The lasting impacts the Fall of Saigon has 40 years later, how the police are handling the unrest in Baltimore, Tuesday Reviewsday.
Defending L.A.’s street vendors
Street vendors are a distinct part of the urban landscape in L.A., but most of them are in a never-ending cat and mouse game with law enforcement.
Selling goods without a license is illegal in the city, and getting caught can be a pricey ticket. Fees pile up quickly, because most can’t afford to pay. Ingrid Eagly is a law professor at UCLA and heads the department’s criminal defense clinic. She tells Take Two that the system needs to change:
“Los Angeles is the only major city that has a ban, so there’s actually no way for vendors to get licenses. … Sidewalk vending has long been a part of the culture and vibrancy of the city, and the City Council is currently looking at proposals to try to create a lawful and regulated system by which vendors could obtain permits to sell on the sidewalk.”
Press the play button above to hear professor Eagly’s conversation with Take Two.
China upset over potential US trade deal with Japan
The proposed 12-nation pact aims to strengthen trade between the U.S. and Asia. China won’t be included. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will met with President Obama in Washington to try to work out the details.
Peter Navarro is a professor of economics at UCI and the director of the documentary, “Death by China.” He tells Take Two that there was no way China was going to be included in the deal:
“The last time we signed a free-trade pact with them, which was back in 2001 … [China] gets in and they basically break every rule of the World Trade Organization. They manipulate the currency, they use illegal export subsidies, they steal our intellectual property, they have absolutely no environmental health and safety regulations that they comply with, and so the idea of letting them in again is a non-starter politically, because we know they cheat.”
Press the play button above to hear our conversation with Peter Navarro.
How the Vietnam War shapes US military, foreign policy today
Fifty-eight thousand U.S. soldiers and an estimated three million Vietnamese died in the Vietnam War. It was a moment of reckoning for the American people, but particularly for the military.
“I would be one of those who would argue that Vietnam haunts American society collectively and it certainly haunts the officer corps," said Andrew Bacevich, professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University. "The officer corps came out of Vietnam intending on avoiding another Vietnam. "
Bacevich served in Vietnam between the summers of 1970-1971. For the majority of the American involvement, however, he was a cadet at West Point. The academy stressed training, but didn't foster reflection about the conflict he was about to enter.
"I failed to think deeply enough about the circumstances that had produced the Vietnam war that I was destined to serve in," said Bacevich.
http://a.scpr.org/i/0e34dc000ac1c96f408c7511f16ba777/104341-eight.jpg
In 1970, Army First Lieutenant Andrew Bacevich (right), with Sergeant First Class James Wright, was serving in the Vietnam War. Photo courtesy of Andrew Bacevich
The U.S. is still living with the aftermath of Vietnam, Bacevich says. And it is a process that, at times, has been marked by a reluctance to confront the full lessons of the conflict.
“In the immediate aftermath there was a so called ‘Vietnam Syndrome,’ ... a reluctance to engage in any conflict absent of the most important stakes at issue. By the early 1990s, the 'Vietnam Syndrome' had begun to fade away, indeed was forgotten, and Americans without ever, really having fully come to terms with the significance of the Vietnam experience, once again bought into the proposition that the free use of American military power was something that Washington should be permitted to indulge in."
Forty years later, says Bacevich, there is still much to learn.
Tuesday Reviewsday: My Morning Jacket, Olivia Chaney and more
This week on Tuesday Reviewsday, our new music segment, music journalist Steve Hochman joins Alex Cohen to talk about the best new albums.
Steve Hochman
Artist: My Morning Jacket
Album: "The Waterfall"
Songs: "Believe," "Big Decisions."
Notes: The Saviors of Southern-rock? That’s the tag My Morning Jacket was saddled with when the first big buzz about the Louisville band started to happen in the early Naughts, as if they were picking up the legacy of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Well, given the way Jim James’ vocals sometimes sound as if they were being beamed in from another planet, maybe southern Mars. Otherwise, not so much.
And yet here with The Waterfall, MMJ’s seventh album and first in four years, there’s a combination of mystery and sophistication that is undeniably southern, something that’s been there from the start, but has only grown and taken on more nuance and character over the years. Sure, in concert the band can power it out with the best of them. On albums, though, it’s all about the shadings, and often shadows.
