How Governor Brown is poising himself as the world's climate change leader, a new opera brings Martians to Los Angeles, Sonoma County is ready for tourism.
Gov. Brown is becoming a global leader on climate change
Governor Jerry Brown is in Bonn, Germany, this week for the annual United Nations climate change conference. President Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord earlier this year, is not attending. Climate change, Trump says, is a hoax.
But Governor Brown wants the world to know that Californians think very differently.
When cities & states combine together & then join with powerful corporations, that's how we get stuff done. We're here, we're in and we're not going away. #ClimateAction #COP23 pic.twitter.com/X1CKlO806O
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) November 12, 2017
The UN conference is just the latest stop on Brown's tour of Europe, where he's working his brand of climate diplomacy. Senior Politico reporter David Siders has been writing about the governor's evolution into a global leader on climate change. He spoke with Take Two's Josie Huang from Germany.
"So much of what's going on in climate change diplomacy right now at either the national or the state level is really public relations, right?" Siders said. "It's not about a mandated commitment."
To hear more about Governor Brown's climate change diplomacy, click the blue play button above.
How Gloria Allred became the go-to attorney for high-profile sexual assault cases
It seems to happen every time a public figure is outed for sexual misconduct. Los Angeles-based power attorney Gloria Allred is brought in and stands beside a victim to represent her before the cameras.
That's what viewers saw Monday. Allred held a press conference with the fifth woman to accuse Alabama Senate candidate, Roy Moore, of inappropriate behavior. To explain how Allred got to be the go-to in controversial cases involving women's rights, Take Two's Josie Huang spoke with LA Times staff writer Corina Knoll.
Why Gloria Allred seems to get all the high-profile sex assault cases
She's obviously a well-known name. She's established herself as someone who takes victims of sexual assault under her wing. It isn't just because she's good at publicity, but there's been this spike of sexual assault victims in recent years who have wanted to come forward. If you're looking for a platform, they know Allred can provide that. She's become a confidante and advocate.
Allred does not seek out her clients
When a colleague and I interviewed her, we were told by a partner in her firm that they do not initiate contact, that clients are referred to them or directly call her office. She's created this very public persona where people know to call her. Victims are not just reaching out to her for PR, but if you watch, she puts her arm around them, they trust her, they feel safe with her....
The interesting thing about Gloria Allred is she takes on clients who don't have a courtroom case. They have nothing to win because maybe the statute of limitations has passed in terms of criminal charges, but they seek out Allred because they've decided they want to publicly say what happened to them. With Allred they get this built-in platform. She'll arrange it so that people will be able to hear them.
Allred's personal experience as a rape victim may have shaped her career
She wrote about it in her book, and she mentions she was vacationing in Mexico and somebody raped her and I think that helped shape her career and how she approached law. I think she very much believes that victims of sexual assault need a chance to speak out and shaped her wanting to be a civil rights lawyer.
Forced From Home teaches Santa Monica about refugee life
In places around the world, including Syria and Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing wars to find survival. It's an international crisis but one that can be difficult to understand for people who don't encounter it in their daily lives, especially here in Southern California.
"I just wish people at home could see what we're going through," said John Fiddler, nurse practitioner for Doctors Without Borders, a global organization that provides medical assistance to displaced persons.
Fiddler has a lot of experience traveling to devastated locations around the world, bringing medical help to people in need. Now Doctors Without Borders has a new exhibition designed to showcase the experience.
It's called, "Forced From Home," it's located right next to Santa Monica Beach.
The experience takes up roughly 10,000 square feet in the parking lot right next to the beach. It's made up of eight stations, each showcasing a different part of the refugee journey.
"We've brought accoutrements from the field so that people can touch and see and walk through and really get a taste for what it may be like to be forced from home," Fiddler said.
The stations feature things like barbed wire barricades to show the hazards that refugees have to navigate and tents that represent shelters for families on the run.
Fiddler believes that even the beautiful atmosphere of Santa Monica makes for an effective juxtaposition of the grim nature of the exhibit.
"I was telling a tour group this morning, imagine this is not a beach, but in fact it's a desert," Fiddler said. "And as you hear some of the helicopters in this area, I tell them to imagine those are armies that they're trying to run from."
All of these details are meant to bring an issue that can feel like it's a million miles away front-and-center for anyone who comes by.
"I think the first thing to do is to learn about the experience, learn about what's going on. And to know that it's not so far from you," Fiddler said. "I mean the fires in California that just happened. People are ... forced from home by a natural disaster. None of us are immune from these kinds of things. We always think that we're safe until we're not."
To hear more about the Forced From Home exhibition, click the blue play button above.
Downtown LA is invaded by Martians in War of the Worlds revamp
Loud explosions. Green flashes over the sky of Los Angeles. Matching explosions on the surface of Mars. Nobody knew what was going on or who was behind it.
If you were on the corner of Winston and Main Streets in downtown this weekend, that’s what you would have heard come from a very frantic-looking man. He was dressed as a TV reporter and talking to a camera. But he was also standing on a stage in a parking lot surrounded by a set made to look like city rubble. People were watching in white folding chairs as music from Walt Disney Concert Hall streamed out of nearby speakers.
