Today on the show, we'll start with an update on the numerous wildfires burning through much of the San Diego area. Then, the processing of rape kits is still full of complications. Plus, how did The Eagles' "Hotel California" become so ubiquitous? Author Kate Fagan shares her 'Reappearing Act' in new book, "Godzilla" special effects master Jim Rygiel explains how he and an army of artists recreates Japan's most famous monster, and much more.
Wildfires in San Diego continue to threaten homes, force evacuations
According to Cal Fire, nine blazes that have burned more than 9,000 acres in and around Camp Pendelton, San Marcos, Rancho Bernardo and Carlsbad.
RELATED: Keep up with wildfire news with KPCC's Fire Tracker
As of early this morning, the city of Carlsbad has damages estimated at over $22 million and many area school districts cancelled classes. Also, Cal-State University at San Marcos nixed their graduation ceremonies, we'll have more on that coming up.
RELATED: Host of fires clear San Diego-area neighborhoods
Containment in some parts of San Diego county is as high as 60 percent in some areas and no major injuries have been reported. We get the latest from Mark Sauer of KPBS.
These fires have uprooted many lives throughout the area, including the seniors at Cal State San Marcos, who were supposed to graduate this weekend. But the school closed down and cancelled the ceremonies when fires reached the hillside behind campus last night.
Joining us now with her story is 23-year-old student Lindsey Ward.
Advocates kick up lobbying efforts for new education dollars
The second in a series of stories on how Southern California schools are being affected by new state laws giving parents and others more say in classroom spending.
Money from Proposition 30 that voters passed is starting to flood into California public schools.
It's the first influx since the recession, and the money is being doled out using Governor Brown's landmark new school financing plan. The Local Control Funding Formula gives more money to districts with disadvantaged kids, and that has plenty of groups interested in influencing how it's spent.
KPCC's Mary Plummer brings us this story as part of our continuing series on the new funding strategy.
New report outlines obstacles in processing rape kits
In 2005 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, which required that victims of sexual assault did not have to file a police report in order to get a rape kit exam.
The law was aimed at breaking down barriers for victims. But a new report from the Urban Institute suggests that while many people have been able to have rape kits done free of charge, many still face obstacles.
Dr. Janine Zweig, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and one of the study's authors, joins the show to explain what complications remain in processing and handling rape kits.
Author Kate Fagan shares her 'Reappearing Act' in new book
Kate Fagan is the author of "The Reappearing Act: Coming Out as Gay on a College Basketball Team Led by Born-Again Christians".
In the book, while playing for a Division I college basketball team, she struggles to come to grips with her sexuality, which leads to an internal battle involving her faith, her friends and her love of the game.
She joins Take Two to talk about her experience as a college basketball player in Colorado and her journey to live openly as a lesbian in the sports world.
Excerpt:
I reached the door of my car as Monica, our trainer, honked her horn on the way out of the parking lot. I acted like I was inserting the key into the door and watched as her taillights disappeared down the road. Once I was sure she was gone, I turned around and walked back into the arena. I dropped my book bag onto the carpet in the locker room and belly-flopped onto the black leather couch. I stayed like that for a few seconds, as if I’d been shot in the back and fell where I landed, then flipped myself over and stared up into the darkness, waiting for my eyes to adjust. The room gradually began to take shape; first, the framed pictures hanging over my head, featuring our basketball program’s best teams; then, the outline of the dozen stools, sitting like little chess pieces in front of our lockers; and finally, the plush CU emblem emblazoned in the middle of the carpet. I laced my fingers behind my head and began thinking.
Be Gay. Or Be Christian.
If I was gay, I would become an outcast, someone to be whispered about. Just that fall I had hosted a recruit, a guard we really wanted to come play at Colorado. She was on her official visit to campus, and Coach Barry had put me in charge of her for the weekend, to introduce her to the team, answer her questions, make her fall in love with the Colorado Buffaloes. On the final day of her visit, I had joined the coaching staff as they gave the player and her mother a tour of the Coors Events Center. At one point, the coaches excused themselves—they were going to program the scoreboard to announce the player’s name and number—and the recruit lifted a ball off the rack and walked onto the court, dribbling. I found myself sitting alone on the bench with her mother.
“I have a question,” the woman said, clutching her purse tightly to her chest. She looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot.
“Anything,” I said, because I really thought I could answer anything.
She leaned into me and said, “The other teams recruiting my daughter have mentioned that CU might be hiding a dirty little secret . . .”
“Okay,” I prompted her, as she had trailed off, apparently thinking I was on the same wavelength as her, which I was not.
