Today on the show we start with a look at how the U.S. and Iran are working together to secure Iraq from ISIS fighters. Then, why LGBT immigrants are finding it easier to seek asylum in the U.S. Plus, Hewlett-Packard has a new vision for the future, the Museum of Latin American Art will include Chicano Art, and much more.
Could the US and Iran work together in Iraq?
The crisis in Iraq is deepening as militants from the Al Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) continue their advance toward Baghdad.
The deteriorating situation in the country is a great cause of concern for two unlikely allies: the U.S. and Iran. Although both sides have ruled out any joint military operations, U.S. and Iranian officials meeting in Vienna this week for negotiations over Iran's nuclear program did also talk on Monday about the situation in Iraq.
Ken Pollack, a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, joins Take Two to discuss how Washington and Tehran might collaborate on Iraq.
Obama announces new steps to protect the world's oceans
President Obama announced new steps to create the largest ocean preserve in the world by banning drilling, fishing and other activities in a massive stretch of the Pacific Ocean.
Using presidential authority that doesn't require new action from Congress, Obama proposed to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which President George W. Bush designated to protect unique species and rare geological formations.
The waters are all considered U.S. territory because they surround an array of remote, mostly uninhabited islands that the U.S. controls between Hawaii and American Samoa.
Obama said in a recorded video message:
"If we ignore these problems, if we drain our oceans of their resources, we won't just be squandering one of humanity's greatest treasures. We'll be cutting off one of the world's major sources of food and economic growth, including for the United States. We cannot afford to let that happen."
Michael Conathon, Director of Ocean Policy at the Center for American Progress, joins Take Two from the conference to talk about the President's plans.
With contributions from The Associated Press
Despite presidential order, challenges remain for LGBT professionals
President Obama is expected to sign an executive order which would prevent federal contractors from discriminating against their employees on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Gay rights advocates say this could provide employment protections for about 11 million workers who currently don't have any. But even with new guidelines in place, there are still huge challenges to face in the workplace, which Jacob Tobia knows well. He's a self-described gender non-conforming man who feels more comfortable dressing in women's clothing.
The recent graduate of Duke University, who wrote about the challenges of dressing for success for the Huffington Post, joins the show with more.
Why it's easier for LGBT immigrants to gain asylum in US
Once barred from emigrating into the U.S., lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender foreigners have found it easier to seek asylum in this country.
Many LGBT immigrants are trying to escape violence and persecution at home with large numbers coming from Central and South America, where tolerance of alternative sexual orientations and gender identities are slow to arrive.
Wall Street Journal reporter Joel Millman joins the show with more.
Los Angeles in the running for George Lucas Museum
If L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti has his way, the L.A. Sports Arena in downtown L.A. will be torn down and replaced with a museum dedicated to the life and work of filmmaker George Lucas.
This very exciting news for southern California Star Wars aficionados, but a bummer of a prospect for those in northern California, where Lucasfilm is headquartered.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter John King joins the show with more.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Mauritania, Mexico and LA artist Ceci Bastida
This week's new tunes are brought to us by music critic Steve Hochman and Associate Editor of Latin for Billboard Music, Justino Aguila.
Hochman brings us Noura Mint Seymali, an artist from the country of Mauritania in North Africa which usually gets lost on the world music stage between heavy hitters like Mali, Algeria and Senegal.
But the music, rooted in the Moorish and Berber cultures, is as tied to the desert just as strongly as the sounds of the region’s Tuareg nomads that have gone worldwide in recent years. With the right artist and the right album, and the right timing, this music could take its place on the world stage. Noura Mint Seymali may be that artist, and her new Tzenni could well be that album. And the timing? Well, we’ll see.
She’s certainly got heritage on her side. Her father Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall was a composer and invented the first system of notation for Moorish melodies, a giant in Mauritanian music, as was her step-mother, singer Dimi Mint Abba, both teaming to bring new sounds and approaches to Moorish traditions with forceful vocals and stinging electric guitar. Noura Mint Seymali started out as a background singer for her step-mother as a teen. In time she became a star in Mauritania in her own right, but with this album she steps up in a way that could appeal well beyond her country’s borders.
