Results tagged “columbia”

I missed the boat on getting as many CDs reviewed as I wanted to in 2008 (a subtle hint at a 2009 resolution of mine) so here are some stellar albums that deserve more than the short mention they are receiving below:

Back then, he was known as Barry. After graduating high school in Hawaii, Barack Obama headed off to college where he spent two years, from 1979 to 1981, at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. His times there is said to have where his public service mindedness began, especially in his sophomore year, "growing increasingly aware of harsh inequities like apartheid and poverty in the third world." Then he wanted a wider urban experience and applied to Columbia, moving himself East. In this week's TIME magazine, a new and very young-looking photo set from his Oxy years appear. The aspiring photographer, Lisa Jack, had no idea she would be digging those photos up again years later.

Last year, Todd Sklar directed Box Elder, a hilarious coming-of-age college comedy, on a shoestring budget of only $70,000. It immediately found a following in the college town of Columbia, Missouri (where the film was shot on location) playing to sold-out audiences for a month straight. Sklar knew his film could find an audience outside Columbia, but instead of following the standard art-house film distribution model (show at festivals, sell to investors, then get a third-party distributor) Sklar took a cue from the music industry and decided to take his film "on tour" to promote the movie, much like a band would try to promote a new album.

The former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa, visited Los Angeles planners and MTA employees last week to spread some words of wisdom on transforming Los Angeles into a transit paradise.  Downtown News reported that his introduction to the group was pithy: "We [LA] were talking about [the solutions] and then Peñalosa just went and did it."  He did it with 1,200 urban parks, restricted car use in downtown Bogotá, and pedestrian-only streets (one...