NPR KPCC reporter Josie Huang was falsely arrested two nights ago for filming police brutalize protesters. Police lied about her actions leading up the arrest and lied about her not identifying herself as a member of the press. The incident was caught on video, taken by Josie and other members of the press. U.S. police forces are routinely detaining journalists for covering police violence and lying about the arrests. Police lie about incidents caught on camera, imagine their lies about incidents not on camera. Imagine their lies about people who aren’t protected by journalism institutions.
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In more than a century of parading, Mardi Gras crowds in New Orleans have seen a lot of different krewes — as the parading groups are called. Krewes have been formed by whites to satirize British royalty, by blacks to satirize those satirizing British royalty, as well as by an all-female group that throws decorated heels into the crowds instead of beads.
Add something new this year: Krewe de Mayahuel, a parading krewe formed mostly by Mexican immigrants to this city.
"At some point I remember saying, there is no Mexicans represented in the culture of New Orleans," said 52-year-old Roberto Carrillo, a native of Mexico City who is one of Mayahuel's founders. He moved to New Orleans 13 years ago along with a wave of other Mexican immigrant construction workers after Hurricane Katrina.
"Parading in the soul of New Orleans, you show the world what you think," he said.
Mayahuel was named after the Aztec goddess of agave, the plant used to make tequila. The group chose the works of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as their theme.
For Mardi Gras, A Parade Celebrates Mexican Immigrants In New Orleans
Photo: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC
Caption: New Orleans resident Annie Gibson parades dressed as Frida Kahlo with Krewe de Mayahuel, a Mardi Gras krewe organized by the Mexican immigrant population in the city.
CHLA’s Dr. Bradley Peterson weighs in on what it takes to develop a human brain
In a public town-hall style event, CHLA’s Dr. Bradley Peterson spoke amongst a panel of early childhood specialists. The event was organized by KPCC In Person and hosted by Priska Neely, who covers early childhood and the issues young children face.
In addition to Peterson, the well-rounded panel of four included author Roma Khetarpal, UCLA pediatrician Adam Schickedanz, and early childhood education expert Schellee Rocher. Each panelist spoke one-on-one with Neely before fielding a wide range of parenting questions from the audience.
Designated by Neely as the “brain guy,” Peterson painted an elaborate picture for the event’s host and the audience about neurodevelopment. “You can think of the developing brain as a sphere,” he began. “A cross-section of this sphere through its middle might resemble a bicycle wheel. It’s organized with spokes radiating outward towards the tire, or surface of the brain.” Peterson likened these spokes to neurons. “Neurons are the brain cells that pass information and allow us to think, behave, and have emotions,” he explained.
Peterson went on to say that, at birth, the architecture of the brain is very sparse compared to what it will soon become. Soon after birth, he said, the brain cells begin to sprout and grow dendrites – the branching, bushy structures that receive information from other brain cells. Cells begin to connect to one another, forming dense, complex circuitry. “Unbelievably quickly,” Peterson continued, “in the first months of life, the spokes begin to fill in.” The architecture of the brain is being built at lightning speed in this first year of life. It is this growing complexity, he said, that allows new information to be passed from one part of the brain to another. This dense web of interconnected brain cells sets the very foundation of all emerging capacities in early childhood – things like walking, talking, thinking, and relating socially to others.
Sometimes, the brain is compared to a computer. This analogy speaks to the brain’s incredible computational capacity, though it does not acknowledge some of its more mysterious aspects– things like personality or a person’s ability to love. Peterson expanded upon the intrigue of the brain’s capabilities, explaining that the ability to learn and physically reshape itself sets it apart from its machine counterpart. “A one-year-old is just beginning to walk and say a few words. In the next year or so, that child will be capable of hundreds of words. No computer can teach itself to do that. This ability is all due to the developing architecture of the human brain.”
