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Life & Times Transcript
03/30/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- A new law clamps down on smoking even outdoors. Did Calabasas go too far? >> We have border issues. We have terrorist issues. We have economy issues. To have people focus on individual smokers and not allowing them to smoke even outside, I think is completely ridiculous and it's pretty un-American. Val Zavala>> And then, a new documentary explores one artist's struggle with mental illness and genius. Will it pass the test with our critics? These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> It's the toughest no-smoking law in California. The upscale town of Calabasas has declared the great outdoors a no-smoking zone. Now since the early 1990s, Californians have been used to not lighting up in restaurants and offices, but outside? Isn't that going a bit too far? For some answers, we sent Anne McDermott to the west valley town of Calabasas. Anne McDermott>> Smoking. It's been banned in public buildings in California for about ten years. Now one small comfortable community just outside Los Angeles is taking the ban one step further. Barry Groveman>> What we've done is we've extended the protection against second hand smoke to the outside. Anne McDermott>> That's Calabasas City Council member, Barry Groveman, who helped spearhead the measure officially called the Comprehensive Second Hand Smoke Control Ordinance, and it means no smoking in the great outdoors wherever the public gathers. But don't call it a ban, says Groveman. This is not a return to the days of prohibition. Barry Groveman>> We don't try to prohibit things. Those things don't work. What we did was, we struck a good balance. We're basically saying that you can smoke, but you should do it in an area where you don't expose others. You don't expose people who want to breath or need to breath clean air. Anne McDermott>> In other words, you can smoke in designated smoking areas and, so far, there are four such designated smoking areas, four in the city of twenty-five thousand. Applications for twenty more smoking sites are pending. But some smokers say that's not enough. On the other hand, some supporters of the ordinance didn't want to give smokers any areas. Listen to this testimony given at a City Council meeting in February from someone too young to smoke. Nolan Burkholder>> "You say that people will be permitted to smoke in designated unenclosed areas and shopping mall common areas and that's like having a peeing section in the swimming pool." Anne McDermott>> Well, this woman who works in Calabasas and prefers that we do not use her name supports smokers' rights and she doesn't even smoke. >> One by one, I think we just started having our rights taken away. Anne McDermott>> Groveman begs to differ. Barry Groveman>> Rights are limited to when you start to impact or hurt somebody else. For example, your right to drive ends when you have a drink. Anne McDermott>> Let's review. You can't smoke on the sidewalks. You can't smoke at outdoor cafes. You can't smoke at bus stops. You can't even smoke at a parking lot. And you can't even smoke in your car. That is, you can't smoke in your car if you're near the public unless you keep your windows shut. So how did it come to this in Calabasas where one of the founders clearly enjoyed his nicotine? Well, you could say it all began last summer with this young resident, Margo Arnold. She doesn't smoke, but found she couldn't escape it even outdoors. Margo Arnold>> Well, I was outside having lunch one day at The Commons and I started getting headaches from second hand smoke by smokers around me. I got sort of frustrated with this, myself having the problems of smoke, and then I also saw families having to move their little children table to table and push strollers out of the way. Anne McDermott>> So she took her complaints to the City Council and, this year, the tough new ordinance went into effect oddly enough on March 17, the same day that the satirical feature film, "Thank You For Smoking", was released. But back in the real world of Calabasas, you won't find any smoking police here. Security guards outside stores and businesses handle the violators or people can simply call City Hall to report noncompliance. Smokers can face fines of as much as five hundred dollars, but so far, people have been obeying the law, which doesn't surprise Groveman, an attorney who specializes in environmental issues. He says that's because people care about their health. Barry Groveman>> The state of California, after we enacted this, made a finding that second hand smoke is now to be treated in California as a "dangerous air pollutant" and, when they made that finding, they indicated they had reviewed well over eight hundred studies and concluded that these risks of serious injury and death were irrefutable. Anne McDermott>> Others say courtesy is another key issue, but can such a thing be legislated? Groveman, again, thinks so. Barry Groveman>> We're just saying would you mind moving out of the doorway away from the theater entrance and please go to a designated area where you can do that, much the same as in an airport where you can't smoke in the terminal, but there are designated areas that allow everybody to work together. It's elevating courtesy to a new level. Anne McDermott>> Smokers say they could use some courtesy as well, like this woman, a smoker, who prefers to remain anonymous. As a smoker, do you sometimes feel like a pariah? >> Absolutely, absolutely. Socially, it is unacceptable. You learn to curtail it during the course of business, during the course of, you