The Long Beach Grand Prix is next weekend, so veteran driver Tommy Kendall takes us through the twists and turns, and give us his top five tips and peeves about driving in LA. ... We talk with a first-time film director who says he learned a ton about making films working as a valet car parker at a Sunset Strip hotel. ... Former Mythbuster Adam Savage on his his new stage show, Brain Candy, which comes to the OC Tuesday, which makes learning about science fun and immersive. … We go to Parker Center in downtown LA. It’s a graceful and architecturally significant building, but its connection to the bad old days of the LAPD makes it hard to love.
First-time director Branden Morgan: What I learned about filmmaking as a car valet? Everything
Off-Ramp commentator, writer, actor, filmmaker, and car valet Branden Morgan's debut film, "Jimmy the Saint," is showing in June at Dances with Films.
"Well, this is awkward."
"Not at all, Mr. Depp. Welcome to the hotel."
I can't tell you how often over the years I've had that exact conversation with different celebrities. And it does get a little awkward when the person I'm welcoming to the hotel I work at is the same person I pitched a project to that morning.
Awkward for them, really. People like to categorize, not necessarily in a pejorative way, but just to keep things in order. Am I the guy whose writing they like enough to discuss a possible job? Or am I the guy they'll tip 5 dollars when I get the phone they forgot in the car? When those two realities occur hours apart it makes for an interesting day.
I've worked at the premier hotel on the Sunset Strip for over 10 years. In New York they'd call me a "doorman," but out here where everybody has a car it means I also oversee the valet parking. There are the valets in the silly uniforms ... then there's me dressed like a Reservoir Dog: black suit, white shirt, black tie. I'm the supervisor. My two main responsibilities are driveway maintenance and guest recognition. Especially guest recognition. Anyone would recognize Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp walking into the lobby, but far fewer would recognize David Fincher or Kathryn Bigelow. That's where I come in.
And I've learned to make the most out of my time in that driveway. Our main clientele are serious Hollywood A-listers. Actors, producers, directors. You name it, they go there. All the damn time. So I decided several years ago to try and learn what I could from these people who were - aside from the actors - left alone in the driveway while they waited the two to three minutes for their car to arrive.
My hotel has an official policy that forbids self-promotion, and for good reason: most of the staff dream of Hollywood careers and the big players would simply stop going if they were constantly hounded by every busboy, hostess, server, or valet with a screenplay.
So I made it about them. I found a perfect question to ask that fit perfectly into the short window I had with them. It goes something like this…
"How was everything in the restaurant tonight, Mr. Fincher?"
"Wonderful, thank you. Beautiful room, great service. How have you been?"
"Fine, thanks. Can I ask you a quick question?"
"Sure. What's up?"
"What do you wish someone had told you before you directed your first feature film?"
The responses I’ve gotten over the years have been incredible. It’s like film school with the absolute top directors of all time …in three-minute lectures.
Fincher told me he wished someone had told him to get at least a working knowledge of every department involved in making a movie. It’s the only way to know if money is being wasted that could be spent in better service of the film. He could handle the style and substance of the movie, but he needed to make sure no one was screwing him.
David O. Russell looked me dead in the eye: “Direct every scene as if it were life-and-death. Every single goddamned scene.” You can see that passion and commitment in every one of his films. Every single goddamned one.
William Friedkin, who directed “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” told me a director's main concern should be to keep the actors focused on acting despite the whirlwind of distractions that are a constant on movie sets. “Protect the world that the actors will be living in,” he said. "The costumes, the relationships, the locations … everything. It's a fake world, but it's incredibly important. Protect it. At all costs."
But the best advice came from Jason Reitman. At least, it’s the encounter that has stayed with me and affected me the most.
Reitman said, “When you’re on set and your actors are doing their thing and you’re watching in the monitor, you should only have one question in your mind: was that honest? Not, was it sexy or funny or smart. Forget that. Was it honest? Because the audience can smell a phony performance from a mile away and they will not stand for it. Trust your gut. If what you just saw was not honest, fix it before you move on.”
