Membership in VFWs are steadily declining, and SCPR's Josie Huang explores where new vets are heading to socialize instead. Also, water thieves are striking Contra Costa county's fire hydrants, and so officials are trying to catch them with surveillance and increased fines. Plus, we explore Islam's deep roots in the early days of hip-hop.
An alarming investigation into one of California's finest fruits: the strawberry
Nine out of ten strawberries consumed in the United States is grown in the Golden State. It's a $2.6 billion dollar industry for California, and it's one that relies heavily on pesticides believed to cause cancer, respiratory, or reproductive harm.
The Center for Investigative Reporting recently uncovered how state regulators have allowed strawberry growers to use such chemicals despite repeated warnings from scientists.
Andrew Donohue is the Senior Editor of CIR's report: "The Dark Side of the Strawberry." He told Take Two that the danger lies in that strawberries -- a fragile fruit that is now in extremely high demand around the world -- like to grow where people like to live: in areas of perpetual Spring such as Ventura County, CA.
Amidst strawberry farms using harmful pesticides, one Ventura farm stands out
A recent investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting found that California pesticide regulators have allowed strawberry growers in the state to use dangerous fumigants despite repeated warnings from scientists.
Read more here
Strawberries are very fragile fruits. And the demand for them year-round has exploded all over the country and the world -- a demand largely met by continued pesticide use. So when it comes to strawberry production, what are the alternatives to using these harmful chemicals? Well, one farm in Ventura County that sits amidst fields and fields of big conventional strawberry farms who use synthetic pesticides is doing things differently.
Michael Roberts is an organic farmer at McGrath Family Farms in Ventura County. He says that the berries produced organically on his farm are sweeter and tastier, but they also charge more for them. And they sell directly to end-users (to chefs and customers at farmers markets) within a 50 mile radius of their farm. So McGrath Farms doesn't really see the big conventional farms -- who are shipping 85% of their product to retailers outside of California -- as competitors.
Roberts says that McGrath's operation, who has a U-pick farm and pumpkin tours in the Fall, is fairly unique; but they hope to continue to educate people in their community about eating local and following the seasons when they choose their produce.
Veterans reflect on a forgotten alliance: Filipinos and Americans in WWII
Veterans from World War II are often called part of the Greatest Generation. Their stories have been explored and documented in books, television shows and movies.
But there's a lesser-known part of the story.
While fierce battles hit Europe, fighting was also taking place in Asia. More than 250,000 Filipino soldiers heeded President Roosevelt's call to join and they fought under the American flag in the Philippines, then a territory of the US. They also served as scouts for American soldiers. After the war, many of those veterans relocated to California.
But soon a second struggle began for many of them.
"A lot of the Filipino veterans were promised full recognition," says Rodney Cajudo, whose latest film, called The Valor Project, documents the experience of veterans of World War II. "They were promised that if you fight alongside the Americans against the Japanese, that you would get full pay, full benefits. Unfortunately, not everyone got that."
One of the Filipino veterans documented in Cajudo's film is Jose Samonte, who fought alongside American soldiers and other Filipinos as a teenager after his father was killed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-p7Xs5jzA4
Cajudo says the project's aim is to preserve a fast-disappearing testimony of the close relationship between the US and the Philippines during World War II.
"I hope this project is the bridge between the older generation and the younger generation, Americans and Filipino Americans," said Cajudo. "That they will know the valor of these men and women."
Veteran Malcom Murray tells the story of how he was aided by Filipinos in the remote jungles of the Philippines after his squad was cut off by fighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvFMqx1JrkY
You can learn more about The Valor Project at the film's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thevalorproject
This piece is part of KPCC's ongoing coverage of issues affecting veterans for Veterans Day 2014. See more of our coverage at KPCC.org/vets.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Mariachi El Bronx, Damien Rice and more
And now it's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, our weekly new music segment. Music critic
and
- associate editor of Latin at Billboard Magazine - join A Martinez in studio to talk about what new album's they're enjoying.
Justino Aguila
Artist: Miguel Bose
Album: "Amo"
Songs: “Encanto”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWOvssyessg
Notes: It’s back to basics for Spanish crooner Miguel Bose. His new album, Amo, illustrates that the songwriter does his best when it comes to pop ballads.