The press material calls this an album about “shape-shifting, [with] faith and stability found through instability,” about finding permanence through change, all captured in the ancient spinning dance from which the album takes its title. The song “Tzenni” is a perfect representation of that, the frantic pace of the asawan — the instrumental combination of the traditional ardine harp and here the electric guitar played by husband Jeiche Ould Chighaly — and Seymali’s trill-filled, just-shy-of-shrill vocals, put over solid, even funky rhythms. But it’s the singing, the forthright attitude embodied, that is the real stable foundation here.
On the song “Tikifite,” a song often sung by and associated with her step-mother about a healing herb, the ardine and voice combination takes a lilting tone, the rhythm section playing almost like a pop ensemble, yet firmly planted in her homeland and cultural traditions.
Noura Mint Seymali will be performing July 24 in the Skirball Cultural Center's Summer Sunset Concert series.
Hochman's second pick, The Felice Brothers, draw from a much different musical tradition of Americana.
This is the fifth album from a real band of brothers — one left a couple of years ago, but Ian and James Felice remain at the core — hailing from that rock ’n’ roll hotbed, the Catskills. Of course, that’s not far from Woodstock, where the Band famously crafted some of the most influential sounds in what we now call Americana. And at times the insightful, incisive story-songs and earthy, kind-of-rickety flywheel energy reminds of the Band, as rendered by musicians who were raised on Bruce Springsteen and, oh, the Replacements. Over the course of the group’s career, that’s evolved into something distinctive and substantial, as you can hear in the new song “Meadow of a Dream.”
In concert it all almost comes apart. Just almost, which gives it a manic magic. That’s trickier to pull off in the studio, but they get it enough, as in the boisterously building choruses of the song “Lion” and the fury of “Katie Cruel,” both musically and otherwise referencing the Anglo-Celtic folk music that is the root of American mountain folk. There are also more contemplative sides, songs redolent of drafty barns and gravel roads, of whisky and late-night jam sessions. Oh, and doubt and darkness — all captured in both caustic and clever wordplay, scattergun shots of references, from Henry David Thoreau to Harry Potter, in the boisterous “Woman Next Door” alone.
But here with the exuberant “Cherry Licorice” they show off some well-honed pop skills. It’s a great sweet-tooth summer song, but with the flaring accordion and fiddle giving a little Pogues shamble to the sing-along hooks.
Justino Aguila highlights some new music from a rising young Mexican regional star, Noel Torres, who has also been known to sing narco-corridos, songs that specifically explore drug-trafficking themes. However, in recent years Torres’ music has included more of a focus on romantic ballads, which are proving to be popular on the Billboard charts.
Noel Torres is part of the new generation of norteño singer/songwriters who keeps gaining momentum for his music in the U.S. and beyond.
His shows are usually full to capacity and his compositions are popular within norteño music, a genre that often uses percussive brass sections, drums, the bajo sexto and the accordion.
Aguila's second pick comes from Los Angeles-based Latin alternative artist Ceci Bastida, who started out singing in Tijuana, Mexico in the ska-punk band Tijuana No! where she wrote and produced songs with artists such as Manu Chao. Later she joined Julieta Venegas’ band in 2000—where she sang back-up vocals and played keyboards before going solo.
Her new album, recorded while pregnant, explores the realities of the world as she carried her baby and wondered what the future was going to be like for the child she was going to have.
The album includes compositions about life from a variety of viewpoints and includes a duet with Bastida’s longtime friend/singer/songwriter Julieta Venegas. That song, “Ven,” was inspired by her daughter Yamila.
In Brazil, protesters highlight housing problems outside big stadiums
While the World Cup is drawing viewers to what's happening inside those soccer stadiums, some local Brazilians are trying to highlight what's going on outside.
They're focusing on what they consider to be the problems of overspending and economic inequality, and there's one issue that has proven to be a big rallying point: housing.
