Check Out My Article Published In This Week's Sun

My article on Derek Taylor Kent and King Kalimari was published in this week's Encino Sun, Studio City Sun, and Sherman Oaks Sun. Check it out by following the link on your right under "Recently Published"

If you're in L.A., try this

Whether you are an L.A. resident, a visitor, or have guests in town, I highly suggest the following activity - Attend a taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I recently had an out of town guest who I treated to the sites and sounds of our vast metropolis. There are so many things to do in the L.A. area that the options can be overbearing. A day trip to wine country? Drive to Anaheim to visit Mickey and friends? A stroll accross Grauman's Chinese territory?

No trip to L.A. would be complete without some kind of entertainment industry related outing. For this reason, I often recommend Universal Studios over Disney or the other theme parks because it is so unique and indicative of the environment. The rides aren't roller coaster crazy (thank God), but they are interesting and unique enough to keep everyone entertained. The theme park area also covers more managable ground than larger theme parks which makes it easy to do in one day (given you have the whole day and go in the middle of the week). And of course, the studio tour is priceless. I don't think it's as good as it used to be, but having the right guide can make all the difference. The Psycho house still gives me chills and the new War of the Worlds plane crash site looked eerily realistic in the photos we took.

While at Universal, pick up a couple of free tickets to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. NBC and Universal go hand in hand (hence NBC/Universal) so you may find other NBC shows, but the Leno doesn't dissapoint.

I've been to Price is Right twice and the hassle to get in with Bob Barker is collosal compared to the limited wait to chat with Jay. Since Price is Right is a game show, there is a lot more paperwork and the process to get in more tedious. From recollection, it took us about 5 hours to get in. This included brief interviews the producers conducted (not anyone can come on down, folks. And by the way, a uniform helps).

Once you're in, the room looks much smaller than it does on TV and the set is, well, as much of a cheap 70's throw-back as you can imagine. Of course, it's still a fun experience. Especially if the old ladies in red hats are in tow (which they often are). But for an out of town guest, or a unique L.A. moment, The Tonight Show over at Burbank is a quicker less painful experience that exceeds expectations.

My friend and I showed up to NBC at about 3pm for a 4:30pm taping. The area was scoured by young blond haired NBC pages who were actually quite helpful. The page program at NBC can act as a first step in the starry-eyed careers of small town hopefuls. They were all so cute. And did I mention blond? It looked like children of the corn came from Burbank. And I thought they came from Malibu.

My friend and I were a little worried at first we may not get in. It looked like people were pulled from behind us and sent to the front of the line. I later determined this was an effort to diversify the first few rows of the theatre. Handsome looking Black couples, a sikh in a head scarf, sorority girls and frat boys were filed to front. Luckily, we didn't need to worry. We settled comfortably further back in the middle.

The theatre for Jay Leno was impressive. And the set looked good too. Although I think it was made so that everyone looked huge. Phil McGraw, who was a guest that day, looked like a giant.

Before the show started, Jay Leno came out and chatted with the audience. He invited young would-be actors onto the set. I was struck by how friendly Jay is. I've heard this before, and it's really true. He still keeps his weekly comedy gig in Hermosa on Sunday nights probably for the same reason.

Something you don't see on TV (and for good reason) is the crass comic who warms up the crowd before the show starts. He had a short set - teased audience members with the promise of Tonight Show gear, and otherwise warmed us up for the show. Now I know why there's a 16 and over rule. This guy was a little on the risque side.

I was most excited about the band. On TV, the band is always cut off when the commercial sets in. On the sound stage, we were treated to great songs (even a fabulous version of a country song I dig). The lead singer is great and the sets were even better than the cover Patty Smith did as the musical guest.

So we were in at 3pm and out at 5:30pm. Nearby North Hollywood has some great restaurants (including the very fun Tokyo Delves) that can serve as an aftershow hangout. And who knows? Maybe you will catch Jay Leno's eye. Probably not - but as far as interesting L.A. fieldtrips go - this one's pretty close to the top.

A slice of Pittsburgh nostalgia on a massage table in Sherman Oaks

Sally is excellent at personifying all characters russian, academic, 'yinzer and otherwise. A flashback complete with Pat Benetar, Leslie Gore, and all things Pittsburgh. Check it out!