The iconic singer, who is also an actor and philanthropist, returns with an album that’s poetic to match his deep voice, eclectic style and riveting compositions.
We’ve seen Bose record more than 20 albums in his career and he’s also worked as an actor in films such as “High Heels” from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. But it’s his music that keeps his fans tuned in to see where he takes us next.
Amo features 12 songs and Bose once again takes his fans on the narrative of love, hard ache and a journey that’s rich in lyrics and melody with the nice dose of electronic music as heard on the song “Encanto,” or “Enchanted.”
The album’s title song highlights Bose’s powerful vocals in a slowed paced song that shines in a story about love and hope.
Amo is one of the year’s richest albums that’s multi-layered in theme and direction that reminds us why Bose is masterful in his delivery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zuouAIXD7Q
Artist: Ximena Sariñana
Album: "No todo lo puedes dar"
Songs: “La vida no es fácil”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZInD-M5ff1o
Notes: Pop singer Ximena Sariñana (SAR-E-YAH-NAH) returns with a new album and this time in Spanish. The project remains true to her signature style that includes pop ballads with edge.
The album, “No todo lo puedes dar” (You Can’t Give Everthing), is themed around songs about love, but the kind of love that escapes us. The universal appeal of the songs are rooted her soulful voice.
While Sariñana has a style that’s all her own, there are touches of early Fiona Apple in this latest album features 11 songs such as the pop ballad “La vida no es facil” [Life is Not Easy][When You Lie], about calling out a lover who betrays his partner. The song has a rock vibe with a layer of angst that beautifully illustrates the Sariñana’s vocal chops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNl6VTkfvw
Steve Hochman
Artist: Various
Album: "The 78 Project" movie soundtrack
Songs: “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me,” “After You've Gone”
Notes: Jack White's Third Man Records is set to release its second volume from the vast Paramount Records catalog - 800 more songs from the '20s and '30s, essential foundations of jazz, blues, gospel and folk, all recorded in one-take sessions directly to 78 RPM discs.
Before that elaborate release, though, another, more modest set of direct-to-78 recordings is here. And these aren't from the early days of recording, but from the very digital right now, featuring artists ranging from Victoria Williams and John Doe to John C. Reilly to adventurous Louisiana Cajun band the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Mississippi hill country singing Reverend John Wilkins.
The filmmaker team of Alex Steyermark and Lavinia Jones Wright, inspired by folk recordist Alan Lomax, lugged a 1930s-vintage PRESTO Model “K8” Recorder around the country seeking artists both nationally known and locally obscure to perform into the single microphone as a needle cut a groove in a lacquer disc, an analogue representation of the music. It's a tricky, laborious and unforgiving process. Many things can go wrong, and you can't patch up mistakes or technical glitches with a little Garage Band copy-and-paste. Imperfections aren't just magnified, they're glorified. In the album's liner notes, the pair state that it gave them “a real appreciation for how remarkable it is that all those great early field recordings exist at all.”
All this is shown colorfully in the documentary film The 78 Project, making the rounds of festivals and theaters now. Videos of individual sessions were also posted regularly on the project's web site as recordings were made throughout 2012 and 2013 with dozens of artists. But you don't need any of that, or any of the background, to appreciate the music on this album.
One of the songs on this collection draws a direct line back to the originals: The gospel song “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” by the Reverend John Wilkins, recorded in Hunters Chapel in Como, Miss. Wilkins father was Reverend Robert Wilkins, one of the first generations of recorded bluesmen, with 78s from the '20s and '30s on the Vocalion and Brunswick labels.
And then there's L.A.-based Gaby Moreno and Adam Levy teaming up on the saucy “After You've Gone,” a little bit more on the jazz-blues side of things, and another L.A. session with Reilly and Tom Brousseau on an early country-leaning “Careless Love.”
Other highlights include Coati Mundi, of '80s tropical show-band revivalists Kid Creole and the Coconuts, does a lively “Billy Boy,” accompanying himself on spoons. In contrast, Memphis R&B aces the Bo-Keys with singer Percy Wiggins presented a challenge of a larger group - six musicians in this case - including drums, horns and electric guitar, a lot of sound to get on one mic.