She leaned in closer, and I could see the exact shape of her earrings: They were small crosses, with a shiny little aqua jewel at the center of each one. “I’m asking if there are any dykes on the coaching staff,” she said. “I don’t want my daughter coming to a school run by dykes.”
I instinctively leaned back, against the cushioned chair, as if I had just played the most exhausting game of my life. “Wow,” I said.
She appeared anxious for my response.
“All I can tell you is that the coaching staff here is amazing,” I said. “They are disciplined and professional, and they care about each of us.”
She waved her hand, pushing my words aside. “But there are no men on the staff,” she said, incredulous, like she had uncovered a damning clue, the smoking gun, the bloody knife. “Not one.”
I had not thought of this before, that No Men might be an important fact to some people. To me, it meant we had four extremely qualified women coaching us, all of whom had played Division I basketball. To this mother, it meant that our coaches must hate men, and that they probably wanted to turn all of us players into disgusting, man-hating lesbians, too.
“Our staff is awesome,” I said, which really wasn’t answering her question about why we didn’t have any men. I shrugged. “If I had to do it all over again, I would choose Colorado again.”
She leaned back now, unsatisfied, still clutching her pocketbook tightly. The coaches appeared from around the corner a few seconds later, all of them pointing up at the scoreboard to show this woman what it would look and sound like if her daughter’s name was announced in the starting lineup.
As I was lying atop that black leather couch in the locker room, I also pictured Cass and allowed myself to feel the excitement that ignited my senses whenever the thought of her entered my mind.
Or be Christian.
I draped my hand over the side of the couch and rummaged through my backpack. I pulled out my leather Bible and held it with both hands, lifting it up in front of me as if it were Baby Simba. Then I rested it on my chest. If God wanted me to reject myself, he would need to do something spectacular to make his wishes for me known.
I fell asleep a few minutes later.
TV Upfronts: What's new, what's old and what's cancelled
It's that time of year when the TV networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers in New York in the hopes of attracting billions of dollars in ad revenue...an annual tradition known as the Upfronts.
What are the networks planning in an era when many viewers are turning to cable or other content providers like Netflix? To help us answer that question we are joined by Brian Lowry, TV critic and columnist with Variety.
Latino upfronts show digital, diverse growth
And with all of the buzz surrounding network upfronts, Spanish language television is also looking ahead, expanding with more reality shows, original programming and sports.
Networks like Univision, Telemundo and NUVOtv have also teamed up with celebrities like Simon Cowell, Jennifer Lopez and Mario Lopez to try to grab their share of the billion dollar Spanish language network market.
Veronica Villafañe of Media Moves joins us to talk about what this week's upfront from Spanish-language networks says about the future of TV marketed towards Latinos.
'Hotel California': How The Eagles' earworm became an American icon
"Hotel California," the 1977 hit single by the Eagles, is the band's biggest hit: So big, artists have covered the song hundreds of times. According to Nielsen Soundscan, "Hotel California" is played on American radio once every 11 minutes — that's about 131 times a day.
And now another version has been recorded by former Eagle Don Felder to drum up publicity for his upcoming solo tour. (Scroll down to the bottom for a graphic of 20 things to know about "Hotel California.")
Felder's version is a collaboration with members of Styx and Foreigner. Here they are performing on TV's "Fox and Friends":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf_cV4raUGI
The fact that musicians like Felder can use a nearly 40-year-old song to promote a tour is a testament to how "Hotel California" has become one of the most ubiquitous songs in pop music.
But how did it get to be that way?
Go back to 1975, or maybe '74, in Malibu. Felder is sitting on a couch in one of his houses — it's right on the beach, of course. He's got his acoustic guitar, a reel-to-reel tape recorder and outside his window, one of the best views real estate has to offer.
He begins strumming a chord progression that, once it's released, America will never forget.
In a rehearsal studio later on, the band gets together. A beat forms, the other electric guitars start to come in on the off beats, giving Felder's brooding chord progression — the self-identified "Mexican Reggae" style he'd later lay claim to. Then, from behind the drums, Don Henley takes the mic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvSsNSuVtk
It's long: 35 seconds longer than "Bohemian Rhapsody." In its six-and-a-half minutes, you're taken on a dark, spooky journey where a tired, anonymous traveler checks into a mysterious hotel, only to discover he can never really check out. It's a "Twilight Zone" episode drowned in tequila and propped up by a laid back, moody guitar solo.
When asked about the song's meaning, Henley and Glenn Frey always been coy.
"It's been denounced by Evangelicals, been accused of all kinds of wacky things, like being members of the Church of Satan. People see images on the album cover that aren't there," said Henley in a Showtime documentary on the Eagles. "My simple explanation is: It's a song about a journey from innocence to experience. That's all."
