Episode 23 - When Wim Wenders was in Portland for less than 24 hours…

Original Air Date: February 24, 2012

Current City producer Ivy Lin interviews German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer Wim Wenders:

I’ve been a fan of Wim Wenders since I saw Wings of the Desire over 10 years ago. When I was in Berlin visiting friends in May 2011, I thought it would be super cool for me to interview Wim Wenders for Current City but he was away at Cannes Film Festival for his most recent film Pina, a 3D stunning documentary about legendary dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. Little did I know that 10 months later, I would be sitting across from Wim for a pleasant 30-minute chat in Portland, Oregon! Wim was in Portland for less than 24 hours, on February 16th 2012, as part of the U.S. film tour for Pina.

Special thanks to IFC & Northwest Film Center for making this interview possible.

Excerpts from the “Pina” soundtrack were used with permission from IFC.

Photo by Matt Schulte.

Official Website for Pina

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Wim Wenders

Episode 22 - Barcelona: La Raval

Original Air Date: October 3, 2011

Current City producer Ivy Lin talks about skateboarding culture in Barcelona:

La Raval, formerly the working men’s quarter outside of the city wall of Barcelona, is now full of immigrants from all over the world—especially from Africa and the Middle East. It is possibly the most culturally diverse neighborhood in Barcelona.

On my second day in Barcelona, a warm Sunday night, I was heading back to my hotel from visiting an exhibit at CCCB (Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona). I walked into a mega skateboarding scene in front of MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Arts), where 50-60 skateboarders were skating in all directions on many different levels of open platform. Groups of people from all walks of life were hanging out around the platforms. It was truly a fiesta amongst skateboarders.

Via an impromptu interview with a resident in La Raval, I learned the history of skateboarding culture in the city of Barcelona. I also had a chat with Canadian architect Rafael Gomez-Moriana (who teaches architecture in Barcelona) about the history of La Raval and the design of CCCB & MACBA.

Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB)
Museum of Contemporary Arts (MACBA)

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Rafael Gomez-Moriana

Episode 20 – Hola, Barcelona

Original air date: July 4, 2011

Current City producer Ivy Lin talks about her recent experiences in Barcelona:

On May 21, 2011, I arrived in Barcelona on a hot, sunny day (85°F) after a smooth landing that won enthusiastic cheers from passengers on the airberlin flight. Soon after that I realized that airberlin did not check my luggage in time and that it was still in Berlin. So I arrived at Plaça de Catalunya on an airport bus, frustrated by the lost luggage and overwhelmed by the influx of people going in all directions. I was lost on La Rambla, the most touristy spot in the entire city. With the help of a clerk at a museum shop, I found my hostel, checked in and called my first friend in Barcelona, Lucy Garcia (a freelance TV producer and foodie). Lucy was among 25 new friends I would end up meeting by the end of my four-day stay in Barcelona. She invited me to Kasparo, a popular café in El Raval, and told me to look for someone with brown hair in a ponytail and big red lips! She also said that she should have warned me about the protests going on all over Spain since May 15 (15M*), a week prior to my arrival. Sitting in the hot sun on the terrace of Kasparo and hearing about Lucy’s experience at the 15M protest the night before I got there, I downed two cool Spanish beers by 4 p.m., including a clara con limón (one part beer and one part lemon soda).

What a dramatic first half-day in Barcelona!

*The protests were reported on Facebook and Twitter and are taking place all over Spain. People are fed up with the corruption and lies of politicians and bankers and the way the economic crisis is being manipulated to cut living standards for most people, while a minority still grows richer. Unemployment in Spain is now at 21 percent, with youth unemployment at 45 percent. The 15M protest continues today and more than 45,000 Catalans have participated in it since May 15.

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode 19 – Portland Experimental Music

Original air date: April 29, 2011

Current City Episode 19 features “Unrecognizable Now”—a Portland, Oregon duo that mixes live instrumentation with laptops and electronics to create unique music which is often described as cinematic. Each song is constructed from bits of found sounds and basement recordings reworked to form cohesive compositions. Guitars mix with sine waves, drumbeats are built from chance sounds and stuttering delays while melodies float in and out of focus. The songs move fluidly from one place to another, evolving and never returning to where they started. The two members of the group, Marc Fischer and Matt Jones, rely heavily on their skills as multi-instrumentalists and improvisors for both recordings and live performances. In this episode, Marc and Matt jam with cellist Ted Laderas on a Sunday morning music session.