What's the appeal of new recordings like this when you could do something with much higher fidelity on your cell phone? To say that it is somehow more “real” at a time when everything seems artificial would be facile and trite, but also right. This is no mere steampunk fancy, no snobby hipster sniff. This is music presented as directly, as honestly, as can be done - shy of the performers coming into your living room to play.
Artist: Damien Rice
Album: "My Favourite Faded Fantasy"
Songs: “I Don't Want to Change You,” “It Takes a Lot to Know a Man”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnzHOsiaJns
Notes: We all like to think that a singer is singing directly to us. So forgive me if I read something into the title of Damien Rice's new album and in such lines as “I never meant to let you down,” from the song “The Greatest Bastard.”
You see, back in the early 2000s there were three new acts I was certain, positive would become international superstars, headlining festivals, viewed as icons and influences, tone-setters, nearly genres unto themselves. They were the White Stripes, Arcade Fire and …. Damien Rice. Even playing tiny, dingy clubs, the way I first saw each, they were commanding. And I went out on limbs, professionally, declaring such with each in no uncertain terms.
Well, two out of three ain't bad. And there are so many factors involved in such things that it's almost more surprising when something big happens than when it doesn't. But with Rice it wasn't just a matter of the vagaries that are the currents of pop culture having swept him away from stardom. It was at least in part his own doing.
Just when he was on the verge, his 2002 debut album O having put his name on the tongues of the in-the-know and building to 2 million sales, he went dark - first figuratively and then literally. His 2006 follow-up album, 9, lacked the expansive, at times operatic reach of the debut. And after that he just seemed to disappear, only the occasional single or tour to bring him back to mind.
But after eight years of near-silence, the Irish bard is back with…. an apology? Well, yes. Sort of. Though of course it's not so much to me, or us, as to someone a bit closer. And perhaps to himself. The title may reference the global domination that once seemed in his grasp. More likely it's a smaller scale, perhaps his relationship with Lisa Hannigan, his partner, co-singer and seeming muse on the earlier records before they broke up. In any case, he feels pretty bad about it. There is no quibbling here. The titular “greatest bastard” is named Damien Rice.
Rice has always been contemplative, self-probing, but with far-reaching ambition. His songs often turned into wild journeys with oddly electrifying twists and turns - having a real opera soprano sing metaphorically about Eskimos, among the more notable examples, but all underscored with a sense of beauty and wonder.
Turning 41 next month, Rice again looks in, but also again reaches out. And he has some impressive help in a co-producer, Rick Rubin, he of credits ranging from Slayer to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash's redemptive, elegiac American Recordings series. Recording the music at his Malibu studio, Rubin brings in an impressive support cast including ace acoustic guitarist Dave Rawlings and some flowing strings, all supporting a voice capable of equal measures of nuance and power, often together. The sound is sort of reminiscent of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, though only occasionally with the jazzy swing.
The basic Rice formula remains - songs generally start somber and reflective, taking their time to unspool (the epic, serpentine self-examination of “It Takes a Lot to Know a Man” takes nearly 10 minutes) as Rice sets a conversationally poetic tone, often building to intensely impassioned peaks. INTENSELY impassioned. What's new here is a directness. There are no Arctic side trips, little in the way of flowery imagery. “I Don't Want to Change You" says it plainly enough (he sounds very sincere). As does “The Box” (he doesn't want to be in one). He'll be “Trusty and True” (he promises).
And yet the music, the presence, the personality remain compelling and colorful. This is Damien Rice returning with all his artistic powers in full force, but with hat in hand.
Welcome back. We forgive you.
Justino and Steve
Artist: Mariachi El Bronx
Album: "Mariachi El Bronx (III)"
Songs: “Raise the Dead”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsfqB2egvzw
Notes from Steve: It reads like a joke: Punk band hires mariachi horns and strings to accompany it, even dons the delightfully gauche embroidered black suits and hats. Seems like a goof for one song, maybe a video, maybe a snarky festival appearance. Certainly not something beyond that, not something that could remotely be sustained for, oh, a full album.