This scene was very confusing to people passing by. No one seemed to have any idea what was going on. As the story developed, the audience and people walking by heard that aliens from the planet Mars were attacking downtown Los Angeles.
What exactly was going on?
The music and actors were part of the LA Phil’s modern take on the classic radio drama, The War of the Worlds. The performance wa directed by Yuval Sharon, composed by Annie Gosfield and conducted by Chris Rountree. Sigourney Weaver narrated the performance and was continually interrupting the concert with news bulletins about the developing situation.
People on the street didn’t seem to pay much attention to the performance until the ‘aliens’ were broadcast from a yellow decommissioned cold war siren on the street. Sharon came up with the idea to use the sirens after a city official approached him and said there were more than 200 sirens across Los Angeles that he might consider using in a piece someday.
The sound coming from them was crackly but clear enough that it turned heads on the street. People walking by stopped in their tracks, took out their smartphones and started snapping photos and looking very, very confused. When the director Yuval Sharon created this piece, he as hoping for just this kind of reaction.
I'm actually hoping that no one will be fooled by this piece ….I would love everybody to say, 'Wow they're creating this kind of manipulative structure of this piece that's trying to fool me. Why are they doing this and what is this telling me about my everyday life? And how does it relate to our current political reality?
The War of the Worlds was first broadcast in 1938 as a radio drama about aliens from Mars invading the US, except the people listening back then thought it was real and it caused a panic. In this War of the Worlds rendition, no one had the complete picture. The audience in Walt Disney Concert Hall couldn't see the reporters at the sirens…and the reporters couldn't see the audience in Disney Hall.
So how did anybody know if it was real or fake? Just like the listeners of the original broadcast, many of the people walking by on the street didn’t have the context to understand what they were seeing and hearing, which was part of Yuval’s intention.
There’s a cameo by a 20-foot tall alien puppet, which is obviously a prop, but there's also an appearance by the real L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti:
Please do not attempt to leave this building. Just outside these walls is utter chaos...and if you're listening outside, find a stick, find a broom to defend yourselves and our way of life here in Los Angeles.
Sharon said when he creates he doesn't think about what the audience will get out of it, but with his reenactment of The War of the Worlds, he was a little bit more explicit:
“So if one organ of information like the news is being manipulated in brazen ways… in ways that are so obvious and are affecting the way the people believe what is and is not real…. I feel we need to use our own resources to raise the alarm… you know, quite literally set a siren going to get people to pay attention to this.”
Many people enjoyed the show but some were left feeling uneasy. It was scary to hear eerie noises coming out of the sirens and to hear parts of L.A. were under attack, one woman said.
They weren't quite sure what to make of it, which is exactly what Sharon was going for. Sharon is a 2017 MacArthur Foundation genius grant recipient known for site-specific operas that push boundaries, if not destroy them entirely.
“Question everything. Question authority. Question what you hear. I hope that the hour piece is an opportunity to really reflect on how to engage with making change.“
TO HEAR MORE, CLICK THE BLUE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE.
More homes could be in risky fire zones than official maps reveal
Almost every year, wildfires rip through Southern California, destroying everything in their paths, including homes. Precisely what is done to help protect those houses varies, however. That's because some prevention efforts are only required by law if a home is located in a designated fire zone.
"If you want to build a new home or substantially remodel your home, the law requires that building materials and building techniques be used that make the house less likely to be set afire by embers," L.A. Times reporter Doug Smith explains.
These laws may apply to homes in fire zones, but the criteria for mapping these risk areas in the state is less than uniform. An LA Times analysis found that nearly a 500,000 homes in Southern California that face elevated risk from wildfire fall outside the official fire zone map.
Smith explains why fire zone labeling isn't standard:
"It isn't standardized because they're trying to use things like wind patterns and vegetation that are hard to take account of statistically. And so it's science with a lot of guesswork," Smith says.
The lack of guidance could leave new homes constructed near fire zones less protected from wildfires.
Press the blue play button above to hear what makes older homes in fire zones most vulnerable.
Answers have been edited for clarity.
Tuesday Reviewsday: B.Slade, 30 70 Collective and Aretha Franklin
Every week we get a fresh new music update with Tuesday Reviewsday. And this time we're joined by music supervisor Morgan Rhodes. Here are her picks:
Aretha Franklin and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Album: A Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin (With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Queen of Soul's signing to Atlantic Records, they have released these recordings, re-interpreted by the London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Here's a mini documentary that goes behind the scenes in the making of the re-imagined album.
B.Slade
Album: B. Slade
Anthony Charles Williams II is known by many in the gospel community by his stage name Tonéx. He is a California native, singer, songwriter and actor. But he's now venturing into more secular music, and he re-imagined and renamed himself as B.Slade.
Fuzzy moog'd arrangements and vocal precision are staples on the latest from this gospel artist turned future soul star.
30/70 Collective
Album: Elevate
Melbourne continues to break the mold and break artists when it comes to avant garde soul. Blending jazz, sampling and hip hop, 30/70's follow-up to their debut project in 2015 is wholly experimental and that's a good thing.