Seth Menachem: Don't judge me or my 2-year old; an update on the Broad Museum and Hauser, Wirth, and Schimmel; Spike Lee up close & personal.
So my son wears a dress; What's it to you?
Actor and writer Seth Menachem turns Off-Ramp commentator to tell us a story about his 2-year old son's preference for girl's clothing.
Most days, my 2-year old son Asher is dressed like Sofia the First, or some Disney princess, or is rocking a multi-colored Ralph Lauren spaghetti strap sundress. On a summer day in L.A., a dress is probably the most practical choice. And frankly, he looks good.
Every morning, my 4-year old daughter, Sydney, drags a chair into her closet and plucks a dress off of the rack. I try to lean her in other directions — “Why don’t we try shorts today?” — but Sydney’s stubborn. And I think she deserves the freedom to choose what she wants to wear.
RELATED: Off-Ramp's interview with Zoey Tur, the former Bob Tur, macho chopper pilot
I usually grab shorts and a T-shirt for Asher because he still has trouble dressing himself. But he has figured out how to undress himself, and pretty often that means he’s ripping off his clothing and screaming “dress” over and over again. He climbs onto the chair in the closet and tugs at one of Sydney’s dresses — “This one.”
(2-year old Asher Menachem. Image courtesy Seth Menachem)
It used to embarrass me when he wore a dress in public. And it wasn’t because I cared about people who thought it was weird that my son was wearing a dress. It was because I cared that they thought I had chosen to put him in a dress. As if there was an agenda on my part to use my son as a way to break societal norms, or as my friend’s mom — a religious Sephardic Jew — said to me, “You wanted another daughter?”
WATCH: Seth was on a conservative talk radio show this week to talk about his commentary
This was at a birthday party for my friend’s daughter and before I left my house I had tried to convince Asher to change into “boy clothes.” I knew that if he showed up in a dress, it would be an endless series of judgments, and I just didn’t feel like dealing with it.
But Asher was stronger than ever that morning. He had a huge tantrum as I tried to force his legs into a pair of shorts. His nose was running into his mouth as he cried and protested and I suddenly realized I was fighting for something I didn’t even believe in. I was making my kid feel badly for something he shouldn’t be ashamed of. And I stopped. And I gave him a hug and I apologized. And then I put back on the purple princess dress with his sister’s sparkly Tom’s shoes.
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We went to the party, and, as I figured, some of the Israelis laughed and made comments. One said to me, “Do you think this is funny? There are kids here. You want them to see this?” Another said, “You want him to be gay?”
I stayed calm. And I explained to them the best I could that there is no correlation between kids cross-dressing and being gay. And if he is gay, it’s not because of anything I did. It’s because he’s gay. And maybe it’s a stage. And maybe it’s not. But either way, I don’t want him to ever feel like he wasn’t able to express himself because his parents didn’t support him. And some understood. And some, trapped by religion or ignorance, gave us the stank face.
RELATED: Seth Menachem on Huff Post Live talking about Asher
Plenty of people are supportive. They’ll see my kids — Sydney with her long dirty blonde hair, and Asher with his short dark hair — and say, “I love your daughter’s pixie cut.” When I tell them he’s my son, they smile and say, “I love it.” They also apologize for confusing his gender, but I tell them, “Don’t apologize. He’s in a purple dress with sparkly shoes. How would you know?”
A gay friend saw me with the kids at Jazz at LACMA one Friday night, and said, “Just so you know I didn’t wear any dresses when I was younger,” which is essentially saying, “Don’t worry. Your kid’s not gay like me.” This openly gay, married man was trying to make me feel better about a problem that didn’t exist. If my son is gay, so be it. Maybe he is. Maybe he’s not. Maybe he’ll be a cross-dresser. Maybe not. I have no control over any of it. All I can do is be supportive.
The saddest thing about the exchange was learning how my friend felt about being gay, as if it were a curse, and not the awesome, endless dude party it really is. Then again, he’s married now. He probably forgot.
RELATED: Matt Duron, OC cop, 'man's man,' and his son wears dresses, too
I get home before my wife most nights, so I was taking the kids out to walk our dog. They were dressing up in different outfits, my daughter treating Asher like her doll, as she tried various dresses, shoes and headbands on him. And then Sydney told me she wanted me to wear a dress, too — “Oh my God, it will be so funny.”
I said, “No,” but she kept begging. I said, “People will laugh at me.” She said, “If they do, I’ll tell them to go away.” And I couldn’t argue with that, as I squeezed myself into Carrie’s most flexible dress. We walked the dog on our block, and the pleasure my kids took in seeing their dad go out of his comfort zone trumped the humiliation I felt.
Carrie pulled up to the house, and I saw her slacked jaw from the end of the street. She laughed. She took a picture. And she told me I better not rip her dress. And then we all went for a pizza.
This commentary originally appeared on xojane.com.
Complex edifices: An update on Hauser Wirth & Schimmel and Broad Museum
Off-Ramp host John Rabe gets an update from arts reporter Jori Finkel on the Hauser Wirth & Schimmel gallery coming to the downtown Arts District and the Broad Museum coming to Grand Avenue.
One's gritty; one's grand. Two new important arts spaces are coming to downtown L.A. soon, one in the Arts District that's long been the home of poor artists, another alongside Grand Avenue's grand edifices. Jori Finkel, an arts journalist currently freelancing for the New York Times, gave us an update on both this week.