Well, three albums into it now, Mariachi El Bronx has sustained it, and rewardingly so. And this is no joke, but rather a rich artistic move that that has only gotten better over time. Mariachi El Bronx, technically is no more mariachi than it is from the Bronx - it's an alter-ego of the L.A. punk band the Bronx. These are not mariachi songs, not even in Spanish. But they are good songs, some of which could work in a punk or at least punk-pop setting. The trumpets and violins, though, give them a whole other dimension.
The song "Raise the Dead” effectively draws on the multiple traditions represented, evoking both punk spirit and Dia de los Muertos spirits. And in the course it shows that there is still plenty of life left in this distinct musical venture.
Notes from Justino: Mariachi el Bronx return with a third album featuring the music the witty, ironic and romantic lyrics written mostly in English and performed with traditional mariachi brass, wind, string and percussion arrangements. The band’s unique blend of musical styles stemmed from a 2006 appearance on Fuel TV’s “The Daily Habit,” when the show unexpectedly asked them to perform an acoustic number. The band came up with a mariachi arrangement of “Dirty Leaves.” Mariachi el Bronx’s new album is refreshing, sharp and charming. Songs such “Raise the Dead” feature tight orchestration and killer melodies.
Obama says broadband should be a public utility. It already is one in Santa Monica.
The Federal Communications Commission may decide next week on new rules for Internet service providers.
Yesterday, President Obama came out to support net neutrality -- that's the idea where all the info online should flow freely to you, whether it's an email or a whole movie.
"In plain English, I'm asking them to recognize that for most Americans, the Internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life," he said in a statement, suggesting broadband access be treated like a public utility.
But what if the Internet WAS a public utility that the government ran?
In Santa Monica, it's been true for decades. The city runs its own fiber optic network that provides speeds up to 100gb.
Chief information officer Jory Wolf says the work to create it started in the mid-1990s when city leaders believed private businesses weren't investing in the infrastructure needed to bring high-speed Internet to Santa Monica.
"Had we not, it might have taken a lot longer for others to realize that there was a market here in creating Silicon Beach," he says.
Most customers are businesses -- entertainment companies and start-ups, for example -- and there are plans to roll-out service to homes starting next year.
Unlike most ISPs, Wolf also says the city has no plans to throttle certain services or create information "fast lanes" proposed by other companies.
He adds that the city's network is a great competitor to other ISPs that operate in the area because it's able to offer faster speeds and to respond to customers and new sign-ups faster.
However, there are critics of Internet service in the hands of municipalities who say it would hurt innovation and that some cities have a poor track record with infrastructure like roads.
But Wolf says it's worked successfully in Santa Monica.
"I know of at least 32 other cities that are following our model," he says, "so I expect it will be replicable and it will work everywhere else."
LA exhibition showcases Islamic art throughout the city
News reports and conversations about the Middle East often center around conflict.
However a LA-wide exhibition focuses on the creativity of the region and the intersection of Islam and the arts.
Amitis Motevalli is the mastermind behind the LA Islam Arts Initiative, produced by the Department of Cultural Affairs.
"Islamic art can be thought about in many different ways," she says. "They are a very diverse group of people."
There is a wide geography where Islamic people mostly live, she says, from South Asia to the Middle East.
But it also includes people who've been drawn together through Quranic faiths.
"We thought it was really important to bring that issue to the foreground," she says.
One exhibition called, "Return of the Mecca," showcases art made in the U.S. by Americans. It also explores Islam's important role in the early days of hip-hop with artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube and Lupe Fiasco, all of whom identify as Muslim.
Another entitled, "In Search of the Dot that Created the Circle," investigates how important geometry is to Islamic art.
"There are cultural practitioners in what is considered the Islamic world today making amazing, creative and engaging works to really advance thought," says Motevalli.
Italian earthquake experts convicted of manslaughter win appeal
Two years ago, seven Italian earthquake experts were found guilty of manslaughter for not doing enough to warn the public before a deadly quake.
Prosecutors argued that 29 people who might have otherwise fled the town of L'Aquila decided to stay in their homes because of assurances made by those scientists.
The court's ruling sparked widespread outrage in the scientific community. Eventually it was appealed, and just yesterday the convictions were overturned.
Caltech seismologist Tom Heaton has been following the case and joins Take Two to discuss how earth scientists are reacting to news of the successful appeal.