03/22/05

LC050322

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

What happens when a family is split apart by divorce and one
spouse wants to split with the kids?

John Eisendrath>> What if she wants to move to Oregon in two
years? What if she wants to move to Paris in three years? Am I
supposed to follow her around the world as she exercises her
rights to be selfish?

Val>> And then, it was once that nifty new computer, but now
it's just taking up space. What to do with those old
electronics.

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>> What happens after a divorce when one parent has custody
of the children and then wants to move away, far away? Does
that one parent have a right to deprive the other parent of
access to the children? And what if they really do have to
move? Hena Cuevas has the story of one father who went to court
to keep his ex-wife and children from moving two hundred miles
away.

Hena Cuevas>> Every Sunday morning, men get a chance to have
their voices heard on the radio.

Glenn Sacks>> "I am commentator and columnist, Glenn Sacks, the
defender of the much-maligned American male."

Hena Cuevas>> The show is called "His Side" and the topics
discussed relate to family and gender from a decidedly male
perspective. Why did you decide to start this radio show?

Glenn Sacks>> Well, I think there are a lot of very important
issues out there for men and particularly for fathers that
aren't getting media attention. You know, our whole Family
Court system is separating children from the father that they
love and need and, for the most part, people aren't talking
about it.

Hena Cuevas>> He's talking about what Family Courts refer to as
a move-away, a big issue with his listeners.

Glenn Sacks>> "So if she wants to go, she should be able to go
and she should, but that doesn't mean she can cart the children
with her."

Hena Cuevas>> In recent years, one of the most contentious
issues surrounding divorced parents is that of a move-away.
Should a parent who has primary custody of the children, in many
cases the mother, be allowed to move and take the kids away from
the other parent, usually the father?

Glenn Sacks>> These fathers, they love their children just like
the mothers do and they want to be a part of their children's
lives. They don't want to be a Disneyland dad who sees the kid
a few days a month and takes them out for ice cream. They want
to be a part of their children's lives on a day-to-day basis.

John Eisendrath>> Personally, I think that, you know, any
parent that wants to move away better have a pretty good reason.

Hena Cuevas>> John Eisendrath is a television producer who
separated from his wife in 1998. He lives in Los Angeles, but
in August of 2003, his then ex-wife moved two hundred miles away
taking their two boys with her. That distance, he says, made it
difficult for him to keep the relationship he had tried to
maintain with his kids after the divorce.

John Eisendrath>> I would pick the boys up after school. I
would give them their dinner. I would give them their baths. I
would read them their books. I would get them to bed. Only
after they were asleep would I leave. I was in their lives four
and often five days a week doing just that. Anything in red
represents appeals or orange and anything in white is from the
trial court.

Hena Cuevas>> So he took his case to court to convince the
judge that the move was -- and this is the legal term --
"detrimental" to the children.

John Eisendrath>> I'm motivated by the fact that I want my
children back and I believe that I am an example of a good
father caught in a bad system.

Hena Cuevas>> Carol Bruch is a visiting law professor at UCLA
who works for the rights of mothers who want to move. She says
that, if the primary parent decides to relocate, they may have
to relinquish custody to the other parent.

Carol Bruch>> Even the suggestion of a move by a custodial
parent who has been the primary caregiver since the child was
born may end up causing a custody transfer to the other parent.

Hena Cuevas>> The threat of losing the child, she says, is
enough to prevent a parent from pursuing a better job or a
better life.

Carol Bruch>> It's essentially asking the mom and kids to be a
satellite to the dad and they may have to give up huge
opportunities.

Glenn Sacks>> Well, I'm not saying that nobody should be able
to move. What I'm just saying is that the current system is
very abusive to children and to fathers because it practically
gives women the right to just move wherever they want whenever
they want.

Hena Cuevas>> The landmark 1996 Marriage of Burgess case stated
that the parent bears no burden of demonstrating that a move is
necessary. In other words, it was the parent left behind who
had to show how the move would be harmful. However, in April of
last year, the State Supreme Court in a six to one ruling
indicated that judges must consider the ongoing relationship
between the child and the parent staying behind and how the move
would affect it. Bruch, together with other women's groups, is
worried that this limits divorced mothers as they try to get
away from abusive or violent relationships or try to look for
better opportunities sometimes with a new family.

