Actress Gwendoline Yeo on her new one-woman show ... Off-Ramp's new series Hard Times meets Laurel Holliday, mother of three, living in a foreclosed house ... Marc Haefele: Not much new in Twain autobio, but a "magnificent browse" ... Luke Butler, OCMA Biennial artist and Trekkie ... Aztlan Underground ... Browsing 7th Street in Downtown LA ... Dinner Party Download meets actor Sally Hawkins
Hard Times hit Laurel Holliday, mother of three, now facing foreclosure
In another installment of Hard Times, Off-Ramp's look at the human cost of the supposedly over recession, Kevin Ferguson talks with Laurel Holliday, mother of three. Her house isn't in foreclosure anymore--it belongs to the bank. She's doing all she can to fight for her house, but she's running out of options.
Special Podcast: Gwendoline Yeo's "Laughing with my Mouth Wide Open"
KPCC's John Rabe talks with Gwendoline Yeo on the eve of the world premiere of her show "Laughing with my Mouth Wide Open." CLICK THROUGH FOR MORE INFO!
Note from John Rabe:
On the eve of her the premiere of her semi-biographical show, “Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open,” Gwendoline Yeo (“Desperate Housewives” and “Broken Trail”) and I talked about one of America’s big problems: the worship of family. I don’t mean that family isn’t very important. I mean that, in my view anyway, too many of our problems stem from family members who won’t cut off offending members, thereby turning themselves into monsters or babies. Yeo grew up in Singapore, where caning was standard, and, she says, common in her family. When she went off on her own, it took years before reconciliation. Now, her dad calls every week. “Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open” sounds like a great show, and in it, Yeo also plays the Chinese long zither.
“Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open” is at the El Centro Theatre in Hollywood (804 N. El Centro Ave) from November 16 – December 19.
Luke Butler goes where no artist has gone before
Luke Butler's paintings in this year's biennial focuses exclusively on one of the most popular television series in history: Star Trek. And through the show he weaves a complicated quilt that intersects anguish and fear with masculinity and heroism, not to mention the Captain himself, James T Kirk.
From the OCMA bio: Born 1971 in San Francisco; lives and works in San Francisco. Butler attended the Cooper Union School of Art (BFA, 1994), and California College of the Arts (MFA, 2008). He has had solo exhibitions at Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles; Second Floor Projects and Silverman Gallery, both in San Francisco, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including shows at ABC No Rio, New York; Galerie Georg Kargl, Vienna; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the Eagle Tavern, San Francisco.
KPCC's Adolfo Guzman Lopez talks with Chicano music legends Aztlan Underground
The 12th annual Native American Music Awards takes place in upstate New York tonight. Los Angeles band Aztlan Underground is nominated in four categories. Its artistic growth has contributed to that recognition.
CLICK THROUGH for a special video of the band produced by KPCC!
That growth began in Sylmar. That's where 45-year-old Rene Orozco, the son of Mexican immigrants, grew up among working class whites. Mid-1980s punk rock bands such as Crass and Southern Death Cult pulled him out of the gang he joined as a teenager.
"What they did was they would put out records, they would have lyrics that are obviously conscious and have analysis about authority and about true democracy," Orozco said. "But they would also have little pamphlets where they would discuss authors, people like Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin."
Some of those punk bands opened his eyes to North American Indian ideology. Orozco’s father – who was usually reticent to talk about his own "mestizo," or "mixed" heritage – sat his son down after seeing a poster of Sitting Bull in his son's room.
L.A. band mixes Chicano and Native American roots from 89.3 KPCC on Vimeo.
"And he’s all, ‘No sabias que nosotros somos indios.’ In other words, 'didn’t you know we’re natives?' And I almost felt like crying. 'What?' He’s all, ‘That’s why we’re brown!’ 'What?'" he said.
Rene Orozco adopted the indigenous name Yaotl Mazahua. Then in 1990, after he earned a bachelor's in cultural anthropology from Cal State Northridge, he and two friends founded Aztlan Underground. The band mixed hip hop, indigenous consciousness and identity politics.
"I was very nationalist, kind of old school to me, Chicano sensibilities, because the old school Chicano movement was, Aztlan, the stolen states of the U.S., they stole Mexico, gotta take it back," he said.
The band played at the large East L.A. Chicano Moratorium commemoration that year; after that, performance requests from college student groups flooded in. Those were heavy times. 1992 would mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the new world and activist groups across the United States planned protests. Aztlan Underground provided the soundtrack with songs such as "My Blood is Red."
The band’s second CD in 2001 was a tribute to the uprising of indigenous people in the Mexican state of Chiapas seven years earlier. The group trekked to Chiapas to offer its help and received unexpected orders from the movement’s leader Subcommandante Marcos. "Go back to your neighborhoods," he told them, "and continue your activism."
"If you’re a teacher teach, if you’re a poet, write poetry, if you do music, write music, and everything is a bridge to a better world." That world, Yaotl and his band members came to realize, would be one in which Chicanos, whites and everyone else would coexist through love and respect for the environment.
Their latest CD, eight years in the making, continues to combine dark rock, indigenous drums and flutes with lyrics that – in true punk rock tradition – lash out against overreaching authority. The song "Moztlitta" is a first for the group. It's sung entirely in Nahuatl, the Aztec language. It and the album convey a hopeful message that people can overcome ethnic differences and heal the earth.
