LITTLE TOKYO DESIGN WEEK: FUTURE CITY  (LTDW) JULY 14 - 17, 2011

Japan and California are two of the world's centers of innovation in design and technology.

Come learn, meet, and celebrate the power and energy of cutting edge design and technology emerging from Japan and its intersection with current trends materializing in Los Angeles. LITTLE TOKYO DESIGN WEEK's community-wide events from art installations, seminars, film screenings, and much more are planned beginning Thursday July 14 to Sunday July 17. For event times and locations go to www.LTDesignWeek.com and at the end of this article (subject to change).

LTDW presents a series of programs that integrate Little Tokyo¹s Big Three cultural institutions Japanese American National Museum (JANM), Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC), and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Community partners, retailers, and restaurants and others will engage local and international designers, artists, architects,filmmakers, corporations, and students from the California region to explore possible scenarios for a New Urban Lifestyle.

Produced in collaboration with Community Arts Resources (CARS).

Judy Collins made a rare appearance in San Francisco selling out all of her performances from September 20 through October 1 at the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko.

Judy Collins is a true Renaissance woman. At 72, she's still going strong. She continues to write, perform, and lead her own record label. In addition to her own music and creative projects she nurtures and manages other artists. She is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, a painter, an author, and an in-demand keynote speaker.

2011 marks her 50th year as a performer with up to 80 to 100 concert dates across the country per year.

Judy Collins’ social history has always been linked with her musical history. As a social activist she is active in many causes, including UNICEF and the abolition of land mines.

Her latest projects to be released October 18, 2011 include a new book, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, a new album called Bohemian, and a new children’s book When You Wish Upon a Star.

If you are in San Francisco don't miss Judy Collins performing September 20 through October 1 at the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko!

Visit her official website www.JudyCollins.com

Click here for Judy Collins' concert schedule

A Conversation with Judy Collins
with Suzanne Joe Kai

Judy Collins chatted with Suzanne Joe Kai recently about her new projects, her creative spirit, and her upcoming performances in San Francisco and across the country.

Suzanne: I understand your new book

Concert pianist Lang Lang will be performing
in a live broadcast to theaters across the country on
Saturday October 22 at 8:00pm EST
(6:00pm MT/8:00pm PT tape delay).

A rebroadcast performance is scheduled for
Monday, October 24 at 6:00pm ET
(6:00pm MT/8:00pm PT). 

Tickets and the complete list of
theaters are available now at:

http://www.fathomevents.com

Heralded as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” by The New York Times, 29-year-old Lang Lang will grace silver screens across the country in a special cinematic concert event, featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Charles Dutoit. Lang Lang Live on Franz Liszt’s 200th Birthday is a live, classical music in-theater event in whichLang Lang will mark the 200th birthday of his hero, piano virtuoso and composer Franz Liszt, by performing Liszt’s famed Piano Concerto No.1, as well as some of the most celebrated solo pieces written for the piano. This Fathom event is the first classical music “cinemacast” headlined by a solo artist, and will also feature special footage shot at this summer‘s iTunes Festival, including behind-the-scenes

Live presentation Octoer 19, 2011

Orange County Japanese Americans in Battle and Behind Barbed Wire:
The World War II Experience of Orange County Nikkei in History and Memory

As a girl, Chizuko Judy Sugita DeQueiroz was forcibly removed from the West Coast
and confined by the U.S. government in a concentration camp. In Camp Days 1942-1945,
the artist depicts via watercolor paintings and verbal narratives her haunting memories.

Her presentation, based on her book, is entitled "Memories of Camp Days 1942-1945."

Dr. Arthur A. Hansen, professor emeritus of history and Asian American studies at
CSU Fullerton and the former senior historian at the Japanese American National Museum,
presents on the life, death, and treatment of Orange County's most famous hero in World War II,
Kazuo Masuda—and the culmination of the Japanese American redress and reparations
movement in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

His presentation is entitled "The Masuda Family of Orange County and the American Way."

Wednesday, October 19, 2011   4:00 - 8:30 pm

Meet at Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum
Call 657-278-3407 by Friday, October 14 to pre-register. (Appreciated, but not required.)

I strolled onto the stage at U.C. Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium after the screening of The Rum Diary, faced about 700 people and said, “Hello, I’m Johnny Depp.”

It was like being a Beatle. They knew full well who I am not, but unleashed a blend of screams and squeals, along with laughter. They could afford to be good-natured, because they knew that the real Johnny Depp was in the house.

The Rum Diary is his latest film, and it’s based on an early novel (circa 1960) by his late buddy Hunter S. Thompson. Depp, who portrayed Dr. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had planned to produce