Email I received from Burt Prelutsky regarding my letter

From: BurtPrelutsky@aol.com
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 18:03:00 EDT


Like you, I hope my editorial in the Valley Vantage will lead to a new age of common sense. But, I'm not betting on it.
Unlike you, I have not swallowed propaganda about global warming. It is possible that the earth is heating up, but why is it that in a very comparable time--the 1970s--the same folks were warning us about the coming Ice Age? And what ever happened to that other bugaboo, acid rain, which we were assured was shortly going to lead to the defoliation of the entire Atlantic coast? You have heard of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, I assume.
When people like Al Gore, who not only ignores his own propaganda, but who is making a fortune off the current panic, talks about scientific consensus, he is indulging in bull tossing. There is no such thing as scientific consensus. Either a thing is provable (such as gravity, the laws of thermodynamics, bread will always fall to the floor butter-side down) or it's not. Real science is not something that is put to a vote. Especially not when so many of those people voting have a stake in the outcome (reputations, grants, peer acceptance, etc).
This is not to suggest that you shouldn't do everything possible in order to conserve energy and improve the earth's environment. This may include, but is certainly not limited to, selling your car and buying rollerskates, turning off all the lights in your house, dismantling your home heating unit and your office a/c.
If you make all these sacrifices for the sake of those little girls on the bus in the Appalachians, those Chinese motorcyclists and, of course, all those polar bears in the Arctic tundra, that you mentioned, both of us will be the better for it. You'll feel better because you'll be very proud about yourself. And I'll feel very good because there'll be more energy for me and mine. Besides, I honestly don't care what happens to the polar bears. And I speak not just for myself, but for baby seals everywhere.

Sincerely, Burt Prelutsky

The Blogosphere

The blogosphere is an amazing concept. Some keepers of the blog create faux-journalistic fronts to expound opinions and ideas that would otherwise be kept in furtive minds. Others simply recognize the blog’s potential as an advertising avenue– The popular fiction novelist (Jennifer Weiner), the socially relevant academic (Barbara Ehrenreich), and the otherwise mea culpa journalist inculcate the internet sounding board for this reason.

Then there are blogs that are virtual diaries. The creators share their daily lives with friend and stranger alike, at their discretion. This is a byproduct of the reality TV phenomenon – Reality is boring unless it’s shared and commented upon - Viewed from the comfort of a television monitor, or in the blog’s case, a computer screen. These virtual diaries have faithful followers – very very faithful. There is a certain personality-type that gets glued to the electronic life portal of someone else's day – One that requires great “patience” and "time".

It’s interesting how some visitors find their way to a blog. Some are completely accidental. Blog writers can spot the accidentals. Fiji did not mean to come here, but here Fiji came. For many, the blog, virtual diary and all, is a way to stay connected with friends. Especially when they are far away. Thank you Paris, Berlin and Taipei.

Mainstream media uses the blog to create a sense of community. Online 'zines have blogs. Virtual celebrity rags have blogs. It's online democracy in a state of tempered anarchy. Sometimes it's perverted or overrun by the same old serial-blog readers. You know the kind. The ones with sophomoric monikers especially. A popular celebrity dish blog is hounded by San Francisco's finest who one-up each other with the same distasteful puns. It's their own strange virtual community - uncensored.

For whatever reason wherefore bloggers blog, there will always be a captive audience. For reasons both valid, normal, irrational, or eerie, for the blogosphere, this is only the beginning - and we’re already in the middle of it.

All Fired Up In Defense of Common Sense

The Valley Vantage, a very small local newspaper in the valley, recently printed a rather seething op-ed piece by guest columnist Burt Prelutsky against Al Gore, Arianna Huffington, and any other democrat that crossed his mind. Burt Prelutsky used to write a lot for TV, and his writing style is more hyperbole than fact. He isn’t a journalist, so I take his comments with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, there is often a backbone of conviction deeply rooted in most rants of the humorous variety (just think of Dennis Miller). He likens Al Gore to a raving Chicken Little with global warming as the falling sky. Global warming is not a political issue. But in his article, Prelutsky turned it into one. Global warming is a political issue with a soft, defenseless underbelly. The environment can’t defend itself. So, Prelutsky attacks the people who do. As a result, the cause of environmental conservation is muddied in all sorts of political clutter.

Here’s the letter I sent to the newspaper’s publisher.


Dear Kathleen,

Hello. I enjoyed reading your March 22nd issue of the Valley Vantage. I particularly took to Burt Prelutksy’s op-ed piece. It excited me, pissed me off a little, but most importantly, it ignited this letter. I hope that his political harangue, albeit humor-tinged, also ignited your other readers into thoughtful discussions, political ruminations, and most importantly, a call to action. Burt may not think that global warming merits immediate attention but his article may spark other Valley Vantage readers to a very different conclusion.

