Noir film festival returns to The Egyptian ... The Angles on the Angels and the Dish on the Dodgers ... Peru Elections ... EatLA ... Dinner Party Download ... Play with Fire and Submit a Story for Burn This! ... Sam Slovick's gay teenage life, and new Slake short story: "Tommy Crow"
Slake's Sam Slovick's Young Love, Tommy Crow
(LISTENER WARNING: This segment contains non-graphic but also non-judgemental conversation about homosexual behavior; plus, Sam isn't very big on the group of publishers who exercised their right to not publish content they disagreed with.)
"Tommy Crow" is Sam Slovick's contribution to the second edition of Slake, LA's new literary quarterly. It's about two outsider teenage Midwestern boys who turn to each other, and it contains a sex/love scene that led to the magazine being published in Korea instead of the Bible Belt.
Listen here to Off-Ramp's John Rabe asking Slovick highly personal questions about the story, and CLICK THROUGH for a link to Slovick's work on Pavement.
"Quest for Fire" turns 30
Ron Perlman and Nameer El-Kadi tell Off-Ramp's John Rabe about their first movie: 1981's "Quest for Fire," a landmark film about human life on Earth 80,000 years ago. Here's the long version of their interview. For the short version, and for John Rabe's somewhat less groundbreaking but refreshingly short sequel, "Quest for Fire 2," with Perlman and El-Kadi, CLICK THROUGH.
Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Quest for Fire" is an actor's film. Ron Perlman and Nameer El-Kadi say their first movie was also the hardest movie shoot they've ever been on. The locations - Kenya, Scotland, Canada - were brutal, makeup consumed hours every day, filming took a year, and acting without dialogue took everything they had.
But in this exclusive Off-Ramp interview, Perlman and El-Kadi also say Quest for Fire, now thirty years old, was also one of the most rewarding films they've made ... and it's the one their colleagues always ask about.
Off Ramp presents: Quest For Fire 2 from 89.3 KPCC on Vimeo.
Eat LA: Sidewalk dining on the ropes? 30 Burgers in 30 days? Portlandia in LA?
Eat-LA looks at the fee hike for sidewalk cafes in Santa Monica, and talks with a food writer who ate thirty burgers in thirty days at thirty different places. Plus: what local eateries are most like the annoying sustainable restaurants in the sketch series Portlandia?
(Off-Ramp has been partnering with Eat-LA, the local online and published guide to food and drink in Los Angeles, for about a year now. And we've always been impressed with Eat-LA publisher and editor Colleen Bates. She has a great presence, deep knowledge, and a taste for down home food and gourmet eats. So starting this week, she'll be hosting our regular Eat-LA segments.)
Nick Roman on tiny giraffes, a golden anniversary, and a new baseball season
Major league baseball's 2011 season started this week. Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with KPCC's Nick Roman about the Angels and the Dodgers ... including, where the heck did they get the money for Andre Ethier?
Long Beach Councilman Robert Garcia on Peru's upcoming elections
Next Sunday, April 10 is the first round of presidential elections in Peru. The thousands of Peruvians living here have been closely following their home country's politics, which have taken an interesting turn, as usual. Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson talked with Long Beach City Councilman Robert Garcia about what the upcoming vote means to him and his family.
The 1980s weren't kind to Peru: inflation was out of control, GDP shrunk nearly 20%. A Maoist guerilla army called the Shining Path had assassinated several high ranking officials, set bombs off in Lima and by the end of the decade seized a significant portion of the countryside. President Alan Garcia seemed helpless. Then, in 1990 Peru elected Alberto Fujimori, who stabilized Peru's economy, and nearly eradicated the Shining Path. But he was kicked out of office in 2000 after allegations of human rights abuses and corruption. Now, the name Fujimori is back in the headlines. But it’s Keiko Fujimori, his daughter, and her presidential campaign brings back memories of her father’s administration. For Peruvian Americans like Long Beach Councilman Robert Garcia, that means both good memories and bad.
13th Annual Film Noir Festival at Egyptian Theatre
Starting April 1 at the Egyptian Theatre, it’s the 13th annual Film Noir festival. It’s three weeks long, comes from the Film Noir Foundation, and features not the usual suspects like "Double Indemnity," but some real rarities – some of which are restored and in sparkling new 35 millimeter prints for the first time in decades. Off-Ramp host John Rabe spoke with the foundation's Alan Rode, who co-programmed the festival. CLICK THROUGH FOR THE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE.
Los Angeles has a tsunami plan, but are Angelenos paying attention?
When the giant earthquake and tsunami hit Japan three weeks ago, Angelenos in beach communities started thinking again about the chance that someday a tsunami could inundate our shores. Does Los Angeles have a plan if that happens, and are Angelenos paying attention?
Yes, Los Angeles has a plan. And on the morning of Friday, March 11th after the earthquake in Japan, none of us in the crowd that gathered in the parking lot at Venice Pier to watch for tsunami waves really followed that plan. I met folks like Joel Goodling, who rents a beachfront apartment on the ground floor just south of the pier.
"We always say, if we’re gonna die in a tsunami, we got to live at the beach," he said with a slight chuckle.
Chris Ipsen, who coordinates communication for the Los Angeles Department of Emergency Management, says ideally, Goodling and I would have stayed away from that area, dispite our curiosity.
"If people would look at the images of what we’ve seen – the destruction and capability of a tsunami wave, it’s not a joking matter."
Ipsen took me through LA’s Emergency Operations Center: a giant room with lots of TV screens, computers and desks arranged in color-coded pods where people from different agencies can monitor and manage big events. Some are planned – like the LA Marathon. Some – like wildfires - are unplanned. Ipsen said after the earthquake in Japan, staff began operating the center at a low-level.
"From here - from the West Coast - all the way out to Hawaii, there’s very sophisticated tsunami sensors - buoys that they have," said Ipsen. "All that information is channeled up to Alaska. That’s where the tsunami warning center is for the west coast."
That’s how Ipsen and his staff get word that a tsunami is coming. Then they have to pass it on to people who live where the wave could hit. After the Japan quake, Ipsen says officials issued a “Tsunami Watch” for LA coastal areas through emergency alert broadcasts and some “robo-calls.”
"It wasn’t an evacuation notice, but it was a “Don’t go near the beach” notice," Ipsen said.
But if there’s an earthquake near our own coast, a tsunami could arrive within 10 minutes. That would trigger a “Tsunami Warning,” which means people who live within blocks of the beach, the harbor area or in the Marina should head inland now.
Nancy Himmelfarb and her husband have lived in Marina Del Rey for 30 years - just a walk across the street from the boat slips. She’s a nurse, so she know about emergencies – but she says she was surprised when she started seeing blue “tsunami zone” signs near her home several years ago.
"I remember just laughing and thinking, “What the heck? We’re in a tsunami evacuation zone? Do we really need signs?” It seemed like such a remote occurrence," Himmelfarb said. "I didn’t think much of it."
But after she saw the video of the tsunami in Japan, she's been thinking about it a lot about it.
"For the next day or two, when I drove around here I could picture water being up to our two or three stories buildings - which is what most of them are here - and I thought we wouldn’t do too well."
Chris Ipsen with LA Emergency Management says if you live in the areas near the beach or harbor, and you feel the ground shake, "most likely it's gonna be a tsunami. And you should have an automatic response."
Ipsen says the Emergency Management is mailing new tsunami brochures to West LA, Venice Beach and the Harbor. Inside are the latest maps that show which areas would be inundated if a tsunami washed ashore. Emergency Management is also posting more street signs to mark those areas and evacuation routes. Now if only people would read them …
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