Events
Pico Iyer with Aimee Liu
An Afternoon with
Pico Iyer
in conversation with Aimee Liu
discussing his book,
A Beginner’s Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations
Ahmanson Auditorium
Museum of Contemporary Art
250 S Grand Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$40 Reserved Section + Book
$20 General Admission Section
*** Make an afternoon of it. Ticket includes admission to the museum, which opens at 11am.
— Pico Iyer Reflects on a Quarter-Century of Life in Japan, New York Times book review, April 22, 2019
Pico Iyer is the author of eight works of nonfiction and two novels. A writer for Time since 1982, he is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, and many other magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific. He splits his time between Nara, Japan, and the United States. His books include Video Night in Kathmandu (cited on many lists of the best travel books ever), The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, The Man Within My Head, The Open Road, The Art of Stillness and Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells. His novels are Cuba and the Night and Abandon.
Pico Iyer has previously appeared on the Live Talks Los Angeles. He was interviewed by Lisa Napoli on the impact of the modern era of connectedness on our ability to think, create, and participate in the world (video). He also interviewed Chris Anderson, Curator of TED (video), Andrew McCarthy (video), Paul Theroux (video), and Matthieu Ricard (video).
Aimee Liu is the author of the forthcoming novel Glorious Boy. Her other novels include Flash House; Cloud Mountain; and Face. Her memoirs include Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders and Solitaire. A past president of the national literary organization PEN Center USA, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College and is on the faculty of Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program at Port Townsend, WA. She previously interviewed Amy Tan at Live Talks Los Angeles.
“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”—Pico Iyer
From the acclaimed author of The Art of Stillness--one of our most engaging and discerning travel writers–a unique, indispensable guide to the enigma of contemporary Japan.
After thirty-two years in Japan, Pico Iyer can use everything from anime to Oscar Wilde to show how his adopted home is both hauntingly familiar and the strangest place on earth. “Arguably the world’s greatest living travel writer” (Outside). He draws on readings, reflections, and conversations with Japanese friends to illuminate an unknown place for newcomers, and to give longtime residents a look at their home through fresh eyes. A Beginner’s Guide to Japan is a playful and profound guidebook full of surprising, brief, incisive glimpses into Japanese culture. Iyer’s adventures and observations as he travels from a meditation-hall to a love-hotel, from West Point to Kyoto Station, make for a constantly surprising series of provocations guaranteed to pique the interest and curiosity of those who don’t know Japan, and to remind those who do of the wide range of fascinations the country and culture contain.
Debbie Harry & Chris Stein
Friday, October 4, 2019
8pm
Debbie Harry & Chris Stein
in conversation with Rob Roth
discussing her memoir,
Face It
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$100 First three rows (includes 2 books)* — SOLD OUT
$55 Orchestra section (includes book)
$45 Balcony section (includes book)
$30 Orchestra Section
$20 Balcony
* These tickets also include Chris Stein’s coffee table book, Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene.
Debbie Harry is best known as the face of Blondie, one of the most trailblazing and influential bands of our time. With co-founder Chris Stein, they brought the worlds of rock, punk, disco and ska together with Heart of Glass and Call Me and broke ground by combining hip-hop and pop on Rapture. Blondie was inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. As a solo artist, Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards co-produced her first release Koo Koo in 1981 and she continued to defy expectations with such genre-busting efforts as French Kissing in the U.S.A., Rush Rush, Rain, and The Jam Was Moving. Debbie has also had a long running collaboration with the critically acclaimed American jazz group, The Jazz Passengers, stalwarts of New York’s free-jazz scene. Her spectacular voice drips with a sophisticated elegance rarely heard in pop music and she continues to infuse her work with an exquisite artistic sensibility. With more than 50 million albums sold worldwide and acclaimed solo projects, Debbie has also engaged in a successful acting career with over 30 film and television roles to her credit (including Videodrome, Hairspray, and Heavy to name a few). She has become and still remains a true national treasure, one whose influence continues to impact the worlds of music, fashion and art. Debbie Harry will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us.
Chris Stein is co-founder, songwriter and guitarist of the iconic punk band and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Blondie, whose most recent studio album, Pollinator, was named one of Rolling Stone‘s 20 Best Pop Albums of 2017. Stein is also an acclaimed photographer whose eye for the perfect snapshot has given us some of the most indelible photos of the seminal people and places of New York City’s punk and new wave era. His coffee-table book, Negative – Me, Blondie and the Advent of Punk (Rizzoli), documents both the private and public moments of his remarkable life. It is also an intimate look at one of the most enduring creative partnerships in pop music: the collaboration between Debbie Harry and Stein, which has continued to enrich the magic of Blondie throughout the band’s illustrious career.
