Today on the show, we'll start with a discussion about Obama's recent townhall on health care and immigration. Then, why did the Lakers lose so horribly last night? Plus. remembering sports medicine pioneer Frank Jobe, We Anderson on "The Grand Budapest Hotel," The Handsome Family talks about having their 2003 song chosen as the theme of "True Detective," the L.A. marathon is set to be one of the hottest, plus much more.
Obama addresses deportations and health care at townhall
Last night President Obama attended a townhall with Telemundo and Univision. He was supposed to talk about the Affordable Care Act, but instead was questioned on the record-number of deportations under his Administration.
Politico reporter Seung Min Kim has been monitoring developments and joins us now.
What went wrong for the Lakers last night?
It was a historic night at the Staples Center last night, but not in a good way. The Clippers absolutely destroyed the Lakers. The Clippers beat the Lakers 142-94, a 48 point loss the worst in Lakers franchise history. That's going back to 1949 when they were in Minneapolis.
The game didn't start out so poorly, so when did things go wrong?
Sports medicine pioneer and former Dodgers doc Frank Jobe dies at 88
Dr. Frank Jobe was the Los Angeles Dodgers team physician for over 50 years. He passed away yesterday in home in Santa Monica at 88 years old.
RELATED: Sports medicine pioneer Frank Jobe dies at 88
Dr. Jobe served in World War 2 as a medical staff sargent with the Army's 101st Airborne Division, was for a brief time captured by Nazis earning a Bronze Star medal. When he retuned to L.A., he got his medical degree at Loma Linda University and did his residency at Los Angeles County Medical.
In 1965 he co-founded the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic specializing in the relative new field of sports medicine. But Dr. Jobe will forever be remembered for inventing a surgery that revolutionized his field and rescued the careers of hundreds of professional baseball players.
For more on the remarkable career of Frank Jobe we're joined by Dr. Robert Klapper, director of the Joint Replacement program and orthopaedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai.
Friday Flashback: Ukraine crisis, CPAC, Obama budget and more
It's the end of the week, which means its time for another Friday Flashback. It's our look at the week in news, and oh what a week it's been. To help us get through all the headline topics is columnist James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times and Nancy Cook of National Journal.
Let's start with the biggest story this week, the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine, which took another tense yesterday turn as allies of Russia in the Crimea peninsula sought to secede. The U.S. also imposed its first sanction.
Officials in Crimea held a private vote on the question of secession, and there will be a special referendum vote next week. Explain what this referendum could mean for the region? In what position does this leave the U.S. and President Obama?
It was interesting that a Russian official compared the Crimea secession to the situation in the UK, where Scotland could become independent from Britain. Politically speaking, this is pretty clever, right?
Republicans have been quick to find fault with President Obama for the escalation of tensions there. Do you think that he does have any responsibility?
The White House reported that after President Obama announced the sanctions, he spent an hour talking with Russian president Vladimir Putin about a diplomatic settlement. Is this a case of talking tough in public but being more measured in private?
While we're on the subject of public tough talk, lets talk about the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC. The convention, which kicked off yesterday, is the largest annual meeting of conservatives. Usually it's where political hopefuls go to get a sense of how'd they do with conservatives. Who's looking to make a name for themselves?
What about Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell coming to the stage with a gun?
Last year, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wasn't invited, because he wasn't seen as conservative enough. But he was there this year. A change of strategy for Christie perhaps?
This week the Obama Administration released their budget, and a notable proposal was for an expansion of the earned income tax credit. So this seems like a way to expand the wages of low income workers without raising the minimum wage?
There's a story that I would like to talk about, because it doesn't seem to happen a lot: bipartisanship. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a vocal critic of the President met with Attorney General Eric Holder this week on something that they seem to agree on: the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences.
Are you surprised that they are allies on this issue, or is this like a weird political venn diagram?
But although we're talking about bipartisanship, we can't ignore the incredible spat this week at a hearing questioning former IRS official Lois Lerner. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and ranking member Elijah Cummings got into it after Issa abruptly ended the hearing, before Cummings had a chance to talk.
Now since that incident Issa told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he had personally apologized to Representative Cummings, and that he should have, "handled the situation differently."
