Today on Air Talk we'll discuss double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius, the ethnoarchaeology of the American home, TGI-Filmweek with our cavalcade of critics and an airing of our Crawford Family Forum event A Man and His Wings with director William Wellman Jr. Plus, the latest news
Double amputee Oscar Pistorius to compete for South Africa in Olympics
Oscar Pistorius was born with a congenital condition that left him without his fibula in both legs. As a result, his legs were amputated below the knee when he was only eleven-months-old. Doctors didn’t think he would ever stand, let alone be able to play sports.
Nevertheless, Pistorius will be competing in the 400-meter dash and 1,600-meter relay at this year’s London Olympics. He is joining the track team from South Africa as their 125th and final participant. While Pistorius’s story is an inspirational one, it also comes with the footnote that he will not be going home with a medal. The carbon-fiber prosthetic legs Pistorius uses put him at a serious disadvantage to the other competitors, although they did earn him a pretty cool nickname: “Blade Runner.” Pistorius’s presence is notable in another regard; just five years ago he was banned from participating in international track events due to a perceived advantage of having to expend less energy than able-bodied competitors.
Experts have gone back and forth on this, but the general consensus is that he does not receive any quantifiable advantage over his fellow runners. What side do you fall on? Is this the epitome of the indomitable spirit of the Olympics? Or is it foolish to allow someone to compete who isn’t going to win? How is Pistorius handling this newfound attention?
GUEST
Vijay Gupta, Ph.D., Professor of Engineering, UCLA
Brian Frasure, National Clinical Specialist for I-Walk, a company that produces bionic prosthetics; former U.S. Paralympian athlete. Competed in the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia where he won a silver medal in the men’s 100 meters.
The ethnoarchaeology of the American home
What does the number of magnets on your refrigerator say about the clutter in your home? What’s the most common, the most costly, yet the most underused home renovation? How many American garages actually house a car?
What we buy, where we store it and how much we use it inform the way we live, and our houses tell the story all too well. In a four-year study, UCLA researchers invaded the homes of 32 middle-class, dual-income Los Angeles families, videotaping their interactions, photographing their rooms and yards, and tracking their comings and goings.
What did they find?
Stacks of clutter, from bathrooms to kitchens to hallways. Freezers, closets and garages stockpiled with Gatorade, frozen pizzas, Ziplock bags. Desks drowning in papers; kids’ rooms knee-deep in toys, precarious piles of laundry, magazines and CDs around every corner.
What emerges is a fascinating snapshot of America’s material culture — a culture of acquiring, but not experiencing; of filling up space instead of using it; of hours spent shifting the messes we’ve created from corner to corner, instead of enjoying our leisure time. If you revel in the well-ordered worlds imagined in Martha Stewart Living and Dwell, this book is sure to give you a scare — yet it’s hard to look away.
What’s your clutter quotient? Do you bring more stuff into your house than you take out? To what extent does managing your possessions interfere with actually living your life?
GUESTS
Jeanne Arnold, lead author of “Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors”; professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles
Anthony Graesch, co-author of “Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors”; assistant professor of anthropology at Connecticut College
FilmWeek: Savages, Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D, Take This Waltz and more
Larry is joined by KPCC film critics Andy Klein and Wade Major to review this week’s new films, including Savages, Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D, Take This Waltz and more. Plus, they'll take a look back at Andy Griffith's life and career. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC, Glendale News-Press and the L.A. Times Community Papers chain
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and boxoffice.com
Trailer for Savages
Trailer for Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D
Trailer for Take This Waltz
Trailer for White Wash
A man and his 'Wings'
KPCC kicked off its inaugural FilmWeek Critics Club event last Friday, with a special screening of "Wings," the very first Academy Award winner for Best Picture, directed by William Wellman. The 1927 silent film is a heart-wrenching love story set in the Army Air Corps during WWI.
KPCC’s film critics say "Wings" is a must-see for movie-lovers and history buffs alike. After the screening, Larry Mantle sat down with William Wellman Jr, an accomplished actor and director, who is also the biographer and son of the critically acclaimed director of "Wings." In this part of their conversation, the younger Wellman tells Larry how his father pioneered the “buddy” picture, how Clara Bow managed her array of suitors on the set, how landing a plane in the middle of Douglas Fairbanks’ polo game launched Wellman’s show business career and why he was known as “Wild Bill” Wellman.
On the importance of Wellman’s WWI service in this film:
“I feel that, for my father, certain things he does in this film that are so touching, the camaraderie, the two leading men, the kiss on the cheek even. This was, I think, a way for my father to remember his friends that had fallen.
On casting the film:
“The first thing that my father did was to throw them [the men already cast] out and hire two virtual unknowns. And the studio wanted to have the most well-known, the best people they could attach to this film because of the price of it. So right away my father was getting on the hate list.”
On casting Gary Cooper in one of his first roles:
“It always amazes me in the one scene he does, thousands of fan letters were coming to the studio. And he became a star.”
On his father’s reputation as ‘Wild Bill’ Wellman:
He was a juvenile delinquent. He was kicked out of high school for dropping a stink bomb on the bald head of the principal. He became a professional ice hockey player. He was arrested and put on probation for stealing cars.”
On how his father got started in the film business thanks to old friend Douglas Fairbanks:
“When the war ended my father finished off his wartime career as an instructor at the Rockwell Field in San Diego. And he read in the newspapers that Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were having a big polo party...He got dressed up in his best uniform with all his medals and he flew up and landed on the polo field in front of all these guests with a polo game going on.”
Listen to the full interview with William Wellman Jr.:
Full AirTalk interview with William Wellman Jr. by KPCC
GUEST
William Wellman Jr., actor, director and author of The Man and His WINGS: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture (Praeger)