(Photo by Anthony Sogg, Yorba Linda, CA)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
"the tale of an ordinary human being who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be"
Marthe Cohn was in her late teens when Hitler was rising to power. Living across the German border in Alsace-Lorraine, her family began taking in Jews who were fleeing the Nazis, as well as the Jewish children being sent away by terrified parents. Soon her own homeland was under Nazi rule, and she and her parents, brothers, and sisters were forced to live the restricted lives of all Jews. As the Nazi occupation of France escalated along with the war, Marthe’s sister was arrested and eventually sent to Auschwitz, and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army.
Behind Enemy Lines is Marthe Cohn’s memoir of a time and place that has mesmerized the world for more than half a century. But at its heart it is the tale of an ordinary human being who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be.
Recently, at the age of eighty, Marthe Cohn was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Medaille Militaire, a relatively rare medal awarded for outstanding military service and given, in the past, to the likes of Winston Churchill. With this award came official acknowledgment of the heroic exploits of a beautiful young Jewish woman who faced death every day as she sought to help defeat the Nazi empire.
When the spotlight was turned on Marthe Cohn, not even her children or grandchildren knew to what extent this modest woman had been involved with the Allies in fighting the evils of the greatest war of the twentieth century. She had fought valiantly to retrieve needed inside information about Nazi troop movements by slipping behind enemy lines, utilizing her perfect German accent and blond hair to pose as a young German nurse who was desperately trying to obtain word about a fictional fiancé. In traveling about the countryside and approaching troops sympathetic to her plight, she learned where they were going next and was able to alert Allied commanders.
Newt Gingrich, "factually insane"
Whatever one thinks of his politics, Newt Gingrich has demonstrated a wide-ranging intelligence over the years. But there's nothing intelligent about his recent endorsement of the theory that President Obama's political philosophy is rooted in a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. Bizarre is more like it.
National Review Online reports that the former speaker of the House praised conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza for a "stunning insight" into the president's behavior. That "insight," the subject of an article in Forbes magazine, is that to understand Obama's views, one must scrutinize the opinions of his Kenyan father, who left Obama when he was 2 years old.
D'Souza writes: "From a very young age and through his formative years, Obama learned to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder."
Never mind that none of these sentiments comes from the mouth of the president. D'Souza attributes them to him because in a memoir, Obama wrote: "It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself." Thus is a deeply personal search for a father-son connection transformed into an embrace of the father's political views as articulated in a 1965 academic article.
"Remarkably," D'Souza writes, "President Obama, who knows his father's history very well, has never mentioned his father's article." Perhaps it's hidden away with Obama's "real" birth certificate.
D'Souza is reliably ridiculous and consistently wrong, so it's no surprise that he connects Obama's supposed hand-me-down worldview to everything from his push for a stimulus plan to his support of the right of Muslims to build a community center near ground zero to his reference, in a speech about the gulf oil spill, to "America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels." Yet this daffy deconstruction, according to Gingrich, is the "most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama."
Gingrich used to be a serious figure. He is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. But he has earned the description he applied to Obama: "If you look at [his] continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane."
(Los Angeles Times editorial)
"Side by Side by Sondheim"
Stephen Sondheim has received a belated birthday gift: his name on a Broadway theater.
The 1,055-seat venue on West 43rd Street that had been named after actor-producer Henry Miller was formally renamed Wednesday night and had its marquee lit in Sondheim's honor. He turned 80 in March.
"I'm deeply embarrassed. I'm thrilled, but deeply embarrassed," said Sondheim, who teared up as the sun fell over dozens of clapping admirers in Times Square. "I've always hated my last name. It just doesn't sing."
—Associated Press
"I want to be alone"
The Malibu property known as La Esperanza, the beach retreat of actress Greta Garbo in the 1930s, is listed for $12.6 million.Completely restored in 2000, the Mediterranean villa has been a local landmark for decades. Designed for entertaining, it includes a great room with a 30-foot-wide panoramic window, a commercially equipped kitchen, five bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms in 5,350 square feet of living space. An outdoor bar sits off the ocean-view deck.
Garbo's successful transition from silent films to talkies was promoted by the MGM '30s catch-phrase "Garbo talks." The Swedish actress was nominated for Academy Awards for her leads in "Anna Christie" (1930), "Romance" (1930), "Camille" (1936) and "Two-Faced Woman" (1941). She received an honorary Oscar in 1955 and died in 1990 at age 84.
