Boxer Chris "The Nightmare" Arreola speaks ... How the Hammer Museum will spend $1,000,000 ... Garrison Keillor reads a love sonnet.
CyberFrequencies
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Queena Kim, Off-Ramp and CyberFrequencies producer, writes:
After I read in The Wrap that Nikki Finke sold her blog Deadline Hollywood Daily for $14 MILLION BUCKS, I made a few calls.
My first call: Finke ... to congratulate her.
And then, I dialed up Gawker’s Gabriel Snyder wondering, “How can CyberFrequencies start a blog, and get our 14 Mil?”
Snyder shot back, “The fact that that number is being tossed around is just absolutely absurd…" He's heard the cash pay out is closer to $1 Million and there's a a salary and a contract that can bring extra.
He said, "I emailed Sharon after she posted that story and I said, 'I simply don’t believe that 14-million-dollar number.' And she responded by saying, 'It is a crazy, stupid number in my opinion but I’m happy about it. I’m all for people paying stupid money for websites.'”
But what does that mean?
Snyder says it's about maintaining the illusion, "So even these two rivals have a shared interest in everyone thinking a website that covers industry news in Hollywood could be worth 14-million dollars.”
Oh, I get it, so if everybody thinks Deadline Hollywood is worth $14 Mil, then Waxman can say, “Hey mine’s worth $30 Mil?”
Bummer!!! Because by that equation, we CyberFreaks need to come up with a different retirement strategy
Floyd WHO? Chris "The Nightmare" Arreola Fights for the Title Saturday
9-27 UPDATE: In the words of LAT columnist Bill Dwyre, "The tree was just too tall for Chris Arreola to chop down." Arreola lost in ten rounds, saying, "He found a way to win; I found a way to lose." Link inside. BIGGER QUESTION: Why didn't the LA Times, dying for readership, put this on the front page to draw Mexican-American readers? Instead, a feature on Neutra and Wright houses on the market. -- Rabe
Riverside native Chris "The Nightmare" Arreola fights Vitali Klitschko for the heavyweight title against Saturday (9-26) at Staples Center. So let's rub it in that we had an interview with Arreola MONTHS ago ... by sportswriter David Davis. Arreola could become the first Mexican-American heavyweight boxing champion. (More inside...)
Here's how David Davis (left, with friend) pitched the Arreola interview to Off-Ramp (Note to freelancers: THIS is a pitch):
Born and raised in East L.A., and now living in nearby Riverside, Cristobal "The Nightmare" Arreola is a second-generation Mexican-American whose parents illegally snuck over the U.S. border.
He's grown up to become one of the most lethal boxers in the world. At 27-0, with whopping punching power (24 KOs), he's the #2 ranked heavyweight contender in the world (by the WBC and the IBF) and #3 (by the WBO).
His knockout rate and old-school demeanor have electrified boxing's most passionate and loyal fan-base. If he were to fight for the title – and if he were to become the first-ever heavyweight champ of Mexican descent -- Arreola would truly be the second coming of "The Brown Bomber." [NOTE: JOE LOUIS' NICKNAME WAS THE BROWN BOMBER.]
At 6-foot-4, with a 77-inch reach, Arreola has covered his thick body with colorful tattoos. He's a self-confessed member of "Raider Nation" and sports silver-and-black trunks in the ring. He's no pretty boy; in fact, he's the anti-Oscar De La Hoya. Think of him as the pugilistic offspring of Julio Cesar Chavez and Mike Tyson.
Whether Arreola can step up and stop the big boys of the heavyweight division -- the Klitschkos, Nikolay Valuev -- remains to be seen. According to his camp -- trainer (Henry Ramirez), promoter (Dan Goossen), and manager (Al Haymon) -- the only person who can stop Arreola is Arreola himself. In effect, does he have the balls-to-the-wall dedication necessary to fight at the championship level?
The jury is out, in part because Arreola himself seems conflicted. As a youngster, he flirted with joining a gang. He quit the sport briefly after winning the national Golden Gloves in 2001. Last year, while at a party, his best friend was shot and killed. That left Arreola devastated, and his management team had to postpone his next fight.
These days, his primary challenge is to control his appetite. For his last two fights –- a third-round KO over highly touted Travis Walker and a fourth-round KO over Jameel McCline -- he entered the ring at a hefty 254 pounds. Arreola says that he's learned his lesson.
He had better: With his convincing win over McCline on HBO last weekend, Arreola is in line for a title shot, perhaps before the end of the year.
The Mexican-American community -- and the world –- awaits.
More Boxing: A Mighty Mo Update
Back in 2006, when Off-Ramp just started, we interviewed a little kid from Long Beach who was then the best boxer in his age group in the nation. His name is Moises "Mighty Mo" Orosco, and he still is on top. His dad Rudy's been keeping us in the Mighty Loop, and sent us details of Mo's meeting with his boxing hero, Floyd Mayweather.
