A Day with Huell Howser ... a fifty-year space tech vet on the ending of the shuttle program ... "D is for Dog" ... Dinner Party Download ... "Leave it on the Floor" black drag movie ...
Can music soothe the savage Carmageddite?
There are liable to be a lot of frustrated people (like this man) on the roads this weekend during Carmageddon. So Off-Ramp host John Rabe asked Classical KUSC (91.5 FM) morning drive DJ Dennis Bartel what music the station should play this weekend to "soothe the savage commuter."
Frederick Delius (1862-1934) is one of the composers Dennis Bartel says Classical KUSC should not play during Carmageddon this weekend. The morning drive DJ says Delius's music, especially something like "By the River," which evokes a meandering river in Florida, "replicates the condition that people will be faced with this weekend. It moves very slowly and goes nowhere, and is to be avoided during two-hour sit-and-stew backup."
Also, Bartel says, "No handwringing late Romantics, like Tchaikovsky or Mahler or Richard Strauss."
(Noted hand-wringer, Pyotr Tchaikovsky.)
Bartel says, "Who needs to hear their agony when you're sitting in your own agony!?"
What's needed, he says, is not relaxing music at all. "When you're stuck in traffic, sometimes it's nice to have a sense of moving." Bartel recommends Bach's solo works, played on piano. Maybe the English Suites. But not - definitely not - played on harpsichord, like Glenn Gould does here:
"You know the old quote?" Bartel asks. "The harpsichord is like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof." That could account for a lot of road rage.
Bartel gives a tip of the hat to his afternoon drive counterpart, Rich Capparela, whose regular feature, "the anti-road rage car tune," has been proven to reduce angry incidents on Southern California roads.
Let's hope it works this weekend.
Huell Howser's retiring: An Off-Ramp remembrance
11/27/2012 Update from John Rabe: Huell Howser is reportedly retiring, without a big announcement. There's a nice collection of videos and appreciations on LA Observed, and I'm reposting our long segment with him, from the glorious day he let us tag along as he taped a whole show around a single food item. Huell, we love you and you'll be missed.
When we explain Off-Ramp to people, they often say, "Oh, it's like Huell Howser, but on the radio!" We take it as a compliment, and were delighted when Huell, whose home base is KCET public television, asked Off-Ramp to spend the day with him.
The impetus for the Huell Howser/Off-Ramp tour of L.A. was National Donut Day, a celebration of what might be L.A.'s favorite food. We started at the Salvation Army's kitchen at the VA campus in West L.A., where they made donuts the way the Doughboys liked them in World War I — cakey and substantial. Then, it was off to India's Sweets and Spices in Glendale for some vada, which is a delicious savory donut. Finally, to East L.A. for churros, one of the most delicious confections in the world ... when they're hot.
Here's what I learned about Huell:
• Huell is truly curious about everything, but what he likes is to learn, meaning he's not sitting at his home in the high desert, or his place in Palm Springs, or his pad in L.A. reading more about donuts right now and trying out recipes. He's off to the next thing.
• Huell is very sensitive about his accent. He says, rightly, that it's ridiculous to think someone doing shows about California shouldn't have a Tennessee accent, when the whole idea of California is that it's a wonderful melting pot of cultures. "Should I have a Filipino accent? An Armenian accent?" He also says that Southerners are the last allowable target of jokes, and he's probably right about that, too.
• Huell loves his fans but he does not like taking photos with them when those photos are going to wind up on Facebook among a million other photos. Photos are a reflex now, and what takes one minute for one of his fans equals easily half-an-hour a day (or more) for Huell when he's out in public.
• Huell thinks much of TV is too fussy, and that over-elaborate production is taking the spontaneity out of it. He uses 99 percent of what his cameraman, Cameron Mitchell, shoots. He sets up the shots ahead of time, lets the subject know roughly what he'll be asking, then bulls forward with simple intros and transitions. (I personally think there's a middle ground, which is what you hear in Off-Ramp. We do plenty of post-production, but only when needed.) It accomplishes two things: Stuff happens in his segments, and people feel at ease to discuss things and tell stories because the set-up and interview is simple; and Huell is able to cover an enormous amount of ground. Go to his Web site and check out the stuff they've done in 20 years, and you'll find yourself saying, "That's amazing."
Yes, it’s easy to make fun of his accent and his boundless enthusiasm, and the way he talks to his cameraman. But over 20 years of California’s Gold and all the spinoffs, he’s has given voice to thousands of California citizens and has been the conduit for teaching volumes of California history. And for that, Huell Howser truly is California’s gold.
