SoCal Minds

Everybody's talking at us about lots of stuff this week

From UCLA, ALOUD, Zocalo & Cal State Fullerton

 

Never let it be said that Southern Californians lack the capacity to exercise their rights to free speech and to talk for free and freely, whether it's about political topics, as discussed in this Bruin video above, or in conversations that this week will run the gamut of: strategies to break the cycle of gang violence late Tuesday afternoon in Westwood; music and the centrality of themes of celebration and lament in it through the ages on Tuesday night in downtown; the power of Native American story-telling and how its techniques can powerfully inform contemporary memoir writing on Wednesday night in downtown; how distinguished scholars and practitioners see the course of Latino literature in the 21st century in downtown Thursday night;  how religion is reshaping America in Chinatown Thursday night (yes, this is the correct date, this time); on the public trust and remaking the Nixon Library in Fullerton on Tuesday afternoon; and, yes, even a shout-out to a production-meditation on the solo powers exemplified in the Watts Towers on Thursday night on the Westside; and two, fully staged performances in the courtyard of 'Hamlet,' one of the best-known works of the Bard Tuesday and Wednesday night on the Westside, featuring Bruin thespians from the actor training program.

Here's a timely topic of wide appeal: a 'defense of failure'

From Zocalo & ALOUD

Of the many topics tackled and talked about all across the town by such very smart people, this may rank as an all-time favorite. It may be because it looms so large and inescapable in every life. Or because so many of us excel at it in all the wrong ways. Whatever. Megan McArdle, herself an accomplished business and economics scribe, will be part of a free, open and public talk on Wednesday night at 7 downtown on the Westside offering a 'Defense of Failure.' Oh, of course, she won't be dealing with just the ordinary collapses that plague daily life, the lapses that lie, say, behind espirit de l'escalier. Nah. She theorizes that a lot of what deeply troubles the U.S. economy now can be connected to Americans' incapacity to fail -- to do it often, well, publicly and to deal with it gracefully. And if this conversation fails to stir, there also are discussions planned on 'How Religion Is Reshaping American Life,' or on exile and incarceration and the 'Blood-Dark Track.'

Look at all the stuff they're chattering about now ...

From UCLA, ALOUD, Zocalo, Southwestern Law School, USC & the Milken Institute

Here's hoping there are madding crowds around town with noble striving to learn lots more this week about international criminal courts, Islam, Christianity, mammon-like matters, defamation, unemployment and happiness. Those are among the topics that will be or have been taken up in salon-like, free, open and public conversations across the area that also may require RSVPs or online patience.

• On the Westside this afternoon, for example, Gen. Wesley Clark, the one-time NATO supreme allied commander, and David Scheffer, the first U.S. ambassador at-large for war crime issues, will address whether aggressive war constitutes a crime and what the proper role might be for an international criminal court in the future of international justice.

• In downtown, Graham E. Fuller, a former vice chair of the CIA's national intelligence council, will join Tuesday night with Maher Hathout, an oft-quoted figure in the U.S. Muslim community, and Rabbi Reuven Firestone to ponder scenarios in which there might be a world without Islam? That session will be twinned with a Thursday night program with Eliza Griswold, a poet and prize winning journalist (shown at left), and Amir Hussain, a theological studies prof from Westchester, examining life along the 10th parallel, near which half the world's 1.3 billion Muslims dwell, as do 60% or so of the planet's 2 billion Christians.

•  In downtown, too, but on Wednesday night, Sebastian Mallaby -- a noted journalist and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations -- will detail the rise and seek to explain the unprecedented position that hedge funds now occupy in global finance. 

• With the appropriate caveat about a possible conflict of interest (since the home institution of the event mentioned next also happens to write a paycheck or two to the author of this post), it's worth taking note for the legal crowd that on Wednesday afternoon a group of international scholars and experts, as part of a symposium put on by a specialty law journal at the school, will detail and discuss emerging global issues in defamation law. In Exposition Park, of course, a similar symposium sponsored by another campus law journal recently considered the special ravages inflicted by the nation's soaring unemployment on minority groups that already were ignored or shunned.