James Hellmold: An insider seeks the sheriff post
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca's one-time driver is among those now campaigning to lead the department. But Assistant Sheriff James Hellmold is more than a former chauffeur.
KPCC's Frank Stoltze says he rose through the ranks to become one of four assistant sheriffs, and touts himself as having the experience to steer the troubled agency in the right direction.
'The Grand Budapest Hotel': A conversation with Wes Anderson and Tony Revolori
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" is director Wes Anderson's eighth film and perhaps his most spectacular.
The film revolves around a young lobby boy named Zero, played by local actor Tony Revolori, and his boss, a fastidious concierge named Gustave, played by Ralph Fiennes. He is beloved by elderly ladies who visit the hotel, including an octogenarian played by Tilda Swinton.
Earlier this week, Take Two had the chance to talk with director Wes Anderson. Wearing a brown corduroy jacket and tie, the filmmaker looked much like a human version of one of his characters, Mr. Fox to be exact.
We began by asking him what inspired him to make this latest film.
"Well the first inspiration was my friend Hugo and I made a little short story version of the script. But eventually I had the idea of combining that idea with something in the vein of Stefan Zweig stories that I'd begun to read and so I sort of mixed these things together and then we were able to write the movie."
Steffan Zveig was an Austrian novelist and journalist who, during the 1930s, was one of the most popular writers in the world. Most of The Grand Budapest Hotel is also set in this era, but parts of the film is set in 1968, and other scenes in 1985.
"That also partly comes from Zveig, who used this device of a character meets a mysterious stranger and eventually that person says, 'well if you like, I will tell you my story.' We've seen that done in many different books and movies, and it's a familiar sort of device. It's something I would tend to associate more with tales, like Kipling, or Conrad or those kind of stories. Zveig's work is much more intimate, psychological, tormented. It's a stranger kind of story to do in that way."
Wes Anderson is of course known for the moods and feeling of his films and he had trouble setting the stage for this one. The film takes place at the Grand Budapest Hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka, but finding an actual hotel was a challenge.
"We thought we were going to find a real place, and we had done lots of research. Eventually it just became clear that things that were interesting in the photographs and in the descriptions of the hotels of the period we were trying to recreate, they don't exist, and we couldn't quite find something that was right."
After a lengthy search in places like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria, Anderson and his team decided to use a department store in Gerlitz, Germany as the lobby of the Grand Budapest Hotel.
There was also a long search for the actor who would play Zero, the middle-eastern lobby boy central to the film.
"I just wanted to get the right guy...We looked in the Middle East and in North Africa. I think the thing to do is start as early as you can and cast as wide a net as possible, because there's no guarantee that you're going to find the right person...My experience is they end when the person walks in the door and you say 'there he is' or 'there she is."
That may be how Anderson recalls it, but that's not quite how seventeen-year-old actor Tony Revolori remembers it.
"I didn't get the part right away, Wes flew me out to Paris to meet him and to talk with him and read the script for a day, not even a day, 17 hours then he flew me back. About two months after that he offers me the role of Zero and I completely and utterly screamed and said yes."
Tony's family is from Guatemala, and he grew up in Anaheim. While Wes Anderson searched the world to find the right Zero, in the end it came down to Tony and his brother Mario.
"I mean, he was happy for me, we've been doing this for a very long time, he's beaten me for roles. Sometimes none of us get it, so we prefer it to be one of use two, so he was very happy...he said congratulations, I'm proud of you and kick butt."
LA Marathon: Tips to stay healthy and safe during the race
The 29th Los Angeles Marathon will be tying up city streets Sunday as some 25,000 runners and walkers make their way from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier.
RELATED: Weekend Traffic: LA Marathon closing streets from Santa Monica to Dodgers Stadium
KPCC's resident marathoner Sharon McNary is here with some insider tips for runners and spectators. This is her 109th race.
Live from SXSW in Austin, it's KPCC!
Area musicians and tech geeks head to Texas for the South by Southwest conference that kicks off Sunday.
The two week conference brings together all sorts of folks who work in film, tech and music, so it's a pretty great place to spot new trends in those industries. Remember Twitter? Yeah, it took off in Austin, as did musical acts like Janelle Monáe and The White Stripes.
