What does it mean to “loiter”? To occupy and frequent a space without a monetary transaction or other purposeful agenda in mind? This episode, we look at modes of Social Practice  Occupy L.A. as Performing Public Space continues it’s Come in; We’re Open show at the Da Vinci Gallery at Los Angeles City College.  The show continues through April 16th. Artist Chris Cuellar will host a loitering session on April 9th, from 9am-5pm on the campus of Los Angeles City College.

Here’s your chance to revisit Occupy L.A. on the day the authorities tore down the encampment at City Hall in November of 2011 and protesters moved, for a brief respite, to the Los Angeles State Historic Park only to be greeted by a falanx o LAPD and Sheriff’s officers waiting for something bad to happen. Why do we care now? Just listen…

On this episode:

“Whenever I see a plain, industrial building, I just have to wonder: who’s being screwed behind those frosted, black windows?”  -Robby Herbst, Llano del Río collective on the Antagonist’s Guide to the Assholes of Los Angeles.

“When you are at kilometer 30…that’s when the pain and the absurdity of the marathon come into focus.”  -Fernando Llanos, visual artist from Mexico City on running the Los Angeles Marathon.

featuring original music and covers by Mi Reyna.

This episode, we launch a three-part series from radio art collective, RadioSonideros called Air. Water. Earth. It was first broadcast as part of a floating radio station on the Staten Island Ferry in 2007: The FM Ferry Experiment.  

Also in the show: Mexico City, mega-city of horrid air quality wins a sustainable transport award for it’s  Eco-Bici program…The films of Jean Rouch, and a follow-up to our Pit Bull show.

Dogs are a man’s (or a woman’s) best friend. They teach us. We teach them. For better or for worse, dogs are our creation– historically owing the existence of their kind to humans, and as such, they are our responsibility. The shelters are full of dogs that people could not handle. What to do about it?

Larry Hill with his dog, Ryder.

Petey was a Pit Bull

Puppies waiting for the training circuit

There is no more vilified dog in today’s society than the Pit Bull, AKA The American Staffordshire Terrier, The Pit Bull Terrier, The American Bull Terrier, The Pit Bull.  This breed has been outlawed or restricted in cities across the state and the country because of attacks on humans and on other dogs. It’s not the first time a breed has been maligned and it won’t be the last. But, there is a duality in these dogs, and they look to people for guidance. This episode takes us to two non-profits trying to do right by the most rejected breed of the day, Puppy Imprinters, and The Downtown Dog Rescue.

On the week before the November 6th general election, we visit Men’s Central Jail in downtown L.A. to witness a first-time-ever push by a coalition of community organizations and volunteers to register inmates and former felons who are eligible to vote in Los Angeles County. Listen to Hear in the City live on KPFK on Tuesday at 2:30PDT for election coverage from the swing-state of Nevada.

Jump to the end of the show to hear the delightful voices of the Los Angeles Theater Academy‘s Do-Re-Mi LATA children’s choir in honor of El Día de los Muertos.

We enter a collection drawn from old boxes recently found in a house sold after the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. The boxes belonged to the hard-working and versatile photographer, Lola Alvarez Bravo. Inside, was a treasure of documents and unedited photos and correspondence from a half century of travel and changing times. The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California is showing the collection to the public for the first time. Our arts editor, Jesse Lerner, interviews the curators of the show, Rachel Arauz and Adriana Zavala. View an archive of Lola’s photos at the Center for Creative Photography in Arizona.

Underground techno and house parties of the 90’s in L.A. may seem a thing of the past in today’s high-profile and expensive atmosphere of raves like the HARD Fest and the chemically-saturated Electric Daisy Festival. In the second half of the show, our music contributor Alvaro Parra has a postcard for us from today’s underground L.A., at Love Fix where party hosts like Xavier De Enciso are well-educated, community-oriented promoters who can still be low-profile while drawing enough cash to come back next month without blowing their cover today…it’s all about the music, the dj’s and the dancing.

On this episode, we visit a humble house on a winding road in the hills of Los Angeles where a group of artists turn one family’s mortgage default and foreclosure story into a lens for looking at a larger problem. With “A Notorious Possession”, artist Olga Koumoundouros squats the abandoned house across the street, paints it gold, and holds economic justice parties.

We wrap up the show with a tribute to Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”.  Our arts editor Jesse Lerner reads from a first-hand account of the premier performance, 100 years ago in Paris. The ballet, inspired by pagan vernal equinox rituals, was so ill-received on first-performance that it inspired outbursts and boo’s loud enough to drown out the entire orchestra. The Rite of Spring will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on September 28th: http://www.laphil.com/tickets/dudamels-rite-of-spring/2012-09-28.

This episode of Hear in the City takes us on a journey to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at Camp Afflerbaugh, one of the 19 juvenile probation camps in Los Angeles County. Affirmative Athletics director Rob Thelusma introduces us to a one-of-a-kind football program designed to instill integrity, discipline, and dignity to the boys who live here.

And our new correspondent, Alvaro Parra, takes us to the Watts Labor Community Action Center to visit Inner Circle Youth, a D.J. project for teens.

(Broadcast on KPFK, 90.7FM, in Los Angeles on September 4th, 2012).

photo by Cannon Bernáldez: www.cannonbernaldez.com

Sara was walking through the park looking for a place to photograph a tin house when she noticed a life-size plastic horse being pulled up a ravine on a stretcher by a small team of uniformed rappelers with helmets. As it turns out, this is the Los Angeles Animal Services Small Animal Rescue Team, a one-of-a-kind, highly-trained group of animal control officers who work in shelters around the city and come together twice a month for a full-day practice for dangerous rescue situations.

You can watch them on youtube. In the second half of the program, our arts editor, Jesse Lerner, visits an indy, non-profit, puppet-theater Automata at their new home for the inaugurating puppet-show about genocide and race riots.

photo: http://www.automata-la.org/calendar.htm

The direct encounter with a wild predator in the urban context is exhilerating, unsettling, and urgent. Something has to happen. On this episode of Hear in the City, Sara confronts a coyote on the street in broad daylight, sending it back up into the hills. Glen Berian followers, take heed. This is not about media spectacle and novel attraction. This about responsible coexistence with animals that deserve respect and awe. We contemplate evolution and inter-species breeding with a visit to a real coydog in a yard on Figueroa Street.