Gentrification and the forces behind it, bad performances by big city NBA teams, Brooke Shields opens up about her mother.
Southern California bracing for heavy rain, possible mudslides
The biggest storm of the year is expected in Southern California on Tuesday. Given the ongoing drought, the rain is welcome, but not without some concern. Recent wildfires have burned away brush on mountainsides, raising the risk of flooding and mudslides.
Mark Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, joins Take Two for more.
Could Uruguay's renewable energy surge be a model for climate change action?
Nations from around the world are meeting in Lima, Peru this week in the latest gathering on climate change.
Their aim is to come up with a plan that could pave the way for next year's UN-backed conference in Paris.
The challenges are huge.
But weary diplomats could learn a lesson or two from nearby Uruguay and its record on renewable energy.
The South American country draws on renewable energy, such as wind and solar, to power more than 80 percent of its electricity needs, said journalist Anahi Aradas, who recently spoke with Uruguay's energy minister about the program.
"The winds coming from the Antarctic with the hot currents coming from the Amazon makes it a perfect place to have a lot of wind for turbines," said Aradas.
Uruguay embarked on a 25-year energy plan about a decade ago with the goal of becoming energy independent. This was driven primarily by economic concerns, said Aradas, as the country lacks its own oil or gas reserves. With just over 3 million people, the small country may not be comparable to other nations, but Uruguay's success could offer a view of what's possible for diplomats meeting in Lima as they try to forge a climate change pact.
"We have the technology," said Aradas. "Maybe what is needed now is political will."
Brooke Shields opens up about her late mother, Teri
Brooke Shields has had a pretty tremendous career. She landed her first gig on an Ivory Soap commercial when she was just 11 months old and by the age of 14, she became the youngest model to ever appear on the cover of Vogue.
She got an early start in Hollywood, too, landing her first big role in the film "Pretty Baby" when she was just 12. Shields didn't have an agent. She just had exceptional beauty, natural talent... and her mom Teri.
Their incredibly close and yet incredibly tumultuous relationship is the topic of Brooke Shields' new memoir - "There Was A Little Girl: The Real Story Of My Mother And Me."
"Well, I think that we sort of look at the stage moms as the Mama Roses or the more current sort of reality star stage moms and in all of them, these moms themselves are prominent in the picture... [My mom] didn't want to try to be the star."
Shields talked about her personal and working relationship with her mom in a recent interview with Alex Cohen.
"I think that she actually felt uncomfortable with the focus on her... so she drank and completely made the focus be about her."
And as Shields' manager - Teri helped get her roles, like as Violet - the young prostitute in the controversial, but iconic 1978 film, "Pretty Baby." Shields described it as the best movie that she's ever been in, and that she's grateful that her mother brought it to her, even though she was so young at the time.
"I really enjoyed the whole process of being on a set, being with a family, them becoming your family. And because of my mom's alcohol and the drinking - these movie sets became these little utopian protective places for me. Because she wouldn't drive, because a teamster would take us everywhere... And she could drink, but I knew that somebody would take care of her... But it was this weird sort of, it kept me grounded in the most ironic way. And usually it's the antithesis of that. It's usually the movies that unleash the crazy."
http://youtu.be/JSyZq8Eg5eg?t=1m16s
Watching her mother struggle with alcoholism forced Shields to avoid going down the same path, but it also helped shape who she became.
"I was that type A, child of an alcoholic, wanting to be... I was the golden retriever puppy, but that was what my drug was. That was what I became addicted to, was the approval."
But Shields takes a lot away from her relationship with her mother, especially when she thinks about her relationship with her own daughters.
"I don't want my girls to worry about me. I want them to feel safe, but feel the freedom to question me and try and learn and reveal who they want to be... I never knew that that was an option to ask questions, because I looked at my mother as knowing better than any human being. But I also realized in writing the book that my mom had a lot of fear about being honest with herself, about herself. And therefore, even though I felt like I really knew her. I really felt that she didn't let me in at time and for a good portion of her life."
The dim outlook for LGBT retirement
For most people, retirement is something to look forward to.
But a growing number of workers believe that they won't have enough money saved up to stop working one day. According to new research, many same-sex couples are in an especially bad position.
Ken Sweet, a reporter covering Wall Street and financial stories for the Associated Press, tells more.