First, we went to 901 East 3rd Street, the site of a former flour mill. It's near the former Al's bar, a punk rock Mecca, and across the street from Wurstküche, the sausage and beer hall.
RELATED: Documentary "Young Turks" covers an era when the Arts District was really gritty
The international art gallery owners Hauser & Wirth will be opening a huge new gallery here in partnership with former MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel. Finkel says, "A powerhouse gallery, for sure. Galleries in Zurich, New York, and London."
It will be called Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. "[Schimmel] is actually a partner with them worldwide now," she says, "but this particular gallery he will be running, and we can already see his stamp on the program, because the first thing they'll be doing — maybe January of 2015 — is a pop-up gallery show to show the world what they're bringing to L.A., and it's going to be a big one." Finkel says that show will include Mark Bradford, Laura Owens, Sterling Ruby and Mary Weatherford as among the artists.
READ: Hauser & Wirth's news release on the new gallery
Then, it'll close again and — after extensive renovations — reopen sometime in 2016 as a "gallery on the model of a museum," as Finkel puts it. "It is commercial, but they're staffing up as though it were a museum," with educational programming and some exhibits at which the art will not be for sale, she says.
Schimmel left MOCA because he didn't get along with Jeffrey Deitch, the former high-end gallery owner brought in to direct the museum. He's since been replaced by Philippe Vergne. The question asked then, with raised eyebrows, was, "What does a gallery owner know about running a museum?"
Now, it's only fair to ask, "Does Schimmel, who has spent decades in the museum world, have what it takes to run a gallery? "
Finkel responds: "'Does he have what it takes to make sales?' is a question I've heard other (art) dealers ask."
And despite the fact that he's built deep relationships with important artists, "Paul is not known for working on the service model so much. He has a big personality. People love him for that reason, and he rubs some people the wrong way for that reason."
Next, it was off to Grand Avenue to check out the progress on Eli Broad's new edifice, the Broad Museum, completion of which has been delayed until at least the middle of next year, according to what Broad told Finkel.
PHOTOS: KPCC's hardhat tour of the Broad Museum, under construction
Finkel says the works inside will be the contemporary art collected by Broad and his wife Edythe and by the Broad Art Foundation. "So while you'll find some early Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Warhol-type works, you're also going to find some really big names of contemporary art today: Murakami, Koons, Cindy Sherman."
Will the Broad hurt MOCA, which is almost across the street? Finkel says she doesn't think so, because MOCA has struggled with low attendance, and "anything else that brings people who are art-interested or even just art-curious to this area will make this more of a destination for art. How much more is the question."
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One man 'Rodney King' show returns to LA
Rodney King became part of Los Angeles lore, starting one March night in 1991 when his beating by police officers was videotaped by an amateur photographer.
A one-man show about Rodney King returns to Los Angeles at the end of the month, after performances in New York, Amsterdam, and most recently, in our nation's capital. It's written and performed by a man whose obsession with King began at the end of King's story, after King was found dead in his Rialto swimming pool.
VIDEO: The full Rodney King beating video
Roger Guenveur Smith never met Rodney King. He says he opened his laptop on Father's Day two years ago and read about King's death. "I was quite moved," he says, "and I wanted to know why." Within five weeks, Smith was onstage, trying to figure it out in front of an audience.
Using interviews, YouTube videos, and the autobiography "Rodney King, the Riot Within," Smith created his one-man show "Rodney King." The piece is different every night – Smith compares it to jazz – but begins with an in-your-face rap song by Willie D and the Ghetto Boys from 1992 entitled "F- Rodney King." Smith says Willie D was "very articulate about why Rodney King was not worthy of our sympathy" — not for the reasons you might think, either. Willie D accused King of being a sellout and an Uncle Tom.
RELATED: One of Rodney King's last interviews
It's not the first time Smith has taken on real-life events to create an evening of theatre. His "Juan and John" told the tale of the infamous baseball game where Giants pitcher Juan Marichal went after Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro with a bat. Smith says he was just a kid in L.A. when it happened, but he remembered burning his Marichal baseball card, repeating the chant of the Watts riots just a week earlier, "Burn, baby, burn."
In his piece about Rodney King, Smith uses a give and take, teasing out of King pieces of his life. He reminds King about that particular night in 1991, "the basketball game was on and you were hitting that Old English 800 Malt Liquor – 40 oz times 40 times 40 and you were never that good at math, right?"
The play ends with the impassioned, impromptu speech delivered by Rodney King as the city of Los Angeles went up in flames: "Can we all get along?"
But Smith performs the entire plea – what he calls "one of the great American speeches" delivered by a man who never even finished high school. "He had learning disabilities, but he spoke under great duress, probably under some alcoholic influence, but he spoke from the heart and he spoke without a script even though he was given a four page speech by his attorneys."
In that rambling speech, a nearly sobbing Rodney King says he "could understand the first upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on and to see the security guard shot on the ground. It's just not right. It's just not right. Because those people will never go again to their families again."
Smith says King stopped a riot.
But King's story of redemption is cut short with his death at the bottom of a swimming pool at the age of 47. The tragedy, Smith says, is that "we thought that he was on his way back, that he had recovered from his wounds, those inflicted by the LAPD and those inflicted by himself."
Smith says younger audiences only know Rodney King from his appearance on "Celebrity Rehab." Smith says it's not surprising that it works as well in Amsterdam as it does in Los Angeles. "I would like to think that Hamlet plays outside of Denmark." Smith says Rodney King's life and untimely demise "are the stuff of which tragedy has consistently and traditionally been made."
