L-Word Creator tells CyberFrequency how she adapted to social media ... RH Greene on films and memories of Eastern Europe ... Tom Hanks on public radio, "Larry Crowne," and "Philadelphia" ... Charlie LeDuff on Fathers Day ... Larry Mantle talks radio with John.
Tom Hanks on life, art, and war -- an exclusive interview with Off-Ramp's John Rabe
Tom Hanks has been a big KPCC supporter for years, and gladly agreed to attend a KPCC donor event on the West Side this week to show his love of the station. He also agreed to let me interview him at the event. The only thing we kept off-limits -- in a wide ranging interview about World War Two, Abe Lincoln, "Philadelphia," and the extent to which KPCC invades his checkbook -- were the shooting locations for his upcoming movie, "Larry Crowne," starring Hanks and featuring another KPCC supporter, George Takei.
LA Film Festival: RH Greene's Eastern European Dreams
Filmmaker RH Greene -- who wrote a memoir for Dracula in Roumania -- is one of the programmers of the LA Film Festival, which runs June 17-27 at an array of venues. His focus: the films of Eastern Europe, which align with his sometimes misty memories of the region, from villagers with baskets of vegetables to a cynical, weeping Russian actress.
Filmmaker RH Greene -- who wrote a memoir for Dracula -- is one of the programmers of the LA Film Festival, which runs June 17-27 at an array of venues. His focus: the films of Eastern Europe.
When jet-setting reporter Charlie Le Duff became a stay-at-home-dad
A few years ago, when his daughter was born, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter Charlie LeDuff gave up his jet-set life to become a stay-at-home dad. He wrote:
"I find myself staring into the rearview mirror of my career. There was that time in Iraq when I wandered into a city hall that had been taken over by a radical cleric and his followers. It was Good Friday, and in the spirit of brotherhood we prayed together. By the end, the holy man's supporters were chanting with thumbs raised high: "Charlie good! Charlie good!" In some way I was an ambassador—not of the U.S. government, certainly, but at least to the notion that Americans are a decent, brotherly lot."
Being at home, changing diapers, exchanging emails with his former colleagues who are still covering the exciting stories, hit Charlie hard. But he got advice from a man named Jose:
"Jose articulated the thing my friends — the go-to-work dads — were not able, or not willing, to tell me: You have to decide if the child is more important than the stature, the action, the money. If she is, you must accept it and get on with the routine."
LeDuff is now a muckraking reporter at WJBK-Channel 2 in Detroit.
Father's Day - The Other Side
Commentator Jeff Girod is fed up with nosy people who ask him and his wife, "When are you going to have a baby?"
CyberFrequencies learns a social media lesson with L-Word Creator
CyberFrequencies -- Off-Ramp's look at life on the web -- talks with Ilene Chaiken, the creator of "The L-Word" and "The Real L-Word" about the changing face of television, fan involvement, and dumping the old paradigms.