Monday, September 13, 2010
"Stormy Maunalua Bay"
This spectacular shot was taken of Stormy Maunalua Bay, Oahu by John Diskant and published in the LA Times: "Your Scene" section. Submitted September 12, 2010
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was a suspense classic
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Kevin McCarthy, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his starring role as the panicked doctor who tried to warn the world about the alien "pod people" who were taking over in the 1956 science-fiction suspense classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died Saturday. He was 96. McCarthy died of natural causes at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., said his daughter Lillah.
New Campus has built-in history as it honors RFK
The site of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in 1968 opens Monday as the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. Built at a cost of more than $578 million, the campus of six separate schools is the city’s most expensive. From the Wilshire Boulevard frontage, the main building looks like a modern reimagining of the historic Ambassador Hotel, demolished to make way for the school. All that’s left of the original is the east wall of what was once the Cocoanut Grove nightclub and a few salvaged items, such as an entry portal and a built-in clock.
Robert F. Kennedy -- 1968
Robert F. Kennedy -- His Words
The entrance to the old Cocoanut Grove was preserved and utilized.
The Ambassador Hotel, much as it appeared in 1968.
OSPREYS make a comeback
Though they might not inspire the same romantic feeling as the swallows returning to Capistrano, ospreys have begun to spread their wings — and domain — in Orange County.
A female osprey reared on a man-made platform in Upper Newport Bay recently hatched a chick at another specialized platform a few miles away in Irvine.
Experts say this is a positive sign for a species that for decades had no known nests in Southern California. The ospreys, birds of prey once threatened by hunters and the pesticide DDT, have been watched over locally by a group of dedicated conservationists who are just now understanding the species' breeding patterns.
Recognize Anyone ???
A mural depicts four of Mexico's national heroes -- from left, Ignacio Allende, Leona Vicario, Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Maria Morelos -- at the National Palace in Mexico City.
(Marco Ugarte, Associated Press / August 15, 2010)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
"Between the Trees"
The spectacular photo above was taken by vk and published in Your Scene , (LA Times) and was taken on the Big Sur Coast in Northern California. Submitted September 1, 2010
"Ferrari World soon to welcome visitors"
Back in the pre-recession go-go days, virtually every major theme park company (except Disney) and wannabe player had billion-dollar plans for the United Arab Emirates: Universal Studios, Six Flags, Legoland, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Warner Bros., DreamWorks and Marvel.So far, none of those parks has opened for business in the Middle East’s desert oasis playground. But that may change next month.
On Oct. 28, if all goes according to plan, Ferrari World will welcome visitors to what the automobile company claims will be the world’s largest indoor theme park. The park, about 21 acres, is in Abu Dhabi, about an hour from Dubai.
"The wandering soul drew Robert Louis Stevenson to Samoa"
Fragile health and a wandering soul drew Robert Louis Stevenson to Samoa. This view, toward Apia, is from near his grave site. He and his extended family began to build a home, called Vailima, in these hills in 1890. 
A clock tower and the Central Bank are landmarks in Apia, capital of Samoa, once known as Western Samoa. The population today is 220,000 in Samoa, 65,000 in American Samoa.
(Photos by Catherine Watson)
Thursday, September 09, 2010
"Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music," comes out next week
"Killing Me Softly With His Song." "I Got a Name." "Ready to Take a Chance Again." The themes from "Love, American Style," "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley" and "The Love Boat."
What do these songs have in common?
They all sprung from the melodic mind of Charles Fox, who for the last half-century has composed more than 100 motion picture and TV scores, ballets and classical works. The two-time Emmy Award winner, Grammy winner and two-time Oscar nominee recalls his successful career in his new autobiography, aptly titled "Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music," which comes out next week. Fox will also be discussing his work and signing books Sept. 26 at the West Hollywood Book Fair and will be signing books and performing his songs at the "Cabaret at the Castle" at the Magic Castle on Sept. 28.
Above: the "Love Boat" crew.
Do you have "taphophobia" ???
Buried - Here is an abbreviated list of phobias that might be triggered by Buried, the first English language feature from acclaimed Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés: claustrophobia (fear of restriction and suffocation), taphophobia (fear of being buried alive), achluophobia (fear of darkness), autophobia (fear of being alone), and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), an American truck driver working in Iraq, regains consciousness after receiving a blunt blow to the head, only to find he’s been, yep, buried alive in a wooden coffin under several feet of desert sand. With only a cell phone, a lighter, and fuzzy memories of his convoy’s ambush, Paul attempts to lead rescuers to his grave through a series of frustrating calls to his government, his family, and the insurgents who put him there. A lesser actor wouldn’t have been able to carry the film, but Reynolds is sublime, conveying fear and resolve with every gasp of rapidly thinning air. —Victor Ozols
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
A Fascination with the "Jackal"
Olivier Assayas’ highly-anticipated Carlos has been added to the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival in an Out-of-Competition screening slot in its long 5hr 30min version and also it is to be shown as a three-part TV drama on television Canal+.Assayas’ biography of the famed terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez is a five-and-a-half hour opus starring Edgar Ramirez, Julia Hummer and Alexander Beyer and centers on Venezuelan revolutionary Ramirez Sanchez, the Jackal, who lead a terrorist organization that raided OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by French police. The mini-series is set to air in the US on The Sundance Channel at some point this year, and the shorter version will be released theatrically by IFC Films.