"Rodney King" returns to Los Angeles July 24-26 at 8pm at Grand Performances in downtown L.A. The shows are free.
Spike Lee Retrospective: 'As an artist you want to have longevity'
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is in the midst of a Spike Lee retrospective, showcasing rare and recent films from one of America's most controversial and outspoken directors. Off-Ramp contributor R.H. Greene has this profile of Spike Lee, and four films that broke him through the studios' unofficial color line almost 30 years ago.
Pop culture historian Nelson George once called Spike Lee the Jackie Robinson of African-American cinema. But don't tell Spike that.
"We had Oscar Micheaux, Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles," Lee said. " When you're talking about Jackie Robinson, that means the first. I was not the first."
As a working filmmaker, Lee seems to think being placed on an edifice is the same as being put on the shelf. But younger black filmmakers? They carve Spike Lee onto their personal Rushmores, every time.
RELATED: Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" turns 25
John Singleton is the writer/director of "Boyz n the Hood" and eight other feature films.
"You know, he's a hero to me," says Singleton. "He was the first African-American filmmaker to just say whatever the hell he wanted to say. From a black man's perspective, (to) make an honest discourse about whatever subject he wanted to make. "
Lee won't pick his favorite Spike Lee film, but that's a hard task for anybody if they're sympathetic to Lee's cinematic approach.
"When people come up to me and tell me what their favorite film is," Lee says, "there's a lot of films. People say 'She's Gotta Have It,' ton of people say 'School Daze.'
VIDEO: "Good and Bad Hair" from "School Daze"
My white fans, they loooovve '25th Hour.' People love 'Crooklyn' — a whole lot of people say 'Crooklyn.' So it varies. "
There have been failures too. Lee's remake of Park Chan-wook's cult classic "Oldboy" was among 2013's splashier critical and box office flops. Still, no major American filmmaker of Lee's generation has a more personal body of work, and none has broken more new ground.
Lee's a brand name, a pop icon, a human turning point in American social and cultural history. And though he's not ready to be treated like a monument, you get the feeling Lee was playing to history all along.
"It's not a good thing when you get put into this whole flavor of the month thing," Lee says. "It's not good to be a flash in the pan. As an artist you want to have longevity, because longevity will let you do your work. And artists want to build up a body of work."
Since 1986, Spike Lee has made nearly two dozen theatrical feature films, plus commercials, music videos, and documentaries too numerous to count.
The Academy series By Any Means Necessary: A Spike Lee Joints Retrospective continues through July with screenings both at LACMA's Bing Theatre and The Motion Picture Academy.
Womanhouse: Hollywood and CalArt's 'bad-dream house' of immersive feminist art
In fall of 1971, artists Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro co-founded the Feminist Art Program at CalArts. The program was the first of its kind, and they decided to start with with a project called Womanhouse. The professors and their 25 students transformed a run-down Hollywood mansion into an enormous and immersive feminist art exhibition.
The program then was brand new — so new, the studios for the feminist art students were still under construction.
Rather than wait, Chicago and Shapiro enlisted their students to find a space of their own, where they could work in what Chicago called an “exclusively female environment.”
A group of students found an empty, deteriorating mansion on a residential street in Hollywood. They sent a letter to the owner of the house, who made them an offer: they could use the house rent-free for three months, but once Womanhouse was over, it would be demolished.
The owner had a deal, and the students got to work.
For Chicago, one of the most important feminist artists of the 20th century, the renovations were just as important as the art projects that followed. In an essay about Womanhouse, she wrote, “One of the goals of the program is to teach women to use power equipment, tools and building techniques. The House provided a natural context for the women to learn these things.”
With just two months to revamp all 17 rooms of the neglected house, the group had their work cut out for them.
"So we worked really, really hard for a few months. We repaired the doors and painted and made the house, sort of... not habitable, but usable, with our sweat equity," says Christine Rush, a graduate of the program.
An essential part of the art-making process for Chicago and Shapiro was an exercise called “consciousness raising,” which was sort of like group therapy: participants sit in a circle, a topic is introduced and each person is given a chance to speak.
"When we did consciousness raising it was of course about women, and about us as women. It brought out a lot of stories and crying and memories," says Rush. "And a lot of that became our artwork."
These group sessions were often emotional and tense. Mira Schor, another graduate of the program, remembers a consciousness raising session where Chicago asked all of the women to join hands in a circle and chant the word “mommy.” Then she told them to imagine being at their mother’s funeral. Schor says it left her in tears.
Chicago was always eager to talk about sensitive subjects. And sometimes she got pushy about it.
"Judy was very dynamic and she just made everybody pissed off. I remember yelling at Judy once and just getting really mad at her and then she said, 'Well, let’s go have a fist fight, Chris.' So we went into the theater room and we started… I really tried to slug her," says Rush. "I’m sure she would have done me in if... but I was really angry with her."
When they weren’t working on raising their consciousness, the women devoted almost every hour of their time to making art in Womanhouse.
