Today on AirTalk we'll ask why the Anaheim City Council blocked a vote on redistricting, mull over the United States Post Office's report of a loss in the billions, talk to Alfred Molina about his role as Mark Rothko in 'Red,' debate the focus put on celebrity Olympic athletes, and listen to some of comedian D. L. Hughley's ideas for how to make America a better place.
Why did Anaheim Council block vote to create districts?
During a special council meeting, the Anaheim City Council voted three to two to reject a ballot proposal that would create voting districts that would help increase Latino representation. In its stead, council members decided to create a citizens advisory committee that would be used for feedback on elections and community involvement.
The decision was delivered to a large group of community members after hours of heated debate and testimony and angered many of the attendants. Anaheim is the largest city in California to practice at-large voting, and though Latinos make up close to 52% if the city’s 336 thousand residents, only a few have ever been elected to council seats.
Anaheim’s mayor, Tom Tait, Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, and Disneyland Resort all backed the proposal, along with scores more of the city’s residents. The council’s vote was enough to incite outrage, but Anaheim was already in turmoil after a string of heated demonstrations over fatal police shootings of two Latino men.
How will the decision play out? And when will this city’s woes finally rest?
Guests:
Ed Joyce, KPCC’s Orange County Reporter
Kris Murray, Anaheim City Councilmember
Eric Altman, Executive Director, Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development
Post office delivers another loss in the billions
A week after announcing its very first default payment, the U.S. Postal Service said it will miss its next payment due to the Treasury due to a $5.2 billion loss in the third quarter. An independent government agency that doesn’t receive tax money to fund its operations, the U.S.P.S. still operates under congressional control and is required to fund retirement benefits for its employees, including those who have yet to retire.
Those benefits, accounting for $3.1 billion, coupled with rapidly declining first-class mail volume have accounted for much of the losses and financial burden, but the Postal Service has also tried to end Saturday delivery and close low-revenue offices around the country. The Senate passed a bill in April to reduce annual health payments and provide an $11 billion boost, but the House has yet to make a move.
Will Congress ever make a move? Is there any hope for the Postal Service? If so, what will do the trick?
Guest:
Angela Greiling Keane, Bloomberg News regulation reporter
Actor Alfred Molina as bad boy artist Mark Rothko in ‘Red’ at the Mark Taper Forum
This Sunday, the Mark Taper forum opens its new show ‘Red,’ starring Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko. The play takes place during the 1950s, when Rothko has been commissioned to do a new set of paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant.
Molina is joined by his co-star Jonathan Groff, who plays the artist’s new assistant. Rothko, self-aware of the rising generation of younger artists and the threat they pose to him, becomes obsessed with his work and flexes his aesthetic muscle in an effort to stave off the day when, as he says in the play, “the black will swallow the red.”
Molina’s first encounter with Rothko was in the 1970s, when he noticed a poster of one his paintings on a girlfriend’s wall. But obviously the actor had to expound upon the idea that Rothko was simply a guy who made big black pieces of art before taking the stage to portray him.
Interview Highlights:
AirTalk: Does this show bring out the ‘man behind the canvas’?
Alred Molina: “It does that partly, but the show really isn’t a biographical piece. The play concentrates on the two and a half year period when he was heavily involved in what became known as the Seagram murals, which was a series of paintings for what was then, the brand-new Seagram building on Park Avenue in New York and it was the biggest single commission for a mural piece since the Sistine Chapel … The making of these Seagram murals became a kind of crisis for him artistically, creatively, intellectually, morally and so the play really concentrates on that period."
"We’re trying to really bring to life, not just the story of what the artist was going through, but the story of the making of the art itself. People often think art is just throwing a bit of paint on a canvas but it’s actually a very physical endeavor and so we’ve tried to create the physical space of Mark Rothko’s studio, so as the audience walks in they enter, for all intents and purposes, a working studio where we stretch canvases, we mix paints, we prine canvases — the actual physical work, the labor that’s involved in making art, is absolutely central to the production.”
AirTalk: In the end, Rothko throws back the commission. Why did Rothko ever accept the commission in the first place?
Molina:“That’s partly the debate within the play — why did he do that? Why was he so obsessed with this particular commission? I think it has a lot to do with his preoccupation with his legacy. I think like all great artists — particularly artists who were the first to change the form, change the roles, artists like Rothko, Pollock and so on — they created something new, something that had never been seen or done before, and that always the mark of great innovators and I think he was very conscious of that. I think he understood his place in the pantheon, the history, of art.”
AirTalk: It’s certainly cliche to talk about character actors and their ability to disappear into parts, but your command of accents has given you all kinds of range.
Molina: “I don’t think it’s so much a cliche as it is something character actors really aim for. There’s a great joy and satisfaction in being able to in some way, disappear … If you can lose yourself in it somehow — and it’s not about being real, it’s about being authentic — if you can be authentic enough so the audience to relax ... that’s part of the craft we all take pride in is being able to somehow submerge ourselves to a certain degree.
AirTalk: Is it fair to use a word like ‘conflicted’ when talking about Mark Rothko? In some ways he’s a very tragic figure.