Rob Roth is a multidisciplinary artist and director. He works in a variety of media including theater, video, sculpture and performance. He has created works and collaborated with such music artists as Debbie Harry/Blondie, Lady Gaga, David Bowie and Rihanna, as well as performance artists, Narcissister, Julie Tolentino, Justin Vivian Bond (Kiki and Herb) among others. As an artist and believer in theater as ritual, Roth creates lyrical and mysterious works within a deconstructed narrative, including the site specific sound installation Night Paving on NYC’s Highline. Roth recently debuted his original multi layered performance piece Soundstage at HERE Arts featuring actor Rebecca Hall which the New York Times described as “deftly evokes the fleeting transition from wakefulness to dreaming”. He also directed the politically charged music video “Doom or Destiny” by Blondie featuring Joan Jett which appeared on several “Best of 2017” lists. Additionally Roth also just finished creative direction for Debbie Harry’s memoir Face It.
Face It
In an arresting mix of visceral, soulful storytelling and stunning visuals that includes never-before-seen photographs, bespoke illustrations and fan art installations, Face It upends the standard music memoir while delivering a truly prismatic portrait. With all the grit, grime, and glory recounted in intimate detail, Face It re-creates the downtown scene of 1970s New York City, where Blondie played alongside the Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie.
Following her path from glorious commercial success to heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy, and Blondie’s breakup as a band to her multifaceted acting career in more than thirty films, a stunning solo career and the triumphant return of her band, and her tireless advocacy for the environment and LGBTQ rights, Face It is a cinematic story of a woman who made her own path, and set the standard for a generation of artists who followed in her footsteps—a memoir as dynamic as its subject.
Brad Smith
Friday, October 4, 2019
7:45-8:15am Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:15am Talk followed by book signing
Morning Live Talks Business Forum with
Brad Smith,
President of Microsoft
in conversation with David Kirkpatrick
discussing his book,
Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
Gensler
500 South Figueroa Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90071
PURCHASE TICKETS*
$46 General Admission section (includes book)
$20 General Admission section (on sale Sep 4, 10am)
* All tickets include continental breakfast from 7:45-8:15am)
From Microsoft’s president and one of the tech industry’s broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.
Brad Smith is Microsoft’s president, where he leads a team of more than 1,400 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals working in 56 countries. He plays a key role in spearheading the company’s work on critical issues involving the intersection of technology and society, including cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, human rights, immigration, philanthropy and environmental sustainability. The Australian Financial Review has described Smith as “one of the technology industry’s most respected figures,” and the New York Times has called him “a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large.”
David Kirkpatrick is a journalist, commentator about technology, the founder of Techonomy and author of the bestselling book The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World. He spent 25 years at Fortune, and founded and hosted its Brainstorm and Brainstorm Tech conferences. In addition to writing for Techonomy, he contributes to Forbes and Vanity Fair. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering us and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.” —Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of The Innovators and Steve Jobs
“Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read Brad Smith’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. In Tools and Weapons, Brad and Carol Ann Browne wrestle with some of the world’s toughest technology challenges with common sense and valuable insight reflecting their inside experience. The ideas in Tools and Weapons won’t solve all our problems, but they’re a very good place to start.” —Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix
Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation.
In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world’s largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no preexisting playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech’s relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying “Microsoft memoir,” the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company’s most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.
Candace Bushnell with Susan Feldman
Candace Bushnell
in conversation with Susan Feldman
discussing her book,
Is There Still Sex in the City?
William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$42 Reserved Section + Book
$20 General Admission Section
— Candace Bushnell’s book reviewed in the New York Times.
Candace Bushnell is the critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle, The Carrie Diaries, One Fifth Avenue, Trading Up, Four Blondes, Summer and the City and Killing Monica. Sex and the City, published in 1996, was the basis for the HBO hit series and two subsequent blockbuster movies. Lipstick Jungle became a popular television series on NBC, as did The Carrie Diaries on the CW.