That there’s something extra going on is evidenced by four of the 10 tracks having second, parenthetical titles, starting with the glorious opener “Believe (Nobody Knows).” Yeah, there’s a lot going on there, musically in the layered swells of quasi-orchestral grandeur and emotionally in the notion that there’s something really big happening, but it’s a secret.
Others, though, are quite direct, notably “Get the Point,” which sounds like it could have been written by Jimmy Webb for Glen Campbell. And then on several songs we get Jim James the Lover Man, who has popped up now and then over the years, recently on one slinky track from the New Basement Tapes, the project in which he and several other artists wrote music to old, unused Bob Dylan lyrics. On The Waterfall, the yearning “Thin Line” and the closing, hurt “Only Memories Remain” both echo classic soul. Yes, southern soul. And very much from this planet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SRLLqUNTys
Artist: Olivia Chaney
Album: "The Longest River"
Songs: "The False Bride," "There’s Not a Swain."
Notes: The recent death of John Renbourn and a couple of years ago Bert Jansch are big losses of key figures in the English folk scene. But a crop of talented, creative, committed youngsters building on their influence is keeping the form not just alive but growing and evolving. If you need proof, the debut album by Olivia Chaney is a great place to start.
Right from the start, listening to the traditional song “The False Bride” which opens the album, it’s the voice that draws you in: gorgeous, pure, displaying the classical training this Oxford, England product had at the Royal Academy of Music. But there’s a nice balance there, the way she diverges just a little here and there, roughs up a phrase or two, maximizing the
melancholy (or outright sadness) at the core of the folk repertoire, tied to her mentorship from another young lion, Scotland’s Alasdair Roberts. For those who know their stuff, the names June Tabor, Maddy Prior and Jacqui McShee might come to mind, and perhaps the somewhat more rustic Shirley Collins.
Of course, folksinger may be a misnomer, though that’s also true for the icons who came before, who freely and inventively draw/drew on blues, jazz, classical, world and in some cases pop and rock forms as much as the British traditions at the core of their style and repertoire. That’s what made them icons in the first place.
Contradictions and contrasts abound with Chaney: the classical-folk meld, the earthy formality of her delivery, the delicate sturdiness of her playing (whether on fingerpicked guitar, piano or floating harmonium). That all ties her nicely to the last few generations of English folkies, as well as ties together her range of material in which the old songs are complemented by some originals (the portrait of a crowded house in “Too Social”), a stalwart piece by Chilean artist Viletta Parra (“La Jardinera”) and, perhaps most impressively, the classical canon (a saucy interpretation of “There’s Not a Swain,” taken from Henry Purcell’s now-politically incorrect opera “Rule a Wife and Have a Wife”).
Purcell, too, had brought folk airs to 17th century classical music, and vice versa. Chaney, who also performs the song on a fine new album Purcell’s Revenge by the Concerto Caledonia, here brings her own stamp to the song in a way that is true to both traditions, yet slave to neither.
Yep, English folk is in very good hands. And voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSBSIndQHE8
Artist: The Word
Album: "Soul Food"
Songs: "Come By Here," "When I See the Blood"
Notes: Can we get some hallelujahs and amens? It took 13 years, but the Word is back! In 2002, the band — a jam-rock supergroup of sorts — introduced the world to pedal steel wizard Robert Randolph, and introduced many fans to the world of “sacred steel.” That’s the indelible music of several regional African-American Pentecostal church networks in which the complex instrument takes center stage. A collaboration of the North Mississippi Allstars, organist John Medeski of progressive-jazz trio Medeski, Martin & Wood and church prodigy Randolph front and center for dazzling authenticity, the Word played it fairly straight on its debut album and tour, drawing on the styles of “sacred steel” stalwarts the Campbell Brothers, Aubrey Ghent and such. Well, maybe with some Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan thrown in.
Now reconvening for a belated followup, the ensemble finds spirit all its own. And that’s cause for praise as ecstatic as the playing on the righteously stomping “Come By Here” and the scorching “Play All Day,” where the musicians seems possessed. It’s not for nothing that another
track is titled “Speaking in Tongues,” and whatever language, it’s magical, transformative— not aimless noodling but a remarkable musical journey. Medeski seems to be the ringleader-instigator of the most adventurous material, guiding Randolph and the Allstars (guitarist Luther Dickinson, drummer Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew) into places not even hinted at on the debut. The gospel is still there, solid at the core, but it now serves at times as a launching point for some rather otherworldly explorations.