Read Sweet's full story: LGBT baby boomers face tough retirement hurdles
Tuesday Reviewsday: new music from Willie Nelson, Jimmy Greene and more
This week on Tuesday Reviewsday, our weekly new music segment, journalist Steve Hochman joins us to talk about the latest from Willie Nelson and Jimmy Greene, as well as a new tribute album to Bessie Smith.
Steve Hochman
Artist: Willie Nelson
Album: December Day
Songs: "What’ll I Do," "Who Will Buy My Memories"
Notes: “I Don’t Know Where I Am Today”…. “Amnesia”… “Who’ll Buy My Memories”….
Uh-oh. Is Willie Nelson trying to tell us something? One could see an ominous thread in that three-song sequence in the middle of his new album. And then there’s the title song, not so much about the upcoming month as about winding down, ending, the dimming of the light. THE dimming of the light.
Well, yes, there’s a wistfulness to all this, a sense of things lost and being lost. But worry not. Nelson’s December Days is a winter of content.
Nelson already released one album this year, last summer’s powerful Band of Brothers. This time it’s brother and sister. December Days at the core is all about the musical relationship of Nelson and his sister Bobbie, whose piano playing has been a signature piece of Nelson’s band since the early ‘70s and who, of course, was at his side in both of their formative years. Both albums are powerful, moving looks back over a remarkable lifetime, but also testimony to the formidable power Nelson has today. Both Nelsons.
The former album did it with largely new songs, his first such collection in nearly 15 years. The new one complements that with new versions of songs Nelson’s done before, split almost evenly between 20th century standards and his own compositions — a couple of those (notably “Who’ll Buy These Memories”) fitting into both categories. Much of this is just Willie and Bobbie, aged 81 and 83, respectively, with no or little accompaniment, the arrangements reflecting the way they’ve played these songs over the years in down time in hotel rooms or on the tour bus. Here and there his band members chip in, Mickey Raphael’s harmonica another key sound, and, in his last session with Nelson, the late bassist Bee Spears on “What’ll I Do.” Throughout there’s a fittingly casual air, the tenderness between the siblings evident in every note.
The overall somber trip starts with a fairly jaunty “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” Irving Berlin’s 1911 paean to what was then a new sound — jazz. Certainly it was a familiar tune in the Nelsons’ childhood, and you can easily imagine the siblings gathered around the family piano singing it (“Hey kids! Let’s put on a show!”). Same for the pensive “What’ll I Do,” a Berlin hit from 1924, performed here simply, sweetly, sentimentally but not overly so. From their, the paired Nelson compositions “Summer of Roses / December Days” affirm the reflective tone that dominates here — though with a few side trips, including an instrumental of Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages” which reminds that Willie’s guitar playing, on his battered old nylon string acoustic he calls Trigger, is as distinctively accomplished as the singing and writing for which is is generally best known.
But it’s that trifecta of songs mentioned at top that anchors this set, makes it more than a mere collection of odds and ends, despite it being billed as the first volume in a new series of vault treasures and odds and ends, Willie’s Stash. As he works his way from there he takes an easy-going ramble — Al Jolson’s “The Anniversary Song” and another Berlin number, “Always,” and his own pertinent “I Let My Mind Wander” among the key stops. And his “Sad Songs and Waltzes” would make a fine ending, but he has one more, a playful medley pairing the French chestnut “Ou-es tu, mon amour” (“Where are you, my love”) with is winking “I Never Cared For You.”
Artist: Jimmy Greene
Album: "Beautiful Life"
Songs: "Ana’s Way," "Seventh Candle"
Notes: This one’s a heartbreaker. Saxophone player Greene’s daughter, Ana, was one of the 22 children killed in the Sandy Hook school shootings two years ago. She was, as he says in his liner note essay, six years, eight months and 10 days old. Ana’s voice is heard at the end of this album’s first piece, singing the gospel song “Come Thou Almighty King” at the family’s Christmas gathering a year before, her not-much-older brother accompanying her on piano. If you don’t well up hearing that, not sure what to say.
That recording is a coda here to a version of the same song played by her father on tenor, accompanied by Pat Metheny on acoustic guitar. That Greene could play it at all is remarkable. That he played it in a way not loaded with unbearable grief, nor with maudlin sentimentality, speaks volumes of the power of this album, and the artistry involved in its highly emotional purpose. There is one spot in that, though, where the sax sound cracks a bit, as if Greene was fighting to keep it together. Well, how couldn’t he have been?