“You know the title. You watched the show. Maybe you even saw the movies. Candace Bushnell is back doing what she knows best: chronicling the lives of women and how they find love. This time, she turns her lens on middle-aged men and women, and the result is pure magic. At turns wistful and sad, thoughtful and funny, Is There Still Sex In The City? is even better than the original.”—POPSUGAR
Twenty years after her sharp, seminal first book Sex and the City reshaped the landscape of pop culture and dating with its fly on the wall look at the mating rituals of the Manhattan elite, the trailblazing Candace Bushnell delivers a new book on the wilds and lows of sex and dating after fifty.
Set between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a country enclave known as The Village, Is There Still Sex in the City? follows a cohort of female friends―Sassy, Kitty, Queenie, Tilda Tia, Marilyn, and Candace―as they navigate the ever-modernizing phenomena of midlife dating and relationships. There’s “Cubbing,” in which a sensible older woman suddenly becomes the love interest of a much younger man, the “Mona Lisa” Treatment―a vaginal restorative surgery often recommended to middle aged women, and what it’s really like to go on Tinder dates as a fifty-something divorcee. From the high highs (My New Boyfriend or MNBs) to the low lows (Middle Age Madness, or MAM cycles), Bushnell illustrates with humor and acuity today’s relationship landscape and the types that roam it.
Drawing from her own experience, in Is There Still Sex in the City? Bushnell spins a smart, lively satirical story of love and life from all angles―marriage and children, divorce and bereavement, as well as the very real pressures on women to maintain their youth and have it all. This is an indispensable companion to one of the most revolutionary dating books of the twentieth century from one of our most important social commentators.
Susan Feldman is the founder of In The Groove, a new life-style destination for age-defying women. Founded with a sense of humor, community, and self-awareness, In The Grooveis on a mission to free women from rules, age limits, and expectations.
Prior to In The Groove, Susan was the co-founder and visionary behind One Kings Lane, the go-to destination for home decor. Today One Kings Lane is a daily source of shopping and design inspiration for millions of people both online and offline One Kings Lane was sold to Bed, Bath & Beyond in June 2016. Susan remains a strategic advisor to the company.
Susan has been featured in national publications including Elle Décor, House Beautiful, INStyle, New York Magazine, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times. She has appeared on Bravo’s Million Dollar Decoratorsand NBC’s The Today Show. Susan was named to Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” list twice in the past six years.
Prior to co-founding One Kings Lane, Susan held executive positions in the apparel industry—at Ralph Lauren Swimwear, Polo Jeans, Warnaco/Authentic Fitness Corp., and Liz Claiborne.
George Will with Larry Wilmore
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
8pm
George Will
in conversation with Larry Wilmore
discussing his book,
The Conservative Sensibility
Zipper Hall
The Colburn School
200 S Grand Ave,
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$55 Reserved Section (includes book)
$45 General Admission section (includes book)
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm) + Reserved Section (includes book)
$20 General Admission section
— “George Will’s Political Philosophy,” a review of The Conservative Sensibility by Andrew Sullivan (New York Times, June 3)
George F. Will writes a twice-weekly syndicated column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs for the Washington Post. He began his column in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977. He is also a regular contributor to MSNBC and NBC News. His fourteen previous books include One Man’s America, Men at Work, and Statecraft as Soulcraft. Will grew up in Champaign, Ill., attended Trinity College and Oxford University and received a PhD from Princeton.
“A monumental achievement. The Conservative Sensibility is not a ‘Washington book’ about partisan politics–it’s much bigger than that. It’s a career capstone that will stir your soul with its passionate reminder of what conservatism really means. Buy it, read it, share it.”
―Senator Ben Sasse, New York Times-bestselling author of Them and The Vanishing American Adult
The Conservative Sensibility is a new reflection on American conservatism, examining how the Founders’ belief in natural rights created a great American political tradition – one that now finds itself under threat.
For more than four decades, George F. Will has attempted to discern the principles of the Western political tradition and apply them to America’s civic life. Today, the stakes could hardly be higher. Vital questions about the nature of man, of rights, of equality, of majority rule are bubbling just beneath the surface of daily events in America.
The Founders’ vision, articulated first in the Declaration of Independence and carried out in the Constitution, gave the new republic a framework for government unique in world history. Their beliefs in natural rights, limited government, religious freedom, and human virtue and dignity ushered in two centuries of American prosperity. Now, as Will shows, conservatism is under threat – both from progressives and elements inside the Republican Party. America has become an administrative state while destructive trends have overtaken family life and higher education. Semi-autonomous executive agencies wield essentially unaccountable power. Congress has failed in its duty to exercise its legislative powers. And the executive branch has slipped the Constitution’s leash.