Sean Penn told me, “Get in shape. It wears you down physically.” And, what, running around a driveway for eight hours doesn’t? But it's a good point.
After dozens of these interactions I stopped being surprised at how eagerly these people shared advice that might help someone avoid a hidden pitfall or calm a petulant actor. I wrote them all down and referred to them constantly before and during production of my first feature film. It was an education I couldn’t have bought.
It all came full circle a few months ago when a familiar face showed up in my driveway: Bradley Cooper. He’d once lived at the hotel for months and we became, if not friends, close acquaintances. He had just signed on to direct his first feature. He was aware that I had recently finished up post production on my movie and asked with a smile, “Got any advice for a first timer?”
Do I ever.
MythBuster's new live show turns learning about science into 'Brain Candy'
"Brain Candy Live!," starring Adam Savage and Michael Stevens, is Tuesday night, April 4, at the Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa. Off-Ramp host John Rabe got a preview of the show from Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage.
"We are celebrating over a two-hour stage show the pleasure of learning new things, the feeling in your head when someone makes something slightly clearer to you, and you get that physical intuition about how some small part of the world works. The endorphin rush that you get from that understanding is something both Michael Stevens and I are addicted to, and we call it Brain Candy." -- Adam Savage
Adam Savage is probably best known for his explosive experiments done in the name of science as co-star of Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters.” Now he's bringing the same excitement and wonder of science with a touring show called “Brain Candy Live!.” Savage says, “It’s a little like a science lesson if you gathered Eisenstein and Walt Disney together. It’s Blue Man Group meets the TED Talk.”
With the help from YouTube star Michael Stevens, Adam says the goal of the show is to create a learning environment that is creative and unconventional … something that doesn’t always happen in academic settings. “One of the things that happened to me in school about science in particular is that many of my science teachers … most of them ended up teaching science as something like a group of facts to memorize,” Adam says. “Science is not a series of facts; it is a series of stories in context with each other.”
Adam says the best way to teach science is with toys, tools, demonstrations, and of course, explosions.
“We have an explosion on stage every single night… I do not want to give a spoiler as to how the explosion fits in to the rest of the evening." But as to the rest of the show: "We will take a series of scientific demos. We have stacked them on top of each other so fast and furious in a way to give a physical intuition as to how molecules in air might work for instance. We’ll talk about it on a micro level then we’ll talk about it on a macro level. And we’ll bring out ping-pong balls, beach balls, air cannons, leaf blowers, and all sorts of different things to demonstrate these concepts until you really get them.”
And, he admits, he's kind of assembling an army of people who love fact-based science and new ideas, to counterbalance the recent attacks on science, like President Trump's statement that global warming is a "hoax."
"I do talk a little politics from the stage," Savage says. "But I never talk about it in terms of Democrat versus Republican or conservative versus liberal because we're such a divided country on this front. And I have a fair number of fans who disagree with me politically, and I'm fine with that. Because I think we're all working in general from the same precept, which is we're trying to protect our children and make a better world for them and our neighbors."
For a lightly edited version of Adam and John’s entire conversation – including what tattoo John’s cunada has on her arm, and how to get oily residue off plastic utensils – click on the audio player above.
5 LA driving tips from veteran race car driver Tommy Kendall
Driving in Los Angeles sucks— there's no other way to put it. And none of the drivers know how to drive! Except for you.
Honestly, we all could do a little better on the road. So, who better to quell our rage/inadequacy than veteran race car driver Tommy Kendall?
BONUS: Listen as Tommy Kendall walks us through the actual Grand Prix racetrack
Kendall was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2015. He has raced in the Grand Prix of Long Beach on eight occasions. But maybe most vital of all, Tommy has lived in Los Angeles his entire life. He dished about his biggest L.A. driver pet peeves and gave some tips to alleviate the stress of commutes.
On merging speed:
“The safest way to merge on a freeway is to go the speed of the flow of traffic. A lot of people think if they are being slow they are being careful. Well, you’re causing a chain reaction— trucks are usually in the right lane. My tip would be accelerating to freeway speed.”