Unrecognizable Now

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Marc Fischer
Matt Jones
Ted Laderas

Episode 18 – Portland: Deep Roots

Original air date: August 10, 2010

In March 2010, the St. Johns Poets, a group of seven girls in the Deep Roots Music Project and Civil Rights class at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, went on a pilgrimage to visit the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and other key locations related to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Their teacher Richard Brown, principal Charlene Williams and mentor Shei’Meka Newmann (of W+K Portland) traveled with them on this pilgrimage.

The St. Johns Poetry Sessions, Vol. IV was a recording project completed by these seven students and local musicians in Portland. Lyrics were poems written by the students. Local musicians composed the music, helping turn the poems into songs. Most of the songs were performed by local musicians except “Music My Everything.”

Featured music in order of appearance: “Understand Us,” written by St. Johns Poets, performed by Stephanie Schneiderman/Jeremy Wilson/Tony Smiley/St. Johns Poets; “Best Friend,” written by Dorian Erich, performed by DLUX THE LIGHT; “Our Past,” written by Elizabeth Jimenez-Lopez, performed by Liv Warfield; “Say,” written by Grace Chand, performed by Barry Hampton; “Music My Everything,” written by Tamera Lawrence, performed by Tony Smiley.

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Richard Brown
Charlene Williams
Shei’Meka Newmann

Episode 17 – Hong Kong Revisited

Original air date: July 13, 2010

Enjoy some Canton Pop as Iris Lo (former ECD of W+K Shanghai) took me around on Hong Kong Island, from Causeway Bay to Central where one can see the amazing mixture of Bauhaus-style and futuristic architecture. The day ended with my ride on Star Ferry back to Kowloon Peninsula and a late-night dinner at the Temple Street night market.

Music included in this episode is from Eric Kwok’s Leet Collection (in order of appearance): “One Flower” by Cass Phang, “One Step Higher” by Edmond Leung, “When the Wind is Blowing Again” by Leslie Cheung, “There Is Someone” by Jacky Cheung, and “I am Not Easy to Love” by Eason Chan.

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Iris Lo

Episode 16 – Oslo: The Mythical Songwriter and Author Jenny Hval

Original air date: June 11, 2010

Jenny Hval, one of the most versatile artists in Oslo, is better known by her musical alias “Rockettothesky.” As Rockettothesky, she has released the albums To Sing You Apple Trees (2006) and Medea (2008) and the EP Cigars (2006). 2006 was her breakthrough year, when she was nominated for a Spelemann Award as Best New Artist. Music in this episode, in order of appearance: “Grizzly Man,” “14, 15, 13, 14,” “I Stepped on a Toothbrush” and “Oh, Anna.”

Rockettothesky
Nude on Sand

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Jenny Hval

Episode 15 – Portland, While the City Sleeps

Original air date: May 11, 2010

Ivy Lin talks about Episode 15 of Current City:

I met Steve Oswald through the production of my feature documentary Come Together Home in 2009. I knew Steve first as a volunteer tombstone doctor at Lone Fir Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Portland. Then I realized that Steve has a day job as a city streetlight doctor whose job duties include a biweekly night ride around the city of Portland from 12 midnight until 6 a.m. Aside from occasional streetlight outage reports by citizens on the city’s Street Light Outage Hotline (503-823-5216), Steve is the first one to know which of the 57,000 city street lights need attention.

With special permission from his office, Steve took me along on one of his night rides around the city, making sure Portland’s street lights shine while the city sleeps. On a separate outing, Steve took me along while he was searching for sunken tombstones in Lone Fir Cemetery.

