Paddleboard Racing, Father's Day, the real Gidget, John Frame, and Rabe finds his roots.
Santa Monica welcomes Paddleboarders for annual race
After years of playing second fiddle to surfing, paddleboarding is enjoying a renaissance! Kevin Ferguson stops by the Santa Monica Pier Paddleboard Race to talk with races, lifeguards, and surfers young and old.
Before the Wall - John's Parents Marry in Berlin
Today, Off-Ramp marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a trip deep into John Rabe's family archives. In this piece, filed for Savvy Traveler back in 1999, John traces his late mother's and father's footsteps in 1950s Germany. The piece, which John calls one of the best things he's ever done, includes rare audio from his collection, classified documents, and family letters that date back sixty or more years. Come inside for a link to the companion website that includes photos and more.
Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman: "I'm the REAL Gidget!"
In 1957 Frederick Kohner published a novel based almost entirely on his teenage daughter, Kathy and her life in the early days of Malibu surf culture. He called it "Gidget", went on to get several film adaptations, tv movies and even a series. Off-Ramp's Kevin Ferguson talked with Kathy the Santa Monice Pier Paddleboard Race.
John Frame Came Down from the Mountain with a Dream
The artist John Frame has come down from the mountains with a new exhibit that came out of a dream. “Three Fragments of a Lost Tale” is at the Huntington in San Marino until June 27th. It blends found objects, dozens of eerie hand-carved mannequins, stop-motion animation, and the sets the movie was filmed on. Off-Ramp host John Rabe met Frame at the Huntington.
CLICK THROUGH to watch Frame's movie, “Three Fragments of a Lost Dream."
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.
CyberFrequencies on Brian Eno, tranquility, and YouTube celebrity
Cyberfrequencies' Queena Kim and Tanya Jo Miller talk with Airtalk's Karen Fritsche about what it means to be a YouTube celebrity. This week's podcast also features an interview with David Whitman, the guy who made and composed "It's Getting Real in the Whole Foods Parking Lot."