On selfish drivers:
“Angelenos, we’re famously selfish. People will stop even if they aren’t in the right-turn lane because they don’t want to go one block out of their way to loop back around. And they’ll stop and stop everyone… I will only do it if I will not inconvenience anyone. That’s my code — I will not inconvenience another driver.”
On time management:
“One thing that improves your life a ton is leaving early. You can get work done on your phone and be entertained if you get there early, so it's not wasted time like it used to be.”
On whatever the heck this is:
“When people are going along, if you’re speeding up to make a lane change, they speed up to stop you. What is the point of that? I do a little move where it's almost like you are putting the cobra to sleep. When you see that happening, you ease off and they’ll ease off with you. And then you gun it and get through."
On distracted drivers:
“One of the things you do in racing is that you are really situationally aware, and you are always looking for an out. I can react to things second nature, without paying attention. I would encourage people to really cultivate that attention. You can almost make driving a meditation…Pay attention to what you are doing and enjoy the driving.”
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach returns on Friday, April 7 - Sunday, April 9.
Grand Prix View: Walking the race track with a former pro
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach returns on Friday, April 7 - Sunday, April 9.
Once a year, usually a week before the anticipated races, the public is invited to walk, cycle, jog, and skateboard on the Long Beach Grand Prix track. The annual track walk lasts about an hour and a half. The up close and personal look at the racetrack also aims to replicate the real techniques racers use to understand every corner, twist, and turn of the course.
"When I was starting, not a lot of people did track walks," veteran racer Tommy Kendall says about divulging track secrets to the public. "Street races were relatively new at that point. It was something I always did, but now everyone does it. You’re looking for painted lines because paint usually has less grip than non-paint. Usually concrete has less grip than asphalt, although sometimes that is reversed."
In 2015, Tommy was inducted to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He has raced in the Long Beach Grand Prix of Long Beach on eight occasions.
BONUS: Tommy Kendall's LA driving peeves and tips
“I have seen this race from every perspective," Tommy says. "As a fan, driver-- I have done some broadcasting as well, and its part of L.A. culture.”
Mazda Motorsport communications officer, Dean Case has been to almost all of the races of the Long Beach Grand Prix. His childhood is filled with memories at the races. In fact, he was at the inaugural race in 1975.
"There was the adult movie theater above the marquee of the start and finish," Dean remembers. "It was kind of notorious. You could see the Ferrari F-1 team taking the checkered flag and you see an x-rated movie titled in the background… It was an area in need of revitalization. This race helped revitalize the neighborhood."
Dean is an avid collector of all things Grand Prix. He brought a copy of the program guide from 1976 to the track walk and explained the differences between the current track layout.
"There were some similarities, but it started at Ocean Boulevard-- the craziest turn went down Ocean and did a hard 90 degree right down Linden," Dean says. "It was called the Linden drop, and an immediate left at the bottom of that."
Tommy first raced the Grand Prix track when he was 19 years old.
"At that point you are nothing but trouble if you drive too fast," Tommy says. "The thought of driving on public streets and having the police hold the crowd back rather than write me a ticket was so odd, and so wonderful."
He added, "It’s as much adrenaline as you could probably experience. A lot of it has to do with speed. But the real action isn’t the miles per hour; it’s making the car dance on a limit. That’s really what gets you going after you have been exposed to it."
Razing LAPD's Parker Center: A glass house that was anything but transparent
They called it the Glass House, but it was anything but transparent.
When Parker Center opened 62 years ago, it was hailed as a monument to modern, efficient, policing, reliant on radio cars, IBM punch-card-sorter machines, helicopters, the chemistry and physics of mid-century forensic science. Its six-story Bauhaus modernity was the LAPD’s proud monument to itself, but it faced the street not with windows, but with a blank wall of white, cut stone ... a perfect symbol for the thinking within.
Now the building is all but doomed; the city claims Parker Center has to go, that the space it takes up can better be used for office space, even multi-unit housing. The LA Conservancy argues that this can be accomplished more cheaply without demolishing the old building.
... from the beginning, the City departments in charge of determining Parker Center's fate have acted consistently to bring about its demolition. Examples include proposing a preservation alternative designed to fail, inflating cost estimates for preservation, and proposing a master plan for the Civic Center that presumes the absence of Parker Center. -- LA Conservancy
The city council has nevertheless voted to knock it down.