In Sao Paulo, for example, a city of an estimated 11 million people, protesters have taken over abandoned buildings in the midst of the World Cup. The actions point toward a simmering tension over accessing decent housing, says reporter Andalusia Knoll, in Sao Paulo.
"It's estimated that about one million people in the city here in Sao Paulo, which is one of the richest parts of the country, do not have proper housing," said Knoll on Take Two.
That means, they're living in shantytowns, or favelas, that often lack safe water or electricity, she said. She spent time with one group, called the Central Region Housing Movement, that has taken over one abandoned building with 60 families and says it plans to live there long term.
How Korean-Americans choose a World Cup team
Korea plays its first World Cup match today against Russia. New Korean immigrants in the U.S. often root for their home country, but that allegiance may get spread out among second-generation Koreans. KPCC's Josie Huang looked into why.
More World Cup coverage from KPCC:
- World Cup in LA: Mexican soccer fans view game as 'a culture, a religion'
- World Cup in LA: Croatian-Americans rally around Balkan nation in San Pedro
- World Cup 2014: US coach Klinsmann opts for youth, international experience
World Cup athletes bring comfort food from home to Brazil
Sure, Brazilian food might be delicious, but for World Cup players it's nothing like the comfort foods of home.
AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley says the Italian players brought with them prosciutto, olive oil, parmesan and a special tricolore pasta. The U.S. team brought along peanut butter, oatmeal and A1 Steak Sauce and Mexico packed chipotle peppers and the ingredients to make pozole.
McCauley says that nutrition is vital for World Cup athletes, with Italy and the U.S. putting particular emphasis on planning meals with the help of a dietician or nutritionist.
Hewlett-Packard hopes its 'Machine' OS can change computing
When you think of Silicon Valley, chances are you think of Apple, Microsoft or Google.
But one of the oldest tech firms is taking a big chance on a new computer system, one that they hope will pull them from the brink of irrelevancy. Hewlett Packard's hope for the future is a new system they are calling, The Machine.
Will it do what they hope and reinvigorate their brand? For more on HP and the competition in Silicon Valley we'll talk with tech writer Ashlee Vance.
Last minute solar tax break passes as budget trailer without examination
California's new state budget now awaits a signature from Governor Jerry Brown, but one item in it has nothing to do with this year's budget: a tax break that was slipped in with no public review.
The California Report's John Myers takes a closer look at what appears to be a good example of how the influence game works in Sacramento.
Do patients lose when doctors profit in the operating room?
Spinal surgery has become a multi-billion-dollar industry and everyone involved is profiting, including surgeons. In the first of two reports, KPCC's Investigative Producer Karen Foshay looks at the controversy over how some surgeons are making money.
Click here to read the whole investigation and see images.
Museum of Latin American Art to include Chicano art
Since its inception, the Long Beach Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) has defined Latin American art as that made by Latinos in Latin American countries.
Now the museum will "clarify" how it defines Latin American art to include artists of Latin American descent based in the U.S. and other countries.
"That's really what the museum was focused on, which was artists living and working in Latin America of Latin American nationality," said the museum's president, Stuart Ashman on Take Two. "There were some exceptions early on and then later as the thinking evolved there were other exhibits that included Latin American artists and Latino artists, but as a matter of policy it was always what was established earlier."
The museum was founded in 1996 by Dr. Robert Gumbiner, a SoCal physician and philanthropist who wanted to bring Latin American art to a U.S. audience. He believed the art of the Americas deserved a wider appreciation.
"I think what he wanted to do was to show the Latino community that the art of the Latino community is as high as the art from the European community," said Ashman. "He wanted to bring that to this community's attention."
Over the years, some from the Chicano community felt the museum's art policy left them out. This new policy will make the museum more inclusive to all Latino artists, regardless of where they're from.
"For this particular resolution that the board made, that allows us to not only show the work, but to collect it," said Ashman. "That's going to be a very big thing for this community because there has been some sense that they are excluded, even though that that was not the intent."