The pieces had names like “Menstruation Bathroom” and “Bridal Staircase,” and most of the work took up entire rooms. Robin Weltch painted every inch of the kitchen a bright, Pepto Bismol pink and then covered the walls in fake fried eggs that slowly transformed into breasts as they climbed up the wall. She called it “Nurturant Kitchen.”
http://youtu.be/RvxjDpv3l_o?t=55s
"I remember watching them respond to Judy’s Kotex room, which for me was shocking anyway, because there was a Kotex hanging out with blood on it, and I found having a period gross. But I was so glad that she did it, it was so brave," says Rush. "And these men, they just would look at it and go, 'Oh gross,' or 'Awful, ugh, yuck.'”
There was performance art too, like Faith Wilding's "Waiting":
On January 30, 1972, Womanhouse opened to the public — allowing only female visitors on the first day.
Around 10,000 people came to see Womanhouse in the months that followed. Time magazine did an article titled “Bad-Dream House.” An LA Times article described it as a “lair of female creativity.” For many visitors, this was the first time they’d ever seen feminist art.
"It was just something that had never been done before, and we pulled it off. And it was really pretty exciting and wonderful," says Rush. "I’m very proud of it."
Can you pass the Donald Sterling test? Hear KPCC staffers try their best
Scandal-plagued Donald Sterling is fighting his wife Shelly's attempt to sell the NBA Clippers, and her claim — based on two medical exams — that he has Alzheimer's.
In L.A. Superior Court yesterday, Sterling ridiculed the doctors and his wife's attorney.
One paragraph stood out in James Rainey's coverage of yesterday's proceedings in the L.A. Times (emphasis added):
Dr. Meril Platzer and Dr. James Spar first reviewed scans of Sterling's brain, then interviewed him and conducted a battery of tests. They reported that he had trouble spelling the word "world" backward and counting backward, by sevens, from 100. (As in 100, 93, 86, 79, etc.) His mental deterioration made it impossible for Sterling to continue as a trustee of the family trust that controls the Clippers, they concluded.
My guess is that most readers tried that little test themselves, trying to spell out D-L-R-O-W and then counting backwards from 100, by 7s. (Those are just two steps in the Mini-Mental State Evaluation, a standard for testing mental impairment.)
RELATED: The entire Mini-Mental State Evaluation
Admit it, you just tried, too! It's not easy, as we found out when Off-Ramp intern Alana Rinicella asked KPCC staffers to take the same test. Listen to the story to hear what happened.
Reformed mobster Vince Ciacci now cuts hair in Brentwood
At Claudio D'IItalia hair salon in Brentwood, you might be able to get a haircut by Vince Ciacci – a barber with a rough past. He was shoplifting from toy stores at 12, snatching purses at 15, and by the time he'd grown up he was robbing stores, dealing drugs—all the trappings of the mobster lifestyle.
"I live a pretty calm life now, so the favorite thing I like is smoking cigars and watching good movies," said Ciacci.
He's worked at his current salon for five years, but he's been in Los Angeles since 1977.
On how he first got involved in crime:
"We were great shoplifters. We had a crew of guys that'd distract the proprietor while we were taking everything but the kitchen sink. We used to do that a lot. We used to go into candy stores. I remember, there was a place in New York called Schwarz... ...they had these miniature tanks made out of steel. We'd go in there, we'd take all of the tanks... ...I always stole, I don't know what it was. I always had the tendency to steal."
"Then we started robbing purses. We had three or four guys, we'd go on Park Avenue. We were fast, too. We'd split like an octopus! One guy would grab the fur, press it against himself, and then the three of us would be running. They didn't know which one had the fur!"
"[After that,] I went into armed robbery, jewelry stores. Stuff like that."
On where his accomplices are now:
"They died 10 years ago, from heart attacks. Because I was worried about putting real names in the book. I inquired about them, and 'Oh yeah, he's dead. He's dead.' You know, back East they eat the wrong stuff, they smoke. And then you got to worry about the FBI watching you all the time. So I was lucky, I came out here and God had another plan for me."
On when he decided to give up crime for good:
"That's what I call a 'God shot.' I was at this girls house, I was giving her coke to sell and she was throwing heroin my way. This was the one night that she came on to me. I was so high on heroin that went I went to make love to her I fell off the bed and she just pushed me and said 'You disgust me.'"
"I took a bottle off Jack Daniels, drank half a bottle just to keep my heroin high up. I jump in my brand new car. And when I'm shooting home, I hear something—the car hits the divider and sparks are coming out. I'm saying 'Oh, my poor car! Look what I did.'"
"I had a rocker panel built on the car, where I kept guns and drugs. You know, when I saw the French Connection I said 'Hey, this is a good idea!' So I see the flashing lights, and I said 'I'm done, man.' The cop gets out of the car, I don't know what he said to me or what I said to him, but he starts changing the tire of my car. He doesn't do nothing!'
"So I go home. I go down Lincoln and Montana and make a left, and I hear an explosion. What happened is I passed out; my foot must have gone down on the accelerator and went right through the light, hit a parked cadillac. I hit [the Cadillac] so hard, it hit the car in front of it. Guess what? The cops come again. The car was like an accordion, but the rocker panel was untouched. And that's where the drugs and the guns were. The cops come again—they don't arrest me!"
"They wanted to tow the car, I said 'I got friend in the tow yard, he'll take care of the car.' And they went away. I got my friend to tow it and I looked at my wife and she was petrified. And I said 'I'll buy another car tomorrow, no big deal.'"
"And then, two weeks later, one of my customers made me aware that I had a problem with drugs and alcohol. And I investigated it. And that was my role to starting to turn my life around."
