Reflections on the life and legacy of film critic Roger Ebert; California considers instituting official guidelines for fracking; Mexican cowboys practice their vaquero traditions in Los Angeles; Magicians prepare for their Academy Awards show, and much more.
Northridge kidnapping, recent crimes raise questions about CA's prison realignment program
Police are still searching for Tobias Summers, the prime suspect in last week's kidnap and sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Northridge. They have arrested Daniel Martinez as an accomplice, charging him with kidnapping and robbery.
Detectives think Summers may be in San Diego, and this case has turned up the heat on the state's prison realignment program. KPCC's Rina Palta and Erika Aguilar report
California considers instituting official fracking guidelines
By now you've probably heard the term fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing. It's the process where oil companies shoot a high-powered mix of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break up oil and gas deposits.
Fracking has been going on for decades, but here in Southern California, we don't really know a lot of about where and when its taking place. Or what kind of chemicals are being used in the process. But the state is considering new guidelines change that.
KPCC's Environment Reporter Molly Peterson is here to fill us in.
Friday Flashback: Gun legislation, jobs report, and more
Guns, energy, jobs and a remark by the President that many found sexist. It's time for our weekly analysis of the news, The Friday Flashback.
Joining us from Washington, D.C. is Sophia Nelson. She covers politics and the White House for NBC's the Grio, and here with us in Pasadena is Robin Abcarian, who writes about politics and a whole lot of other things for the Los Angeles Times.
Tired of your morning coffee fix? Try a hot milkshake
The street food scene in LA is a vibrant and varied world, but if you need some guidance navigating it there's no one better to turn to than Bill Esparza, who writes the Vitamina T column for LA magazine and blogs on his own at Street Gourmet LA.
What he has to offer this week might sound a little weird: hot milk-shakes. But trust us, its actually a lot weirder than it sounds.
Mexican cowboys practice their 'vaquero' traditions in LA (Photos)
On a recent Saturday afternoon, a dozen men saddled horses, brushed their manes and picked out their hooves. The men's spurs clinked as they led their mounts down a dusty lane that bisects some very modest stables. Most of these men, like Aparacio Ruvalcaba, are from Jalisco, Mexico. At 63, he looks like a Mexican Marlboro man.
This scene is not taking place on a dusty plain in rural Mexico, or even out in rural Riverside County. It's in the heart of Los Angeles.
Jalisco, Mexico is well known for producing tequila and ranchera music. It's also home to a centuries old tradition of horsemanship. Many immigrants from Jalisco have settled in Southern California and brought their love of horses with them.
“This little horse was bought by my sons,” Ruvalcaba says in Spanish. “It’s part of the tradition one brings from Mexico. And my sons were able to follow it, learning it too. They liked it and so here they are too.”
Cesar Ruvalcaba is one of his sons. As we ride out of the stable area, he points out that we are: “smack in the middle of L.A. But you can see how easy it is to get away from all that traffic, the asphalt jungle. We’re riding our horse on a nice sunny day.”
In fact, we’re riding along the San Gabriel River, between Pico Rivera and Whittier. Canada geese, ducks and egrets feed in the water. Cyclists cruise by on the bike path to our left.
Map: Follow the orange path along the San Gabriel River.
The horses are stabled along the river because the land is cheap. Cesar Ruvalcaba, who is 41, works as an asbestos consultant. He says it’s mostly Mexican Americans who keep horses here.
“Factory workers, blue collar. We’re just normal people," Cesar Ruvalcaba said. "I mean, if you saw us on the street, you’d say you ride horses, no way."
But what’s different about these riders is that they’re carrying on a tradition that is hundreds of years old. The Mexican vaquero (Spanish for cowboy) roamed California long before it became part of the U.S. And the iconic American cowboy owes most of his traditions to the vaquero, whether it’s in the saddles, the spurs or words like lasso. California cowboys were called buckaroo, which is just vaquero anglicized.
But as Cesar Ruvalcaba’s brother George Ruvalcaba explains, the tradition also helps escape from the modern world.
“It’s a nice little relaxation,” George Ruvalcaba said. “It takes you out of that craziness of bills and all that other stuff right here. Coming here and walk, you forget all about it.”
Riding a horse, the San Gabriel mountains in the distance, it’s easy to imagine the California of 200 years ago….until Cesar Ruvalcaba breaks the spell.
“In a short distance were going to cross Whittier Boulevard,” he tells me. “We’re going to have to go on the street there.”
After we cross Whittier Boulevard single file, we pull into the parking lot of an AM/PM convenience store. A couple of the guys dismount while we wait on our horses…next to parked cars.
