TGI FilmWeek! Today on AirTalk we'll look at the latest developments surrounding the changes at MOCA, what Amazon.com may have up their sleeves that could put small businesses in a bind, where our US Olympic team uniforms are actually made and the cavalcade of critics join Larry to discuss Ice Age and more! Plus, the latest news.
What’s next for MOCA?
Yesterday, artist John Baldessari resigned his post on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art. In the Los Angeles Times, Baldessari is quoted as saying he had to do it “to live with my conscience.” Baldessari is the fifth board member to resign from the museum this year.
What’s gotten Baldessari and others in the art community riled up is the recent ouster – or resignation, depending on who you believe - of long-time chief curator Paul Schimmel by MOCA’s board. Schimmel’s expert curating resulted in some of the museum’s most important exhibitions and acquisitions over the years. But his meticulous, old-school approach is said to have clashed with that of new director Jeffrey Deitch, who leans toward celebrity-driven pop-culture exhibitions like one recently helmed by guest curator James Franco, and the upcoming show on disco music’s cultural influence.
MOCA has already lost several curators and doesn’t seem in a hurry to replace them. Is this a sign of more turbulence ahead for the museum – or a fresh, new direction? Could Baldessari’s exit be one more of many? Have you enjoyed MOCA’s recent exhibits? Is the museum in danger of losing its standing in the contemporary art world?
GUESTS
Christopher Knight, chief art critic for the Los Angeles Times
U.S. Olympic Committee gets a dressing-down for China-made uniforms
Iconic American designer Ralph Lauren, who arguably embodies the nations “spacious skies” and “amber waves of grain,” was tapped to design official uniforms for this year’s U.S. Olympic team, as he was in 2008.
But once again, the U.S. Olympic Committee has come under public fire because Lauren’s uniforms are manufactured in China. The outrage has reached all the way to Congress, with House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking out against the foreign-made outfits.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was especially explosive on the matter, saying the USOC should “take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them.” The USOC is privately funded and is free to clothe their athletes as they see fit.
But are they obligated to have the uniforms made in the U.S.? Does having them made overseas send a bad message to American textile workers? Will knowing our Olympic athletes are dressed in outsourced togs sour your enjoyment of the games?
GUESTS
David Mark, Senior Editor, POLITICO; Author of “Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning”
Monica Sklar, Founder & Editor, Worn Through blog; Ph.D. in Design-Apparel Studies
Amazon wants to offer instant gratification, in the form of same day shipping
Shopping online versus in a retail store has always been an either-or proposition; either you pay a little more to get it now, or you pay a little less and wait for it to show up. Now, Amazon.com may have the solution.
For the last several years, online retailers had the price advantage over the brick and mortar businesses because of the state sales tax. If you owned a shop you had to impose the tax, but if you didn’t have a storefront in that state, the onus of paying the tax was on the consumer in the form of a use tax. Until recently, Amazon fought off mounting pressure by state and local governments to impose state sales taxes. A sudden shift in practices has Amazon collecting sales tax in six states with another five to be added soon.
So why would they give up their decided advantage? The answer is storefronts—or—more to the point, distribution hubs. With a massive infrastructure of distributors, Amazon would now be poised to get your products on your doorstop hours after you’ve ordered them. Talk about instant gratification.
So, what would same-day shipping, Amazon-style, mean for local businesses? Would you shop online more often if you could get your product on the same day? Is this any different than a big-box store moving into town?
GUESTS
Barney Jopson, US retail correspondent for the Financial Times.
Tumblr on the left, Farmville on the right — what your social networking says about your politics
Click here to see the above image larger
Posting on Pinterest could say more about you than your taste in LOL cats – it could be an indication of your voting preferences. So say researchers at the interactive marketing agency Engage.
They crunched online data, counting the “Likes” along with indicators of consumer preferences and political engagement. The result is a map that, they say, clearly shows the red and blue leanings of social media users. If your Facebook friends seem to spend a lot of time on BuzzFeed, according to the map, they’re likely to vote for Obama. Selling on E-Bay? Romney supporter. Not surprisingly, Facebook is the great equalizer, falling squarely in the center of the map. The method may not be scientific, but scouring people’s social gaming and Yelping tendencies might be a way for campaigns to target potential supporters.
How accurate is the Engage map? Which side do you skew toward – and does it reflect your political leanings? Can you really tell how people will vote based on their websurfing habits?
GUEST
Patrick Ruffini, president of Engage LLC
FilmWeek: Ice Age: Continental Drift, Red Lights, The Pact and more
Larry is joined by KPCC film critics Claudia Puig, Henry Sheehan and Charles Solomon to review this week's new films, including Ice Age: Continental Drift, Red Lights, The Pact and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Henry Sheehan, film critic for KPCC and dearhenrysheehan.com
Charles Solomon, animation critic and historian for KPCC, author for amazon.com
Best and worst paranormal movies
This week brings moviegoers the premiere of the paranormal thriller, “Red Lights.”
The movie stars Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy as psychologists who debunk paranormal theorists and psychics. Robert De Niro plays one such psychic, a blind man who comes out of hiding after his chief critic mysteriously dies. While the jury may still be out on this movie, there’s plenty of consensus out there for the best, and worst, paranormal movies.
Whether it’s spirits taking control over bodies, aliens haunting a small town or just an old-fashioned ghost story, what movies particularly shook you to your core? And which movies shook you with laughter? Everyone loves a good, bad scary movie. (Or is that a bad, scary movie?) Which one is your favorite?
GUESTS
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Henry Sheehan, film critic for KPCC and dearhenrysheehan.com
Charles Solomon, animation critic and historian for KPCC, author for amazon.com