The Debut Orchestra Performing Brahms for High School Students in Hollywood, Audience at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica

The Young Musicians Foundation, The Legacy Continues

C U L T U R A L W A R F A R E!

A Fiery Roundtable
A Brilliant Concert

The Young Musicians Foundation and its Debut Orchestra, led by music director and conductor, Maestro Case Scaglione, present “Cultural Warfare,” a concert performance and what promises to be a lively roundtable dialogue. The Debut Orchestra’s first performance takes place Sunday, March 14 at the Broad Stage, 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica, 4:00 p.m. This will be followed by a performance on Monday, March 15 at Hollywood’s Helen Bernstein High School, 1309 N Wilton Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028 at 1:30 p.m.

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As part of its Outreach Concert Series the Young Musicians Foundation (YMF) along with its world-famous Debut Orchestra, has set out to revolutionize the way music is presented to young people by bringing together classical scores and an interactive presentation that includes provocative visuals and spirited conversations about pop culture, art, and current events, infused with music history and appreciation, literature.

To provide more than just an extraordinary listening experience, Maestro Scaglione and YMF Artistic Administrator Dr. Mieko Di Sano will use innovative slides, videos, and music examples to get across the imagery. Students will discuss how the current societal norms compare to the events and culture that produced pieces like Pärt’s Fratres for Violin & Strings in the late 20^th century (Sunday) and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor in the late 19^th century (Monday).

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“We have a moral obligation as classical musicians in the modern era to bring our splendid art form to tomorrow's generation,” said Maestro Scaglione. “If the young people in our cities and towns are not tirelessly sought out we cannot expect them to understand the magnitude and importance of what we do. I can think of no better introduction to Western Art Music than an open, interactive discussion with the youth of Los Angeles. This will be a wonderful opportunity not only for our young audience
as a learning experience, but for us to rediscover why we fell in love with classical music to start with.”

The concert series is underwritten with generous funding from State Farm Insurance, and partners with Teach for America.

YMF’s concerts not only prepare young players for their life as professional musicians, but also allow YMF to bring great music to the people of Southern California for free. With the generosity of corporate underwriting, YMF continues to expand that tradition so that every child, regardless of race or socio-economic standing, can be taken to those magical places visited only through great music.

For more information visit the Young Musicians Foundation’s website at www.ymf.org or call 310-859-7668.

What Gets Young People Excited These Days?

It's not drugs. It's not rebellion.
And, it's not necessarily shoes, but...

For many, it's something small, something personal that connects them to their peers, their heroes and their world. I love this generation. Here's an example of what I mean: Click the play arrow and learn about the youth of today from a minor, yet emblematic moment in time as Brian DeWolf, our researcher at the Business Journal, opens a pair of reissued retro Air Pennys.

Brian sent me an email after he agreed to let me blog the impromptu video I took at the office...(I think the kids are alright.)

"Hey Thom, at the risk of being obnoxious, here’s more on the shoes.

The ones I just got…

These were the three colorways that came out in 1996 for Penny Hardaway when he was playing for the Orlando Magic.

Hardaway ended his career on the Miami Heat, so these are the shoes in Heat colors. Interestingly, he retired before these shoes came out so he never wore them in a game.

These are some more special edition colorways.

The Air Penny line has about 4 or 5 different shoe models, and they just came out with the ones below about a month ago. The idea with

these is that they’re pulling elements from each shoe in the series and putting them into one shoe.

How's This for Government Intrusion Into Healthcare: Undercover Officers Posing as Patients to Expose Fraud by Doctors & Nurses

Conservative and Republican politicians have so many labels to choose from. They can be Blue Dogs, RhINOs (Republican in Name Only)...& Now,
the Hippo:

Republican Senator Exposes Himself as Complete Hypocrite.

Today's New York Times Health section's lead story is about how Sen. Tom Coburn (R. Okla.), who is himself an M.D., proposes to establish a network of undercover government agents to lay in hospital beds across the country to expose waste and fraud. This guy is one of the vocal Repubs. who have been fear mongering about Obama's government takeover of health. All the president wants to do is consolidate the buying power of uninsured Americans. Sen. Coburn wants to put agents in hospital rooms to spy on providers. Click on the photo or here for the full NYT story.