This ability to learn can be found in our DNA long before a brain even begins to develop. Written into the very code from which all our proteins, cells, and tissues are born is the ability of the brain to be molded by our surroundings, a stunning feat of adaptability. Unlike a computer, the human brain grows and learns in a way that is largely dependent upon experience, which actually shapes the physical architecture of the brain. Peterson explained that the dense, bushy web of interconnected cells in a two-year-old’s brain is actually richer in connections than in an adult’s brain – 50% more dense. The environment, he said, guides the brain in which connections will survive and become permanent, while pruning the irrelevant circuits. “It’s a dance between the developing organism, with all its hard-wired programming, and the environment – each interacts with, and affects, the other.” What we are left with is imagery of a blossoming array of neural connections that begins to explode within the first two years of life, and is then masterfully whittled away as we are shaped by our experience. The mature brain is perhaps less a computer than it is a sculpted work of art made by our genes and the world that surrounds us.
Click here to visit the KPCC In Person event page with full video of event.
The Tony-winning performer says Hollywood is doing better when it comes to casting actors of color, "but the real boon is when it's not just window dressing."
‘Hamilton’s’ Leslie Odom Jr. thinks Hollywood’s diversity efforts are paying off (KPCC):
Leslie Odom Jr. was living in Los Angeles, struggling to make it as an actor, when he got an e-mail from Lin Manuel Miranda. The creator of "Hamilton" wondered if he'd be interested in reading for the pivotal role of Aaron Burr.
Odom had seen an early staged reading of the show at Vassar College and immediately said yes.
"I fell in love with the thing," he said. "I never in a million years thought I would be in it."
But Odom was determined to land what he calls the role of a lifetime.
"It's about not just being a performer, but having something people connect you with," he said. "Whether it's a record or a television series or a movie, something that makes people push the save button on your name."
Roughly two years later, he secured the part and went on to win the 2016 Tony for Best Actor in a musical for his portrayal of Aaron Burr. More recently, he was cast in the reboot of the 1974 film "Murder on the Orient Express." He plays the part of Colonel Arbuthnot — a role that was originally portrayed by Sean Connery.
Odom said the casting choice was part of a larger plan to make the Orient Express look a bit more like a train one might ride in present-day New York City. But, the actor said, the filmmakers were careful to make sure the casting was thoughtful, by really considering how Arbuthnot's life might be different were he a black man.
He says films like this one are proof that Hollywood is doing better with diversity efforts. [. . .]
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Is the artist depicting a revolt of nature against humanity's transgressions? He claims not to know although he says, "For two million years, we were just another flavor of meat."
Walton Ford is that rarity, a modern painter who tells stories. He also tells truths through his stories. And he even tells stories about stories. He likes to invoke mythologies and even create his own.
In the show at Gagosian Gallery, called “Calafia,” Ford turns his attention to our state of California — its mythic past, its prehistory, and even its frayed, fabulous present. In the process, he makes up some wonderful stuff, alive in some of the largest and most vivid and visionary watercolors you ever saw.
While many Americans are familiar with dishes like egg foo young, there are Chinese-American and Chinese immigrant communities throughout the country where foods like ma po tofu and congee are also on menus.
And Panda Express, America's biggest Chinese fast-food chain, hopes to make those more traditional dishes mainstream. "Panda Express ... has the opportunity to be the ambassador of Chinese food to many people," says Andrea Cherng, the company's chief marketing officer.
Chern's parents opened Panda Express in 1983, at a time when Chinese food was still seen as "exotic." It's now America's biggest Chinese fast-food chain, with more than 1,900 locations around the world.
But as Americans have become more curious, adventurous eaters, the challenge for the chain is to keep up with the changing food culture — while still seeming familiar enough not to alienate those many mall and airport diners who come to the chain for its Americanized spin on Chinese food.
"Our job at Panda Express is to follow that journey of how palates have grown," Cherng says.
Want More Traditional Chinese Fare? Panda Express Says: Give Us A Try
In case you missed it, Jeff Koons sat down for a talk with KPCC's arts program The Frame. Koons discussed the celebratory, inclusive qualities of his work, and how that theme can be found throughout his current show at Gagosian Beverly Hills. http://fal.cn/ulmB