About three years ago we told you about Moises "Mighty Mo" Orozco, a ten year old boxer from Long Beach—probably the best in age group. He's thirteen now and still in line to fight in the 2016 Olympics. Mighty Mo's father, Rudy, just sent us this letter.
"Dear John,
"You may recall when you spoke to Mo almost three years ago, he mentioned that Floyd Mayweather was his favorite boxer. Mighty Mo and I attended the Floyd Mayweather/Juan Manuel Marquez press conference last Monday in downtown Los Angeles. Mo brought his 2008 national silver gloves championship belt in hopes of getting Mayweather's attention.
"When we got there, I told Mo to follow the crowd and hold on to one of the bodyguard's t-shirts. If anyone asks you who you are, I told him, just tell them you're with Mayweather. I let him go and laughed as he pushed his skinny body along the monster bodyguards.
"I went around to the other side to see the press conference, and sure enough, there was Mo standing along side the fence watching, holding his huge championship belt. Mayweather must have seen Mo’s belt, because in the middle of the conference Mayweather gave Mo the "thumbs up" sign. Mayweather, it turns out, won the same tournament at Mo's age."
Rudy and Mo were eventually taken backstage, and Mayweather invited them to join him in Vegas as his guest at his big fight!!
Rudy continues,
"Mo then was seated on the stage right next to Floyd as he took questions from reporters. He was all smiles."
Locke High Comes Back
Off-Ramp meets three high school seniors who are actually graduating ... at South LA's Locke High, where that used to be the exception, not the rule. The students -- each with their own set of challenges -- were profiled on KCET's SoCal Connected.
WEB EXTRA: Angels Flight Testing Continues
We saw the Angels Flight funicular cars going up and down the track Thursday (6-25) and wondered what's up. John Welborne, head of Angels Flight Railway, says they were testing the brakes, which are working fine, and he's waiting for approvals from officials before he opens the line to the public.
Hammer Gets a Cool Mil
John talks with Ann Philbin of UCLA's Hammer Museum and Mark Allen of Machine Project about the Hammer getting a million-dollar Irvine grant to help visitors connect better with the museum.
NOTE FROM JOHN: Here's the news release the Hammer sent out after landing the grant.
HAMMER NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: June 17, 2009
Contact: Sarah L. Stifler, Communications, 310-443-7056, sstifler@hammer.ucla.edu
Hammer Museum Awarded $1 Million Grant by
The James Irvine Foundation’s Arts Innovation Fund for Artist-Driven Programs to Engage Visitors and Activate Spaces
Los Angeles - The Hammer Museum announced today that it has received a $1 million grant from the James Irvine Foundation’s Arts Innovation Fund—one of only four major grants made state-wide from this fund. The grant is payable over four years and will enable the Hammer to create a new kind of interactive museum: an artist-driven visitor engagement and education program that encourages daily contact among visitors, artists, and Museum staff and activates the spaces, exhibitions, and website in imaginative ways. In addition, the grant will allow for continued support for the Hammer‘s Artist Residency Program and Artist Council, which were established in 2006 through a $700,000 grant from Irvine’s Arts Innovation Fund.
“Thanks to the past support from the Irvine Foundation, the Hammer has created an organic way of working with artists– not just in their capacity as object makers but as problem solvers – we are engaging them to help us to be a better, more dynamic institution,” says Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum. “This new grant of $1 million enables the Hammer to build on the work we started in the last three years and continues to push boundaries and try to stay ahead of the curve.”
“We are pleased to award an Arts Innovation Fund grant to the Hammer Museum for its innovative approach to engaging visitors and enhancing their experience both onsite and online,” said James E. Canales, Irvine’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Through this support, we hope that a new model of arts participation will emerge for Hammer that can be shared more broadly in the museum field.”
At the heart of the new grant is the creation of a new model for visitor engagement that departs dramatically from traditional models of visitor services and education programs generally used by art museums. Beginning in Fall 2009, the Hammer will enlist artists to conceive, develop, and implement a new visitor engagement program with artists as the driving force behind the visitor experience and the Museum’s education program. Artists will explore and address all aspects of a visit to the Hammer, from basic amenities, way finding and maps to the creative and unexpected activation of spaces around the Museum so as to inspire curiosity and collective learning. The Hammer also intends to create more transparency between its staff and audiences by exposing some of the inner workings of the Museum. For example, visitors may be presented with spontaneous opportunities to have a brown bag lunch with curators and the director or to visit the Hammer conservation studio.
The first sign of this fresh approach will be seen in the Hammer lobby, where a revamped central reception desk with artists, staff, volunteers and digital programming and installations on huge monitors will offer new ways to experience and engage with artworks, exhibitions, collections and spaces of the Museum. By encouraging visitors to navigate spontaneous encounters through out the Museum, this approach will activate every space in the Museum, from the galleries and bookstore to elevators and stairwells with artist inventions.
