Blogs

Think Tank LA

TED Conf. Starts Tuesday

By Jeremy Rosenberg
February 8, 2010

tedconferencebody.jpg

The extraordinary, annual TED Conference begins Tuesday, February 9, and runs until Saturday. The event, formerly of Northern California, is now held in Long Beach.

This year's happening is sold out. Pay-per-view live video ($995) is available here. And here's the long list of 2010 scheduled speakers.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Huell Howser

Iranian New Year

By Maxwell Strachan
February 8, 2010

In this episode of Visiting... With Huell Howser, Huell attends events in Southern California connected with the Iranian New Year's celebration, including the Persian Festival of Fire.

Watch the full video below:

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Huell Howser

A Whistling Champion

By Maxwell Strachan
February 8, 2010

In this episode of Visiting... With Huell Howser, Huell visits with the Whistling Champ Carole Anne Kaufman at her salon, then stops in at her Mom's store - the Wizard of Bras... its a combo you won't want to miss.

Watch the full video below:

Read More

Permalink Discuss

City of Angles

L.A. Budget Crisis:
Radical Change Needed?

By Brian Doherty
February 8, 2010

KCETlasky4I.jpg

L.A.'s fiscal crisis, with over $600 million in overruns, has voices across the board wondering if the L.A. we've known is on its last legs.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Where We Are

What Fed Me. What Sustains Me.

By D.J. Waldie
February 7, 2010

When I was growing up, I thought that my mother was the best cook in the neighborhood.

Lots of sons remember their mother’s cooking as the best. But my mother’s cooking – which was commonplace – was really the best in my neighborhood.

Through the 1950s, I lived among families who had known both the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, among housewives who knew food only as the opposite of going hungry, and among husbands who insisted on eating poorly because they had been poor for most of their life. On the tract house plains, daily meals reflected what you stubbornly held on to. And if you ate to remember, many of those memories were of loss.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

City of Angles

Los Angeles Layoff Follies

By Brian Doherty
February 5, 2010

KCETccchamb2I.jpg

The city is struggling with unprecedented budget problems, but saving money through getting rid of workers is more complicated than it looks.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Bohdan's Corner

Sinatra & KCET: Ultra cool (UPDATED)

By Bohdan Zachary
February 5, 2010

I'm really excited about the KCET benefit event taking place February 11 in Palm Springs.

To celebrate the start of the annual Modernism Week - as well as the broadcast premiere of Michael Stern's terrific documentary "Julius Shulman: Desert Modern," KCET will host an event at the famous Frank Sinatra House, which was designed by the famous architect E. Stewart Wiliams. (That's the house below.)

There's a great story, not unexpectedly, about the iconic singer and the home that is considered a Modernism classic. Back in 1947, Mr. Sinatra walked into the design offices of Williams, Wiliams and Williams in Palm Springs with the idea he wanted a house built in Palm Springs. There were a few catches, however. First, Mr. Sinatra wanted the house to be a Georgian-style colonial. Secondly, he wanted the house ready for his Christmas party - which would leave barely six months to design and build the residence. E. Stewart Williams, who designed sleek contemporary homes that reflected the spirit of Palm Springs, convinced the singer to go with a modern style. The residence Williams built, known as Twin Palms, is a landmark.

During the KCET benefit event, we'll screen Michael Stern's film about Julius Shulman, the legendary photographer who documented Mid-Century Modernism in Palm Springs during his 70-year career. (I'll write more about the film in an upcoming entry.)

In addition to the film, admission to the event also entitles you to enjoy a post screening Q & A with filmmaker Michael Stern, docent tours of the property, an open bar and dinner.

Safari.png

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Where We Are

Commonplace: Home

By D.J. Waldie
February 5, 2010

We’re not at home in America. And how could we be? How could we make a home here when what is called home is always framed – by convictions of agency and autonomy – in terms of other places or, increasingly, of non- places? Where no locale is immune from the certainty that the alternative – something more adequate to the demands of desire – lies just beyond the next bend in the road? (Which should not be confused with “Manifest Destiny” or the “frontier spirit.”)

We’re not at home in America, and not because of historical necessity or libidinal adolescence. (A full account of the acquisition of any American place is yet to be made.) We’re not at home, and being footloose is a symptom of American unease with the idea of home. We’re housed, surely. We’re at our desks. We’ve taken cover. We’re interned. But we’re not at home. A gift America has given the world is homelessness.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

404 City

Retread

By Ophelia Chong
February 4, 2010



How many times have you seen that same link about the iPad? Or about the latest cute box loving kitten youtube?

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Huell Howser

Where's Huell 2/5 - 2/14

By Web Team
February 4, 2010

From snow to sand. Huell checks out of cold California for some fun exploration in Palm Springs! On his journey he tours the estate of the famed American vocalist, Frank Sinatra; the hyper-modern style of the McCullough House; the historic Spanish architecture of the O'Donnell House; and a tour of the flora that fills our state's deserts. And be sure not to miss Thursday's Julius Shulman special, which promises to shed new light on this quintessential Californian photographer and his work.