Molina: “Like so many interesting characters that one gets to play, he’s full of contradictions. All the most interesting characters are, in the same way all the most interesting people in life are often paradoxical and seemingly contradictory … Theatrically, in terms of playing characters, that’s where the really interesting grit is. It’s in those areas where things get confused, things get conflicted and contradictory, that’s where the most interesting part of character is in many ways because you have to resolve that for the audience and make all those contradictions equally valid. If the audience is agreeing with you one second and disagreeing with you the next, totally with you one moment and totally against you the next, then you’re halfway to doing your job because that means — hopefully — they’re going through the same sort of conflict that the character is.”
Weigh In:
How did Molina prepare for this role? How did it affect his understanding of modern art? What makes Rothko such a particularly compelling artist and personality?
Guest:
Alfred Molina, actor starring as artist Mark Rothko in “Red” at the Mark Taper Forum; he is also well known for his roles in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Prick Up Your Ears,” “Frida,” “Chocolat,” and “Law and Order” among other film and television credits
Olympic athletes in the limelight, and the tabloids
Throughout these 2012 Olympic Games, we’ve heard many stories, stories griping about NBC’s coverage, stories of hope and praise for those athletes who’ve overcome adversity to compete, and stories of controversy surrounding possible acts of cheating.
But there has also been a plethora of stories with a very tabloid-esque spin. Anything from Ryan Lochte’s intelligence and Gabby Douglas’ family finances, to Lolo Jones’ media prowess and McKayla Maroney’s on-camera attitude has been fodder for the media.
Associate Professor of Marketing at University of Delaware's Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics, John Antil says the celebrity-like gossip is, “very unfortunate and unfair,” but, “to be expected,” when athletes enter into the public eye.
“It’s human nature to want to know more about a person — what are they really like?” he said. Antil explained that information regarding many athletes can help humanize them and flesh out their personalities for fans and spectators. For example, the Douglas families’ finances were able to paint a picture of a mother who made endless sacrifices for her daughter, highlighting the heavy price tag on the Olympic dream.
“It’s certainly not relevant except it’s part of the background story of how difficult it can be for an athlete to reach that level of expertise,” Antil said.
Director for the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University in Ontario Canada, Janice Forsyth, says there are two major reasons we see athletes making the tabloids: an increasing interest in athletes and the advent of social media.
“What we see with the women is a very long history of feminization or sexualization of female sports,” Forsyth said. “With female athletes it’s important that they look good first and they be good second. … None of this is new, but what is new is the spin social media is putting on it and it can go viral as it did with Lolo Jones.”
Listeners online and on the phones seemed fairly split on whether or not athletes were fair game when it came to celebrity-like gossip.
Online, netizen Matt wrote in, saying, “I think the media should back the hell off … There is a difference from wanting to know more about someone and shredding them apart for page views.”
But on the phones, John from Newport, disagreed saying in the end, these athletes were entertainers and needed to put themselves in the spotlight to profit off their Olympic fame.
“How many of us remember [Olympic skier] Lindsey Vaughn? She and all of these other women need to commoditize themselves,” John said. “As an athlete aspiring to make a National team, I know I have a very limited window of time to make money … because athletes are all ultimately forgotten. There are only so many Subway commercials.”
In the end, it can be argued that it boils down to money, to potential sponsorships, and to a life and career post-Olympics. Antil said the Olympics is “the only shot” for many athletes and a little shameless self promotion, a la Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, is OK if done tactfully and sparingly.
Forsyth too said athletes, like Lolo Jones, can create a public image in pursuit of a career post-Olympics. She pointed out that many athletes have managers and agents, and she can’t blame them for trying to make more money because, ultimately, they are “workers in the [Olympic] industry.”
“I’d love to agree … the Olympic games should be about the spirit of sport, but when you take a look at the industry itself, what you see is a very different picture,” Forsyth said. “This is where Lolo Jones is getting caught up — athletes too want a piece of the pie and they’re recognizing more how much the Olympic industry makes and recognizing how little they make in comparison.”
Weigh In:
But should it be? How far is too far when it comes to the coverage of these celebrity athletes? And is the phenomenon something to be expected or condemned?
Guests:
John Antil, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics
Janice Forsyth, PhD, Director, International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University in Ontario Canada
D.L. Hughley wants you to shut the ‘F’ up
As Americans, we’re faced with situations every day that seem completely illogical and absurd. We see the same things happen again and again in the media, with pundits saying the same talking points over and over, and no real progress is being made. It can make you want to scream and shout, but then people might think you’re crazy.
Fortunately for us, comedians don’t have to worry about that. D. L. Hughley, one of the original Kings of Comedy, is now the author of a new book, “I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up!” Being a touring comedian for decades means that Hughley has seen every corner of this country, as well as the diverse types of people that make up our citizenry. And Hughley isn’t so sure that the great melting pot has any idea what it’s doing.
Nothing is off-limits when Hughley has the floor: America’s role as the drunk guy at the bar, the power of guns over cops, why black men don’t feel sorry for other black men and how Republicans can win some of the black vote. What insights does Hughley have for America, and how would he suggest we get back on the right track?
Guest:
D.L. Hughley, Comedian and Author of “I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up!: How the Audacity of Dopes is Ruining America” (Crown Archetype)