A woman who was involved in a police shooting in the 1970s and fled to Cuba could now face capture. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor talks about the gender gap in the Silicon Valley, and the gift concierge shares her ideas for last-minute holiday shoppers.
The US and Cuba and the story of Assata Shakur
In 1973 a young woman by the name of Joanne Chesimard was involved in the fatal shooting of a police officer in New Jersey.
Chesimard, who was a member of the Black Panther Party claimed her innocence, but was convicted to a life sentence a few years later.
But she escaped and made her way into Cuba, where she has lived ever since. Since then she changed her name to Assata Shakur and became a kind of vigilante folk hero of sorts.
But with the thawing of diplomatic tensions between the US and Cuba, New Jersey officials, including governor Chris Christie, have called for her capture and return.
We talk about her story with Joshua Guild, Associate professor of History and African American Studies at Princeton.
‘Deepsouth’ documentary explores challenges of fighting AIDS
Researchers are making significant strides in the search for a cure for AIDS, and many scientists are now talking about ushering in an AIDS-free generation.
However one journalist and filmmaker believes the solution to ending the HIV crisis will be much more complicated.
Lisa Biagiotti spent five years in the rural South, where infection rates are soaring. Her documentary, “deepsouth,” explores the many issues hampering the fight against AIDS.
A look at new AIDS treatments, potential cure
There was a time when being diagnosed with HIV was a death sentence. Now, there's talk of a cure.
In his latest piece for The New Yorker, medical writer Jerome Groopman explores new treatments, including a strategy scientists call "shock and kill." He joins Take Two with more.
Stanford's class of '94 and the tech gender gap
1994 was the year Ace of Base topped the charts, "Friends" ruled the ratings and the Internet was just beginning to permeate our lives. Reporter Jodi Kantor takes a look at the graduating class from Stanford University that year for a piece in the New York Times today.
She charts the rise of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs from those heady early days when anything seemed possible through an ever-widening gender gap that leaves women mostly on the sidelines of the tech revolution.
Kantor joins the show for more. You can read her story here.
Checking in: What life is like for LAUSD janitor after minimum wage increase
In July, the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to increase the minimum wage for service workers to $15.00 an hour.
One such worker is Raul Meza, a School Facilities Attendant at Van Nuys High School.
Take Two spoke to Meza at that time, and asked him how he thought his life might change after the raise. "It's gonna bring me more money into my home, and I think I'm going to spend more time with my son and with my family," he said.
That interview prompted a big response from our listeners, so we thought we'd check back in with Meza to see how, if at all, things have changed for him over the last several months.
Read the original interview: LAUSD janitor on what the new $15/hr minimum wage means for his family
Tuesday Reviewsday: Christmas special
This time on Tuesday Reviewsday - our weekly new music segment - we have a collection of rap, R&B and soul songs to help your holiday spirit.
Below are recommendations from our regulars
and Oliver Wang on what you should be listening to this Christmas.
Oliver Wang
Artist: Run DMC
Song: "Christmas in Hollis"
Artist: Clarence Carter
Song: "Back Door Santa"
Artist: The Juice Crew
Album: "Winter Warnerland"
Song: "Cold Chillin' Christmas"
Artist: Tuxedo
Song: "Wonderful Christmastime"
Morgan Rhodes
Artist: Kurtis Blow
Album: "Kurtis Blow"
Song: "Christmas Rappin'"
Artist: Daz I Kue ft. Rasiyah
Album: "Christmas Eclectic" CD
Song: "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
Artist: Muhsinah ft. Robert Glasper
Song: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
Artist: Donny Hathaway
Song: "This Christmas - Single Edit"
In the audio version of this story, it’s incorrectly stated that Clarence Carter was also known as x-rated comedian Blowfly, but it's Clarence Reid who's known by that name. KPCC regrets the error.
The first Chicano movie is added to the National Film Registry
Last week, twenty-five movies were added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The films were recognized as "cultural, historical or aesthetic cinematic treasures."
The list included familiar titles like "Saving Private Ryan," Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Big Lebowski." But it also included some lesser known ones, like the 1976 drama "Please, Don't Bury Me Alive!" ("Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo!")
The film was directed by Efraín Gutiérrez and historians consider it the first Chicano feature film.
"Please, Don't Bury Me Alive!" will now be preserved for future generations in the Library of Congress, but it was almost lost to history soon after its release.
Professor Chon Noriega, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and director Efraín Gutiérrez join Take Two to talk about the film, how it was recovered, and its place in American film history.
Is the window display a dying art form?
When I think of window shopping I’m taken back to that first scene in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfS90u-1g8
Audrey Hepburn's drinking a coffee, and looking through the window at a display full of jewelry – pining after a lifestyle that she wish that she had.
And as it turns out — that’s exactly what window dressers want you to feel.
“What I try to do in each window is sell the brand to the people walking by. I’m not interested in selling the dress. I’m interested in selling what you will be like, what you will become if you shop here.”
That’s ChadMichael Morissette, a freelance window dresser in L.A.
I met him in front of one of his displays at a gown shop in Studio City.
“We have two gowns showcased on two custom life sized barbie mannequins. And I’ve created giant Barbie boxes.”
There are clutches, shoes, and bows in the display, just like a real Barbie would have.
And ChadMichael’s been using his mannequins in displays for high end fashion lines for eight years
But window dressing is nothing new.
“I think that the earliest that the department stores really became to be these all purpose emporiums… is in the late 1880s, early 1890s," says retail historian Michael Lisicky.
By the early 1900s, ready-made clothing started to show up in boutiques and designers needed a way to showcase their work and that’s when high end fashion displays started to pop up.
“Window displays are a part of advertising," says Lisicky. "It’s an advertising, yes, it goes back to when stores were just figuring out who they were. This was before newspapers, this was before television. You needed the windows to define yourself.”
In the 1950s displays became a key part of the image of brands like Lord and Taylor, and they started to look more like art installations.
That trend’s continued in high end boutiques today, but less so in big chain stores where modern shoppers generally know what to expect before they walk into the store, says Lisicky.
You can blame that on online shopping, he says, where customers can see what stores might have available to them before heading in to try stuff on.
While online retail is growing faster than brick and mortar, analysts say that shoppers are still finding themselves in stores — frequently.
“There is a reason for going into stores,” says Lynne Sperling, a retail and wholesale business consultant in Los Angeles. “One: Customer service; Two: Entertainment; Three: It just becomes an activity for people just to see what’s happening.”
It’s hard to say what the future of window dressing will be, but next time you walk past a shop window, take a moment to appreciate the art. Check out the mannequins and their fabulous outfits. They could be some of ChadMichael's girls.