Guest artists will be invited for one year terms to design, implement, and averse the visitor services and education program and will report to the curatorial department. Mark Allen, executive director of Machine Project, will be the first guest artist to work with the Hammer during the first year of this new initiative. Allen has conducted artist-based and performance experiences with visitors to MoMA in New York City and to LACMA here in Los Angeles.
In addition to this new initiative, the Hammer will use the grant to continue support for the Artist Residency Program and to expand its engagement with California artists and to connect those artists more firmly to UCLA students and faculty as well as to the Museum’s visitors. The award will also enable the Artist Council to take on an even more active role in devising innovative approaches to the challenges of Museum operations, including visitor services, academic initiatives, and social engagement. The Museum will seek to strengthen the ties between the Artist Council and the Artist Residency program and create more connections and interactions between the two programs.
Garrison Keillor in love ... with women and sonnets
In the last part of my interview with Garrison Keillor, he reads from his new book of sonnets, and explains why his wife isn't mad that he's publishing sonnets about his old loves.
Dinner Party Download
This week: bestselling author Alain De Botton gets worked over...joy is found in Mudville...and Rico digs the new wave of on-site restaurant gardens.
The Man Who Invented Noir
Off-Ramp's Marc Haefele pays tribute to WR Burnett, who invented the "noir" genre with his book, "Little Caesar," told from the gangster's point of view. Burnett made millions and spent most of it at the track.
NOTE FROM JOHN: Here's the script of Marc's commentary:
HAEFELE BURNETT 062709
“I had five dollars to my name, a worn overcoat and a hand-me-down-suit that had seen better days, but I’d never been happier in my life.”
Rabe: Off-Ramp literary commentator Marc Haefele, on “the Man who Invented Noir,” William Riley Burnett.
80 years ago, deep in the slums of a Chicago – “Where Capone was King, corruption was rampant and Mayor Bill Thompson was trying to punch the King of England in the Snoot” -- after a six-year string of literary failures, 30 year-old Bill Burnett had just published the first modern crime novel. In a year that brought forth major fiction from authors like Fitzgerald and Faulkner, Burnett’s book, “Little Caesar,” was an instant best seller-- translated into 12 languages. “Including English,” one friend joked, in reference to its ungrammatical underworld dialogue.
Weeks later, Burnett took the train to L-A, where he wrote the screenplay for “Little Caesar,” the movie that made Edward G. Robinson a star as the ruthlessly homicidal young gangster Cesare “Rico” Bandello.
CLIP: “Little Caesar” (1931)/Edward G. Robinson: Yeah, money’s alright, but it ain’t everything. Ehhh, be somebody! Look hard at a bunch of guys and know that they’ll do anything you tell ‘em. Have your own way or nothin’. Be somebody!
Showing the Underworld from the gangster’s, rather than the cop’s, point of view, Burnett laid down the Laws of Noir. It was 1930, and soon Burnett’s screenwriting helped Hollywood mint tens of millions of dollars portraying -- some would say, glamorizing -- the Prohibition-inspired wave of organized crime that was wracking America.
Among the other noir classics Burnett penned as novels and screenplays were John Houston’s 1949 “Asphalt Jungle,” and Raoul Walsh’s 1941 “High Sierra,” with Humphrey Bogart in his first great gangster role.
CLIP: “High Sierra” (1941)/Humphrey Bogart: What’s the matter? Yellow? Come and get me, buddy, come and get me!
“I never considered myself a crime writer,” Burnett said. He saw crime as just another element of human society, like elected government, with which crime’s top figures worked hand in hand. Hence his power-figure characters like “The Big Boy” in “Little Caesar” and “Big Mac” in “High Sierra.” Who count their profits while their gangster pawns fight the law and die.
Over 53 years, Burnett worked with John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray and Michael Cimino, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Paul Muni, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen -- in the Great Escape -- and Clint Eastwood. He got two Oscar nominations. But he always called himself a novelist, even in the 1930s, when he made 35-hundred dollars a week screenwriting … back when 35-bucks a week was a very good wage. He said, “My problem was never making money; it was keeping it.” The ponies of Hollywood Park got most of the millions he earned, and the dog tracks took the rest. The lesser, but less profligate, writer, Sidney Sheldon, ended up in a landmark estate on Sunset Boulevard. But Burnett, along with Whitney, his fellow horseplayer and wife of 37 years, shared a modest Marina del Rey townhome before he died in 1982 … with 38 books and 60 screenplays to his credit.
Sadly, his books seem out of print in America and are scarce even in libraries. The LA city main library had the only on-loan copy of “Little Caesar” I could find in LA County. But movies he wrote look like they’re going to live forever. Unlike their protagonists …
CLIP: “Little Caesar” (1931)/Edward G. Robinson: Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?
For Off-Ramp, this is Marc Haefele