“The rancheros are invading our parking lot!” Jose Romero calls out. He works in Sal’s Fast Lube next door. Romero also happens to be from Jalisco. He says he's been seeing these guys come by for years.
While Romero changes tires on a car, one of the riders makes his horse rear up in the parking lot, to the delight of shoppers.
A few minutes later a couple of the guys appear with 12 packs of beer, a modern convenience that fits right into vaquero tradition. One again we hit the trail, at first sharing the bike path with cyclists, who seem like they’re used to seeing horses.
Eventually we come to a bridge just as a train approaches, which makes the horses a bit nervous. But as soon as we clear the underpass, the landscape changes completely. Suddenly we’re surrounded by wildflowers, tall grasses and trees.
“It reminds me when I was a kid in Mexico,” Cesar Ruvalcaba says. “The grown grass. In the mornings on your horse… to get the cows.”
And now, by riding almost every weekend with their father, Cesar Ruvalcaba and his brothers say they’ve brought a piece of home to the U.S.
“It’s American people, doing Mexican things,” Cesar Ruvalcaba says.
But inevitably the modern world intrudes again, this time it’s a ringing cell phone. Turns out it’s good news.
“Now we’re going to go back, because we just found out that the food is ready,” Cesar Ruvalcaba says laughing. “We’re hungry.”
Whether it’s the horses knowing they’re headed home or the rider’s hunger, the return trip is considerably faster.
Back at the stables, Gilberto Vergara is making tacos de cabeza de res using a secret recipe. As to what cabeza is, well, suffice it to say it’s not a part of the cow that is often eaten in the U.S. (It is the head of the cow.)
But after a day riding with vaqueros smack in the middle of Los Angeles, it’s delicious.
Undocumented workers left out of the Affordable Care Act
About 48 million Americans lack medical insurance. That's poised to change next year when Medicaid is expanded and federal tax credits for insurance become available under the Affordable Care Act. But there's a huge group left out: the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally are currently barred from both programs.
From the Fronteras Desk in Phoenix, Jude Joffe-Block digs into what we can expect when Obamacare and immigration reform collide.
AP film critic Christy Lemire on the life and legacy of Roger Ebert
Yesterday legendary film critic Roger Ebert passed away. Associated Press film critic Christy Lemire pays tribute her friend and former colleague.
Which baseball stadiums have the best and worst concessions
Arguably, one of the best parts of a baseball game is the food: Peanuts, Cracker Jacks, beer, hot dogs. Whether your mouth is watering — or not — stadium food is a big part of the ballpark experience.
But when we get past the basic fare, what do we find?
Here to talk about the best and the worst food that baseball has to offer is Andrew Cieszynski from StadiumJourney.com.
Where there's a win, there's a wand at the 'Oscars' of magic
The movies have the Oscars, theater has the Tonys, and television has the Emmys. Come this Sunday night, magic gets its moment in the spotlight with the 45th Annual Academy of Magical Arts Awards ceremony at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
"There is a very special trophy," said Rob Zabrecky, a magician, the show's producer, and last year's recipient of the Stage Magician of the Year award. "It's actually not a trophy, it's a hand-crafted wand."
WATCH: Rob Zabrecky perform
Magicians have also been enjoying a renaissance in Hollywood. Although, like an audience marveling at a rabbit popping out of a hat, Zabrecky isn't too sure where it's coming from.
"Pop culture is a bit of a mystery to me. Things come into vogue, things come out of vogue, and I never understand why," he said.
WEB EXTRA: Rob Zabrecky how a broken guitar string and a condom helped him become a magician by Take Two Show
But Zabrecky emphasizes is that there's many more kinds of magicians out there than what's traditionally seen in film and TV.
"In 2013, people think of magicians and it seems they think of you as a stage magician à la Siegfried and Roy, or as a Criss Angel type."
However there are some magicians that Zabrecky thinks are the ones to watch:
WATCH: Penn and Teller's "Shadows" trick
WATCH: Helder Guimarães
WATCH: Magician Ricky Jay
WATCH: Derek Delgaudio
'Room 237' doc deciphers the hidden themes in Kubrick's 'The Shining'
Here's an extra credit question: What movie from 1980 inspired this review by Roger Ebert: "The movie is not about ghosts but about madness and the energies it sets loose in an isolated situation primed to magnify them." Answer: "The Shining."
The film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starred Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a writer, living with his wife and young son in a very creepy hotel. Jack slowly loses his mind and in this terrifying scene, goes after his family with an ax.
Roger Ebert also had this to say about the film "There is no way, within the film, to be sure with any confidence exactly what happens, or precisely how, or really why"
But plenty of folks beg to differ with Ebert on that one. Fans of "The Shining" who have watched it hundreds of times believe Kubrick planted hidden messages in everything from the carpet used to line hotel hallways to the sweater worn in one scene by the boy playing Nicholson's son.