Just reading some of the song titles might be enough to choke you up, knowing the background — “Ana’s Way,” “When I Come Home,” “Little Voices,” “Seventh Candle.” That last one, of course, is Greene’s meditation on what wold have been his daughter’s next birthday. Once again, his playing is expressive, yet controlled, neither maudlin nor raging, and yet still clearly cathartic.
Also clearly, he could never have made this album without the love and support of many, prominently some of the musicians who have been friends and colleagues in his career. Besides Matheny, pianist Kenny Barron duets with Greene on the somber “Where Is the Love?” (not the Stevie Wonder piece, but rather a tune from the musical Oliver!) and “Maybe” (from Annie, an Ana favorite). Singer Kurt Elling leads “Ana’s Way,” words added to Greene’s earlier “Ana Grace,” joined by kids choir from the school in Winnipeg when the family lived there for a few years before moving to Newtown. Pianist Cyrus Chestnut anchors “Prayer,” a setting of the Lord’s Prayer sung by Greene’s former Hartt Music School friend Litany Farrell, while another Hartt classmate Javier Colon (winner of “The Voice” in 2011) sings the Greene-written “When I Come Home.” The choir appears again to close the album with “Little Voices,” following a recitation by Anika Noni Rose, star of the animated The Princess and the Frog and a high school friend of Greene’s. “Remember me,” the children sing, repeating the simple phrase as the song fades out.
Greene signs off his liner note essay with another simple two-word phrase, the powerful message that became the centerpiece of the grieving by those who lost so much at Sandy Hook. It’s something he clearly believes, holds on to strongly, and that the album affirms: “Love wins.”
Artist: Various
Album: "The Empress of the Blues: A Tribute to Bessie Smith"
Songs: "Preachin’ the Blues," "Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair"
Notes: The whole tribute album thing grew tired ages ago — artists either too slavishly reverent of the honoree’s originals (as in the new, superstar-laden Paul McCartney tribute) or too seemingly arbitrary in attempts to put their own stamp on things. Even the surface concept of this one, female artists doing songs associated with the first big female star of recorded blues and jazz, seems predictable.
Well, here’s to surprises. The indie artists gathered for this by producer Jim Sampas bring fresh perspectives to choice selections from the Smith catalog, one of the essential bodies of blues and jazz. The ones who play it relatively straight offer folkie takes not overburdened by convention, while the ones who go off road offer imaginative, and perhaps previously unimagined explorations that somehow stay true to the spirit no matter how far from the letter they roam.
Boston folkie Barbara Kessler gives a strong example of the former with her version of “Preachin’ the Blues,” no attempt to mimic the Empress in vocal style or arrangement, but also nothing too fancy in terms of revision. It feels vintage in its way, but without the patina of revival or preservation.
That approach more or less marks the first few tracks on the album (Jenny Owen Youngs’ delicate yet saucy “After You’ve Gone,” the duo Tim & Adam’s saucily saucy “Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine” leading it off), which makes it all the more ear-twisting when artists start to go off-road — at first subtly, as heard in the atmospheric “St. Louis Blues” by Catherine Feeny & Daniel Dixon. But it’s still a bit of a — pardon the expression — shock when Haley Bonar launches into a very ‘lectric “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair.” The approach is clearly true to Bonar, a Minneapolis-based artist known for bringing arresting sonic textures to her wide range of music. Purists might find it too far removed from the source, might not be able to discern the nature of the inspiration. But we are far from the source, nearly 80 years since Smith died at just 43.
And purists, so-called as they may be, have often romanticized the complicated, turbulent and often-violent life Smith led, including the details of her death following a car accident as she attempted a career comeback. (A long-circulated report that she had been refused admittance to a “whites-only” hospital in Clarksdale, Miss. after the accident is now seen as apocryphal, as in the segregated south she would never have been taken to that hospital in the first place. And her injuries were likely too severe to survive regardless.) Anyway, purists in the ‘20s, when she rose to stardom, thought her bawdy, brazen, bedeviled blues was scandalous too.
If there’s a complaint, it might be that while the lineup here is strong and worthy (Tift Merritt, Holly Golightly and on a previously released bonus track Abigail Washburn with Bela Fleck being the best-known), it’s a pretty white group. It would have been nice to hear contributions not just from African-American women, but some from other cultures as well. But that doesn’t diminish what we get here, a strong tribute to the Empress, and a wonderful listen in its own right.