Carol Bruch>> Sometimes it costs them their second marriage
because, if your husband is transferred with the military or
something like this happens, you're between a rock and a hard
place.

Hena Cuevas>> Is this a man versus woman issue, father's rights
versus mother's rights?

Carol Bruch>> What's sad is that I think, in large part, it is
right now.

John Eisendrath>> They feel like something that they felt was a
right of theirs got taken away. What has always confounded me
is how anyone could think that, you know, the right of a mom or
a dad supercedes what's best for a boy or a girl.

Hena Cuevas>> Eisendrath can afford the cost of a long legal
battle, but with paying for child support and working as a TV
producer, moving is not an option.

John Eisendrath>> I have to work. I can't afford not to work.
There's no job for me there, so there is no practical reality to
that.

Glenn Sacks>> The father can't move. He's got to pay child
support based on the income that he makes now. He can't just
decide, well, I'm just going to quit my university professor job
and then go somewhere and teach as a substitute teacher
somewhere because I want to be with my kids.

Carol Bruch>> So there's no easy answer here. You're either
frustrating the opportunities of the household in which the
child is and perhaps new relationships and opportunities to make
a better life for yourselves or you are potentially moving that
child into a different household and children are not sacks of
potatoes.

Hena Cuevas>> She cites research that indicates moves aren't
all that bad. She says the secondary parent can still continue
to have a meaningful relationship even without the face-to-face
contact.

Carol Bruch>> There really are ways to remain physically in the
neighborhood of your child as well as these web cams where you
can talk to them and emails and faxes and letters. If you have
the children for a couple of months in the summer and a few
weeks at the holidays and all the long weekends during the
school year, you've got a lot of time with those children.

Glenn Sacks>> You can't be a real parent to your children if
you only see them in the summers and on holidays or if you only
see them every other weekend or a few days a month. You can't
be a meaningful parent.

Hena Cuevas>> Last year, Eisendrath wrote an Opinion article
for the Los Angeles Times called "Divorced Dads and Fairness".

John Eisendrath>> Men are every bit as important to their
children. They need their dad no less than they need their mom.
Not one speck less. Even if the dad is out there busting his
ass, working to provide for that family, while mom is home
taking care of their home needs. It doesn't matter one bit.
They need both their parents.

Hena Cuevas>> After years of legal back and forth, Eisendrath
has the latest legal decision in his favor, but it might be a
little late. It's already been a year and a half since his ex-
wife and sons moved away.

John Eisendrath>> My dream is their mom, whether through court
order or because she understands it's best for them, ends up
with the boys back here.

Hena Cuevas>> I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
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Val>> Here is a statistic that will shock you. Three-quarters
of all the computers in peoples' homes are just sitting in
attics, garages or closets. That's right. Three out of four
home computers are going unused. Part of the problem is you
can't throw them in the trash because they have all sorts of
contaminates, so what can you do with them? Well, here's an
answer from a different kind of computer geek.

This is SoCal Computer Recyclers in Harbor City. It was started
six years ago and, in terms of square footage, it's grown
twelve-fold since then. Randy Lewis is the founder and owner
and he's excited about a new law that also benefits consumers.
It makes the recycling of computer monitors free and easy.

Randy Lewis>> You can drop off the stuff for free at a place
like my warehouse or at any of these mobile recycling events or
from a lot of other places. However, it's not really, truly
free. When you buy a new TV or you buy a new monitor, you have
to pay something up front to cover that cost.

Val>> I think it's between six and ten dollars.

Randy Lewis>> Between six and ten dollars, depending on the
size. Once that happens, that money, that fee, goes into a fund
and then the state administers the fund and pays recyclers and
collectors like myself to safely and properly recycle it.

Val>> You used to have to pay ten dollars to have a computer
monitor or anything with a video screen recycled. But as of
January 1, 2005, it's free. No fee required.

Randy Lewis>> So this new law enables us to not have to charge
the clients, which again is a good thing for us. So every step
of the way, I think what the state has done and the decisions
they've made have been very good not just for my industry, but
for all the consumers in California.

