Today on the show, we'll look at the state of gun control one year after the shooting at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Conn. Then, we meet a 10-year-old from Woodland Hills who turns guns into artwork. Plus, Tom Hanks joins the show to talk about becoming Walt Disney in "Saving Mr. Banks" and singer Lala Brooks comes on to talk about coming of age in the era of funk, plus much more.
Newtown Anniversary: The state of the gun control debate in California
Tomorrow is the 1-year anniversary of the fatal shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut. That day, 20 children were killed, the youngest, just 6 years old.
We’ll take a look at how the gun control debate has played out in California during the past year.
Crowdfunding offers new source of cash for gun buybacks
Tomorrow four California cities are conducting gun buybacks, a voluntary exchange where people sell guns for cash, and the guns are then destroyed. Corporate sponsors are paying for the event in Los Angeles. In San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, most of the money is coming from crowdfunding.
For the California Report, Aarti Shahani has the story.
11-year-old Angeleno turns toy guns into anti-violence artwork
This Saturday marks the one year anniversary of the fatal shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut. That day, 20 children were killed, the youngest, just 6 years old.
Gun violence is a terrifying threat, especially to kids. It's a theme that a young artist from the San Fernando Valley has addressed in his work, which he calls 3D Gun Art. 11-year-old Charles Gitnick joins us in the studio.
Friday Flashback: Budget deal, Mandela memorial and Jang Song Thaek
It's Friday, and that means it's time for another Friday Flashback, our look a the week in news. To help us with that this week we're joined in studio by James Rainey of the LA Times, and by Nancy Cook of National Journal.
Let's begin today in Washington, where Congress brokered -- and passed -- a bipartisan budget deal. Are Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Republican Congressman Paul Ryan just trying to get off Santa's naughty list before they leave on recess?
House Speaker John Boehner supported the budget bill, and although he didn't name them, he lashed out at groups such as Heritage Action and Club for Growth. They pressured members to vote down the budget compromise, just as they pressured them to shut down the government in October.
Congress also passed a defense bill but not a major piece of domestic policy -- the farm bill. What's the significance of this?
Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Harry Reid, the majority leader, is keeping Senators up overnight, forcing votes on Obama administration appointees.
We started the Friday Flashback last week with the death of Nelson Mandela. This week we saw the major world leaders -- and not all of them allies -- convene in Johannesburg for his memorial service. How did this compare to other diplomatic events and what were the takeaways?
There was some good news for the Affordable Care Act yesterday, at least here in California. It looks like the state is actually on track to meet its healthcare enrollment target after a big surge last week. Was this brought on by people online shopping for the holidays? What explains this surge?
This week, the Obama Administration pumped up the volume, and announced a long list of celebrities who will be enlisted to try and get young people to sign up for health care. It's created web sites and Twitter accounts and online spoof videos. Can celebrity endorsements work? Who's paying for it?
The one-year anniversary of the Newtown Connecticut shooting is coming up tomorrow. There has been so much consternation about new gun laws and stricter gun laws in the year since. We heard a bit about what's been happening in California, but what's the bigger national picture here?
There's also this strange report out of North Korea that leader Kim Jong-Un ordered his uncle and longtime mentor Jang Song-thaek executed for allegedly plotting a military coup. What do we know about this?
Tom Hanks on becoming Walt Disney in 'Saving Mr. Banks'
Actor Tom Hanks has had one of the most successful and longest lasting careers in the entertainment industry.
With multiple Academy-Award winning or nominated roles for films like "Forrest Gump", "Philadelphia" and "Saving Private Ryan," Hanks solidified his name into the film history books long ago. Now, at the young age of 57, his career shows no signs of slowing down or changing route.
His most recent films are proof of his ability to slink into a variety of roles, including those that call on him to spring in to action against a gang of pirates —"Captain Philips" — or embody a historical figure so many people hold dear — "Saving Mr. Banks."
Hanks recently sat down with Take Two to talk about what it was like to play Walt Disney in "Saving Mr. Banks," a person he and so many others idolized as a child.
"You don't understand. To be born in Northern California, a trip to L.A. encountered one thing and one thing only: Disneyland," said Hanks on Take Two. "Nothing else mattered. Going to Disneyland was a trip to Paris, France...how are you going to keep them down on the farm now that they've been to Main Street USA?"