• And, finally, for those who might wonder just what sort of program the smart set gets to see at the sessions detailed here, well, here's an online posting and a video from a recent Los Angeles appearance at a Bevery Hills think tank by Tony Hsieh, a corporate CEO (shown at right) whose company, Zappos.com, came to represent not only top notch customer service but also highly successful and profitable online innovation, which, incidentally and arguably, also brought considerable happiness to investors, employees and customers alike. 

 

Migration? Opera? L.A. River? Please discuss...

From ALOUD, Zocalo, UCI& UCLA

Get out that PDA, pull up the computer calendar or slide out that pocket planner: Whether it's opera loving, a fancy for dodge ball, wonder about one of the great American migrations or worry about the future of the Los Angeles River, there's a smart chat ahead to be scheduled. All the talks are free, open and require reservations. As soon as issues die down with the Library Foundation of Los Angeles web site (are they getting hacked this mornin?), we'll post the info on their two programs -- with Isabel Wilkerson, a onetime New York Times correspondent and author of a new, much acclaimed account of the giant migration of blacks from the rural south to the urban north, and a session with MacArthur genius grant winner Lewis Hyde and renaissance character and festival presenter Peter Sellars. On the Westside on Wednesday night, work on operas like 'Il Postino' will be the topic of Chilean novelist Antonio Skarmeta and Mexican composer Daniel Catan. In downtown on Wednesday night, the LA River will be the focus of Mike Woo, the former LA councilman and now Cal Poly enviro design dean, and a panel of experts who will discuss how to transform a now concrete channel into a unifying element of the metropolis. And for those seeking new student orientation escapades, organizers in Irvine have gathered up 600 balls and hope to attract 2,000 or more participants as they seek to set a new Guiness record for the world's largest dodge ball game.

L.A. chats on green investing, monopolies, hospital design

 From Claremont McKenna, ALOUD & Zocalo

Let it never be said that Southern California's not a prime spot for appearances by the chattering classes, many of whom are zooming in and out of the area as the fall speaker season ramps up. In Claremont, a top GOP operative will make a Monday stop to talk about how some of the world's big money movers -- the investment firm of Kolberg, Kravis, in this case -- can help make the planet a better place by putting up green, environmentally conscious portfolios. Sounds interesting on its face as a topic. But wonder, too, if KKR global affairs chief Ken Mehlman (shown at right) will veer from what could be a carefully scripted presentation to deal also with timely events that have thrust this onetime top Bush adviser into a different spotlight -- his recent public disclosure that he is gay and his reported internal, political opposition to an especially divisive, corrosive and successful conservative strategy of attacking LGBT people and causes, especially 'gay marriage.' And while Wall Street ostensibly concerns itself solely with matters green, no less than a Gray Lady scribe recently took off from Mehlman's joining of KKR to tackle 'pink' problems -- of the past? -- evidenced on the Street.

In Claremont, former top Bush aide takes on how Wall Street can make the world greener

An NYT blog post on Ken Mehlman, coming out on Wall Street

In the early part of the week, experts also will consider on Tuesday how design can affect health, particularly in the planning and execution of medical facilities, especially hospitals. Novelist Mona Simpson (shown in photo at right) will chat about the curios of Hollywood life, as captured in her fine tomes and otherwise, with writer Michelle Huneven. And on Wednesday, Barry C. Lynn, an economist and journalist, advances his theories about the destructive consequences of the increasing force of monopolies in 21st century business. All these sessions are free, open to the public, have limited seating space and require RSVPs.

Can design contribute to health, well-being?

In downtown, novelists to offer their take on their Hollywood

Click here for Zocalo page, with 'monopolies' session on right rail (links broken)

The read, think and talk crowd returns in a big fall way

From ALOUD & Zocalo

Yippee, the read-and-chat crowd returns in powerful fashion from their brief summer break with a chock full week of smart programs. These include: a major Los Angeles appearance of Jonathan Franzen, arguably the hottest young author in the U.S., a chat with terrific Henry Weinstein, the former Times legal affairs expert and now UCI prof, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on 'Making Democracy Work,' and an intriguing session moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Jonathan Gold with culinary stars Nancy Silverton, Ludovic Lefebvre, Susan Feniger and Ilan Hall on whether celebrity chefs are good for food. Space is limited and reservations are required for the sessions, most of them free (there's a charge for the Franzen chat with Times columnist Meghan Daum) and still open (the Justice Breyer chat lists as full right now).

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