09/09/04

LC040809

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Negative campaigning may hit a new low this year. Can political
humor take off the edge?

Greg Spiridellis>> We thought it would be great to parody Woody
Guthrie, this great, you know, serious political songwriter.
You know, what if he were alive today and how juvenile our
public discourse is. Let's make a parody of it.

Val>> And then, cellular terror, philatelic felony, and to be
young and rich in pre-war England. An eclectic week for our
FilmWeek critics.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> This presidential campaign is shaping up to be one of the
nastiest in history, but one of the things that's helping to
tone down the personal attacks is political humor. Humor is not
only adding to the debate, it's helping foes find common ground.
Toni Guinyard tells us how animated and editorial cartoons are
taking the edge off of mean-spirited politics.

Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "And to those critics who are so
pessimistic about our economy, I say don't be economic girly
men."

Toni Guinyard>> Consider it a moment tailor-made for those who
thrive on political humor, a punch line package to be repeated
again and again. Some politicians seem adept at making us
laugh, but in the world of political humor and satire, the joke
is often on them.

Daryl Cagle>> There's a lot of wonderful targets. It's great
to be an editorial cartoonist because the world is my setup
characters and there are wonderful characters out there.

Toni Guinyard>> In editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle's world, no
one and nothing is sacred.

Daryl Cagle>> I get up in the morning and I watch the news and
I get mad at something and I have this wonderful conceit of
being able to draw what I think and you have to look at it and
that's so cool.

Toni Guinyard>> What he thinks appears in one small box on the
editorial page of 750 newspapers and in the online opinion
magazine "Slate".

Daryl Cagle>> I think I have the best job in the world. I have
the conceit of being able to make people suffer my opinion every
day. That's just great fun and it is --

Toni Guinyard>> -- and you mean that, don't you?

Daryl Cagle>> Oh, yeah. It is so much more powerful than the
guys who struggle with words that we delight in that.

Toni Guinyard>> Cagle's work, often political and liberal, is
meant to elicit a response, laughter, anger, thought, discussion
and debate.

Diane Chambers>> The whole drama of it, the spectacle of it.
It is absolutely exciting stuff (laughter).

Daryl Cagle>> We're trying to make as effective a jab as we can
and cartoonists like to do cartoons with no words in them
because that's even more effective. The less words, the better
for us. It's kind of like poetry. Boil it down to the simplest
possible thing.

Toni Guinyard>> It's up to readers to decide how the work
should be interpreted and they are speaking out.

Gjanee Davis>> I've seen a lot of things that I've seen in the
media. I mean, not just in cartoons. I say, you know, no more.
Enough. And they don't understand that they're swaying a large
public.

Toni Guinyard>> Cagle's website, cagle.com, is a gallery for
the work of some of the top editorial cartoonists in the world.

Daryl Cagle>> Well, it's made an opportunity for my website
because nothing's ever existed where you could see all the
editorial cartoons at the same time. But at the same time, the
cartoonists on my website are losing their jobs. These are
tough times for cartoonists because, as newspapers consolidate,
more editorial cartoonist jobs are eliminated, so what is a
great American art form is suffering.

Toni Guinyard>> Suffering while at the same time humorous
political perspectives are being presented in different forms.

Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "If you elect me President of the State
of California, I'll trim the fat from the budget the same way I
do from my rock hard body every day."

Toni Guinyard>> The comic strips are becoming a political
playground, taking on issues from the battle over undecided
voters to the run for the White House.

Yara Sellin>> My favorite comic strip is Boondocks and I enjoy
the political commentary as well as the authors deft sense of
humor.

Toni Guinyard>> And the internet has become a screening room
for web animation with a political twist.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> This political parody called "This Land" became
an instant success. So we're no longer limited to getting our
daily dose of political humor from magazines and newspaper
editorial cartoons. The humor is now being dished up on the
internet and people are watching, listening and sharing with
their friends.

April Dinsmore>> My girlfriend just sent it to me on my email.
It's probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen and that
kept it extremely light and extremely -- just a very good sense
of humor. Whoever put it together did an excellent job with it
and I thought it was hilarious (laughter).

Toni Guinyard>> The creative minds behind the web animation are
brothers, Evan and Greg Spiridellis, founders of Santa Monica-
based Jibjab Media.

Greg Spiridellis>> We've been banging on doors in Hollywood for
two years. They didn't listen. When forty million people come
to check out our website, all of a sudden people are calling us
and, you know, we owe that all to the people who are, you know,
passing our work around.

Evan Spiridellis>> In the first sort of two to three weeks, we
received over 35,000 emails.