Now, to see how Huell plays on commercial TV, check out this video of an extended gag played on a local Sacramento reporter who did Huell Howser imitations. I love how Huell just takes over the set when he ultimately joins the show in progress.
— John Rabe
50 Year Space Tech Vet on Apollo and Shuttle Programs
When the Space Shuttle program ends this month, a lot of careers will end as well. One of them is a man whose career spans 50 years of the U.S. space program, Boeing engineer Stan Barauskas, who worked on the Shuttle during the entire 38 years of the program, and on Apollo before that. After he retires, he’ll be active with the Aerospace Legacy Foundation in Downey. He talked with John Rabe, host of Off-Ramp.
Barauskas is an immigrant whose family fled Lithuania into Germany after Germany and Russian divided the country during the war. They spent three years in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II waiting for permission to come to the U.S.
Barauskas was supposed to be laid off from Rockwell in December 1971 (as Apollo was winding down in the years after the 1969 moon landing). But he’s a canny fellow, and when his layoff note came telling him to report to HR for his termination interview, he instead took vacation leave, frantically searching during those weeks for a job in the So Cal aerospace and defense industry. In his second week of vacation, he got called to do a temporary assignment at Rockwell, which turned into a six month project. By then, Rockwell had been awarded the Shuttle contract, and he was set for the next 38 years.
D is for Dog, Dark, and Daring
UPDATE: "D is for Dog" returns starting June 8th as part of Hollywood Fringe, at the Hudson Mainstage Theater, 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Check the links below for more info.
"D is for Dog," written by Katie Polebaum with Rogue Artists Ensemble, is a dark combination of stage acting, video, and puppetry that might leave you a little shaken, if you care about the nature and future of man ... and his best friend. Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with director Sean Cawelti, actor Nina Silver, and puppeteer Ben Messmer.
Gritty Black Drag Movie - "Leave It On The Floor"
Indie cinema isn't usually a home for crowd-pleasing Hollywood spectacle. But filmmaker and Off-Ramp correspondent R.H. Greene stumbled onto a gritty fantasia at this year's LA Film Festival. "Leave it on the Floor" was shot on the streets of LA by USC Cinema instructor Sheldon Larry using a mostly student crew. Greene says it's as indie as "Paris Is Burning" and as Hollywood as "Over the Rainbow" and "A Star is Born." (It screens during Outfest on Saturday, July 16, at 9:30pm at DGA Theatre 1.)
Brandon Christy explains Off-Ramp at the Comedy Store
For the Thanksgiving weekend, Off-Ramp presents a night at The Comedy Store, taped this summer before a live audience at LA's oldest comedy club and springboard for Jim Carrey, David Letterman, and many others. The show features 5 of the brightest stand-up comedians around -- Fahim Anwar, Sarah Tiana, Michael Kosta, Freddy Lockhart, and Ian Edwards -- and takes you inside the world of the comedy club, including a freewheeling roundtable discussion about the art of stand-up. Your host for the evening is the affable and British Brandon Christy, who here talks with Off-Ramp host John Rabe about the evening.
(Note: there is a two-drink minimum for this edition of Off-Ramp.)
An LA institution, "Emergency!" star Randolph Mantooth talks with Rabe
This weekend, the LA County Fire Museum will host a public open house at the historic Robert A. Cinader Memorial Fire Station 127 to unveil the newly restored Ward LaFrance "Engine 51" from the 1970s television series "Emergency!"
To commemorate the event, we're re-airing host John Rabe's interview with the show's star, Randolph Mantooth.
OPEN HOUSE: Saturday, July 9, 2011, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m, formal program with guest speakers to start at 11:00 a.m., Los Angeles County Fire Department Fire Station 127, 2049 E. 223rd St., Carson, CA 90810.
Dinner Party Download talks with street art pioneer Shepard Fairey
Your hosts Brendan and Rico take you back to 1928 for the invention of (literally) the best thing ever: sliced bread. Also this week: Shepard Fairey on why he still gets arrested and KPCC's Patt Morrison on the decline of cursive.
Public Health Dept v Breadmaker Mark Stambler
Mark Stambler, profiled on Off-Ramp by food writer Miles Clements, makes award-winning bread in his wood-fired oven in his backyard in Silverlake. It wasn't a problem until he started selling it at a couple local stores. When the County found out, they made him stop. Fair enough, he didn't have any permits and knew it might happen. But Mark says many states make exceptions for people like him under so-called "cottage food" laws, and he's also discovered that the county has conflicting rules that make it very hard for an amateur like him to go legit. He talked with Off-Ramp host John Rabe about it.