SoCal Minds

Scribbles on a few notable matters for the weekend

From Loyola Marymount, the Japanese American National Museum, Zocalo & the Huntington

Because some domestic chores look as if they'll take more effort than expected, an abbreviated spin through the intellectual ferment around the Southland for today and into the weekend doings. But some stuff worth taking a look at:

• In Westchester, the disccussions of the university's 20-year master plan draws a crowd estimated at 350; how will the school burgeon at the same time it acts as a good neighbor, of course, is a key concern, as parties look to the future and worry about growth, traffic, pollution, digital signage, buffer zones and other important matters. 

• In Little Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, documentary film makers will show off their bio-pic that should prove greatly enlightening about a familar, comedic face from television and movies. The sardonic humor of veteran star Jack Soo, appreciated for his work in everything from 'Flower Drum Song' to 'Barney Miller' and 'Monk,' may have kept wider audiences from learning his fascinating life story, including his Japanese -- not Chinese -- ancestry. There's more, of course, on this path-breaking actor and his refusal to play to harmful ethnic stereotypes at the 'You Don't Know Jack' documentary site.   

• And if other diversions still are called for, there is, of course, a premiere of 'Countdown to Zero,' a powerful new film tracking the history and potential harm of nuclear weapons; the Zocalo-KCRW sponsored screening is free but reservations are required. And, of course, the folks in San Marino show off from their collections starting Sunday 'British Landscape Prints.'

3 uneasy dispatces from the 21st century tech frontier

From UCLA, Zocalo & ALOUD

How's that internet thingy working out for ya? Skip the Wasilla twang but don't ignore the discomfited query. Along with the glories of 21st century technology, there's clearly a great deal of unease or unrest accompanying Web 2.0 and it certainly will show up around this metropolis this week. On the Westside at 7 tonight, authors Susan Jacoby ('Age of American Unreason') and Nicholas Carr ('The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains') will kick around in a free, open conversation -- for which reservations are required -- the possible connections between digital culture, anti-intellectualism, fundamentalism and U.S. education. Phew.Then in downtown at 7:30 Wednesday night, artist Salomon Huerta (shown at right) and art critic David Pagel will take on in a free, open conversation -- for which reservations are required -- 'Ego, Destruction and Facebook,' exploring artistic process and modernity. And on Thursday night at 7 in downtown, William Powers (the 'Hamlet's Blackberry' author, shown at left) will hash out with book critic David Ulin in a free, open conversation -- for which reservations are required -- how contemporary life might better be conducted in the omnipresent shadow of ever-changing technology.

Click here for more info on Jacoby, Carr session tonight

Click here for more info on Huerta, Pagel session Wednesday night

Click here for more info on Powers, Ulin session Thursday night

A buzz on updating bee data, fears on ice caps, seafood

From UCR, ALOUD & Zocalo

Man may be king of the beasts but the evidence abounds that his environmental conduct can be just this side of beastly, though there are worries under way about species from bees to fish and the oceans as a whole:

• For all the buzz about the decimation of bees around the globe, what's really known about man's best winged-friend, the key ally in the cultivation of myriad kinds of invaluable crops? Scientists have collected almost 1 million records on various kinds of the little buzzers in 10 databases scattered across the U.S. But the accuracy and usefulness of all that information will get a boost from experts in Riverside, who will cooperate with scientists across the region (including at the UCs in Berkeley and Davis and at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum) and the country to double-check, scrub, organize and centralize all the bee info. The aim is to ensure that experts, in examining valuable records that have been collected on the insects for as long as two centuries, can best predict the risks to bees and their 'pollination services,' in the face of climate change, habitat loss and other threats.

In Riverside, a cooperative push to upgrade 1 million records on man's best winged-friends

• In downtown tonight at 7, in a free and open conversation (for which reservations are required), a biologist and space scientist will discuss with an accomplished environmental journalist just what may occur when an inevitable consequence of climate change occurs. Peter D. Ward, an astrobiologist who works with NASA, argues that even if the present environmental carnage were to come to an abrupt halt, the rising of the world's seas due to the melting of polar ice caps will not cease. He has conjured some dire scenarios of what may ensure on 'The Flooded Earth,' including the abandonment of a lawless island Miami, guerrilla warfare in Canada and chaos and devastation in spots like Bangladesh. Must it be this way?