Unlikely Partners
Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and his Indian tennis partner, Rohan Bopanna, finally had their run at Wimbledon ended as they were defeated in the quarterfinals of the Men’s Doubles competition by Austrian Juergen Meltzer and German Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. However, in the process, Qureshi did become the first Pakistani ever to reach the quarterfinals of a grand slam tennis event. Two rounds prior to that, Qureshi and Bopanna came out on top of a marathon match with the German-Slovak pair of Philip Marx and Igor Zelenay 6-7(6-8), 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11.
Interestingly, the two doubles partners have become symbols of peace between Pakistan and India, with plans for their own logo, and ambitious plans for an exhibition tennis match to be held directly on the border between the two countries. Qureshi is also a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 40 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Monaco-based international organization Peace and Sport.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Classic View
Toronto: This genteel Canadian city, viewed from the northern shore of Lake Ontario where the skyline is dominated by the CN Tower,
Kevin Frayer / Associated Press
Copenhagen Magic
A view from the restaurant Herman of the Moorish-inspired Nimb Hotel, with its more than 3,000 light bulbs, as the summer sky turns a brilliant blue. During summer, the sun is out for nearly 18 hours a day.(Betty Hallock / Los Angeles Times)
Close to Perfection
The list of writers able to express themselves in a language not their mother tongue is short. One thinks of Vladimir Nabokov, mastering English after publishing a number of well-regarded novels in Russian, and Joseph Conrad, of course. But what about Billy Wilder, who came to the United States in the 1930s, knowing hardly a word of English, and became one of America's great stylists of vernacular prose?This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is perhaps Wilder's most elegantly formed study of American failings, foibles and dreams, couched as the story of a man ascending the corporate ladder sideways. "The Apartment," which won the Academy Award for best picture of 1960 (the second of Wilder's films to win that award), is a clash of moods, the bittersweetness of its tone bumping up against the remarkable verve of Wilder's dialogue. The mixture should make for an unmitigated disaster; instead, it resulted in a masterpiece. "Nobody's perfect," as the memorable closing line of his "Some Like It Hot" has it, but when it comes to punchy, forceful writing, has anyone ever come closer to perfection than Wilder?
Shown above is Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in "The Apartment".
Paul Conrad: the premier editorial cartoonist
Paul Conrad was powerful, inspiring -- and a friendBy Tim Rutten
He never lost his sense of outrage.
My friend Paul Conrad, who died Saturday at 86, was the premier editorial cartoonist of his generation and, for many years, this newspaper's most visible public face. Outrage informed his journalism and animated his art. He woke up each morning angry about some new injustice and allowed sleep to overtake him each night only so that he could get up mad the next day and do it all again.
He was always and everywhere on the side of decency and ordinary men and women. His targets were the self-satisfied powerful, those indifferent to or antagonistic to our common good, and they included presidents -- as in these cartoons -- as well as governors, mayors, popes and corporate executives. Among his proudest accomplishments was making Richard Nixon's enemies list.
Conrad had the strength to speak out so forcefully -- through his incomparable drawings -- because he was, in Yeats' phrase, a "rooted man." His values were rooted in the New Deal's politics of remedy, in the social gospel of his Catholic faith and in the experience of the family he treasured beyond all else. The astonishing thing about his three Pulitzer Prizes was that he won them in three decades that were among the most tumultuous in modern American history. His willingness to engage our common condition, intensely and personally, was a hallmark of his work.
For those of us who came of age on The Times in the 1970s, he was an inspiration. Those of us who worked with him got up each morning hoping we'd live up to his example and knowing we'd fall short.
Friday, September 03, 2010
"World's fastest car"
The fastest production car is the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, which achieved a two-way timed speed of 267.86 mph at the Volkswagen proving grounds in Ehra-Lessien near Wolfsburg, Germany, on June 26, 2010.
(Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)
"World's fastest motorcycle"
Michael Phillips set a world speed record of 197.65 mph during the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals on July 18, 2010 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.
(Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
"World's fastest sailing speed"
The 'flying boat' Hydroptere, a high-speed multihull prototype skipped by French Alain Thebault, broke the sailing speed world record off the coast of Hyeres, southern France, with a run at a speed average of 50.17 knots (60.2 mph) during a nautical mile.