Ciacci's book — Almost a Wiseguy — is out now. You can order it via Amazon.
After suffering aneurysms, artist Siike Donnelly fights to remember how to draw
Thirty-two-year-old graphic novelist Siike Donnelly wants to redefine himself, but he can’t really remember the first 25 years of his life. Several brain aneurysms have left him with lasting memory damage and a new life to adjust to.
The first aneurysm ruptured one night at dinner. He stepped out for some air when his friend found him flat on the ground.
"As far as I know, it felt like a grenade going off in my head. And it felt like dying," Siike says. "But I don’t remember it."
Donnelly suffered the most damage to his temporal lobe, where visual memory is located. That means it's for him to hold onto images, even after seeing something moments ago. For example: if you asked him what an apple looked like, he could describe it to you, but no image would come up in his head — that makes it difficult to draw.
"Closing my eyes and seeing something in my head — I can’t," he says. "It’s just darkness…literally blindness when I close my eyes."
Since then five other aneurysms have formed in Siike’s head, but doctors caught them before they ruptured.
For Siike, life is more like "Groundhog Day" than "Memento." He can create new memories but the visuals don’t stick. Initially he relied on a white board for clues. Crucial facts about his life—his name, who his mother is—were reduced to bullets points.
RELATED: Siike Donnelly guests on Dan Harmon's podcast "Harmontown"
These days, Siike lives by routine. He does the same thing at the same time every day. His neurologist said the routine will help repair his memory. But maintaining it's a daily struggle.
"Day to day life can be extremely frustrating, even with a routine because now that it is a routine, when something throws you off-track, it affects you even more," Siike says.
The first rupture severely damaged his long-term memory. Events from when he was younger became hard to recall — his mom took it pretty hard.
"Going through a photo book affected her, because every mom, when they look at you, they see the six-year-old, they see the eight-year-old," Siike says. "She wants to reminisce of all these times that make her happy and now I can’t share those moments with her."
After finding a steady job, Siike got to work on Solestar, his first ever widely published graphic novel. It follows a man who gained superpowers in the wake of Hiroshima. Among the powers he gets—he learns the exact day he’ll die. So he decides to start converting his enemies to good.
Siike assembled 72 artists to draw the ninety-six-page comic. You'll see work by "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" co-creator Kevin Eastman, "Simpsons" illustrator Bill Morrison. Profits from the comic benefitted the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. In just under a week, he raised $10,000 through Kickstarter to fund the comic.
(Solestar cover art by Bill Morrison)
So, did Siike's condition bring him attention he wouldn’t otherwise have gotten—did the aneurysms make him a published author?
Donnelly says he likes to think that would've happened anyway, but he adds that the accident made him a better artist. Before the rupture, he said, his art was darker and more disturbing. Now he focuses on the beauty of human complexity.
His latest graphic novel follows a robot as he searches for his soul. By creating art, the robot learns what it means to be human.
To read more about Siike's work and download previews of his comics, visit his website.
RECIPE: LA restauranteur Piero Selvaggio cooks for Sophia Loren's 80th
Next weekend (July 19), Sophia Loren and 400 of her closest friends, including her son Carlo Ponti and actor Robert Redford, will be celebrating the iconic actor's 80th birthday. With Michael Ciarello, LA restauranteur Piero Selvaggio, owner of Valentino in Santa Monica, is in charge of the food.
RELATED: Hear how Selvaggio changed the face of food in America
I asked Selvaggio, "Who was your ideal of beauty when you were growing up?"
Dumb question when you're talking to a guy who grew up in Italy.
"For any Italian of my generation, there is only one name: Sophia Loren."
(Publicity still of Sophia Loren, c. 1959)
Loren's party is part of Festival del Sole, held at Far Niente vineyards in Napa. It's sold out, so instead, cook up some pasta and enjoy one of Loren's classic films.
Polpo Con Patate e Intingolo di Prezzemolo e Capperi
(Octopus And Potato Salad With Parsley And Caper)
Inspired by the Menu for Sophia Loren’s Bella Italia! Tribute at Far Niente, by Chef Nico Chessa, Valentino Santa Monica
Serves 4 as an appetizer
POLPO
1 large (tenderized frozen octopus) defrosted
1 orange
2 lemons (1 for garnish)
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 bay leaf
1 cup vino bianco (white wine)
6 cherry tomatos (for garnish)
In a large stockpot with two gallons of water, add half of the orange and the lemon plus the rest of the above ingredients except the octopus. You will add that after the water is been boiling for 15 minutes.
Cook the polpo for 1 hour and then turn off the power and let it chill down in the liquid. Now gently peel the gelatin-like skin leaving the suction attached to the meat (tentacles) cut it to a one-inch pieces and place it in a mixing bowl.
POTATO
1 large Yukon potato boiled and cut into half-inch cubes
CONDIMENT
½ bunch of Italian parsley finely chopped
1 tblspoon of caper finely chopped
2 tblspoon of extra virgin olive oil (yes, Italian!)
PLATING
Mix the polpo, the potato, and the condiment adding only pepper (no salt), add garnishes of lemon slices and halved cherry tomatoes around the edge of the dish for a beautiful presentation. Serve at once and enjoy it with a good glass of white wine and, of course, good company.
Off-Ramp, the only radio show with a sketch artist: Mike Sheehan
By now, people are used to the idea of radio shows having websites and needing photographers and videographers. But I believe Off-Ramp is the only show to have a sketch artist.