Dire scenarios, a call to action about climate change, the 'Flooded Earth'

• On the Westside, three folks who not only know a lot about eating but also sustainability and cuisine will take on a whopper of a topic, asking in a free, open talk (with reservations recommended) on Wednesday night at 7:30 on whether the ravenous destruction of the oceans and everything that lives therein soon will make seafood a culinary delicacy? The Brothers Gold -- Jonathan, the iconoclastic and Pulitzer-winning LA Weekly food critic (shown at right in Rena Kosnett photo celebrating his winning journalism's top award), and Mark, the noted environmentalist and head of Heal the Bay -- will join with Michael Cimarusti, a lauded master chef of seafood and the food force behind the top-rated Providence restaurant.

A whopper of a worry -- will seafood soon be a culinary rarity?

Why design can matter for both rich and poor

From Zocalo

He started as a protege of architecture titan Frank Gehry and now has a glittering client list of his own that includes top celebrity agent Michael Ovitz and contemporary artists Lari Pittman and Roy Dowell. But architect Michael Maltzan (shown at right) also has risen to the top of his profession's innovators list by tackling housing for the homeless, an arts complex for poor kids and redesigning public spaces, such as the Hammer Museum's courtyard. And in a free, public session tonight at 7:30 in the Mid-Wilshire area for which space is limited and reservations are required, Maltzan will take on the provocative topic, 'Is good architecture is a luxury?' He also will discuss whether good design can be affordable and how architecture shapes our lives.

Star architect, his portfolio make argument for how design can affect society, lives 

For the 4th, exhibits, concerts, reading lists, feasting

From CalArts, Zocalo, UCI, the Getty, UCLA & Cal State Fullerton

Hope a safe, sane and fun Fourth weekend's on tap for one and all. With a legal holiday for many, the three-day weekend will allow for lots of intellectual exploring, feasting, reading and taking in stuff around the town. If anyone is left out there reading this, for example:

• The folks from Valencia, even with their ultra-cool downtown L.A. toe-hold at REDCAT, will be invading the city with L.A. Record 100, an array of concerts and events -- including many throughout the holiday weekend to benefit the community arts partnership program, as well as with 'Box Scheme,' the 2010 MFA graduates' exhibit that will take over space in multiple galleries in the old Chinatown.

• If graphics and fabrics grab certain artistic fancies for some people, they may be making their way to Fullerton for 'Love Me, Tees Me,' a summer showcase of T-shirt art, including some silk-screening demos today (7-3).

• Since the 4th marks the true start of Southern California summer, when, perhaps, the gloom lifts most everywhere, including on the Westside and the coast, well, it must be time to get out those beach reading lists, including one from the downtown literary and public affairs crowd or maybe try this batch from some literary minded folks in Irvine.

• Of course, what's a long holiday without lots of eating. Consider feasting as the Aztecs once did, or maybe while fretting about the cruelty of the eats or perhaps there will be moments to consider that meal's olfactory significance, as occurs if someone simply mentions the word 'curry.'

• And hate to be a serious-minded, gloomy gus. But this is supposed to be a time to consider freedom, independence, democracy and the kind of government we the people accept. As in, don't think there's any escape from the state budget crisis. The partisan, paralyzing divide in Sacramento and across the Golden State has left us all in societal penury. Meaning? Well, among other effects will be a two-week, cost-saving shutdown of a Westside public museum.

For U.S. policy-makers, troubling critiques on South Asia

From RAND

With the top U.S. general in Afghanistan apologizing for flip remarks about his civilian bosses, it's hardly  good news that the Obama Administration's Pakistan policies also come under criticism by researchers in Santa Monica, even as a noted writer on South Asia visits the Southland for a free, public conversation. The broadside at key elements of the American 'Af-Pak' strategy finds that too much attention has gone to short-term, immediate military moves by Pakistan, with U.S. aid and encouragement, against militant groups that have surged within its borders and poured into Afghanistan, too, often with the support of the Pakistani intelligence services and military. Yes, the U.S. drone strikes and Pakistani military sweeps in lawless border areas have achieved some key gains. This approach, however, has undercut tougher, long-term strategies that need to be developed and put in place if terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda really are to be put down, researchers say. They say these steps would include Pakistan creating real rule of law, building up local police and courts, providing for greater economic development and aid to the combat displaced. Meantime, William Dalrymple, a noted journalist who earlier this year penned a disturbing Op-Ed that reminded about how fast things can go south for foreign forces in Afghanistan, will be on the Westside talking about his well-received new tome and the 'Nine Lives' and more that he found in his treks across India.