Losing NBA teams challenge top media markets
The NBA's Philadelphia 76ers lost for the 17th time this season on Monday night. They've played a grand total of 17 games, so it doesn't take a math quiz to figure out that they've lost every game so far.
Combine their record with the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, and you have teams in the four of the biggest sports markets in the U.S. with 12 wins and 54 losses. And none of those teams looks to be getting better any time soon.
For more on what this means for the NBA we're joined by sports economist Andrew Zimbalist.
His soon-to-be-released book is called Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup.
'Marketplace' tracks gentrification in Highland Park
To track gentrification as it happens, the public radio show "Marketplace" set up a bureau in the rapidly-changing neighborhood of Highland Park in Los Angeles.
"Marketplace" reporter Krissy Clark talks about the project, how the streets have differed in the past several months, and if there is any benefit to gentrification.
You can learn more about what "Marketplace" has learned about gentrification in Highland Park at yorkandfig.com.
To hear this segment, click on "Listen Now" above.
Silicon Valley homeless camp could be scrapped
One of the country's biggest homeless encampments is right in the middle of one of the richest parts of the country: Silicon Valley.
But, officials say they will soon raze the area because it is illegal. Martha Mendoza, a reporter for the Associated Press, shares the latest on the camp’s status.
Secretary of State-elect Alex Padilla aims to boost voter turnout in CA
If you followed Southern California Public Radio's election coverage in November, you probably know that voter turnout in California was abysmal. It was the lowest modern-era turn out on record for the state, in fact.
What can be done to change this? Secretary of State-elect Alex Padilla tells Take Two, "Encouraging voting by mail is number one."
Also, "creating the flexibility, not just of where we vote, by even when we vote . . . if voting centers open, not just on election day, but in the days, particularly the weekend, leading up to election day, [we] can make it more convenient for people to cast a ballot," says Padilla.
Study: bugs eat thousands of pounds of trash per year
A new study gives the word "litterbug" a whole new meaning. A team from North Carolina State University found that bugs love to eat food they find on the ground. Sounds totally obvious, but the amount they can consume is kind of mind blowing.
They focused on a small area of New York City and they found that the bugs could consume the equivalent of 600,000 potato chips in one year. Just how important are bugs to keeping our cities clean?
A Martinez speaks with Elsa Youngstead - a research associate at North Carolina State University and lead author of the paper.
Long lost letter inspired Kerouac's famous 'bop' style
After many decades adrift, an important long-lost missive has returned to San Francisco. It’s said to be the letter that inspired Beat writer Jack Kerouac’s famous spontaneous 'bop' style.
What's now known as the 'Joan Anderson Letter' was written by Kerouac's friend and fellow writer Neal Cassady, and was mailed to Kerouac from San Francisco in 1950. After years of being passed around by the likes of fellow Beatnik Alan Ginsberg, and eventually boxed up by a defunct publishing company, it was lost for decades.
But Kerouac did not forget the letter easily. Remembering it in an interview with the Paris Review in 1968, Kerouac called the 'Joan Anderson Letter', "the greatest piece of writing I ever saw, better’n anybody in America, or at least enough to make Melville, Twain, Dreiser, Wolfe, I dunno who, spin in their graves."
After receiving the letter, Kerouac changed his writing style from the more novelistic Thomas Wolfe-style of "The Town and the City," to the disruptive, 'bop' style he adopted for "On the Road."
Now, much to the delight of Beat generation enthusiasts, the epistle was discovered recently and is set to be auctioned by Profiles in History on December 17th. Meantime, a private group of scholars and friends got a sneak peak of it at San Francisco’s Beat Museum.
The Beat Museum’s founder Jerry Cimino joined Take Two to talk about the letter's significance and the enthusiasm Beat aficionados feel about its discovery.
Richard Scarry's 'Cars and Trucks and Things that Go' celebrates 40 years
Millions of children have grown up with picture books written and illustrated by the American author, Richard Scarry.
One of the best-known is "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go," published 40 years ago. To celebrate the anniversary, British fashion designer Paul Smith has created new covers and packaging for it.
Read the full story from the BBC's Rebecca Jones here: Sir Paul Smith reimagines Richard Scarry's illustrations