These "Shining" theorists believes the film has hidden themes dealing with everything from genocide to government cover-ups.
The new film "Room 237" explores some of these alternative readings of the Shining. When I spoke earlier with director Rodney Ascher, he explains why he made this documentary.
Ebert Review Quiz: Match these scathing reviews to the films they inspired
Now for the answers to the Roger Ebert review quiz we had earlier in the show. We played some scathing reviews written by legendary film critic Roger Ebert and asked you to hazard a guess about what films inspired such harsh critiques.
Here are the questions, with answers below. Try and match them yourself, then listen to the audio (as soon as its up) for the answers!
1.) Quote: "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it."
2.) Quote: "I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than ___."
3.) Quote: "This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels."
ANSWERS:
A.) "Freddy Got Fingered" directed by and starring Tom Green
B.) "The Brown Bunny," directed by Vincent Gallo.
C.) "North" directed by Rob Reiner
Star-struck fans pay big bucks for a piece of Hollywood at Julien's auction house
Bidding has begun in the annual Hollywood Legends auction at Julien’s auction house in Beverly Hills. Julien’s specializes in Hollywood memorabilia. They handled the estate sales of Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe and they once sold William Shatner’s kidney stone. KPCC’s Lauren Osen visited their gallery and has this report on the world of celebrity memorabilia.
Julien’s auction house looks more like an art gallery than an auction house, and it doesn’t seem large enough to hold the 800 items for sale this weekend. Some of the flashiest costumes stand on mannequins and glass display cases of photos and props line the white walls. As items come up for sale, images of them will be projected on two televisions in the front of the room.
Executive director Martin Nolan rattles off a list of what’s for sale: "This is an interesting piece, it's an outfit worn by Kim Kardashian...these are some of the beautiful couture outfits worn by Brittany Murphy... The expanse of this has almost taken up the entire stage.."
Nolan estimates that most of these items will go for two or three times their starting bid, but there’s no way to know which items will fetch huge sums of money and which will flop. That’s dependent on something Nolan calls the celebrity factor.
“I remember one time when we were working with Cher, and Cher asked us, you know how can she make herself more valuable," said Nolan. "Darren Julien, the president of the company said to Cher 'Well, if you die, then you’re more collectible,' but obviously, thank God Cher is still with us and still among the living.”
Julien’s auction is certainly not the first celebrity auction. That was in 1970 and included seven sound stages from MGM Grand – like the one for the "Wizard of Oz." They sold the Cowardly Lion’s costume and Dorothy's ruby slippers.
Those sold for the previously unheard of sum of $15,000 and are now on display in the Smithsonian. Michael Doyle is the consignment director at Julien’s. He’s in charge of finding all the items that get sold at auction.
“They weren’t even trying to make money, they were just trying to clear out the lot,” he said. “At a time a collector base for this stuff didn’t exist as it does today.”
But today, even the catalogs from that first auction are collectibles.
Contrast that with 1999. That year, Christie’s held the Marilyn Monroe estate sale, which Doyle says launched the modern celebrity memorabilia market. Julien’s auction house opened three years later.
“We’ve been reselling items from that sale for profits of maybe 20 times what an item sold for in ‘99," says collector Michael Eisenberg. “When I first got into it, it was, ‘come and get this crap.’ You know, the studios didn’t want it, it was taking up space. They were paying taxes on the asset to carry it. They were doing controlled burns, they were taking stuff out to the desert and burning it.”
Eisenberg describes himself as a consummate collector. He’s been going to auctions since the 1980s and says he can’t count the number of items he owns, but he keeps them in a 10,000-square foot, climate-controlled warehouse."
And what he does he do with this stuff?
“I do take the stuff out occasionally. I have taken it out and I actually wind up getting myself in trouble when I take it out…I got pulled over driving the Batmobile, said Eisenberg. "It’s not licensed, there’re no plates, it’s kind of hard to register a Batmobile. Got it out, took it on Sunset Boulevard and within 10 minutes, I was pulled over. I thought it was going to go really bad, but it was more than a photo opp. I think everybody from the department had come out to be photographed with the car.”
Cars are his weak spot, and in this auction, he’s got his eye on the only surviving car from Columbia Pictures’ 2011 Green Hornet movie. He takes me outside to look at the 1965 Chrysler Imperial.
“There she is, Black Beauty…just sitting, waiting for me to hop in, take her away,' he said. "Green headlights, hornet on the front, check out the wheels, they got the hornet hubcap, the spinners for the green hornet, this is the car...and you can drive it!”
And unlike the Batmobile, Eisenberg should have no problem taking it out for a spin.