Interview Highlights:
On why he decided to take on the role of Walt DIsney:
"I had read long ago a biography of Disney, and was fascinated by how checkered a past he had had...this self-made animator who started drawing goofy slides for silent movies in the back of a garage in Kansas City. He had been ubiquitous for me, there was no world that didn't have Walt Disney in it. Almost every piece of video I saw on Walt Disney was him saying, "Hello, I'm Walt Disney"...it was an intimidating process in order to take them and somehow dramatize the regular guy, the behind the scenes guy. Luckily I had an awful lot of anecdotal information, a lot of it firsthand from people who knew him and worked with him."
On Disney's first meeting with "Mary Poppins" author PL Travers:
"She hated him so much, and she hated movies, and she hated the cartoons, she hated Americans. I believe the only reason she was there was because she needed the money and she did have script approval. The way I translated it was Walt Disney was very used to getting his way. I mean, Salvador Dali would call up Walt Disney and want to hang out...everybody loved Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse and viewed him as this great artist...He was taken aback by the relationship he had with her. He came not to like her very much. It's odd that together they ended up making this classic motion picture that is revered and is as great as it is and was as state of the art as it was when it came out. I think even she still hated it when it came out."
On how their complicated relationship finally ended:
"There's a story about the ["Mary Poppins"] premiere — which he did not want her to come to, but she did — in which she said "Oh Walter, we have so much work to do, so much work." This is right after the movie has played. The last thing Walt Disney said to Pam L Travers was, "Pam, that boat has sailed." And he got up and walked away from her at the party and I don't think he ever said a word about it."
On getting into the brain of Disney:
"There is a note that was found by his daughter Diane, it is in the family museum. And it is a note that is left to his housekeeper and his cook, and it's a list of the foods he wants to eat and how many times he'd have them. He loved canned chili, he could eat that twice a week, he loved either green or yellow Jello, he could have that every night. He would have two vegetables, but one was either a salad and another vegetable or corn and another vegetable... It was the diet of a man who had grown up in the Great Depression, but what's unique about it is it's written in that fabulous Walt Disney script with the big circular "Ws" and the big capital lettera with swirls and whatnot. That's an odd kind of talisman in order to latch on to, but he was that kind of genuinely involved in everything, but at the same time there was whimsy involved there."
Why did Beyonce secretly drop a new iTunes-only album?
Beyonce released a new, self-titled album at midnight eastern time last night, only available on iTunes. This particular song is called "Blow," and the singer certainly blew everyone away, because no one knew the album was coming. The move is generating a lot of buzz among her fans.
RELATED: Surprise! Beyonce drops new self-titled album with 17 music videos
Here to explain is Gerrick Kennedy, writer for the LA Times' music blog, Pop and Hiss.
California's population booms to more than 38 million
California has seen its largest population boost in almost ten years; a full one percent increase. That number comes from data pulled from the IRS, the DMV and the Pew Research Center.
But why the increase? And what does it means for the state's economy? Steve Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, joins the show to offer some insight.
How are California lawmakers reacting to the House budget deal?
The final count for the vote in the House yesterday on the bipartisan budget bill was 332 to 94. The modest pact was designed to ease the effect of the next round of spending cuts which will hit next month.
Supporters are relieved that the agreement will help avoid another government shutdown, but this bipartisan budget deal faced plenty of bipartisan opposition, too.
For more on how the California delegation weighs in on the agreement reached in the House, we're joined now by KPCC's Washington correspondent Kitty Felde.
With Delta water uncertain, LA looks to expand local supplies
Today is the first day for Californians to weigh in on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. It's a $25-billion blueprint to shore up the state's increasingly compromised network of channels and aqueducts that delivers a-third of Southern California's water.
But the massive project isn't expected to increase how much water we get. So at the same time, KPCC's Molly Peterson says we're looking locally for future supplies.
The new sport of Cakebarring: Looking for love in LA, with cake
Audrey Shulman moved from Nashville to Los Angeles three years ago to work in reality television. And according to her, she's never, ever dating anyone. Like many transplants, especially those in Los Angeles, she has found it difficult to meet new people, and even more difficult to date.
But last year she baked a cake for her best friend and roommate, Chrissy Osmulski’s birthday at a local bar.
It was a hit at the bar, and it gave Chrissy an idea. She told Audrey this was how she was going to meet someone, "by sitting in bars with cake."
At first it was just a joke, but after a few months passed and Audrey hadn't dated anyone, Chrissy broached the subject again. But this time, she pitched as a way for Audrey to work on her writing by keeping a blog about the experience: Sitting In Bars With Cake was born.
They called the act "cakebarring," and they established ground rules: Bake 50 cakes in one year, given them away at a different bar each time to anyone who asked and write about it afterward. Audrey had one more rule.
"I never use canned frosting," she said.
Overall, it’s been a pretty big success, at least when it comes to meeting people.