know, social functions, but I still do it and I just find those places where I'm hopefully not infringing upon anybody else's right to do what they're doing. Anne McDermott>> But anti-smokers feel the heat too. Some City Council members have received threats. Barry Groveman>> I got one that said, "The way to deal with you is a short rope and a tall tree." Anne McDermott>> Meanwhile, let's hear from Stevie Mason. She smokes, but sometimes even she finds smoke irritating, so she doesn't have a problem with the new ordinance and one of these days, she adds, she's going to quit. Stevie Mason>> I am slowly quitting and this law definitely helps me not smoke as much because normally if I could quit smoking, I probably would. But you know, I don't now, so it's helping me. Anne McDermott>> Others may be less interested in getting help. They want to smoke and they've discovered that the Calabasas restaurant, Sagebrush Cantina, is actually not in Calabasas. It's twenty feet outside the city line, so smokers can eat and smoke in the outdoor dining area. Charlie Halstead>> Smokers are happy, yeah. They're very happy. We get people that call in and say, "We can smoke there, right?" We say, "Yeah" and they're "Good, good." More people are calling in to see if they can smoke here. Anne McDermott>> But, no, he doubts this will mean more business. For one thing, the Cantina is always packed and eventually, he says, people adjust. People make do. After all, when smoking was banned in bars in California, there were plenty who said it would never work, but it did. And maybe the consternation in Calabasas will one day seem quaint. But for now, some find it ridiculous. >> I think that the country is off track. I think that we have large issues that need to be dealt with. They're huge. We have border issues. We have terrorist issues. We have economy issues. And to have people focus on individual smokers and not allowing them to smoke even outside, I think is completely ridiculous and it's pretty un-American. Anne McDermott>> Then again, some in Calabasas say the process used to limit smoking was very American. After all, the public commented, the matter was put to a vote before a duly elected City Council and it passed unanimously, and yet such unanimity may have something to do with Calabasas's lack of diversity. This is a generally wealthy white suburb, but other communities are no doubt watching and waiting for the smoke to clear to see if they too will try such a bold new experiment. I'm Anne McDermott for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> It may be hard to believe, given the uproar over immigration issues recently, that overall America does a pretty good job of absorbing immigrants especially compared to some European countries. For some frank talk on immigration, we brought together three people over coffee in the kitchen of David Lehrer. Lehrer is with Community Advocates, Inc., a group that encourages innovative views on race relations. Gregory Rodriguez writes on Latino immigration and is also a columnist with the Los Angeles Times. And Reza Aslan is an Iranian immigrant, professor of religious studies at USC and author of the best-selling book, "No God But God". David Lehrer>> Both Europe and the United States are dealing with immigrants on large scale issues and there have been very different responses. Rez, as a recent immigrant, you know, have you felt that nature of America as being an accepting one and willing to say you're here and now you're an American? Reza Aslan>> I think it's more than just simply an accepting nature. In fact, I spent most of the early 1980s in California more or less as a Mexican. David Lehrer>> Now did you feel some compulsion to abandon your roots? Reza Aslan>> Yes, and that's what I mean when I say that I was a Mexican. I mean, the early 1980s was not a good time to be Iranian in the United States. I was surrounded by people who looked like me, who had the same color as I did, who were also living in immigrant families and -- Gregory Rodriguez>> -- did they speak Farsi? Reza Aslan>> No, but I spoke Spanish (laughter) which is, you know, very easy to do if you live in this state. So it was very easy for me to just simply assimilate into Mexican culture as an intermediate step into then becoming an older person and absorbing my own Iranian culture. Gregory Rodriguez>> After 9/11, there was a Moroccan illegal immigrant here in Los Angeles who when asked, "Well, are you getting this backlash against the Arabs and Muslims after 9/11?" He said, "No, everybody in Los Angeles thinks I'm a Mexican." (laughter) In my mind, it was the first time I had ever heard until now that somebody actually wanted to pass as a Mexican. Reza Aslan>> I mean, with regard to Muslim communities, you're absolutely correct in this. I mean, these are communities that, for the most part, were invited into Europe as guest workers at the end of the Second World War to essentially do the work that Europeans wouldn't do. They came in in very isolated ethnic communities and that's still the case. That sense of isolation has really solidified in such a way that we're seeing a lot of these ethnic tensions really rise to the surface now in modern European society. That doesn't happen in the United States for a number of reasons. One, most immigrants to this country, particularly immigrants from the Muslim world, have come here to pursue a better life. In other words, they've come here to really assimilate into the middle class culture. They're not guest workers, so they're far better integrated into the society. A friend of mine who's Pakistani, but raised in the United States, went to college in