Val>> On the average, three thousand pounds of electronics come
through these doors every day. It may sound like a lot, but
consider this: America produces 150 million pounds of electronic
waste every year. How much is that?

Randy Lewis>> If you were to pile all that up and make a giant
pyramid out of it, not only would you be able to see it from
space, but it would be bigger than the entire city of Las Vegas.

Val>> And who does all the dismantling? Some very special
folks.

Randy Lewis>> We're very fortunate that we've got the
Vocational Rehabilitation Center right down the street from us,
so we're able to offer job training to these vocational
rehabilitation people and they do great work for us.

Val>> I hear you're one of the fastest.

Basil Hayden>> Yes, ma'am, because Mike and Chad trained me to
become a professional employee here. I caught on after six days
and then I got good in three months, six months, and then I got
bonuses here and gifts from the bosses for being a good and
faithful employee and I really enjoy working here. I keep
things clean, being organized for Randy and the staff and I just
love it.

Randy Lewis>> We have things separated out by the power
supplies, different cables, plastics and metal, and each of
those components get recycled separately because there are
chemicals in there that definitely don't belong in the landfill.

Val>> Heavy metals are bad news for our landfills and it's
estimated that electronic waste is responsible for seventy
percent of all the heavy metals found in our dump sites.

Randy Lewis>> Monitors have between five and seven pounds of
lead per unit and, if you throw that in the trash, it could leak
into the groundwater and contaminate the soil. We don't need
that stuff going in there.

Val>> SoCal Recyclers doesn't just take in computer monitors.
It takes in almost every electronic gadget you could think of at
no charge. What is all this?

Randy Lewis>> Our rule is that we'll take anything with a
circuit board and a plug, so at every event, we count on the
fact that we're going to get some sort of oscilloscope or test
equipment. We also are positive that, at any one time, we're
going to get a vacuum cleaner, we're going to get a coffee
machine, we're going to get a copy machine. We get lots of fax
machines and it's things that we've grown to expect. All of
this stuff can be recycled. None of it belongs in the landfill,
so we'll take anything and this is proof.

A lot of this stuff can be used by collectors. A lot of
collectors come by. They'll see this stuff. They can't live
without it. Stuff is really cheap because it doesn't really
cost us anything to obtain it. People are getting rid of it and
our main mantra is "Keep it in use". It's the same amount of
work to keep it in use as opposed to breaking it down, so if we
can keep it in use, we know it's not going to go in the
landfill.

Val>> We have large screen televisions, tons of VCRs,
computers. Where did all this stuff come from?

Randy Lewis>> All this stuff came from Hollywood Park. This
represents two pickups over one day.

Val>> Does this stuff work?

Randy Lewis>> Most of the time, we get things for one of two
reasons. Either it's too old or because it's broken. So if it
looks really, really nice, we already know that it's probably
broken. If it doesn't look so good, then it's worth testing and
we try to keep it in use and we'll clean it up.

Val>> Now this looks familiar. It's a cell phone mass grave.
Look at this. Do you get a lot of these?

Randy Lewis>> We do get a lot of these. Especially at events,
people always throw in, along with everything else, at the last
minute they'll remember that old cell phone in the closet and
throw these along.

Val>> Now, are cell phones in general very recyclable or not?

Randy Lewis>> Some parts of them are. For example, the circuit
board inside a cell phone is very recyclable. The batteries
inside out? Not very recyclable, something you definitely don't
want to have in a landfill. Nickel metal hydrate, lithium ion,
you really don't want to have those going into a landfill where
they can contaminate everything. So it's better to bring them
to us and let us safely recycle the batteries at the same time.

Val>> How about plastics?

Randy Lewis>> Plastics are actually a problem within the
industry. They're getting better these days, but originally a
computer could have up to four different kinds of plastic.
Recently there's been a trend from manufacturers to try to make
things easier. They want to use one type of plastic, maybe two.
They want to make sure the plastic they have is recyclable and
easy to take apart.

Val>> Check this out. DVD player, probably broken.

Randy Lewis>> If not, you can break it if it'll make you feel
better (laughter).