Music for this episode, in order of appearance: J.S. Bach, “Cello Suite No. 4 in E flat, BWV 1010, Bourree,” performed by Maurice Gendron; Leoš Janáček, “The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away” (from On the Overgrown Path), performed by Rudolf Firkusny; J.S. Bach, “Cello Suite No. 6 in D, BWV 1012 Allemande,” performed by Maurice Gendron; Leoš Janáček, “A Blown-away Leaf” (from On the Overgrown Path), performed by Rudolf Firkusny.

Street Light Division, Portland Dept. of Transportation
Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery
Come Together Home Trailer

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Steve Oswald

Episode 14 – My old ‘hood—Taipei

Original air date: April 5, 2010

Ivy Lin talks about Episode 14 of Current City:

This episode is possibly closest to my heart…a very sentimental journey indeed!

You will hear the sounds of the city where I grew up; the sounds of the yummy street food I miss so much; the sounds of bustling street vendors where my mom and I get the good buys; the uprooted feeling of being a visitor in a place I used to call home.

With the aid of some very sappy Taiwanese pop songs (see below), I was moved to tears during the editing of this episode. So come join me down memory lane in my old hood—Taipei!

Music for this episode is from New Greatest Hits II 2008 (Taiwan pop) and Missing You Compilation. Songs include “You Are a Song in My Heart” by Wong Li-Hong and Selina (duet in Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese), “Rainy Day” by Nan-Chuang MaMa, “Listen to Mom!” by Zhou Jie-Lun, “I Didn’t Realize You Were Right Next to Me” by Hsiao Hong-Ren and “Our Love Was a Game, a Dream” by Wang Jie.

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode 13 – Portland: The Art of Crossing NE 82nd Avenue

Original air date: March 10, 2010

At NE 82nd Avenue and NE Jonesmore Street in Portland, there is one MAX light rail station, two bus stops, one traffic island and two crosswalks. For years, commuters rushed across the street through the traffic island (instead of using crosswalks) to catch the bus once they exited the Max station. Traffic accidents took place due to fearless pedestrians and careless motorists at this very busy intersection.

The City of Portland, Oregon Department of Transportation and Portland Bureau of Transportation decided that a wall was needed on the traffic island at NE 82nd and Jonesmore, to force commuters to use the crosswalks when crossing the street.

In the spring of 2009, Justin Gorman (an installation artist) and Scott Pitek (architect) were commissioned by the City of Portland to design a sculpture fence. In late February 2010, when the wall was nearly completed, an activist group, “People’s Department of Transportation,” (PDOT) was formed due to their opposition to the wall. Elly Blue and Joe Biel are two of the founders of PDOT.

I invited the two designers of the wall and the two founders of PDOT for a chat about the wall on location at NE 82nd and Jonesmore in Portland.

Music for this episode is performed by Glenn Gould from Bach: The Two and Three Part Inventions and includes “Invention No.12 in A Major, BWV 783”; “Invention No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 784” and “Sinfonia No. 14 in B-flat Major, BWV 800.”

People’s Department of Transportation
Thirty Thousand Seconds
82nd Ave. Median Sculpture

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin

Episode Credits
Special Guests:
Justin Gorman
Scott Pitek
Elly Blue
Joe Biel

Episode 12 – Wong Kar-Wai’s Hong Kong

Original air date: February 13, 2010

Producer Ivy Lin talks about Episode 12 of Current City:

Being a huge fan of the legendary Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai, I was hoping to schedule an interview with him during my short stay in Hong Kong. Since I am no famous reporter and Wong Kar-wai is a very busy man, my dream to meet him in person didn’t come true for me this time.

Since I have never been to Hong Kong before, even though I am originally from Taiwan, I decided to see Hong Kong for the first time by visiting some film locations of my favorite Wong Kar-wai films: Chungking Express (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004).

My friend Iris Lo, formerly an executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, joined me on this Wong Kar-wai tour.

Music for this episode comes from the films mentioned above and includes “Chungking Express Theme,” by Frankie Chan and Roel A. Garcia; “Casta Diva (Norma),” by Angela Gheorghiu; “Aquello Ojos Verdes,” by Nat King Cole; and “What a Difference a Day Makes,” by Dinah Washington.

Wong Kar-Wai on Wikipedia

Show Credits
Produced By:
Ivy Lin