Mike Sheehan has been sending us his sketchbooks for a couple years now. His most recent set of sketches took us to the immigration protest in Murrieta, but he's also taken us to the Natural History Museum at night ...
The great Shuttle Parade ...
And mobster Bugsy Siegel's Lake Arrowhead casino:
I asked him what he can capture with his pen that a photographer can't capture with their camera. He said it's about slowing down. To sketch, he is forced to sit for 10 to 15 minutes in a single spot, and everything that's happening around him washes over him and finds its way into his brain, out his pen, and onto the paper. A photographer, he says, doesn't capture mood, nuance, and relationships in the same way.
The social worker who rescued Taylor Orci from child abuse
With the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services on the hot seat once again after another child it was monitoring was killed by a family member, Off-Ramp commentator Taylor Orci remembers the County social worker who rescued her.
I was standing outside my fourth grade classroom when my teacher told me to lie.
A few days before, my teacher had asked me if anything was wrong. Creative writing was my favorite subject, and a disturbing story I had written about vampires had led her to ask me if I was having problems at home. I was.
I told her about not having enough food to eat, seeing body parts I shouldn't have been seeing. I told her about my favorite hiding spots in my house where I'd go when I felt like my life was in danger — under the wicker loveseat because it made me feel like I was at a tea party.
The answers gushed forth. I mean, why wouldn't they? The TV always said to tell a trusted adult if something was wrong, and Mrs. Palmer was an adult I could trust — after all, she made sure my clay cheetah didn't break in the kiln that one time during arts and crafts.
And now I was standing outside the classroom where I confided in her, next to my dad who'd shown up without me knowing. Both of their faces looking down on me with equal parts worry and disapproval.
"Tell your teacher you made this up," said my dad.
"I made it up," I told my teacher.
"Tell your dad you're sorry," said my teacher.
"I'm sorry," I told my dad.
"She has a wild imagination," my dad said.
"Oh I know, what stories!" said my teacher.
And then my dad took me home and we never spoke of it again.
Until a few months later a miracle happened.
I was playing handball outside with my next door neighbor when a man in a white car with the county seal of Los Angeles drove into our cul-de-sac in La Verne. Our tranquil suburb was what Vernon Howell used as a kind of test kitchen for his Branch Davidians before he went down in a blaze of glory in Waco as David Koresh. We were full of secrets.
The man had a black mustache and asked if my dad was home. I told him he was. I thought he was his friend. I was 9; I thought all men with mustaches were friends.
My neighbor and I kept playing handball as the sun turned the sky colors that matched my bright purple handball. I had almost forgotten there was a man in my house until he came out with my dad. I saw the look on his face, the same combination of worry and disapproval he had before. I knew this man wasn't his friend.
"Sweetheart, this man wants to ask you some questions," my dad knelt down and looked me in the eyes so intensely I thought I would shatter into pieces. "And whatever you do: tell him the truth." I waved goodbye to my next door neighbor and told him I'd see him tomorrow. I didn't know I wouldn't see him for three years.
The man took me to my room and explained he was a social worker. He told me a family member had told their therapist about my situation and the therapist called the county and sent him. He asked me to tell the truth.
I remembered my dad telling me the same thing, and where telling the truth got me the last time I did it. And despite my better judgment, I told him everything I had told my teacher months earlier. Then he told me to pack my bag because I was going to live with my mom and stepdad.
Driving to my mom's house, I felt so grateful for that man with the mustache. I had become so used to not trusting adults, but this social worker proved you could in fact trust some adults — just not all of them.
I wanted him around all the time to make sure I didn't get hurt. I asked if we could keep in touch. I had a pen pal that lived in Oregon so I knew I was good at it. He said thank you, but that wasn't possible. I remember sitting in the backseat of his county-issued vehicle, which to me was as good as a prince's white horse, knowing my life was about to change. I just didn't know how.
I know I had one of the good experiences, I know there are many more that are tragedies upon horror stories. I just hope more stories will end like mine, and not like the ones that become headlines… about children with no adults to trust, kids who try to save themselves, over and over again.
'Mythbuster' Kari Byron urges girls to pursue science careers
The Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana is hosting an exhibit based on the Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters," which uses practical science to challenge common myths. The show asks, for instance, will a penny dropped from the Empire State Building shatter your skull if you're on the sidewalk below?
Mythbuster Kari Byron is in town to help open the exhibit, and she spoke with Off-Ramp host John Rabe. (You can hear their entire interview by clicking the button on the left.)
"Sometimes, when science is taught, it's taught in a way where it's a talking head that makes it feel like it's not accessible, when science is something that everybody experiences all the time," said Byron, who is, in addition to being a Mythbuster, a mom.
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"Mythbusters" host Adam Savage has said on Off-Ramp before that he's really worried about the withering of science teaching in America. The show is also very conscious of making sure science teaching is diverse. This year, Byron hosted the National Science Fair at the White House, where the theme was women and girls in science, technology, engineering and math.
Byron met with many young women who want to be scientists. "I spoke with one girl who said to me, 'Sometimes just the overwhelming pressure to fit in is so much greater than the need to be smart,'" Byron said. "And this was heartbreaking, because they're exceptional girls."
Byron said she usually goes to the openings of the traveling show, and kids love it. But "what's even more fun is watching their parents, because they will push the kids aside and jump into the exhibit."
