What cinema was to the Great Depression Obama is to our recession

No need for Hollywood if you want to escape today's depressing times, just turn to Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha.

They are the ultimate distraction, providing a sense of--dare I say it-- hope to the American people. The same way Americans turned to movies in the 1930's, we are now watching Barack at the Bulls game and Michelle as she invites influential woman over to her new home.

This family is perceived to have gone from the average debted home to the White House. There is a general feeling of kinship with the first family and many feel like they're just like them.

Keeping all this in mind, the Obama's are our escape.

"During the Depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," said the much compared President Franklin Roosevelt of his constituents.

In Rachel Swarns' article "Could It Really Be Him? Yeah, Probably"she discusses the Obama family's interaction with the American people.

"Like basketball? There was Mr. Obama sitting courtside recently alongside astonished fans at the Verizon Center as he cheered on the Chicago Bulls in a losing battle against the Washington Wizards.

Enjoy the performing arts? The Obamas have been to the Kennedy Center twice, once to see the Alvin Ailey dance troupe — with daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 — and once for a musical tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy," she wrote.

He's a Steeler fan, he holds his own Superbowl parties at the White House, he predicts the future in college football and he has won the approval of the American public--no matter who they root for.

Just ask Miles Rawls, the rawty Wizards fan who sat behind the president at the Bulls game. "We were up by 15," Rawls said in a Washington Post interview.

"I told [Obama], 'You can tell them to warm up the limo, Sir, because this is a wrap here.' "

Yep, we're growing so comfortable with our president that we can talk smack to him if we find ourselves on opposing sides of a game.

"We was just going back and forth," Rawls said. "Once Chicago started coming back, he told me, 'Now I think you need to sit down.' When Tyrus Thomas dunked on somebody, he turned around, was talking smack. Then JaVale McGee had that alley-oop, and he gave me the high five. We was just supporting each others' team, having a good time."

Obama was said to have also commented about the sweet seats he and the 5-year-old sitting next to him had.

Meanwhile Michelle is picking up where Jackie Kennedy left off, rebirthing the idea of a strong, intelligent and stylish leading lady. She graced the cover of March's Vogue and has been a style icon for a while. She is both graceful and powerful. He top-notch education makes her an idol to young women aspiring to become leaders and her strong sense of motherhood makes mothers across the nation reclaim their position of homemaker as a significant role.

From Scottish schools to LAUSD

Dear L.A. Ethnic readers, for the past few weeks I've been reporting on a new arts program in South Los Angeles. I though it would be nice to share with you the concept of using art in schools to teach business, self-expression and public diplomacy. 

Introducing Room 13: 

This is by no means your average middle school classroom and surely not what you can recall learning in your pre-teens.

Going beyond teaching students about the significance of arts as a means of expression, Room 13 is giving South L.A. youth an opportunity to become entrepreneurs.

Students participating in this innovative arts program are responsible for raising their own money to fund the salary of a resident artist and to buy art supplies.

The initiative, which has been imported from Scotland, is to create a sense of ownership of the classroom and to give students the ability to control their learning.

In South Los Angeles, James Foshay Learning Center students have begun an arts initiative that LAUSD has never witnessed before.

Room 13, a student-run art program initiated in a low-income area of Scotland, has been adopted by the L.A. youth.

“The vision is very simple: student directed, student led, student managed and student financed,” said John Midby, the instructor of Room 13 at Foshay.

Foshay was the first school in the U.S. to adopt Room 13 in January of 2008, after being selected by a local non-profit organization as a distinguished school that can benefit from the program.

“When I was at Foshay working on another project one of the students told me that her and her classmates are different from students at other schools because they know they have to try harder in order to succeed in their community,” said Tom Coston, president of the Light Bringer Project, an organization working with Room 13.

“So when we were deciding on which school would be the best fit for Room 13 we knew Foshay could handle something that consists outside of the curriculum that isn’t standard –we needed a brave school and they delivered,” he said.

Though Midby is technically the teacher of the period that offers Room 13, he said he allows his students to steer the class in whichever way they please.

“I find that most of the time I’m just the cheerleader telling them that what they’re doing is really cool,” he said.

Room 13 differs from the conventional middle school art class because the structure of the classroom is decided by the students. Aside from the room and the teacher’s salary, which are covered by LAUSD, students have to develop a business model to fund the pay of a resident artist and the art supplies.

“One of the greatest things about the program is that it doesn’t cost the school any money,” Coston said. “It just creates its own momentum.”

As a self-sustainable class, students have put fundraising ideas into action by selling holiday cards, designing their own t-shirts and selling alternative food and snacks at lunchtime.

Simultaneosly while raising funds, students have to negotiate deals with the resident artist to settle on a salary that is reasonable for both parties.

“They had a conversation and gave her an offer then she told them
what she wanted and so the students made a counter offer,” Midby said.
“The students are going to be paying her monthly with a bonus and she's going to be here for the room13 periods.”