Val>> (Laughter) E-therapy.

Randy Lewis>> That's one of the best things about this job. On
a really bad day, I can take a crow bar out here and go nuts.
What am I going to do? Break it? It can't get any more broken.

Val>> About half their revenues come from refurbishing
computers and reselling them pretty cheap, about two hundred to
fifty dollars apiece, but they also give plenty of computers
away.

Randy Lewis>> We get letters all the time from people saying
they need a computer for their school or for their church.
We're very happy to be able to help out.

Val>> Now, another big concern are that companies who have all
sorts of sensitive data on their computers may be reluctant to
drop them off because they don't know what's going to happen to
those hard drives.

Randy Lewis>> And that's one of the cornerstones that may
define this company was start by removing all the data. We do
asset management, we do hard drive declassification, we run a
special program that writes seven layers of ones and zeroes over
the drive, starting at the first sector, ending at the last,
burying it over seven layers of data, then we erase it all.

Val>> Of the millions of personal computers that become
obsolete each year, only about eleven percent are recycled.
Randy Lewis is determined to get that number up and, as their
slogan says, they're "saving the world one computer at a time."
If you'd like to find out about electronics and computer
collection events in your area, go to the website erecycle.org.
In the meantime, SoCal Recyclers is having a collection event at
the Torrance Courthouse on April 23. That's Earth Day.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
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Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
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Val>> If clothes make the man, then these clothes could make
you a star and, in fact, that's exactly who they're designed
for. They are costumes from some of Hollywood's biggest movies
and they're on display at the Fashion Institute in downtown Los
Angeles. Vicki Curry takes a pictorial tour.

Vicki Curry>> Kevin Jones, you are Fashion Historian here at
the museum at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
and this exhibit is called "The Art of Motion Picture Costume
Design". Tell me about it.

Kevin Jones>> This is our thirteenth incarnation of this
exhibition and it really has grown over the years. We initially
had a very small gallery and had seven films, I think it was.
Now we have a ten thousand square foot gallery and we are
hosting costumes from twenty-six films from the year 2004. It
takes about a year for us to pull the exhibition together and we
have about sixty films that we then pare down to twenty-five or
twenty-six films. We really judge them based on the creativity
and the content of their costumes and how well they interpret
the characters. I'm proud to say, actually, that over the
thirteen years we have had all five nominees for best costume
design every year.

Vicki Curry>> It seems to me at first glance that costumes from
movies tend to come down into either something fantastical or
something historical or period. It seems like "Lord of the
Rings" is a perfect example. Every year, you guys honor the
winner from last year.

Kevin Jones>> Yes. And last year, Richard Taylor won for the
third of the "Lord of the Rings" series. A gentleman named
Jamie Wilson actually comes all the way from New Zealand to help
us install these costumes because they are so complex. There
can be up to twenty-five individual parts per costume and none
of these costumes come with instructions, so it's very difficult
to actually dress them, so they send a courier over to help us
to install.

Vicki Curry>> So here is "Phantom of the Opera", very clearly
historical. Tell me about this.

Kevin Jones>> Yes, the movie takes place roughly in the 1870's
and we're really mixing a lot of time periods together. Since
this is opera, "Phantom of the Opera", the costumes are really
over the top and a lot of fun. We have Minnie Driver's huge
kind of eighteenth century dress that literally everything has
been thrown onto it. It really looks like a sumptuous piece of
pastry. Next to her is Christine Rossum, who is the star of the
movie. She is the lady that the phantom is in love with. Next
to her in the sumptuous red velvet is the phantom himself. The
coat is extraordinary because it's all hand-embroidered.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Jones>> Behind us, we have "Ray" designed by Sharon Davis
and she's really pulled from a lot of historical research in
order to bring "Ray" to the screen in that authentic period
look. From what I hear, she had an extremely small budget. So
to be able to work this historical costume magic, it's quite a
talent.

Vicki Curry>> And she was nominated for the Oscar for best
costume design?

Kevin Jones>> Yes, indeed, and I think was well-received along
those lines.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Here's another Oscar nominee. It's "Lemony
Snicket" and that seems to be kind of a combination of
historical and fantastical.