Toni Guinyard>> And they try to reply to each email and each
phone call.

Greg Spiridellis>> "Sure. Can you tell him Greg from Jibjab
called?"

Toni Guinyard>> Greg and Evan developed politically-laced
online animation for five years before "This Land" put them in
the spotlight.

Evan Spiridellis>> Then we had an animated rap battle that was
Bush versus Gore and they were, you know, doing hip-hop rhymes.

[Film Clip]

Greg Spiridellis>> We did Arnold for Governor.

Evan Spiridellis>> I think with Arnold, that whole recall
election was such like a circus and Arnold is such a big
personality that, you know, that was entirely done in good fun.

Toni Guinyard>> And then they began to focus on the 2004
presidential campaign.

Greg Spiridellis>> You know, Evan and I just sat down, started
batting around ideas and we thought it would be great to parody
Woody Guthrie, this great, you know, serious political
songwriter. You know, what if he were alive today and how
juvenile our, you know, public discourse is. Let's make a
parody of it. From there, it just grew.

Evan Spiridellis>> We don't do the political parodies and
satires to influence anybody or to try and get our own political
point of view out there. Really they're just done in good fun
and with the hopes of making people laugh.

Greg Spiridellis>> The greatest thing about "This Land" and
this experience has been the way that it's brought people
together, you know, people whose views are so different and so
divisive where there really isn't dialogue. You know, we've
gotten emails from people saying I haven't talked politics with
my dad in twenty years without yelling at him, but we both sat
around the computer and got a good laugh out of "This Land".

Toni Guinyard>> But being funny with online animation does not
equate to making money.

Greg Spiridellis>> If you looked at the success of "This Land"
and took out like our costs of rent, Evan and I would still be
kind of far below the average American salary.

Evan Spiridellis>> You don't get rich making internet cartoons,
that's for sure.

Toni Guinyard>> But you are getting a few dollars here and
there from fans.

Evan Spiridellis>> Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. I mean, talk
about the power of the internet and the power of laughter.

Greg Spiridellis>> You have to go off the web to make your
money.

Toni Guinyard>> So Greg and Evan are not limiting their
business venture to the internet. They're working on everything
from children's books to other product lines, an acknowledgement
of sorts that the web is a blessing when it comes to building a
fan base, but it's also a curse. So they are taking advantage
of the attention while the spotlight is still focused in their
direction.

Greg Spiridellis>> Fifteen minutes of fame into a career.
That's our kind of motto we're living by right now.

Toni Guinyard>> Fifteen minutes of fame launched with a
political parody from two guys who say they're only agenda is
making people laugh.

Evan Spiridellis>> Well, I hope our work doesn't make anybody
form a political opinion (laughter) one way or the other
because, if you're voting for the stuff that we talk about in
the cartoons, that would be, you know, a little bit frightening.

[Film Clip]

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Val>> A report on literacy in Los Angeles County has some
disturbing findings. They looked at adults, not children, but
adults and found out that over half of them have low literacy
skills. Now what does that mean? That means that they wouldn't
even be able to find an intersection on a map or write a simple
business letter.

I talked with Terri Clark, Executive Director of the Literacy
Network. They're joining forces with the city of Los Angeles
community colleges, the LAUSD and the United Way to improve
literacy skills among adults. So, Terri, you've been looking at
literacy in Los Angeles for, what, the last year or so. What
were some of the more dramatic findings that you discovered?

Terri Clark>> Well, one of the key findings that we found and
actually one of the more staggering statistics that we'll be
talking about is that fifty-three percent of sixteen out of
school youth and above, that means adults in Los Angeles County,
are at the lowest two levels of literacy.

Val>> Say that again. Fifty-three percent of adults in Los
Angeles County or city?

Terri Clark>> County, are at the low level of literacy.

Val>> That's a huge percentage.

Terri Clark>> It's 3.8 million people. It's a significant
number. What we also found out is that we're only reaching ten
to fifteen percent of those people.

Val>> With literacy programs.

Terri Clark>> Right. So we have our work cut out for us. And
that's why this project, the Literacy at Work project, was
begun.

Val>> And it's not just in the city of Los Angeles. Glendale,
Pomona, all these cities have thousands and thousands of people
who are low literacy.

Terri Clark>> Exactly. I mean, certainly the city of Los
Angeles because of the sheer number of population is one of the
highest with the highest percentage of low literacy adults, but
Glendale, Pomona, El Monte and Long Beach have a significant
number as well. In fact, the way we're defining literacy is
it's not just reading and writing. It's math literacy, it's
computer literacy, problem solving and critical thinking.