Though it is ideal for Room 13s around the world to have local artists participate in the program for free and use the room as his studio with students as apprentices, Midby said, this isn’t common in the program.

The artist works alongside students and acts less like a mentor and more like a fellow artist who is in Room 13 to exchange ideas, skills and experiences.


Currently the program exists in more than 24 schools in countries including Scotland, England, South Africa, India, and Ukraine. Each Room 13 has a different set up, whether it be the number of students in the class or the class’s choice of theatre instead of fine art.

At Foshay, there can be as many as 40 students in a Room 13 period.

“Most of the other room 13s of the world are done at schools that have 400 students or less. We have 3,000 students at Foshay; the physical size of this makes us a different animal.”


Students who are enrolled in the Room 13 class are mostly participants of the Neighborhood Academic Initiative at USC, which is a program that creates a pathway for middle school students to get into college.

“The Room 13 program is helping students develop they’re knowledge of other cultures and is teaching them out-of-the box thinking that will help them in college” said Kim Barrios, director the Neighborhood Academic Initiative at USC.

One of differences students noticed when students researched the program was that there was hegemony in Room 13s abroad, where students in classrooms in Scotland are usually all white and Scottish, a contrast to the composition at Foshay, Midby said.

“When I showed the students pictures of what they in Scotland consider
to be a dumpy area the kids didn't really believe it because they didn't see enough graffiti,” he said. “It's sitting next to a lake, it's really beautiful, I know in Scottish standards [Fort William] is considered a poor place near consul housing but that has been some of the only cultural disconnects.”

iTimes

Some newspapers are entertaining the thought of using the iTunes model of charging for content in order to save their dying business and ressurect like the music industry did when Steve Jobs and Apple came out with the bright idea.

I say that Steve Lopez can be the next J. Lo.

Instead of thinking small like the music industry did during the napster days, U.S. newspapers should be confident that readers will follow good content.

iTunes illustrates that consumers will choose to pay for content if it is packaged correctly and is easy to use.

What has been proposed by some is to do micro-payments for each article... this would certainly be a big flop and just confuse the consumer to a point where he doesn't want to read the news anymore.

David Lazarus from the Los Angeles Times bought up an idea that I'd buy: "Digital readers would pay a monthly fee -- let's say $10 -- and in return they'd have full access to the likes of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times and any other paper that wants to be part of the consortium ...the more the merrier."

Genius.

The biggest set-back to charging readers for content would be that they can turn to another publication for that same information. However, if we tie up the nation's highest circulating newspapers and package them for the consumer then business picks up.

The perfect senario: most newspapers see that they have to do something to stay afloat so they agree to be part of this package idea. Then, consumers can pick the newspapers they want to subscribe to within this bubble and get charged accordingly.

For instance, if I lived in L.A. and wanted some local news and other content from out-of-state publications, my menu would look like this:

1. L.A. Times

2. Pasadena Star-News

3. New York Times

4. Washington Post

I would pay a standard price for the first few and then add some change for every additional publication. This way we cater to the news junkies without deterring the average reader from subscribing to their minimal news selections.

What I would like to see is news catered to my interests. I'd like to have it delivered to my phone and emailed to me. I would like subscription payments to be monthly and at a price that is reasonable. Note: I would not pay more than $1o a month for this service.

We Don't Believe in the Culture of Walking

There is no point in living in Los Angeles if you don't have a car. 

The city of Los Angeles is one that does not lend itself well to the walkers, bikers and taxi hailers of the world. Some people fool themselves into believing that some parts of town can be livable without owning a car but after sitting on three different buses just to get to a chin-dig it hits them that maybe they should have picked up one of those 99cent used car magazines to read on their ride. 

Being that Angelenos have a strong sense of ownership when it comes to their time, it is hard 

to convince them to ditch their ride for any alternative. 

Even carpooling with someone to get from a relatively close "point A" to the same destination of "point B" means being a slave to someone else's watch. 

I remember when gas prices were looking like it would cost us five bucks to get a gallon Mayor Villaraigosa gave a speech about how Angelenos have to change their ideology about public transit. 

Although some sucked it up, left their cars in their driveway and purchased a bus pass I would think that many are back to their old habits of driving solo all across town. 

With gas prices now half of what they used to be, the roads are more packed than they were just a year ago. The 405, now more than ever, is a parking lot during the rush hour ---which spans over three hours during the weekdays. This means 4-7p.m. and God-forbid the Lakers or Dodgers having a game on a weekday--which can add yell-at-your-windsheild moments all along the 5 and 110 freeways. 

Angelenos will white-knuckle their steering wheel through nightmare traffic but sigh heavily in delight when they hit the miles of the free freeway. 

Bottom line is that in order to enjoy the fruits of the 88 cities which belong to the L.A. County you have to drive to them. This includes but is not limited to the beaches parallel to PCH, the restaurants from those in East Los Angeles to Little Ethiopia and Pink's Hot Dogs, and the beautiful Getty museums.