Whether the spirituality is explicit (the Old Testament, Pesach-related “When I See the Blood,” with guest vocalist Ruthie Foster, and “Glory Glory,” with Amy Helm) or more elusive (“Chocolate Cowboy”?), every note on this seems to serve a higher purpose. And while the first album transcended the inherent novelty of its nature, this one is, well, simply transcendent, on all levels.
Decades after war in Laos, Hmong refugees build new lives in US
The effect of the Vietnam war was felt far beyond its borders. The conflict spilled into neighboring countries and forced many to make a home elsewhere. Around 100,000 Hmong came to the US from across Southeast Asia.
They were part of a wave of refugees who fled when communists gained control in Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam 40 years ago.
Seattle became the focus of a large Hmong community. Many survived growing and selling flowers at the famous Pike Street Market.
From Seattle public station KUOW, Liz Jones has this story on the Hmong who have made the Northwest their home – growing and selling tulips, dahlias, and peonies.
What's it like for a band to perform at Coachella for the first time?
While the Coachella Arts and Music Festival has come and gone, some bands are still basking in the afterglow, like the Southern California band Saint Motel.
Before the festival, Alex Cohen spoke with band members A/J Jackson and Greg Erwin about their expectations for their big Coachella debut. Now they're back to talk about their experience playing on the hallowed grounds.
To hear the full interview, click above.
Policing in Baltimore
Residents of Baltimore are in the process of regaining calm after the city was rocked by violence.
Protests broke out after the funeral of 25 year old Freddie Gray. Gray died April 19th of spinal cord injuries while in police custody.
In the ensuing protests, Baltimore police said 15 officers were hurt after they were struck by bricks, stones and glass bottles.
We find out more about the situation in Baltimore with Kenneth Burns. He's a reporter for NPR station WYPR.
And then for a look at the role police play at moments like these, we talk to Cheryl Dorsey, a retired LAPD sergeant, expert on police culture and author of the book, "The Creation of a Manifesto, Black and Blue."
We're also joined by Eugene O'Donnell - former NYPD officer and professor of law and police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Eddie Izzard brings his 'Force Majeur' to the Hollywood Bowl
Back in December of 2012, comedian Eddie Izzard spent time in Los Angeles working on a new show. He tried out some material at the tiny Trepany House in Los Feliz, gauging the reaction of the intimate audience and jotting down notes as he performed.
Izzard told Take Two at the time that he got most of his best ideas while on stage, often while interacting with people.
Later this summer, the result of that work — a new show called "Force Majeur" — comes to a much bigger LA venue: the Hollywood Bowl.
Izzard returned to Take Two to talk about his creative process, his political career, the new show, and what it's like to perform in a larger venue like the Hollywood Bowl, where there are people seated up in the bleachers, so far from the stage. In short, Izzard says it's the "same gig."
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On "Force Majeur"
It really came out of America, this show; even though that doesn't essentially matter in the sense that, the cool and groovy people that I play to who have been students, could have been students, would be students, they're switched on because my stuff is intelligent but very silly and very Python-esque.
But when I played Moscow, the show I will play at the Hollywood Bowl is the same show I played in Moscow, in English, to the kids there...and they all got it. The kids in St. Petersburg got it. The kids in Istanbul got it. The kids in Cape Town got it...
So this is the beautiful thing. My report back from the front is that everyone gets it. We're all the same. We have fought wars and murdered each other throughout centuries and millennia, but we're all the same. Especially the cool and groovy people. They are exactly the same. There are billions of us.
On whether humor plays a part in his political career
[Humor] is part of me, I have those muscles. But humor is an attack weapon, and for politics, you need to be an analyst. You need to be able to build new systems, come up with systems that work better than the ones that worked before, and you need to be able to communicate that.
Humor is a sort of back-up thing that is used to attack the other side or to bring down ideas that you think are silly. But it's not a front weapon. It's not a front, useful thing.
Comedy punches things. You can't build with comedy; you sort of dismantle with comedy.
On his wardrobe choices
I don't think I'd call it cross-dressing anymore. I'm just wearing clothes. I'm wearing whatever clothes I want to.
If women are cross dressing when they put trousers on, okay. If all women are cross-dressers, fine. If they're not, then I'm not. I'm just wearing clothes, and everyone should just calm down.
I have girl mode, I have boy mode. It's got nothing to do with my ability to communicate. Can I come up with new systems? Can I think outside the box?
We are obsessed about sex and sexuality, and we need to get boring with this thing.