Val>> The Literacy at Work study also found that nearly two out
of three foreign-born individuals cannot read the directions on
a prescription bottle. Now a lot of people will say, well, of
course, this is no surprise because we have such a high
percentage of immigrants in this area and English is not their
first language. So are we unique? Do we have an unusual
problem?

Terri Clark>> Well, certainly Los Angeles is sort of considered
the bell weather for the country and we do have a significant
immigrant population and that does have an effect. Limited
English proficiency has a certain effect, but this is not just
an immigrant problem. What we've also done in the report is
looked at area by area what the predominant language is and
there are certain areas in Los Angeles where the predominant
language is English and there still is a significantly high low
literacy level.

Val>> Okay, so we have a serious problem. Obvious question,
what do we do about it or what's being done about it?

Terri Clark>> At the moment with the learner interest program,
it's very hard to track them if they fall out. In fact, right
now one of the things we've found out in this report is that
there is a significant dropout rate. After three weeks, fifty
percent or more drop out.

Val>> Of the Literacy Program?

Terri Clark>> Of the Literacy Programs. So what we want to do
is improve the referral system, get them into the right
programs, get them so that they're staying in the program and
finishing and completing getting their workforce literacy
certificate and then improving their literacy skills.

Val>> Who will bear most of the weight of solving this problem?
Is the private sector, the public sector? Because it sounds as
if you're asking businesses and employers to do a fair amount.

Terri Clark>> We're asking both. It's certainly a public-
private partnership and we're looking at it from that approach.
Neither can do it alone.

Val>> By far, the biggest provider of literacy programs is the
Los Angeles Unified School District. They serve about 400,000
students in adult learning classes. The community colleges are
next serving 72,000 adults. Now a lot of people would say,
okay, if you have low literacy, of course, it's bad for you
individually. You're going to earn a lot less and so forth.
But it actually has a much bigger impact than just on the
individual person and family.

Terri Clark>> Absolutely. I mean, this is affecting the Los
Angeles economy. What we're finding is that businesses are
looking elsewhere because they can't find the educated workforce
that they need to sustain their business.

Val>> Now having low literacy skills obviously is bad for an
individual and their families, but it also has much larger
social ramifications, yes?

Terri Clark>> Absolutely. I mean, literacy and poverty go hand
in hand. If a family can't earn family-sustaining wages, then
there is no spending power. And also businesses can't come into
an area and not have an educated workforce. Then they look
elsewhere.

Val>> The study found that wages for workers with college
degrees have increased while wages for those without a high
school diploma are down. Yet a small increase in literacy can
lead to higher earnings. A dishwasher, for instance, earns
$15,844 a year, but with literacy training, he or she can become
a cook earning more than $19,000 a year. Businesses have a lot
to gain.

Terri Clark>> They do, but they're the hardest to try and get
involved because, you know, they're looking just at their bottom
line. They're looking at, you know, why should I put money into
training? We say, well, you put money into training in all of
these other areas. Why not put it into your other workers where
it will pay off in what we've found, and we have some businesses
who are going to talk about that. You know, high morale, the
retention rate increases when they invest in their workers in
these kinds of classes and things. They keep workers around a
lot longer. They no longer have the high turnover.

Val>> Terri Clark with the Literacy Network, thank you so much
for all your work and your time. We appreciate it.

Terri Clark>> Thank you.

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Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm
Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is the
thriller, "Cellular", starring Chris Evans and Kim Basinger.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Jean Oppenheimer
of New Times and Andy Klein of CityBEAT and ValleyBEAT. Well,
Jean, were you thrilled by the thriller "Cellular"?

Jean Oppenheimer>> Larry, there have been some really bad
movies, an epidemic of bad films, I think, over the last month
or so. The worst ones are inexcusably dreadful. The next group
is sort of merely terrible, and "Cellular" fits into the third
category which to me is not good, but not painful. It's totally
implausible from start to finish. It has a ridiculous premise.
It has zero chills, but it does have lots of action and it is an
easy-to-follow story line and that's a blessing these days.

Screenwriter Chris Morgan and presumably Larry Cohen, who came
up with the original idea for the film, keep the story hopping
with sort of unbelievable situations after another. The nominal
hero is constantly risking his life going the wrong way down a
one-way street and hijacking cars and evading the cops and the
bad guys. The most unbelievable situation is his reliable cell
phone which is loud and clear wherever he is in the city.

Larry Mantle>> So you're saying drop the call when it comes to
the film. What did you think, Andy?

