Heights. The word's origin comes from the Spanish word "Angeleño" and you'll see that, too. Which is correct?
I thought I'd get a definitive answer from the local lifestyle magazine, Angeleno. I asked them about how the word's pronounced--they refused to comment. So I talked with KPCC's Patt Morrison. She says it's all about history--and geography.
"Right now we say 'Angeleno,' 100 years ago you would have said 'Angeleño.' And in the roaring fifties, you had this sort of chamber of commerce white guy pronunciation that [then Los Angeles Mayor] Sam Yorty used: 'Los Angle-luss' 'Angle-leenos,' that nasal 'eh,' she said.
Yorty was originally from Nebraska, and like a lot of midwest transplants, the politician took his accent with him.
"It did look like a word that could be easily Anglicized," said Morrison. "And you did have these hoards from the Midwest. The Iowa influx into Long Beach, for example, who would have been a little impatient at the idea that they should be adapting their language to the Spanish word which, in fact, it is."
But that hasn't always been the case. In 1934, there was a very different battle with the city's name: the United States Board on Geographic Names — hadn't heard of them before either —announced its decision to officially anglicize our city's name.
The traditional, Spanish pronunciation our city had lost the formal backing of Uncle Sam. In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times was furious:
Attempting to change the long-accepted (and correct) pronunciation of the names of their cities by official fiat from Washington will find no favor with the people of Southern California. Yet the United States Geographic Board is quoted as decreeing that we are to take the Spanish out of our city's name and henceforth speak of it (as those ignorant of its origin already sometimes do) as "Loss An-je-less," making it sound like some brand of fruit preserve.
"What next?" the editors feared. La Canada Flintridge? The San Jew-wah-kin Valley? La Jawl-la? Tuh-jung-uh?
At an event at KPCC's Crawford Family Forum, author and historian DJ Waldie said the time to decide how the word should be pronounced has passed. They're all important--and they all give us a sense of place. He cited Google's ngram viewer, a tool that lets users search for words in historical texts. Surprisingly, the dominant word used is "Angelino."
"I tend to think that perhaps we lost a little bit of the poetry of who we are," said Waldie. "That the beauty of Angeleño--both the historical significance and just the loveliness of saying that is something we ought to recognize when we call ourselves Angeleno."
Having said that, on KPCC's air at least, the only way you'll hear us say it is still "Angeleno."
Angeleno? Angelino? Angeleño? And how the heck do you say it?
In the world of broadcast journalism, the only practice more important than spelling a word correctly is *pronouncing* a word correctly. For instance: If you live in Los Angeles, are you an Ann-jell-LEE-no? An An-jell-LAY-no? Or maybe you're an Angeleño (An-hell-LAY-nyoh). As Off-Ramp Producer Kevin Ferguson explains--it all depends.
For me and my neighbors in Los Angeles, there's no real consensus over what to call us--or how to spell it. Merriam Webster's goes with "Angeleno." But plenty of people spell it "Angelino." Just North of the 101 freeway you'll find a small, residential neighborhood called Angelino Heights. The word's origin comes from the Spanish word "Angeleño" and you'll see that, too. Which is correct?
I thought I'd get a definitive answer from the local lifestyle magazine, Angeleno. I asked them about how the word's pronounced--they refused to comment. So I talked with KPCC's Patt Morrison. She says it's all about history--and geography.
"Right now we say 'Angeleno,' 100 years ago you would have said 'Angeleño.' And in the roaring fifties, you had this sort of chamber of commerce white guy pronunciation that [then Los Angeles Mayor] Sam Yorty used: 'Los Angle-luss' 'Angle-leenos,' that nasal 'eh,' she said.
Yorty was originally from Nebraska, and like a lot of midwest transplants, the politician took his accent with him.
"It did look like a word that could be easily Anglicized," said Morrison. "And you did have these hoards from the Midwest. The Iowa influx into Long Beach, for example, who would have been a little impatient at the idea that they should be adapting their language to the Spanish word which, in fact, it is."
But that hasn't always been the case. In 1934, there was a very different battle with the city's name: the United States Board on Geographic Names — hadn't heard of them before either —announced its decision to officially anglicize our city's name.
The traditional, Spanish pronunciation our city had lost the formal backing of Uncle Sam. In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times was furious:
Attempting to change the long-accepted (and correct) pronunciation of the names of their cities by official fiat from Washington will find no favor with the people of Southern California. Yet the United States Geographic Board is quoted as decreeing that we are to take the Spanish out of our city's name and henceforth speak of it (as those ignorant of its origin already sometimes do) as "Loss An-je-less," making it sound like some brand of fruit preserve.
"What next?" the editors feared. La Canada Flintridge? The San Jew-wah-kin Valley? La Jawl-la? Tuh-jung-uh?
At an event at KPCC's Crawford Family Forum, author and historian DJ Waldie said the time to decide how the word should be pronounced has passed. They're all important--and they all give us a sense of place. He cited Google's ngram viewer, a tool that lets users search for words in historical texts. Surprisingly, the dominant word used is "Angelino."
"I tend to think that perhaps we lost a little bit of the poetry of who we are," said Waldie. "That the beauty of Angeleño--both the historical significance and just the loveliness of saying that is something we ought to recognize when we call ourselves Angeleno."
Having said that, on KPCC's air at least, the only way you'll hear us say it is still "Angeleno."