At Take Two we talk a lot about music, and tech, and film, so we thought we'd send our very own producer Jacob Margolis down there. He joins A Martinez in studio for a preview of what's coming up next week.
Check out KPCC for daily updates from Jacob. You can also follow him @JacobMargolis on and Instagram. Tweet Jacob with the hashtag #WhatShouldJacobDo if you have suggestions on what he should check out!
Can virtual schools perform as well as a traditional classroom?
For some kids, traditional school isn't necessarily the best option. They may have medical needs that make getting to school difficult, or perhaps they're athletes who travel frequently to train and compete.
In these cases, a virtual education might serve them better. This week, parents and teachers of students who attend such schools spent a day at the state capitol. There they met to try and bring more attention to virtual education, an issue they say is often misunderstood.
For more we're joined by Maureen Schultz, she's the president of California Parents for Public Virtual Education.
In Vietnamese nail salons, a push to breathe easier
The vast majority of California's nail technicians are of Vietnamese descent. There's increasing concerns about the chemicals they are exposed to at nail salons.
KPCC's Josie Huang has more on the potential health dangers, and how some salon workers in Santa Monica are starting to protect themselves.
RuPaul trolls music pirates with fake album leak
What's the best way to defeat a pirate? Well, to catch them with their pants down. Since a queen has a lot more power than a pirate what better queen to do just that than RuPaul.
So get this, RuPaul has a new album out called, "Born Naked." His team intentionally leaked a version of it to website that traffic bootleg music to see if people started downloading it illegally. But, that album was a decoy.
About half way through each track, RuPaul begins spouting a stream of consciousness lecture about pirating his music. The stunt helped make the album the highest charting of his career. Here to talk about the move, the album and the newsest season of the show "RuPaul's Drag Race," is RuPaul
Author Michael Connelly's 'Bosch' coming to Amazon Prime
"Bosch" is a new Amazon Prime original pilot that follows the life of LAPD detective Harry Bosch, a hardboiled crime investigator policing the mean streets of Los Angeles.
It's based on the book series by author Michael Connelly, who's written over 25 books in his 22-year-career.
He was born in Philadelphia and Florida but came out to California for a job as a crime beat reporter with the L.A. Times. He fell in love with the city it became a muse for his work.
For more on Michael Connelly's Los Angeles, we met up with him in front of City Hall and asked him what first sparked his interest in the City of Angels.
'True Detective': The Handsome Family performs the theme song live on KPCC
As fans of HBO's hit show "True Detective" eagerly await this Sunday's finale, KPCC invited the band behind the dreamy theme song — New Mexico's The Handsome Family — to perform a live acoustic version of the theme, "Far From Any Road," and talk with Take Two about the show.
Set in Louisiana, "True Detective" follows two homicide detectives on the hunt for a ritualistic serial killer preying on women and children. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson star as the team tasked with unraveling the twisted mystery.
Its popularity marks yet another success for HBO, but it has also helped introduce a wider audience to a particularly dark Americana band from New Mexico:
The Handsome Family's song "Far From Any Road" was chosen as the show's opening theme and has since become synonymous with the landscape and tone of "True Detective." The Handsome Family — consisting of Brett and Rennie Sparks — began with a live version of the song, which you can hear below.
The Handsome Family performs "Far From Any Road" live on KPCC:
Interview Highlights:
How did you find out your song had been chosen?
Rennie: "We didn't know for sure until the show was aired. There was some talk about it, we had some emails back and forth, but I guess because they were working on a million other things they never quite confirmed with us that it was going to be our song. ... So we were sitting there waiting for the first episode to come on, holding hands and trembling, and then, it happened."
Wow, no one told you?
Brett: "We were on tour, too, at the time. Like, two weeks before the show premiered. So we were out of contact a lot, too, and we were wondering, 'Wow, I wonder what's going to happen with this show?' We were back and forth with a lot of people."
Rennie: "We had a verbal agreement, of course, but I think we've been doing this for 20 years, and we've had a lot of 'almost' and 'maybes.' We've had a lot of things taken away from us at the last minute, so we didn't want to get too excited until it happened."
Brett: "It kinda made it all that much more special. I punched myself in the leg so hard I'm still black and blue."