Read More

Permalink Discuss

Think Tank LA

World's Top Think Tanks

By Jeremy Rosenberg
February 4, 2010

trophiesbody.jpg

The annual "Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings" are out -- released last week by UPenn professor and report author James McGann during an event held at the United Nations University, "a think-tank for the United Nations system" located in the U.N. Plaza, in Manhattan.

For the second consecutive year, the Brookings Institute was McGann and his team's big winner, placing first in the "Top 25 Think Tanks -- Worldwide" category. The rankings are based on the returned surveys of think tank staffers, academics, and journalists. TTLA received a nominating ballot but didn't vote.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Think Tank LA

Hoover: Food, the New Sex?

By Jeremy Rosenberg
February 2, 2010

cupcakesfeature.jpg

Nothing quite says, "Happy Valentine's Day" like the February/March 2010 issue of Policy Review, from the Bay Area's Hoover Institute.

In particular, there's Mary Eberstadt's essay, "Is Food the New Sex?: A Curious Reversal in Moralizing."

Here's an excerpt:

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Where We Are

Red Hats

By D.J. Waldie
February 1, 2010

Around five million Catholics live in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (which includes Los Angeles County and Ventura and Santa Barbara counties). The archdiocese is commonly thought to have the largest Catholic population of any diocese in the nation . . . a population that is growing, despite the inroads made by evangelical Protestant churches in Latino communities.

Catholic Los Angeles is the “second city” to New York – historically the American diocese with the greatest political significance to the Vatican. From the perspective of Rome, Los Angeles is only a step behind in significance, partly because Los Angeles in the mid-20th century successfully transitioned the church from urban ethnic enclaves to suburban all-American assimilation.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

Think Tank LA

Remembering Hank Gathers

By Jeremy Rosenberg
February 1, 2010

basketballhoopbody.jpg

This week, shoot your free throws left-handed.

Honoring the 20th anniversary of the passing of Hank Gathers, and the thrilling, tragic, and inspirational season of Gathers, Bo Kimble, and their 1989-1990 LMU men's basketball teammates.

LMU* video is here and a book excerpt, here.

Read More

Permalink Discuss

City of Angles

Tight Times for L.A. City Gov't

By Brian Doherty
February 1, 2010

KCETvillar14I.jpg

To stave off the threat of civic bankruptcy, L.A. needs to cut nearly 4,000 city jobs over the course of 2010.

Read More

Permalink Discuss
SoCal Connected

TV Schedule

About KCET Local Blogs

KCET Local Blogs are your source for commentary, news and opinion about Los Angeles and the Southern California region. Leave your thoughts in the comments, and subscribe via RSS. Updating daily Monday-through-Friday.

KCET Local Blogs

404 City
Los Angeles is the ultimate networked metropolis, and in 404 City blogger Ophelia Chong takes a look at our diverse web of communities, all of them interwoven by freeways, shared history, media, automobiles, and the ever present digital penumbra of cell-phones and computers.

Blur + Sharpen
Blur + Sharpen is an insider’s look at Los Angeles’ vibrant and globe-trotting community of new media artists. It is curated by Holly Willis.

Cakewalk
Cakewalk is journalist and op-ed columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan's first-person account of politics and identity in Los Angeles, with an eye towards the city's African American community.

City of Angles
From City Hall to the City Council, from the County Board of Supervisors to the L.A. Unified School District, from elections to ballot measures to budgets to scandals, Brian Doherty's "City of Angles" will help you understand and appreciate all the angles of L.A.'s always lively and often perplexing political scene.

The Guest Room
Every now and then we'll be asking one of your neighbors - famous, anonymous, maybe infamous - to share a few blog posts about their corner of Southern California. Past guest bloggers have included NPR host Madeleine Brand and journalist Ki-Min Sung.
 
Movie Miento
Movie Miento is a poetic exploration of Los Angeles history, Latino culture and overall sense of place, darting across LA’s physical and psychic borders. It is written by poet and journalist Adolfo Guzman-Lopez.

Pixeltown
KCET Local's editorial team crawls the SoCal web and brings you the best of local blogs, video, film, television and other pixellated curiosities.

Think Tank LA
Think Tank L.A. is a slow-boil chronicling of the goings-on at policy centers, research institutions, and the like in and around the Southland – and beyond. The blog covers the tanks themselves, the people who work at them, and the big ideas so often born at tanks. It is written by Jeremy Rosenberg.

Where We Are
Where We Are is an ongoing examination of  LA's twinned identities as urban and suburban written by one of the area's great chroniclers, D. J. Waldie.

KCET Local on Facebook

Tell Us

Got something to say? Got an idea that would make a great local story, or want to share an article or blog post you find interesting? Tell us about it.

Send Feedback

E-Newsletter Signup

Get great content from KCET straight to your inbox. Sign up for our monthly e-mail featuring upcoming KCET programming, events, ticket giveaways and web-only highlights.

Signup Form

Show Your Support

Like what you see? Donate now to support local, intelligent, independent stories. We appreciate your support.

Donate