Global warming is not exclusive to democracies, California, or the United States. It’s not a political issue. It’s a human issue. It affects little girls on the bus in the Appalachians, Chinese motorcyclists in the chaos of a Shanghai intersection, and polar bears in the northern Arctic tundra. It affects us all. And we all have a responsibility to curb its disastrous effects on our planet.

He obviously had an axe to grind against certain people. And by people, I mean democrats. Popular, liberal-leaning democrats who are often attacked when their own convictions are mistaken for political ploys. He pushed a little too far, way too far in some instances, and made for a scathing attack.

Burt Prelutsky may have written his article solely as a piece of political sarcasm, but I find there is often a solid backbone of conviction deeply rooted behind such humor-tinged rants. His opening sentence, however unintentional, was a riot. “My friend Pat Sajak recently made an excellent point.” How could that not catapult into an even better punchline? “He said that inasmuch as he doesn’t take global warming to heart, he sees no good reason to alter his own lifestyle.” Burt started off with comedic potential but swayed into the widespread territory of the morally murky. A great opening for a celebrity-sponsored rant.

If everyone in the world adopted the Pat Sajak mentality, the world would be on a downward spiral. The poor would be poorer, and the rich more wasteful. Championed causes would lose champions. Public officials would be more choosy on who they represented. Good Samaritanism would be a silly obsolete notion. And that’s just the beginning. If everyone did no more than what they took to heart, the world would be a colder place. A wasteful place. A love-less place. It’s easy to close our eyes to issues that aren’t important to us. It’s comfortable. But it’s not responsible.

The Iroquois nation, the first peoples to adopt a participative democracy in North America, and ironically, the first to be put on reservations by the US government, have a saying - “Think not of yourself, but of the seventh generation coming”.

Prelutsky challenges scientists that deem global warming an eminent threat. He scoffs at politicians who cite scientific claims he finds dubious. As mindful residents of this planet, we shouldn’t require much convincing to know the environment is hurting. We know that exhaust fumes pollute the ozone, that excess consumption yields excess waste, and that the polar ice caps are melting. These are things that we learn in elementary school. We didn’t question them then. So what happened?

We grow up. Some people become so politically charged (or, perhaps, religiously blind-sighted) that their common sense becomes muddled with misguided passion. That’s OK. It happens. There is nothing wrong with passion. And Mr. Prelutsky’s op-ed piece was extremely passionate. But it had no direction. It had no practical purpose other than to release a tirade, make liberal democrats irate and make conservative republicans giddy. Above all, it had no reason. And passion without reason is a recipe for disaster.

But sometimes, if presented in a civil (even humorous) way like an op-ed piece in a community newspaper, it may ignite passionate and mindful people to speak up and put common sense in its place. For the environment’s sake, I hope it did just that.

Thank you for your time. Looking forward to more igniting articles.

From Hate to Hope

I met many interesting people during my professional association with the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. Two of them, Matthew Boger and Tim Zaal, will now be introduced to all of you. Their unique relationship will be profiled on the Oprah Show this Thursday, April 5, 2007.

I first met Matthew, a gay man, when he was a museum volunteer. I remember him well because of his interesting upbringing. He was one of many children to a Catholic Brazilian mother and a father who was a member of the Bay area’s infamous Hell's Angels organization. Not long after my departure as museum manager, Matthew became a manager himself.

I probably met Tim Zaal during one of many conversations in our employee lunchroom. A large imposing man with a shaved head and a walking stick, Tim is a former Neo-Nazi skinhead who speaks to students and at-risk youth weekly about the dangers of following a path of hate. Now married to a Jewish woman, Tim was once a high-ranking recruiter for California’s Skinhead movement.

While Matthew and Tim were at the Museum, they discovered that they actually knew each other in a past life. In their youth, both men were members of two very different underground circles that hung out at the same Hollywood hot dog stand. Tim was a skinhead, and Matthew was a young gay runaway. That’s just the beginning. It turns out that Tim participated in a brutal attack one late night at Okie Dogs – a confrontation that left Matthew battered and passed out in a nearby alley.

The experience was a turning point for both young men. For Tim, it was an escalation into the violent Skinhead movement. For a Matthew, it was a harsh realization that his gay identity made him a continual target for hate – This just after his mother closed her door on his own son.

Over twenty years later, their relationship has taken an unusual turn. They speak about their path of growth and forgiveness at the Museum of Tolerance. Now they will share their unlikely friendship with Oprah on Thursday.

Check your local listings.

http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/c.juLVJ8MRKtH/b.1415309/k.C753/Calendar/apps/cd/content.asp?event_id={8451D43E-1857-4FE2-AC04-48786C11D200}&content_id={524BE7E0-BEFE-4568-B917-8BDFF2F96E88}&seid=