And the song has had plenty of experience. In 1977, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album's sold 16 million records since then.
The average classic rock radio listener will hear it more than 1,500 times in his or her life — assuming they were born after the song came out. In academia, "Hotel California" has been mentioned in at least 73 different scholarly journals.
It's been covered hundreds of times, by artists like Nancy Sinatra, Frank Ocean, Marilyn Manson … and remember William Hung? From "American Idol"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlTWpDav0FM
But critics haven't shown the song as much love: It's simplistic, indulgent, too long, the rhyming scheme can get a little lazy — when Henley sings "what a nice surprise, bring your alibis" what does that mean, even?
Others point out that wine, which the hotel hasn't apparently carried since 1969, isn't technically a spirit. But that might be splitting hairs.
And then there's the "Big Lebowski" (Warning: foul language):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlmvtAHhnc
But not every voice in music is as down on the band. Ann Powers, NPR's music critic, remembers loving the "Hotel California" as a kid, and she says it still holds up today. In "Hotel California," there are elements of folk and flamenco, sure. But also, says Powers, a commercially viable brand of progressive rock, which was also popular at the time.
"The brilliance of the Eagles is that they never, ever could be as serious as most progressive rockers in that way. They could not be that ponderous," said Powers. "They made something that was, you know, completely weighty in the hands of bands like Procol Harum, accessible to 11-year-olds, like me."
Good or bad, when Felder, the former guitarist of the Eagles, performs his version live, he's taking part in a song that's transcended criticism and commercial sales. "Hotel California" isn't just one of the most vindictive, annoying earworms in American music — it's an icon.
Click the image below to see our full infographic, 20 things to know about "Hotel California":
State Of Affairs: Henry Waxman, June primary, LA Sheriff and more
It's Thursday and that means it's time for State of Affairs, our look at politics and government throughout California. To help us with that we're joined in studio by KPCC political reporters Alice Walton and Politics editor Oscar Garza.
Let's start with the race to replace retiring Congressman Henry Waxman. There have been endorsements, debates, TV ads and even a surprise exit from the campaign. Which candidates stand out, so far?
We mentioned endorsements. This week there were two that grabbed headlines, one for Wendy Greuel and one for Marianne Williamson. Who is getting big name support?
With just a few weeks until Election Day, candidates have taken to the airwaves. Whose television ads should we keep an eye on?
Candidates in the race for L.A. Sheriff have started placing mailers in the Los Angeles Times. These come as debates between the candidates continue. What's the latest?
Over in the campaign for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, Bobby Shriver has hit the television airwaves. He's doing this as some of his opponents, like Sheila Kuehl and John Duran, are flooding voters' mailboxes. What are the candidates saying about themselves?
Bobby Shriver's cousin Patrick Kennedy is campaigning for him this weekend at the Pasadena home of John J. Kennedy. Who is this mysterious Kennedy?
The Los Angeles Times has made its endorsement in the race for secretary of state and its pick might not be what voters were expecting.
Is this June's primary especially busy? Just in L.A. County we have: sheriff, accessor, two board of supervisor seats, an LAUSD seat, a few Superior Court judges, a Long Beach mayor runoff...
With all of this election talk, it's probably a good time talk about an important bill Governor Jerry Brown signed Wednesday. Senate Bill 27 will require nonprofit organizations to disclose more information when they make political contributions. What kind of information are we talking about here?
Drought relief on the way for some in San Joaquin Valley
For the first time ever, federal water managers will tap into San Joaquin River to try and bring some relief to parched farmlands and wildlife refuges in the San Joaquin Valley.
The move comes as the US Bureau of Reclamation tries to fulfill contractual obligations it has with landowners in the Central Valley. KQED reporter Lauren Sommer joins the show to explain.
Study: Groundwater depletion could increase potential earthquakes
Over the last couple of years, parts of the San Joaquin Valley have been sinking while surrounding mountains have been rising. Scientists have been mystified as to why that is, but new research might put an end to this mystery.
Colin Amos, geologist at Western Washington University and lead author of the study, joins the show to explain.
Hot weather brings rattlesnakes out of hibernation in California
Wildfires aren't the only threat posed by the heat wave — the extreme heat is also bringing out rattlesnakes. Experts are warning that the higher than normal temperatures are drawing the snakes out of hibernation earlier than usual. California Poison Control has already had reports of 84 bites since January.
Dr. Cyrus Rangan, a medical toxicologist with California Poison Control, joins us to talk about how to avoid the rattlers and what to do if you're bitten.