I have mixed feelings myself. In the early 1980s, the Parker Center press-room was almost a second home to me, where I worked the overnight shift as a City News Service reporter. Along with a rotund, veteran reporter from the Times and a younger colleague from UPI, I was the source of all the news of Greater Los Angeles from 10 at night to 6 in the morning. And of course, I was working in what was, thanks to Dragnet, the most famous police headquarters in the world.
But I was also seeing a side of the LAPD that I had never seen on TV. A force of tough, direly overworked mostly white mostly male cops that by and large seemed to consider much of Los Angeles’ black and brown civilian population as an enemy. There were the bitter jokes about “no humans involved” shootings, and about how gunshot wounds were a natural cause of death south of the 10 Freeway. Officers sometime referred to their prisoners as “guys with unhappy childhoods.” It was the era of what you might call the “Do you hear me, asshole?” school of community policing under Chief Daryl Gates.
But it had begun under Chief William H. Parker, the building’ s namesake. Parker was widely lauded for cleaning up a severely corrupt department, but his 16 years as chief were shadowed by endemic prejudice: black men could never rise above the rank of Lieutenant; women could not rise beyond Sergeant. Integrated niteries along Central Avenue were shuttered; the LAPD presence in black and brown neighborhoods reflected his experience as an occupying US Army officer in post-war Europe, building tensions that erupted in Watts in 1965.
Parker died a year later. But his tradition survived another generation, despite the critical findings of the official 101-page McCone Commission report. In 1990, commission members told the Times their recommendations had been largely ignored. In 1992, Los Angeles’ underserved population rose up and said the same thing with the Rodney King riots. This time, the city had to listen.
When all is said and done, Parker Center is a handsome building, one of the most understated efforts of architect Welton Becket, who also gave us the Capitol Records tower, the Music Center, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and the Beverly Hilton. The problem in saving it, however, is not so much the economics, but its history. Proust wrote that there is no such thing as a beautiful prison, meaning that, whatever they look like, jails contain too much misery to be pretty. And so it is with Parker Center. It exactly represents a miserable policing policy that twice in 27 years caused the policed population to rise up and burn the city.
Maybe it is time to obliterate it, and hope that the doctrine of its namesake has been obliterated too.
Off-Ramp Recommends: Two ways to party like it's 2001
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The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica will be hosting a rare event this weekend: a screening of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" on brand new 70mm film. The 1968 cult classic's final showing will be Saturday April 1st, at 7:30pm.
You might be thinking- "times are wild already, I don't need to revisit a movie all about deadly automation and time travel!" But we are saying, "Hey! It's a classic!" ! In 1968, MGM originally promised viewers "a majestic visual experience" the likes of which had never been seen. The sci-fi epic has continued to captivate audiences for nearly 50 years.
Kubrick's films are also praised for their artistic value. Hence Kubrick film festivals, the touring Kubrick collection which lived at LACMA for two years, and now a new museum in Lincoln Heights.
The 14th Factory in Lincoln Heights just opened and is an entirely immersive, creative experience. Curated to deprive visitors of different senses as they walk through the sprawling 3-acre converted warehouse, 14th Factory also plays with our sense of reality. A great example of this - and a Kubrick tie-in - is that in the heart of the warehouse is a recreation of the bedroom from the final scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey".
The @KPCCofframp interns hit up @14thFactory on our way home & experienced a wide array of feels. Check out this 2001: A Space Odyssey room! pic.twitter.com/cTGyf1q5q1
— Rosalie Atkinson (@RoAtkinson) March 24, 2017
The Off-Ramp interns explored the room and were completely taken aback. Bright white lights reflect from every angle and patrons are invited to sit on the bed, chairs, open drawers, touch the items they originally saw in the film. Only two people are allowed in at one time and it is completely silent, oddly adding to the sensory overload of the exhibit.
So there are multiple ways to celebrate this iconic film that will be turning 50 years old soon! But in our opinion, sequence is paramount.