Andy Klein>> I'm actually more sympathetic than Jeanie is. I
was, I won't say, literally biting my nails, but very close to
it. They do deal with the issue of the cell phone getting out
of range and getting interference and the battery running down
and those are major plot points in the film. I'm not going to
say that it was a great thriller, but in going about forty
minutes into the movie, you've already had the kidnapping happen
and then it's just nonstop after that.

I have to say, in an age when thrillers are always filled with
these plot holes, this one was very, very careful to work out
all those details. It's true that you have to be able to accept
as a convention that this guy can drive the wrong way down the
freeway and cops never show up, you know.

Larry Mantle>> That's a movie convention (laughter).

Andy Klein>> Yeah, and you have to accept all kinds of
implausibilities about how long it takes him to get around Los
Angeles, but other than that, I thought this one pretty much
rocked.

Larry Mantle>> Our second film this week is a British movie,
"Bright Young Things", written and directed by Stephen Fry and
adapted from an Evelyn Waugh novel.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> Andy, what did you think of "Bright Young
Things"?

Andy Klein>> I really enjoyed this film. It's the kind of film
we don't see very much any more. It's very, very British. The
actor, Stephen Fry, has made his directorial debut adapting this
early Evelyn Waugh novel and he's captured, I think, the witty
tone of that kind of writing. It takes place in between the two
World Wars and it's about a high-living crowd, you know, of
young Brits who are all sleeping around and doing drugs and
having this wild life that, you know, a lot of people don't know
people did during the 1920's and 1930's, but of course they did.

It's beautifully cast. It's got a lot of wonderful actors,
including a few I had never seen before. I think that they all
deliver. It's just, like I say, that witty tone, like Waugh,
like P.G. Woodhouse, but with more satirical edge than
Woodhouse.

Larry Mantle>> All right. Jean, what did you think?

Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, the first time I saw this film, I
really didn't like it. I was sort of very angry at it because
of the types of characters, the sort of frivolous, shallow
people who have every advantage in life and do nothing with it.

Larry Mantle>> So you went back and saw it again?

Jean Oppenheimer>> Because I saw it three or four months ago
and I've seen so many bad films in between. I decided to give
it another chance and I actually like it the second time for a
lot of the reasons Andy mentioned. Production design, costumes,
cinematography, absolutely terrific, and a couple of wonderful
performances. So all in all, given what's out today, I think
it's a good film.

Larry Mantle>> Our final film this week is the caper flick,
"Criminal". It stars Diego Luna and John C. Reilly.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> Well, Jean, did "Criminal" work for you?

Jean Oppenheimer>> No, it really didn't. This film is produced
by Steven Soderbergh and it's co-written by him using a
pseudonym. It's a remake of a film that came out of Argentina a
few years ago called "Nine Queens" which I didn't see,
unfortunately. The reason I didn't like this film is I really
didn't like the people that I was having to spend the movie
with, which was the characters. It's a bunch of swindlers and
con artists. It's a con that we've seen before, actually, so
there aren't a lot of surprises. But basically, I just didn't
enjoy spending time with any of these people.

Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Andy?

Andy Klein>> I pretty much. I didn't really have the problem
with the characters being swindlers because I like swindlers as
long as I'm not the "swindlee" (laughter). But we've seen this
so many times. I mean, Diego Luna is a good actor. John C.
Reilly is a terrific actor. Yet, you know, they're going
through these paces that, if you've ever seen any con game
movie, you know pretty early on what the big reversals are going
to be here.

I mean, I have actually written -- I have my notes of the time.
Thirty-eight minutes into the film, I said here's what's going
on and I have it down totally. This is not me bragging. I
think most people would. You know that it can't be a simple
one-two-three story, that there's got to be these big twists.
If you've seen "House of Games" or "The Sting", you know what
the twist is.

Larry Mantle>> What about the Argentinean film on which this is
based? Had you seen it?

Andy Klein>> I didn't see it either. It's my understanding
that this is a fairly close adaptation, but unfortunately, I
missed that one.

Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks for joining us for another edition
of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC
joined by critics Jean Oppenheimer of New Times and Andy Klein
of CityBEAT and ValleyBEAT. Please join us again next week for
another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times.

Val>> And, of course, you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek
every Friday at 11:00 a.m. on KPCC 89.3. And that's our
program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times,
thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times, a bullet put this little
girl in a wheelchair for life, but it did nothing to damage her
spirit.

>> With other patients, I have been with them and they are
like, oh, life is hard, I don't want to live. I'm like why do
you say that? You have to keep on going.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.