“Last night I was out until 2 a.m. in the morning in Culver City, cakebarring, talking to a rocket scientist,” Audrey. She insists that wouldn’t have happened without the project.
And for a moment, it even looked like the project might end early, and successfully, when Audrey met a nice guy earlier in April. They started going out and they dated for a few months. Audrey even told him about the blog, and when that didn’t scare him away, they talked about him possibly being her boyfriend. But she says he “just kind of ran away.”
Soon, Chrissy told Audrey she just had to start baking again.
But Audrey’s heartbreak was overshadowed by another, even more unwelcome surprise. In May, Chrissy had a seizure. Scans showed there was inflammation in her brain and two days after her 32nd birthday in June, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Since then, she’s been undergone chemo and radiation.
“Her neurooncologist said, ‘If you have to have a brain tumor, this is the best one to have.’ So we’re like, ‘Oh, great,” Audrey said.
So cakebarring has become less about boys, and more about buoying each other’s spirits.
“In a weird way, the cakebarring routine has been really comforting, to kind of have it as this steady, stable thing in our lives,” said Audrey. “Baking cakes is like a hobby and taking it to bars is like a sport, you know, who can we meet with the cake?”
And on this night, it’s a Sock-It-To-Me cake, a yellow coffeecake with sour cream, pecans and some cinnamon sugar sprinkled.
“I think it will be a real crowd-pleaser,” Audrey said.
After the cake is finished, with plastic forks and plates and napkins in tow, Audrey and Chrissy head out to the Pikey Bar in Hollywood. There, they meet a little resistance from the bouncer.
Once inside, they struggle to be heard over the blaring music, but they soon run into a group of people who are celebrating a friend’s birthday. The group happens to be cake-less. Audrey and Chrissy make fast friends with the cake, even meeting a guy who does stand-up at United Citizens Brigade Theater in Hollywood and offers up an on-the-spot rendition of his cakebarring shtick.
“What is with all these girls giving away cakes in bars?! Have you noticed this??” he asks.
Audrey laughs and gives him a business card. It has the name of her blog on it, no phone number, and she promises to come see him perform sometime. Audrey and Chrissy turn away from the birthday crowd and scan the room for their next encounter.
Back home later that night, Audrey thinks aloud, “I think it would be pathetic if I was really desperate to find someone or desperate to get married, but I have a very happy life,” she says. “I have wonderful friends, I love my parents. I’m pretty happy. If the year ends and I haven’t met someone, it’s ok, it’s just nice knowing that I tried.”
As the project and the year comes to an end, Audrey has met a lot of nice guys and friends, and friends of friends, some of whom she’s even run into — outside of bars — around town, at work. She’s been recognized like a local celebrity as “the cakebarring lady.” She says she still hasn’t found “the one,” and they won’t know whether Chrissy’s cancer treatment was successful until sometime next year, but in the meantime, they’re keeping busy and are on track to finish their 50th cake by December 31st.
Audrey’s blog has even inspired a group of people as far away as Australia to take up the sport of cakebarring. And, thousands of words later, it has also been a good way to keep up her writing.
The woes of being black, female and single in Seattle
Finding that perfect person to spend the rest of your life with isn't easy, but for some people in certain cities.
Tonya Mosley, of public radio station KUOW, reports on being black, female and single in Seattle, where, like Los Angeles, African Americans make up less than 10 percent of the total population.
La La Brooks on growing up in the golden age of funk
Back in 1963, the song "Da Doo Ron Ron" was a huge hit. The track, produced by Phil Specter, was recorded by The Crystals, featuring our guest La La Brooks. Fifty years later, Brooks is back at it with a new solo album called "All Or Nothing."
Brooks got her start at the age of 12, when she was recruited to join the aforementioned musical group. By the age of 13 she had the opportunity to perform with famous funk and soul acts like James Brown.
Brooks joins the show to talk about her most memorable times meeting Brown and many more stories from her long and storied career as a singer.
Rozo and Galli: How 2 Watts rappers hope to change their destinies through music
Watts has the most public housing west of the Mississippi and one of the highest crime rates in L.A. But more resources have been slowly making their way into the community.
Charter schools have opened their doors and City Hall recently approved a $1 billion redevelopment effort to turn the Jordan Downs housing project into mixed income apartments and retail spaces.
But Watts is still in the early stages of change. KPCC visual journalists Mae Ryan and Grant Slater followed two young musicians in Watts who took advantage of some of the resources in the community and now are trying to get out.
(For more on this story — and to hear some of their music — click over to KPCC's AudioVision blog.)
Warning: This video contains strong language and drug use.