Abramson's effect on her female colleagues at the New York Times
In a sudden turn yesterday, Jill Abramson was ousted from her position as executive editor at The New York Times. The circumstances around her dismissal are still unclear. What is clear is as the first female executive editor of one of the most prestigious news organizations in the world, Abramson had a profound effect on the younger women at the Gray Lady.
Amanda Hess wrote about this for Slate Magazine and joins the show to talk about how Abramson influenced her peers.
'Godzilla' 2014: How VFX pioneer Jim Rygiel remade Japan's most famous monster
Sixty years ago, Japanese audiences thrilled to the film debut of a massive monster that ravaged Tokyo with atomic breath, armored plates and a name that combined the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale": Gojira, which Americans would come to know as Godzilla.
On Friday, director Gareth Edwards resurrects the King of the Monsters in a new American version of the franchise, which has spawned 28 films, most of which featured a guy in a rubber suit playing the title creature. But Edwards' new version of the monster was created using some of the film industry's most advanced computer technology.
Visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel — a film graphics veteran with three Oscars for his work on the "Lord of the Rings" series — and Edwards mined classic Godzilla films when they were creating this modern-day version.
"I have a bit of age on me, so I remember seeing the classic ones when they were first coming out," Rygiel told Take Two. "I always had that in the back of my head."
Interview Highlights:
On how the design of Godzilla has changed throughout the years:
"It's interesting looking at him now, because when you see the one with Raymond Burr in it, for instance, you know its a big guy in a rubber suit that's knocking down miniatures. But I remember when I saw it as a kid that it was quite terrifying and real looking. It's one of those things where I think you're constantly pushing the envelope."
Like the Godzilla of films in the past, this Godzilla is fighting other creatures. How much planning do you do with, say, the fight coordinator to make sure those scenes look natural?
"There wasn't a lot of fight coordinator in this. We do this thing called pre-viz, which is pre-visualization, where before the movie is even [made], we basically create the movie in a Playstation-looking thing, real low-rez graphics, but the monsters are moving, and you'll see fires burning in the background. It's getting more and more sophisticated, but it's pretty sophisticated now.
"One of the things we looked at for the fight sequence was actually animals in battle against each other. We looked at bears wrestling with each other, and komodo dragons wrestling with each other. ... When you look at all these different battle sequences, there's something interesting that you see. It's not like the big, [WWE] or whatever the wrestling federation is called these days, just beating at each other. There's these moments of pause and slight reflection in their pea brains, you know?"
Godzilla is the star, but he does have a couple of other monster costars, tell us about the Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms, or the M.U.T.O.:
"In the design phases, there was Godzilla. And you would think that Godzilla was the most difficult to design, and he was actually the easiest, because we sort of, like we talked about before, had him based on the '50s basic shape and concept of Godzilla. The M.U.T.O.s were basically created from whole cloth, and that was ... Gareth Edwards, the director of the film, out of his mind as to how he wanted these things to look and move.
"So that was the most difficult because we went through, I'm going to say, literally, thousands of designs on the thing. He wanted something that was crab-like, but ... they had to be menacing enough to take on Godzilla, but sort of facile enough to move around the city. Yet still be based on some sort of natural look. We couldn't just make a big giant blob with arms on it. We had to somewhat fit into nature, because that's what Godzilla's battling in this film is nature, basically. He's restoring nature back to its playing field."
You worked closely with Andy Serkis on this film. He's best known for his motion-capture roles, like Gollum from "Lord of the Rings." How did he help you nail down the movements of Godzilla?
"We called him in sort of at the end. We had the battle sequence, and getting the creatures expressions and thoughts correct is where Andy excelled. We didn't necessarily do motion capture, but there are more animation references, so he would act out, based on our sequence, what he thought Godzilla would be thinking or doing. We would literally film him, and then we could look at him and use his facial expressions as a reference to add on to our Godzilla or our M.U.T.O.s."
Was there a scene that was particularly difficult to shoot?
"Any time you saw Godzilla, or one of the creatures. It's sort of things that have been done before in CG, the difference with these creatures that we pushed, was their movement through the environment. So when they're fighting in the city, you'll notice as Godzilla swipes his arm, he swipes it through a cloud or fog bank or a dust cloud that he's swiping through vortexes off of his hand. It's to get that interactive environment happening amongst these creatures in the city, which is also the way that Gareth chose to shoot it.
"So when you go on the streets, there's lots of atmosphere and smoke and things burning. We had to carry that to the top, and to do that kind of interaction with that digital smoke simulations is extremely difficult to make it look correct and keep the scale right, and now make it seem like he's moving his hand through cigarette smoke, but its actually going."