In the intellectual battle between the vision of Founding Fathers like James Madison, who advanced the notion of natural rights that pre-exist government, and the progressivism advanced by Woodrow Wilson, the Founders have been losing. It’s time to reverse America’s political fortunes.
Expansive, intellectually thrilling, and written with the erudite wit that has made Will beloved by millions of fans, The Conservative Sensibility is an extraordinary new book from one of America’s most celebrated political writers.
Emmy Award winner Larry Wilmorehas been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. He can currently be heard as host of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. The show features Wilmore’s unique mix of humor and wit as he weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond.
Wilmore is perhaps best known for his role as host of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, which debuted in January 2015 and ran for nearly two years. Off-screen, Wilmore serves as co-creator and consulting producer on HBO’s Insecure, a half-hour comedy series starring Issa Rae that details the awkward experiences and racy tribulations of a modern-day African-American woman. Wilmore also helped to launch ABC’s Black-ishas an executive producer.
Previously, Wilmore made memorable appearances as the “Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and hosted his own Showtime “town hall”-style comedy specials, Larry Wilmore’s Race, Religion & Sex. He has written for In Living Color, The PJ’s (which he co-created), The Office(on which he has appeared as Mr. Brown, the diversity consultant), and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.He also served as creator, writer, and executive producer of The Bernie Mac Show, which earned him a 2002 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series” and a 2001 Peabody Award.
In April 2016, Wilmore hosted the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, DC. His first book, I’d Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts, was published in January 2009.
Bob Iger with Brian Grazer
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
8pm
Robert Iger
in conversation with Brian Grazer
discussing his memoir,
The Ride of a Lifetime:
Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
The Alex Theatre
216 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203
PURCHASE TICKETS*
$67.50 Premium Section (first 6 rows) + signed book
$47.50 Orchestra Section + Signed book
$22.50 Orchestra Section (on sale September 3, 10am)
* All tickets include $2.50 Facility Restoration Fee
The CEO of Disney, one of Time’s most influential people of 2019, shares the ideas and values he embraced to reinvent one of the most beloved companies in the world and inspire the people who bring the magic to life.
Robert Iger is chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Prior to this position, he served as president and CEO beginning October 2005 and president and COO from 2000 to 2005. Iger officially joined the Disney senior management team in 1996 as chairman of the Disney-owned ABC Group and in 1999 was given the additional responsibility of president, Walt Disney International. In that role, Iger expanded Disney’s presence outside of the United States, establishing the blueprint for the company’s international growth today. As chairman of the ABC Group, Iger oversaw the broadcast television network and station group, cable television properties, and guided the merger between Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company. He began his career at ABC in 1974.
Brian Grazer is an Oscar-winning producer and New York Times bestselling author. His films and television shows have been nominated for forty-three Academy Awards and 195 Emmys. His credits include A Beautiful Mind, 24, Apollo 13, Splash, Arrested Development, Empire, 8 Mile, Friday Night Lights, American Gangster, and Genius, among others. He is the author of Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection and the New York Times bestseller A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. Grazer was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and is the cofounder of Imagine Entertainment along with his longtime partner, Ron Howard.
“Nurturing creativity is less a skill than an art—especially at a company where the brand alone is synonymous with creativity. That’s a lot to live up to. Bob Iger has not only lived up to ninety-six years of groundbreaking history but has moved the Disney brand far beyond anyone’s expectations, and he has done it with grace and audacity. This book shows you how that’s happened.”—Steven Spielberg
Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company’s history. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think bigger—think global—and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.
Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world, counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and he is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our era.
In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger shares the lessons he’s learned while running Disney and leading its 200,000 employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership, including:
• Optimism. Even in the face of difficulty, an optimistic leader will find the path toward the best possible outcome and focus on that, rather than give in to pessimism and blaming.
• Courage. Leaders have to be willing to take risks and place big bets. Fear of failure destroys creativity.
• Decisiveness. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can be made on a timely basis. Indecisiveness is both wasteful and destructive to morale.
• Fairness. Treat people decently, with empathy, and be accessible to them.
This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as the lowliest studio grunt at ABC. It’s also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the Star Wars mythology.
This Live Talks Los Angeles event is presented in association with Glendale Arts.
Ticket sales are final. We do not offer refunds, except in the case of event cancellations or changes to dates of events if you cannot make the rescheduled date.