Byron's interview at the Mohn Broadcast Center came on the 158th birthday of inventor Nicolai Tesla, and Bryon delighted KPCC's engineering staff by coming into the shop to watch a demo of a home-made Tesla coil.
VIDEO: Watch KPCC Chief Engineer Lance Harper's Tesla coil in action
Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition is at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana through Sept. 7.
Making the Guardians of the Galaxy's Star-Lord a comic book headliner
KPCC's pop culture blogger Mike Roe talked with Sam Humphries of L.A. about writing "The Legendary Star-Lord" comic book. The movie "Guardians of the Galaxy" is set to be released August 1. Click the button on the left to hear their entire interview.
Marvel moves this August from making movies about tried and true heroes like Captain America and Iron Man into bold new territory, tackling the universe with "Guardians of the Galaxy."
Watch the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trailer
Marvel's launching several new comic books with that movie's characters, including the Legendary Star-Lord, written by Los Angeles-based Sam Humphries. It's his job to take the relatively unknown character and make comics with him that people care about.
Since Marvel's parent company, Disney, owns the "Star Wars" franchise, Star-Lord — aka Peter Quill — is giving Disney another Han Solo-like character — a scoundrel with a heart of gold. Humphries wanted to set the character in line with the great heroes of Marvel's past.
"Originally it was going to be called Star-Lord, but Marvel has this great tradition of adjectives in titles. You have 'The Incredible Hulk.' You have 'The Amazing Spider-Man.' You have 'The Uncanny X-Men,'" Humphries said. "Peter certainly thinks he's legendary. He thinks he's legendary, because he can shoot fast, and he can fly fast, and he can flirt fast, but the real reason he's the legendary Star-Lord is because he always does the right thing, even when it's the hardest, most difficult, toughest thing for him to do."
Quill's an orphan whose mom was killed by aliens and whose dad disappeared into space, but he's not a dark, brooding character like Batman or the recent version of Superman in "Man of Steel" — Peter Quill is in love with what he does.
"His life on Earth wasn't that great, but in space, he's awesome," Humphries said. "On Earth, he's Peter, this kid who gets knocked around, but in space, he's the legendary Star-Lord."
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It's a character that much of the world isn't familiar with — even comics fans.
"Even being a huge Marvel nerd growing up, I don't even know if I was aware of Star-Lord, because he was so obscure," Humphries said. "He had maybe a dozen comic books to his name for the first 15 years he was around, and then about 10 years ago, Keith Giffen and Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning really kind of pulled him out of obscurity."
(Sam Humphries relaxing after Comic-Con 2010. Image: Sam Humphries' Tumblr blog)
Humphries has a love for science fiction — his breakout book was "Our Love Is Real," a darkly comic sci-fi love story — and he's pouring into this story.
"It is a way to comment [on the world] in a way that doesn't turn people off and doesn't come across as preachy. You never want to come across as preachy, even when you really have a burning need to say something, to stand up and say 'I think this is bad,' or 'this is wrong,' 'we're going down the wrong path,' because with sci-fi you can dress it up with aliens and spaceships."
The fact that Star-Lord is taking the lead on the big screen makes it a little easier for Humphries to share what he does.
"When I write something like Star-Lord, and I can point to 'Guardians of the Galaxy' ... and tell my mom that's what I'm writing, and then she understands. She's like, 'Oh, that's Chris Pratt, I know who that is!'"
Humphries says that the explosion of superheroes in the mass media has finally made writing comics cool.
"Green Arrow is a television heartthrob, with his abs and everything?! I mean, come on, that's nuts!" Humphries said. "And now Chris Pratt's playing [Star-Lord] in a groovy red leather jacket, and he's going to be in this big movie coming out in, like, a month, and I don't know, the nerds have inherited the Earth, I guess."
Humphries isn't privy to the film yet beyond what everyone else has seen, but he believes what he's doing is in line with what's resonated about this character on the big screen. To write the Legendary Star-Lord, Humphries dove back into the character's history to reacquaint himself with the material.
"You read comics just for enjoyment, and you kind of experience, 'Oh, that was cool,' but it's good to go back and remind yourself just what actually made you feel good reading this comic book. What made you feel interested in this character? Why'd you relate to this person?"
Humphries says the aspect of Star-Lord that he relates to is being a smart-ass.
"A smart-ass always thinks he's the funniest person in the room, even if it's not true, and I speak from experience. So even though Peter is a smart-ass, and I love that about him, and I'm going to lean into that, part of the equation of being a smart-ass is being checked a lot, both by your friends and your enemies, who don't think you're as funny as you think you are."
Humphries is volleying story back and forth with Brian Michael Bendis, who's been writing the main Guardians of the Galaxy comic for the past year.
"[Bendis is] so generous with ideas, and he's so generous with setups," Humphries said. "We're all kind of building a new corner of the Marvel universe together. Not building from scratch, but we're coalescing, like a bunch of gas in space coalescing into becoming a giant star."
Those other spacefaring Marvel comics include Rocket Raccoon, Captain Marvel (Marvel's version, not the classic DC character), Cyclops (of X-Men fame) and Nova.
Now that his book is out in the world, Humphries is going to be doing some signings, as well as meeting fans at San Diego Comic-Con later this month.
"Comic books can tend to be a very anti-social profession. You sit at a table all day, either writing on a keyboard or drawing on a tablet, or a piece of paper, and your collaborators can be all over the world. My editor's in New York, and I've probably worked with more artists outside of the U.S. than I have inside of the U.S. And there's all sorts of time zones, and geographic barriers, and sometimes language barriers, and you feel that synergy, but it's not quite the same as working in Cheers or something."