Health Care Reform Calculator
Also, if you want to know EXACTLY how the three health care reform proposals might effect you or you and your family, the California-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has a dynamic calculator here.

City of L.A. to Grade Banks it Invests Through

Alarcón's Report Card Proposal Moves Closer to Becoming Law

Richard Alarcón's proposed ordinance requiring financial institutions to submit local investment “report cards” about how socially responsible and committed to the local economy they are has been drafted and is one step close to becoming law. The ordinance is to be presented to the City Council within 45 days.

Currently, the City of Los Angeles has nearly $30 billion in investments, including savings and pension funds.

A source close to the councilman's recently confirmed to RepublicOfL.A. that he has had conversations with Arianna Huffington about her online newspaper, The Huffington Post's so-called "Move Your Money" campaign, encouraging people and institutions to abandon large banks in favor of smaller, community banks and credit unions.

However, the source made clear that Councilman Alarcón's proposed investment report card law is not an outgrowth of that movement.

“The City of Los Angeles has an obligation to ensure that not only are our taxpayers dollars spent properly, but that they are also invested in a way that gives the greatest benefit to our City, and the report card created by the Responsible Banking Initiative will give us the information we need so we can invest smarter,” said Councilman Alarcón.


The councilman said even better interest rates are not enough for the city give business to institutions that under serve the community.

"A slightly lower interest rate isn’t much of a deal, if the same bank is taking advantage of homeowners, refusing to issue small business loans or not opening branches or ATMs in low-income areas.”

Alarcón was joined by colleagues on the council who share the belief that the city's investment portfolio should be placed with financial firms that demonstrate a commitment to the city's residents and businesses.

“...This ordinance will put the City in a position to have a more meaningful relationship and ensure the banking industry is a partner in not only the investment aspect, but also the community benefit," said Councilman Bernard Parks.

Alarcón will be presenting the Responsible Banking Initiative to leaders of other cities during next week’s National League of Cities meeting.

Interestingly, a statement issued by Alarcón's office referenced the use of a "national model to promote investment in banks that are operating in a socially responsible manner, including investing back into local communities and providing much needed services to residents, especially those in lower-income areas."

As mentioned, there is a national movement afoot already: Huffington's "Move Your Money" campaign, which state legislators in New Mexico have attempted to do in recent weeks. It looks like L.A. is next.

While Los Angeles would be the biggest City to create comprehensive reporting requirements for banks wanting to do business with the City, it is not without precedent. In 2006, the Philadelphia City Council unanimously approved a law requiring all banks that do business with the City fill out a Statement of Community Reinvestment Goals within Philadelphia. This year, five states have introduced bills to look at how State deposits can be used to ensure reinvestment within their State.

Tonight: Baby Boomers Getting the Once Over on CNBC by Brokaw

...But, Will Boomers be Told the Truth About what They've Done for a Change?

Tom Brokaw's greatest contribution to the American mediascape may not be his role as an anchor on NBC; it may be his coining of the phrase "The Greatest Generation" to describe the once-young Americans who fought and won World War II. However, his treatment of another generation tonight on CNBC via a new documentary called "Boomers" derived from his book of a similar name, heaps another overdose of attention upon the already majorly overexposed Baby Boom generation. This time it's about how they're "facing aging" in these most challenging of economic times in, well, a generation."


A side note to our valued Baby Boomer readers: Forget about aging; you're aged! Well-aged. Old. There. You're old. Sorry; it's just a fact. You've been old for a few years now.

Bland Book

Brokaw's book, Boom! Voices of the Sixties, which was released in 2007, was described that year, by USA Today's Michael Minzesheimer as bland and better at descriptions than analysis. If the same turns out to be true for the documentary, he will have missed an opportunity to hold up a mirror to Boomers and ask them if they can see that what they did in the 1960s has not defined our world; it's what they did after the sixties that gave us the planet we walk today. In the 1980s the sold a nation the idea that greed was good. In the 1990s the fine-tuned that message by turning everything that wasn't bolted down over to corporate America. Rather than the more tangential message "Greed is Good," the mantra of the nineties gave us instructions. It was "Privatize! Outsource! Contract it out!"