Kevin Jones>> Yes, Colleen Atwood has done a really well-
balanced job since this is a fantastical movie set in an unreal
time. She's kind of gotten around a time period by using many
time periods. The lady right behind me is very 1895, really the
1890's with the large sleeves and the full train down. The
striped costume behind us is actually not striped material.
Every bit of that has been pieced together according to the
individual pattern parts, so it just makes for fantastical
detail you can see on the screen.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Here's another Oscar nominee, "The Aviator",
which again is considered historical because it's early
twentieth century.

Kevin Jones>> Yes. Sandy Powell has done a perfect job
recreating Hollywood of the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's. We are
dealing with a real live character here, Howard Hughes, so
everybody knows what the time periods looked like. Many people
are still alive who knew Howard Hughes, so to really get the
costumes right, you have to do your costume history research.

Vicki Curry>> Here's another movie based on a real life person.
This is "Finding Neverland".

Kevin Jones>> Yes, but it's from quite an earlier time period.
We're dealing with 1905, 1910 in historical London. Going from
"The Aviator" right into Edwardian society at the height of its
time period takes a different kind of historical research.
Often costume designers mix real period pieces into the films
along with recreated garments.

Vicki Curry>> Now this is, I think, probably the ultimate in
fantasy, "Spiderman", which is obviously based on a comic book.

Kevin Jones>> Yes, every kid's superhero fantasy. The costumes
are really amazing things. Acheson did an incredible job. Next
to me is Doc Oc, obviously based on an octopus. He is the evil
villain in the movie. On top of the skylight is Spiderman
himself. Now we had lots of questions about that mannequin
(laughter).

Vicki Curry>> Oh, really?

Kevin Jones>> This is not a mannequin we had in our collection.
This is actually a custom created mannequin specifically for
this suit.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Here's a film that I found particularly gorgeous,
"House of Flying Daggers", which takes place on the other side
of the world.

Kevin Jones>> Exactly. We're talking about really fantasy
Asian here, not a hundred percent historically accurate, but
really kind of evoking that area of the world, the Pacific Rim.
The costumes seen behind us also had to be digitally manipulated
as well. The sparkled gown with the pink long sleeves that was
used in the famous scene where she throws her sleeves and plays
the drums.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> So, Kevin, I really wanted to point out this
particular display. It's pretty unique in terms of costume
design.

Kevin Jones>> Very unique. As far as I know, we've never
actually had marionettes dressed in our exhibition before
(laughter).

Vicki Curry>> So this is from the movie "Team America". It's
all marionettes and yet they did have to create actual costumes
for the marionettes.

Kevin Jones>> Yes, and this is quite a challenge. Karen Patch
is the designer and she scaled down everyday clothes to fit the
marionettes so something doesn't look out of proportion. It is
very difficult to do, particularly because they have knee pads
on. They have the ear microphones and so forth.

Vicki Curry>> Right. And the final Oscar nominee is a movie
that didn't get much attention elsewhere, but apparently did for
its costumes, "Troy".

Kevin Jones>> Yes. Bob Ringwood did an extraordinary job with
these costumes. Rarely is detail taken to this level. They are
so rich both in the texture and their color and their detail.
It really is extraordinary.

Vicki Curry>> And you were saying that, with these really old,
old costumes, a lot of that can be left to the imagination
because we don't have the historical data.

Kevin Jones>> Exactly. We have marble friezes or painted vases
that really kind of give you an idea of what the costumes looked
like, but very few actual historical artifacts have survived to
us. So you can be as creative as you want to be and mix
different time periods, different geographical locations, to
create a look of ancient Rome.

Vicki Curry>> Kevin Jones, thank you so much for walking me
through the exhibit.

Kevin Jones>> Thank you for coming and please come back to the
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

Val>> The costume exhibit will be on display through April 23.
You can check out their website or give them a call for details.
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 --

He was a soldier killed in Iraq. She is the wife and mother.
How does a Marine's widow survive?

>> I have to leave in six months. I have no security, no
income. Sure, there are benefits, but they're not like long,
they're not permanent. You know, what am I going to do in three
years?

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