Humphries says he meets everyone from professionals to other creative types, and that while comics have grown up, a lot of those fans will bring their kids.
Humphries has also taken steps to be less anti-social — even though there's no company office to go to, he now shares an office space with Bryan Lee O'Malley, the creator of Scott Pilgrim, and Andy Khouri, the editor-in-chief of major comic book news site Comics Alliance. They work together here in Southern California.
"Los Angeles really is just my favorite place. I just think it's the greatest place in the world. Moving here is one of the best things I've ever done," Humphries said. "And it's not just the weather, but it's also the culture and the cultural diversity. It's the respect for creative professions, and also the respect for the underdog in the creative professions. You can do something independent and small scale, and people really get into that."
He says he also loves the area's outdoor opportunities — and the food. He points out that while the editorial side may still be in New York, the movies, TV shows, cartoons, video games, toys and everything else is based in L.A. Their distinguished competition, DC Comics, is in the process of moving to Burbank.
While Humphries has become one of Marvel's go-to guys for new projects, he's still working on keeping his indie cred.
"One genre of sorts that I've always wanted to tackle that is going to be one of my next projects is political satire. While I'm here at KPCC, I figured I might as well bring up political satire to make myself seem a little smarter," Humphries said, laughing. "I can't say it's going to be inspiring. This is not going to be the inspiring tale of somebody who does the right thing."
He says he wants to use this story to put some of his personal outrage onto the page.
"When you go through the process of making a comic book, or a TV show, or a movie," Humphries said, "you really process why some of these things are important to you, these things that make you angry, and why that anger is important and how to really channel that into something that's lasting, instead of a silly rant on Twitter."
He's also looking forward to working outside the constraints of superhero comics.
"I think there's a darker edge of outrage that can be expressed. I mean, hell, just stay tuned to KPCC and you'll hear plenty to be outraged about, there's no shortage of things to be outraged about."
Still, he's not forgetting his love for superheroes.
"Superheroes are great because they are heroes, and even the gray area characters, they do strive to be the best kind of people that they can be. And there's something that's very inspiring, not just to read, but also to write," Humphries said. "And I think the superpowers, the spaceships, the suits of armor, the green skin guys, whatever, some people find that unrealistic, but I think it just takes our internal dramas, which is really just the core of any drama, and just writes them in such a big scale, epic way, that we can't help but feel triumphant and feel inspired right along with them."
"The Legendary Star-Lord" came out this week and is available in comic book stores everywhere, as well as digitally. "Guardians of the Galaxy" hits theaters Aug. 1.
Byzantium: Heaven and Earth and Constantinople, too—at both Gettys
Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, is at the Getty Villa through August 25. Heaven and Earth: Byzantine Illumination at the Cultural Crossroads, is at the Getty Center through June 22.
What civilization lasted 1,100 years, almost into Columbus’ time, that hardly anyone thinks of as a civilization? Byzantium. It was a Yelp-5-star civilization that bridged Ancient times to Modernity, and it’s now showing at both of the Gettys.
First the Romans took over the Greeks. Then 800 years later, the Greeks took over the Romans. Christianity came into the mix and the result was the magnificent Byzantine Empire, which once spread from North Africa all the way to Crimea. While Western Europe was foundering in the Dark Ages, Byzantium was a world center of art, literature and culture. And its story is largely forgotten in the deep dark gap in history between the ancient and the modern.
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In a bid to remedy this, the Getty is hosting a rare doubleheader called Heaven and Earth. The art from several Greek museums is on display at the Getty Villa, while the manuscripts are at the Getty Center. This has never happened before. Nor has any art of the past millennium ever before been shown at the classically dedicated Getty Villa.
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Why now? Not that the recovery of the civilization of the Greeks who called themselves Romans isn’t much overdue. But the new consciousness or awareness of this rich and tumultuous Byzantine culture seems to spring from Greece itself.
“It was always there,” said Peter Poulos, an American-born official of the Bernaki Museum. “There are wonderful Byzantine churches all over Athens, built over almost every ancient pagan temple.”
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But in recent years, modern Greece has rediscovered this mighty culture that endured far longer than the glory that was Classical Greece. Byzantium continued that glory. That’s one reason Modern Greece wants to share this heritage to the world.
(Photo: Head of Aphrodite; Greek, 1st century; National Archaeological Museum, Athens)
The Getty Villa has on show more than 160 ikons, sculptures, and other works of art, many of which illustrate Byzantine art’s connection to the end of the Classical period. Classical art, the exhibit shows, didn’t dead-end with the Christianizing of the Roman Empire. It metamorphosed into the ideological emblem of Eastern Christianity—the Icon—the painted or mosaic symbol of the divine that developed over a millennium into a direct parent of European painting.
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One thinks of icons as compact. But the late 14th and 15th century icons on display here really are paintings, large pieces, oil on board, 40 and 50 inches high. And they use techniques that to me somewhat resemble the early International Gothic of Europe.
The intricate passages of this great art through the medieval world were indeed truly byzantine. Some of the most fascinating stuff here shows the Byzantine effects on the art of Central Asia and even East Africa—Armenian religious art and Christian Art of Medieval Ethiopia.
Oh, and did I mention that the Byzantines seem to have invented the fork?