In two decades of performing, Yaotl says, he’s seen how these indigenous ideals have become common among Mexican-Americans. "Before, it was like, I would say, ‘Man, did you know we’re indigenous?’ ‘What, I’m no pinche indio, man I’m not an Indian, man, I’m Mexican!’ I’m like, ‘What does Mexican mean? Mexican comes from Nahuatl, Mexica, man.' ‘No man, whatever man, you’re crazy, put your feather on.’ They would trip out. And then now, ‘Yeah, yeah, my sister’s name is Citlali.’ It’s normal now, you know," he said.
Another sign of changing times, he says, is that North American Indian groups are beginning to embrace Mexican-Americans who claim indigenous roots. Aztlan Underground notes a case in point: its four nominations at tonight’s Native American Music Awards. The four members of the group are set to perform at the ceremony in Niagara Falls, New York.
Marc Haefele: Mark Twain autobio a "magnificent browse"
The first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography - embargoed by Twin himself for a century - isn't especially revalatory, says Off-Ramp commentator Marc Haefele, but it's a worthwhile book.
Off-Ramp Web Special: Foodies on Thanksgiving
UPDATE 11-20-2010: Thanksgiving comes every year, so we're serving the most delicious MEMORY leftovers, from Off-Ramp 2009.
The great chefs of Los Angeles tell us what's on their Thanksgiving menu this year, plus Pigtails & Sauerkraut, a Wiley Family tradition.
Get people talking about Thanksgiving and even folks who spend every day with food get a little mist in their eye. For Thanksgiving this year, Off-Ramp host John Rabe (above, with his family) is talking with a bunch of foodies. Here are the first few with more to come...
1. Michael Cimarusti (above, in the pink shirt, with friends) runs the two-Michelin star Providence restaurant in Los Angeles. The food there is very fancy, but at Thanksgiving, he looks forward to his sister-in-law’s broccoli casserole.
2. Russ Parsons, Food editor at the LA Times and frequent Off-Ramp guest (Off-Ramp is thankful that he never bills us!) says Thanksgiving is special because it’s America’s only ritual meal … and by the way, learn to carve a turkey before going to your in-laws at Thanksgiving.
3. Mark Peel, owner/chef of Campanile, remembers a Thanksgiving water-balloon fight from his childhood that proves that Thanksgiving is not really about the food – although the food can be very tasty. Like the sinfully creamy mashed potatoes that are featured in his new cookbook, New Classic Family Dinners, which you can buy, with part of the proceeds benefitting KPCC.
4. With due respect to Linda, Julian, Sian, Jay, and many other damn fine cooks, Marcie Page (who hails from Paris, Tennessee) is probably the best civilian cook I know. Not many people make cassoulet in LA, for just one example, let alone make their own duck confit for the cassoulet. Marcie is a typical Southern Californian -- she's a Tennessee transplant, in a mixed household, and she borrows from all their traditions and adds her own.
5. Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam (above, approximately 10% life-size) have gained a national rep for spotting new food trends on their show Dinner Party Download. For their Thanksgiving memories and recipes, click on the last audio item up at the top.
-- PIGTAILS&SAUERKRAUT - A WILEY FAMILY HOLIDAY TRADITION --
This summer, I met Malcolm Wiley, who works back East with my cousin Megan. (Above, after a delicious Tuesday night dinner at Little Dom's.) Over dinner, we started talking about holiday meals and he mentioned a dish that MUST be at every Thanksgiving, Pigtails and Sauerkraut.
He writes, "My family is from Baltimore, Maryland, though I grew up in Washington, D.C. It was always thought that this recipe combined the influences of the African-American and German influences there. I’ve been eating this as part of the Thanksgiving meal since I was a child. As a matter of fact, it’s not the holidays without it. I’m one of the few in the family who still makes it every year, so I’ve got a REALLY BIG POT."
I hadn't heard of this dish before, but he assured me it's very real and very tasty, and to prove it, he sent the recipe.
Ingredients:
-- Pigtails. Preferably corned or smoked - if you can't find them, fresh will have to do. Hint - the farmer's market where black folk shop during the holidays will always have them. The number of tails you buy will depend on how many people you want to feed. Three or four is a good starting point.
-- Salt
-- Black Pepper
-- Season All
-- A big sweet onion, like a Vidalia
-- Sauerkraut in a bag - Hebrew National is one brand.
Recipe:
Wash off the pigtails. You don't have to scrub them like chitterlings or anything, just wash 'em off.
Cut the onion into big chunks.
Throw everything in a big pot.
Cover with water to an inch or two above the pigtails.
Season with salt, black pepper, and Season All. Don't go really crazy with the salt. The Season All has salt in it too and will help with the flavor.
Mix everything with a big 'ole spoon.
Cover the pot.
Bring it to a rolling boil and allow it to boil for 5-10 minutes.
Stir.
Turn the heat down low and let the pot simmer (covered). It takes a long time for the tails to break down to the consistency you want. It could be four to six hours or longer. Every half hour, stir the pot. Toward the end of the process, break apart any tails that are hanging on for dear life.
When the tails have completely broken down and all you see in the pot is bone, pulled pork, and bits of skin, you've simmered long enough.
Cut the corner off a bag of kraut. Let the liquid drain out. You don't have to squeeze every drop of liquid out, just let most of it go.
Dump the kraut in the pot.
Cook the whole thing another 30 minutes or so on medium-low heat. You just don't want the kraut to be crunchy when you eat it.
Once everything is all mixed up and smellin' good, it's time to eat.
(Courtesy of the Wiley Family of Baltimore, Md.)
Dinner Party Download
Dinner Party Download's hosts Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam talk drinks, food and culture with Made in Dagenham star Sally Hawkins!