Step 1: Take in the 70mm screening.
Step 2: Navigate the dark halls of 14th Factory.
Step 3: Experience a range of emotion in the 2001 bedroom.
Step 4: Tweet or Facebook your experience to us at Off-Ramp.
The brand-new 70mm copy of "2001: A Space Odyssey" will be screening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, located at 1328 Montana Ave. Tickets are $15.
The Stanley Kubrick room is inside the 14th Factory Art Collective in Lincoln Heights, located at 440 N Ave 19. Tickets usually run $13.50, but on Thursdays there is a "donate-what-you-can" policy.
Meet Ramon Aragon for the first, and last, time
Ramon Aragon, or "Ray" as many knew him, was Offramp producer Taylor Orci's abuelo. He died on Monday, March 27.
Ray was a teenager when he moved from Albuquerque to LA in the 40's. Something special the family have is many black and white pictures of old Los Angeles.
A few years ago, Taylor brought her recorder to her grandfather's house, plunked down a few old pictures, and asked Ray to talk about about them.
And though she didn't plan on eventually crafting the recordings into a remembrance, they have become one.
Remembering Chuck Barris and his tribute to Le Petomane in 'The Gong Show Movie'
Barry Cutler is an actor and Off-Ramp commentator who lives and writes from a desert hideaway. Chuck Barris died Tuesday at the age of 87.
In the late 70s, I was working with Paul Reubens (soon to be much better known as Pee-wee Herman) and a group of other wonderfully talented people in a traveling children's theater company. Paul and I enjoyed improvising together and he was always offering up wonderful suggestions which I was too lazy to take him up on.
When he became a member of The Groundlings' workshops (his launching pad for Pee-wee), I didn't want to waste $35 a month on it. When he invented any number of ridiculous characters and acts to perform on Chuck Barris' "The Gong Show," pitching it as a way to earn an AFTRA day-player's rate, I was too lazy to invent a single act. And, besides, I was too talented for that crap.
Later, when I was given an opportunity to audition for "The Gong Show Movie," I was either less talented or thought the movie would be less crappy. I was not especially looking forward to meeting Chuck Barris. He seemed to me a silly ass who fed his audience garbage. So I was I surprised to meet a very sweet, gentle man.
Barris told me he'd always wanted to do a biopic about the great French farter, Le Petomane - a real-life performer who could take air in, and expel it out, to great effect. He's why Mel Brooks' Governor in "Blazing Saddles" is Governor William J. Le Petomane.
Barris had read a lovely and loving book written by the great flatulist's son and had attempted to get the rights to do the movie. The family, learning of Barris' rather tawdry reputation, refused to allow it, fearing he'd make a mockery of a man (real name, really: Joseph Pujol) who once presented private entertainments to the royalty of Europe.
So, not using Le Petomane's name, Barris was going to put the act in his upcoming "The Gong Show Movie" and he cast me as the French farter. It was a small role with me performing -- miming really, since my bowels had no such talent -- several of Le Petomane's tricks. Blowing out a candle at 20 paces. Impersonating a dialogue between a grandmother and her grandchild. All the usual anal tricks.
The Gong Show Movie #3 by NilbogLAND
Once the movie was shot, Barris arranged for a world premiere at the Chinese Theatre. And he went all out. The stands in front of the theater were filled with fans. Everyone in the cast was lined up around the block, each with their own limo. Army Archerd stood on a platform, microphone in hand, prepared to interview each of us for our adoring fans.
When I arrived, I was accompanied by my lovely, blonde, French farter assistant, Sena. When we stepped up to be interviewed by Army, he had no idea who the hell we were and made a point of that. However, he was very politic, asked us a few forgettable questions, and moved on to -- I think -- Steve Garvey.
After the screening, we were all limo'd over to a disco place on Sunset for a big cast party. It may have been the worst movie I was ever in, and I've been in some real, how do you say?, stinkers. But it may have been the most fun.
And, while I can't deny that I never learned to respect the product Chuck Barris offered the public, I learned to respect the man. He was an intelligent, kind gentleman. And, what the hell, he did write
. And that was fun.