An unfavorable critique of long-, short-term U.S. policy in Pakistan

Click here for the full RAND report on Pakistan

Searching for sacred in 21st Century India

A pick for the literate: Obama's first year, modern poetry

From Zocalo & ALOUD

Whether it's the Obama presidency or Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary poetry, the A-Z (ALOUD and Zocalo) of free, public talks tonight offers promising fare. Author Jonathan Alter, he of Newsweek note, will talk about the present Administration's 'Promise,' as detailed in his much-praised, insider's chronicle of Barack Obama's first year in office, in an appearance at 7 tonight on the Westside, space limited and reservations required. In downtown, six local literary notables will tackle an unusual, staged public reading of what's termed one of the 'definining poems of the 20th Century,' John Ashbery's 'Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.' The description and mediation upon the masterwork by the 16th Century Italian Mannerist Francesco Parmigianino (shown at left),  published in 1975, won the poetry Pulitzer, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

On the Westside, an insider journalist's scrutiny of Obama's first year in office

In downtown, a staged reading of John Ashbery's critically acclaimed poem

Get the free skinny on the Mideast, women, twins, judges

From ALOUD, Zocalo, UCLA & Southwestern Law

Get out those calendars, get in those cars and get to some of the free, open and public opportunities offered this week for lots of intellectual stimulation, eh?

In downtown at at 7 tonight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird will be joined by LA Times Editorial Page Editor Nick Goldberg, a former foreign correspondent, to discuss Bird's new work 'Crossing the Mandelbaum Gate,' which examines his early life in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt and jumps off from memoir to offer insights into the American experience in the Mideast and the tragedy of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Mideast also will be the focus at 7:30 on Wednesday night in downtown, as author-scholar Isobel Coleman takes on the topic of how women are changing the Mideast, the subject by the Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow's new book 'Paradise at Her Feet.'

In Westwood on Tuesday night at 7, there will be lots of straight double-talk and folks may be seeing double as the Bruins present a rare gathering of six top experts to take on the topic of twins -- and everything you want to know about them.

And, speaking of rare, don't forget that voters will be offered the chance to meet the Los Angeles Superior Court candidates competing in the June 8 elections and get to learn more about judicial races in a program Thursday afternoon and evening starting at 5:30 (and yes, this is a plug for an event in which I'm involved). For all the programs mentioned in this post, space will be limited and reservations are required.

What role should rail systems play in mass transit?

From Zocalo

As Californians consider a serious, new back-to-the-future ride -- what bigger role trains might play in public mass transportation -- what obstacles might lead to taxpayers and commuters getting ridden out on practical or financial rails with future rail plans? A panel of experts will take on questions and concerns in a free, public program Tuesday night at 7 at the Peterson Automotive Museum about California's high-speed train plans, the vision for the LA subway and surface rail transit system and other related developments aimed at cutting into the transporation gridlock in the Golden State. Space is limited and reservations are required.

Expert panel will take on high-speed trains, subways, other rail developments

For fun: bands, talks, readings, movies, exhibits

  From USC, Zocalo, the Getty & the Autry

OK, so surprise, there will be abundant sunshine and fine weather this weekend in Southern California. So what to do? Well, how about striking up the band and joining the fund-raising revelries to honor Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, (shown in illustration at left) aka the 'Man on the Ladder' or the distinguished, distinctive musician and educator who has led the Trojan Marching Band for four decades. Or perhaps it's worth the while to get downtown tonight at 7:30 (reservations required) to hear journalist Joe Matthews dig into the fiscal and other complexities and challenges facing the Golden State with John A Perez, the first openly gay and Latino speaker of the California Assembly (shown at right above).  Or maybe what appeals is something literary and auditory, a relatively inexpensive chance ($20) to listen in at the gorgeous digs at the palace on the hill as some big name acting stars read Selected Shorts 2010 for later airing on National Public Radio. Or maybe after a stroll in the always luscious Griffith Park, this would be the weekend to get ahead of potential Mother's Day crowds to see an exhibit recognizing the role of and honoring How Women Made the West. Of course if getting outdoors in all that sun doesn't work, there's always the change to dive into the big LA Asian Film Festival. Whatever. Enjoy!