Exclusives, MAR/APR 05

APPLE PIE - A Bite Out of Cultural History
Just how American is apple pie?
by CALIFORNIA KAY, guest writer

We’ve all heard one of the most patriotic and appetite-inducing phrase many times over: “As American as apple pie.” No other idiom stirs the salivary glands, although “That’s how the cookie crumbles” and “There’s the icing on the cake” come pretty close. But just how genuinely American is America’s beloved classic dessert? Of course, questioning the “American-ness” of the American Apple Pie is bound to stir pride of some, but we can’t always have our cake and eat it too. Nonetheless, here’s the tantalizing story of how a great dish became the favorite of a great nation . .



ART GALLERY - Jack Rutberg Runs a Unique 'Museum'
Rutberg's gallery brings poignant pieces of history to Los Angeles
by SIMONE KUSSATZ, special guest writer

A self-made man, Jack Rutberg discovered his love for the arts on "rainy and melancholy days", where he would find himself mostly in museums. Never having received any formal training, he was to learn about the arts, in much the same as he had acquired English, while being a French speaker upon his arrival in the United States. That Rutberg's passion would one day form into a long-lasting career was not intentional. "What at first only seemed to be a hobby, later got out of control", he said. "It was a revelation."



FILMMAKER - A Mendelssohn in Hollywood
The filmmaker Henry Jaglom is a descendant of the great German-Jewish thinker
by SIMONE KUSSATZ, special guest writer

... He has also directed and written the screenplays of films, such as A SAFE PLACE (1971), SOMEONE TO LOVE (1988), VENICE, VENICE (1992), DEJA VU (1999) and FESTIVAL IN CANNES (2002), in which he worked with Jack Nicholson, Maximilian Schell, Anouk Aimee and Greta Scacchi...

Jaglom's films often deal with women's issues – but not in the usual Hollywood manner. "Hollywood so neglects women's real stories and real lives and indulges in male fantasies about women that have little to do with the reality of women's lives," the filmmaker said.



SPANDANA - An Indian Classical Music Concert
by MADHAVI KARUNAKARAM AND N. RAMACHANDRAN, special guest writers

Perfection is like a horizon, the closer you go towards it, the further it moves away. Then why do human beings have this obsessive passion to reach perfection?

In any field to attain perfection is not easy. In Hindu philosophy, we say a perfect person is one who has attained ‘mukti’ or enlightenment. In Indian Classical music it is all about ‘hitting’ that perfect swara or note.