Rennie: "The people at the show told us that they'd used our song originally as a placeholder while they were looking for the real song they were going to use. But I guess evidently they tried a bunch of songs, and they kept coming back to us, thankfully. "
Are you happy with the way it was paired up with the title sequence?
Brett: "I sat one night and watched the opening credits, 30 or 40 times with my headphones. I may have had an adult beverage, but I was watching just the images unfold with the song. Obviously I'm a little biased, but they did such a fantastic job."
Rennie: "The plot of the show seems to really fit with what we're talking about in the song, too. I think there's an emotional landscape that takes place on the show that I think our song also kind of lives in. This place of sinister mystery and unearthly mystery and beauty and things that can't be really spoken about, but you can show a picture of or sing a song about."
Brett: "We do get a lot of people that write emails, and they're like, 'What does it mean?' We're like, 'Well, you know, whatever you want it to mean, really. You can try to figure it out.' You can try to figure the show out."
Rennie: "There's no point in writing a song that's easily understood, I think. Otherwise, you know, if you could easily understand it, I would just say it in a sentence. Someone wrote us and said, 'Look, I've got four kids and a job, just tell me what the song means.'"
The finale's coming up, do you guys have any insight that you could share with us?
Rennie: "Neither Brett nor I are the Yellow King; other than that, we don't know. At least I don't think he is."
A husband and wife team, married making music for 20 plus years, can you tell us the story about how you met?
Rennie: "It involved some tequila ... "
Brett: "On the radio?!"
Rennie: "I was walking around my college campus with a little purse full of tequila, and a tambourine."
Brett: "And a tambourine and a Thomas Pynchon novel ... ."
Rennie: "And a really frightening flower dress. Most people were not interested in getting to know me better."
Brett: "I, however ... "
Rennie: "Wanted the tequila. ... Ladies, always carry a little tequila in your purse, you never know when its going to come in handy. You know, it really was, though, like a great gift. You say things about love at first sight, but I think we both said that when we saw each other, it was like seeing somebody I've been looking for my whole life and not knowing that I was even looking for him. I said to myself, 'Oh, there he is.'"
When did you realize you could make music together?
Rennie: "That's the strange thing is that, immediately, we were in love, and we basically never spent a moment apart after that, but it took us six or seven years before we even thought about trying to write music together. You'd think it would have come up earlier."
Brett: "We've been good friends for a long time, and have a lot of mutual respect. ... I think it's a collaboration that's kind of unusual in these days. We're still working the Tin Pan Alley angle, where somebody writes the lyrics and somebody else writes the music, and never the twain really do meet."
Where does the name The Handsome Family come from?
Rennie: "We were in someone else's band, and he called Brett handsome sarcastically, and Brett was writing a lot of the songs, so it was the Handsome Family, but someone else was the bandleader, and then he kicked us out of the band because he said we didn't rock hard enough."
Brett: "This is a guy who played snare drum with a manhole cover and a hammer."
Rennie: "Yeah, so, to be fair, we couldn't keep up with him. So he kicked us out of The Handsome Family, but then gradually we decided, 'You know, he's not really using the name.' He broke so many drums with those hammers."
Brett: "We liked the way it sounded. It's kind of an arcane word in the English language. Handsome, it's like toothsome, or something that can be manipulated with the hand. It's kind of a weird word, and you see it used in other countries in different ways. Like, in England, here's my handsome family. ... And it also kind of sounds like the Manson Family, and it sounds like the Carter Family, and the Stoneman Family, and kind of like that country tradition."
You've been successful at this for two decades, and the music business, obviously, isn't an easy business to be in. What would you say is the biggest obstacle you both have had to overcome together?
Brett: "Impatience. With the universe to throw something back at you."
Rennie: "You don't always know what a song or a concert means for a long time. And sometimes, the shows that, I think, went the worst, and the nights where I feel like we were resonating with anybody with what we had to offer, those are the nights sometimes years later someone will say,'That's the night I fell in love with you and when your songs really spoke to me.' I think patience and faith that what you have to say. ... If it's important to you, then it'll be important to other people."
Has having this song on a hit show affected your music career much?
Rennie: "We're No. 2 in Tajikistan today. Kyrgyzstan we're doing pretty well in, too. We're charting all over the world, and it's amazing. It's changed everything."