Cheaters

A public school teacher recently told me a set of parents, whose daughter had been caught cheating on a final, protested the disciplinary action the school had decided to take by saying, "Come on, everybody cheats a little." The parents were likely Gen-Xers--my demographic--rather than Boomers.

I don't buy it. Not everybody cheats. But, that's the legacy of the Baby Boomer Generation.
Cheating is taking advantage of the trust of others. The others of whom the Boomers have taken advantage are the generations to come.

The Space Program as an Example

Their parents' generation gave Boomers the advantage of a highly accessible higher education system, the crown jewels of whose public university component may have been California's U.C. and CSU systems. But Boomers have decided to begin dismantling is in order to minimize their own pain as they continue aging. It's just too expensive now, they say. And yes, look at the ages of the politicians, administrators, corporate leaders, and even the largest demographic segment of taxpayers driving the deconstruction of nation's largest public university systems. They're boomers. Boomers represent about 25 percent of the U.S. population, weighing in at about 80,000,000 people, according to the U.S. Census.

To be sure, they've done great things. They've vastly improved race relations and increased human communication with technology and openness.

But, they dropped the ball or actually kicked it over the fence and onto the freeway (and in some cases told other generations to go get it), when it came to the economy, infrastructure, the environment, and the family unit.

Boomers have totally gutted U.S. manned space exploration. Think about what their parents did. They went to the moon--multiple times. We couldn't do that today if we wanted to. Think about where we find ourselves today in space: the shuttles are retiring; we're going to have to use the Russians rockets in order to get to the space station until the return to 1960s space-capsule technology is made real. Yes, that is the plan).

Kidding

Unfortunately, there are so many ways to point to the Boomers as being responsible for so much that is wrong with America today. It's sad. So, if Mr. Brokaw (aged 70, and not a Boomer) expects the youth of today to buy another sales pitch of the Baby Boom generation as being anything but a net failure, he's kidding himself and the Boomers too.

Mad as Hell: Los Angeles City Government Could Move Investments out of Large Banks

Chase, Other Bigs Fear Losing City's Multi-billion-dollar Portfolio

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcón recently ordered the city's legislative analyst to create a points system for grading the social responsibility of financial institutions that want to handle the city’s investment portfolio.


But Councilman Alarcón didn't stop there. He also said the city should, as Arianna Huffington has said both on her online newspaper, "The Huffington Post" and on network television, "Move Your Money." The "Your" in this case means the taxpayers of the City of Angels. The move would, presumably, be from big banks such as BofA and Chase to smaller community banks and perhaps even credit unions.
Alarcón proposed that the city create a “report card” to evaluate the number of small business loans provided, evidence of working with homeowners facing foreclosure, the number and location of branches and ATMs and the use of federal TARP funds.


“During these times of the financial meltdown and the federal bailout of big banks, it is more important than ever that we ensure that our money is being invested in institutions that are investing back in our community—not those that are taking advantage of our residents and ripping off their clients,” said Alarcón, whose district is in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley.


“Creating investment criteria will help us ensure the city is investing taxpayer money responsibly and making the most out of our multi-billion dollar portfolio.”
After a hearing on the city’s investment practices, Alarcón, who is chairman of the Jobs and Business Development Committee, led a contingent of union members, staff, members of the public, and media to the downtown offices of Chase Bank. Inside the bank’s lobby, the group delivered a letter demanding the bank act more responsively to the needs of the community.

Pictured above: L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcón (second from left) and an unnamed woman ask a bank employee at Chase Bank near City Hall to help get a letter of demands to Chase's Wall Street headquarters.

Below: A draft of the councilman's proposed report card for banks who want to handle L.A.'s investments:

Friday Film & Fold With Mom & Thom

...has been delayed so that we can perfect the feature.
Stay tuned; it will be worth the wait.

-Thom Senzee