Oxford. He came back and I asked him, you know, what he saw as the difference between, you know, Muslims in America and Muslims in the U.K. He said, "Well, the difference is this. If I'm in London and if I want to see a Muslim, I have to go to fish and chips shops in order to see them because that's where they are. If I'm in America and I want to go see a Muslim, I go see my doctor." Gregory Rodriguez>> The one thing I quibble with is this notion that immigrants largely come to the United States to assimilate. I don't agree with that. I think immigrants today, as always, have come off boats or planes with the illusion that their children would be just like them. So the process of becoming American is rarely, "Hey, I'm going to stop speaking my language. I hate that food I grew up with. You know, the religion I grew up with no longer serves me." It's not that way at all. It's usually the slow, poignant, very painful process of losing one's mooring, of losing one's path. There is a cost to become an American. You go to D.C. and you have the cab drivers from all over the world. Every time I get in a cab, I ask them, "Will your children be American?" "Oh, no, they're going to be Nigerian." "Oh, no, they'll be a hundred percent Mexican. "Oh, no." And immigrants have always been that way in the United States. That's why Oscar Hammond, the Harvard immigration scholar, said the history of America is really not the history of immigrants. The history of America is the history of the children of immigrants. I mean, I'm third generation Mexican-American. I get, you know, well-meaning Anglos speaking to me in Spanish all the time (laughter). I mean, there is this sort of odd-like Buenos Dias. There is this sort of odd marginalization that people deal with all the time of any ideological background. Reza Aslan>> And I think that the key issue with multiculturalism is not just separate but equal, and there is very little equal about the way in which multiculturalism is expressed in places like France or in Germany or in the Netherlands. I think we're seeing the results of that in these rising ethnic tensions that are taking place, particularly with the Muslim immigrants. Gregory Rodriquez>> There's just one last part. I think multiculturalism is such an abstraction that could never really exist in any country because what it essentially requires is that each group maintain its own community, have its own institutions. Really, if there's one group in America that's ever been able to maintain a parallel ethnic infrastructure, it's American Jews. But most other groups, with a sense of hospitals, colleges, but most other groups didn’t have the resources or the inclination to create parallel ethnic infrastructure and, without that, there is no multiculturalism. It's really one of these elite conceptions that it's an elite discussion. You know, let's take the cameras out to the deep San Gabriel Valley, Baldwin Park, and say, "Do you believe in multiculturalism?" Most people will look at you like you're trying to mug them. David Lehrer>> Well, if you were to write a script for the Europeans how to meliorate the problem which is just abysmal now in Europe and every month there's another riot about something else and it's clear that the assimilation isn't taking place, what would you suggest they do? What is the model that we could provide? Gregory Rodriguez>> An absorptive expansive sense of nationhood. Reza Aslan>> That's right. Understanding and recognizing and expressing in a very understandable way what it means to be French, what it means to be German, the sense of identity that really does not exist in the way that it does in the United States. Now how does that happen? I have no idea. I don't have a clue how we have managed to create a country in which you have these various identities. Gregory Rodriguez>> The fact that most people, other than the Native Americans, came from somewhere else, the fact that we're all essentially immigrants and insecure about our status, they were all jockeying for Americanness. The host society only has a certain part in the world. It's the children and the grandchildren of immigrants themselves that are going to have to fight to expand the notion of Germanness and Frenchness and so on in the same way that we've done here. Here, we claim Americanness. We fight for Americanness. David Lehrer>> So the kind of melting pot that we talked about fifty years ago really seems to be working in America and may well be a model that our European friends can model themselves after. Gregory Rodriguez>> It seems to be the only model right now for the future of a globalized world. David Lehrer>> On that positive note, I'd like to thank you, Greg, and thank you, Reza, for joining us and we'll have to do it again and refill our cups. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is the sequel to "Basic Instinct". "Basic Instinct 2" returns Sharon Stone to the screen in a role she made famous more than ten years ago. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Andy Klein of City Beat and Valley Beat, and Jean Oppenheimer of New Times. Jean, what did you think of "Basic Instinct 2"? Jean Oppenheimer>> I found it incredibly boring. I was hoping for trashy fun. I actually liked the first "Basic Instinct" quite a bit, which I didn't see as much as trashy fun as sort of like a thriller. But this one, oh, man, the plot, everything about Sharon Stone -- who either has a wonderful cinematographer or a very good plastic surgeon, I'm not sure which -- she plays the same character she did in "Basic Instinct" and she is addicted to risk, so a lot of the film is about the risks she takes and murder and love -- not love, excuse me, sex. I found the whole thing boring. I wish I could have slept through it. I would have been using my time better. Larry Mantle>> Andy, what did you think? Andy Klein>> This is a terrible film, but I'll disagree with Jean in that I thought it was actually almost bad enough to be entertaining. It's so preposterous. It's so art. Sharon Stone is not so much playing a character as she's playing this giant walking vagina with teeth. You know, I mean she really is this (laughter) symbolic man-eating evil woman. She's smirking through the whole thing. There's no real acting going on here and, unfortunately, the guy who plays the leading man, a British actor I was unfamiliar with, has no screen chemistry with her. In fact, very little screen presence at all. Larry Mantle>> Next up is the film "Game 6" which stars Michael Keaton as a playwright who's determined to see Game 6 of the World Series featuring his beloved Boston Red Sox. Robert Downey, Jr. is also in the cast. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> What did you think of "Game 6", Andy? Andy Klein>> This was a pleasant surprise for me because this film has a 2004 copyright date which is never a good sign. It stars Michael Keaton as a New York playwright who, for various reasons, is a huge Red Sox fan. It's the 1986 World Series and the Red Sox just can't lose this time, though, of course, we all know that they're going to. He has to decide whether to skip his own opening night to watch the game and meanwhile he's terribly worried about this vicious critic played by Robert Downey, Jr. who apparently trashes everything. The whole thing is told not quite in real time, but basically over the course of a day as he runs into everybody in his life and, more and more, begins to doubt everything about his life. Very funny, very well acted. Directed by Michael Hoffman who did "Soap Dish", a wonderful film and some other very fine films, with a screenplay by Don DeLillo, the novelist who, I think, has never written another screenplay. I totally enjoyed this. Larry Mantle>> Daniel Johnston is a triple threat, a singer, songwriter and visual artist, but he's also battled bipolar disease. His story is told in the documentary, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Andy, what did you think of "The Devil and Daniel Johnston"? Andy Klein>> This is a really engrossing documentary and it's not always very upbeat, I have to say. It's about a singer, songwriter, artist, filmmaker named Daniel Johnston who grew up in a small town in West Virginia with God-fearing serious Christian parents whose work is completely eccentric and surreal and bizarre. He's had this on and off career and indeed has had his songs recorded by stars, but he's also manic depressive and has had all kinds of emotional problems as well as institutionalizations. He's really a gripping personality. Filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig interviews a lot of friends of his, a lot of fans, and you get a portrait of a really fascinating messed-up guy. Larry Mantle>> Jean, what did you think? Jean Oppenheimer>> I agree with Andy. I mean, the two words I think of with this film are tragic and fascinating. It's interesting because, like the lead character or the man who did "Tarnation", the artist who did "Tarnation", this kid sort of obsessively documented himself. He was so creative as a teenager. He made all these short films. He was wonderfully inventive and his family did not support his sort of artistic aspirations and sort of his goofy behavior. It's interesting and very sad that, later in life, he then became very, very religious and very obsessed with the devil. So what you're watching is this character and his world sort of disintegrating although he still does perform and he still does artwork. It's just fascinating. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, we have a movie that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 2004. The Swedish movie, "Evil", takes us into the environment of an abusive boarding school for young boys. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Jean, you've seen "Evil". Your thoughts? Jean Oppenheimer>> I really liked this movie a lot. It's based on a Swedish novel and, interestingly, it was one of the 2004 Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. The story isn't that original. It's about a troubled kid who's sent to a boarding school and basically refuses to be bullied by the upper classmen who treat the lower classmen with just sadistic glee. What I really liked about the film was, number one, the lead character, a young man named Andreas Wilson. It's his first film ever and he is so terrific. I mean, I absolutely believed everything that he did, every emotion that he had. A second thing that I think worked really well is that the filmmaker, Mikael Hafstrom, did a wonderful job of creating a sense and a feel for the environment that they were in. I mean, this school where the kid is and he's, in a sense, sort of cornered. He refuses to go along with things. I just thought the whole thing was terrific. Larry Mantle>> And that wraps up another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC for critics Jean Oppenheimer of New Times and Andy Klein of City Beat and Valley Beat. Please join us again next week at this same time for our next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek on KPCC public radio Friday mornings at eleven a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> 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. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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