(Photo by GUILAIN GRENIER/AFP/Getty Images)
World's Fastest Pitch
The greatest RELIABLY recorded speed at which a baseball has been pitched is 100.9 mph by Nolan Ryan (California Angels) at Anaheim Stadium in California on August 20, 1974.
(Photo by Tony Tomsic/WireImage)
World's Fastest Horse
Kentucky Derby record: 1:59 2/5, Belmont Stakes record 2:24 - The legendary horse set track records at the two Triple Crown races in 1973. The records still stand today. The horse's legendary Triple Crown season will be featured in a new Disney movie 'Secretariat'
(Photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images)
World's Fastest Jet
Though many military aircraft numbers are kept under wraps the piloted SR-71 Blackbird easily reached a confirmed speed of Mach 3.2 (2,094 mph). It's believed the jet could go faster, but was never tested. It made its maiden flight in 1964, and was retired by the U.S. military in 1998.
(Photo by Getty Images)
World's Fastest Bird
The Peregrine Falcon is the fastest bird on record. Its horizontal cruising speeds can reach 55 mph, but can fly and swoop at speeds reaching speeds much higher (around 65-68 mph). The Peregrine Falcon uses this ability to prey on other birds like pigeons, ducks, and pheasants.
(Photo by GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)
World's Fastest Typist
Barbara Blackburn is the fastest English typist in the world, according the Guinness Book of World Records. She managed to type at 150 words a minute for 50 minutes, and peaked at 212 words a minute. She even showed off her talents on 'The David Letterman Show' in 1985. She died in 2008.
(Photo by Eduardo Parra/Getty Images)
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
An "information tower"
The recently completed Samitaur Tower, a 72-foot-high weathered-steel structure designed by Eric Owen Moss for a site at the corner of National Boulevard and Hayden Avenue in Culver City involves revolutionary thinking.
The tower is a campanile — an unorthodox and modestly sized one, to be sure — for a new stage of urbanism in Southern California, which thanks to the slowly growing transit network, among other cultural shifts, is beginning to emerge as a less atomized and more public place than the old clichés would have you believe.
The tower will overlook the new light-rail Expo Line, which is under construction from downtown through Culver City and will open next year. (A planned second phase would extend the line to Santa Monica.) A section of the rail line runs alongside National Boulevard, practically at the tower's feet, with a pair of stops within easy walking distance. The tower's developers, Frederick and Laurie Samitaur-Smith, see it as a prototype and hope to build seven more along the Expo Line.
The open-air tower, which according to the Samitaur-Smiths won't open to the public until early next year, consists of five platforms wrapped in screens made of translucent acrylic. The screens are designed to display a range of video and artwork, making the structure, which Moss has called an "information tower," an island of alternative signage in L.A.'s sea of commercial billboards.
Once it's fully in operation, it will likely play host to a mixture of parties, art exhibits and openings, as well as serving as a symbolic gateway to the Hayden Tract, a former industrial area that the Samitaur-Smiths, with help from Moss, have been patiently and inventively redeveloping for more than two decades.
Part monument and part building, the tower on its second and third levels bulges out toward National Boulevard, only to be cinched back in one level above that. The rear elevation, facing the Hayden Tract, features an open-air staircase with landings cantilevered out from the main tower on five levels. Seen from that perspective, the tower looks like a set of emergency-exit stairs no longer attached to the larger building from which it was designed to provide escape.
Say a Fond Farewell . . .
A last-minute effort to save a Beverly Hills house designed by architect John Lautner has failed, paving the way for the owner to raze the structure to make way for a new house.
Located on Monte Leon Lane just north of Sunset Boulevard, the Shusett House dates from 1951 and is one of Lautner's early commissions. The L.A.-based architect would go on to produce some of the most striking houses in Southern California.
"For film buffs and historians"
The Cinecon Classic Film Festival is not for movie softies. It's for hard-core film buffs and historians who don't want to see the usual vintage fare that pops up on Turner Classic Movies or at revival theaters. So if you're looking to see "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane" or " It's a Wonderful Life," Cinecon isn't the festival for you.
"Most of the films have not been seen since their original release or have not been seen since the early days of television," says film and TV archivist/historian Stan Taffel, who is vice president of Cinecon.
The 46th edition of Cinecon takes place Thursday through Monday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The festival offers a memorabilia and collectibles show at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, along with seminars. Oscar-nominated actor Don Murray will be receiving the Cinecon Career Achievement Award at a banquet at the hotel on Sunday evening. Shown above is Charley Chase in a 1925 photo. His 1937 comedy, "From Bad to Worse," will be screened for the first time since its release.
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