LA Conversations: Exploring art, culture, craft, and entertainment in the city of Los Angeles

Judah Ray is the epitome of “putting in the footwork”. With multiple feature horror films and more on the way, we talk about playing with the audience’s expectations, working with razor thin low budgets, as well as the history of classic horror films. We also talk about the painstaking process of capturing a film authentically 1960s with the upcoming short Making Peace which has been garnering award after award on the festival circuit.

Sara Blowers is someone who radiates positivity, you cannot help but feel a lightness around her, which carries over into her classes as a yoga teacher, as well as her music, and general spiritual philosophy in life. Though my introduction to her was through the world of sound baths and singing crystal bowls, which for me, are one of the most intense forms of stimulating meditation, she teaches at multiple yoga studios throughout Los Angeles and performs Kirtan with her band.

Clèmence Gosset is the head of the Gourmandise School out in Santa Monica that teaches a wide variety of classes from bean to bar chocolate making, baking bread, handmade pasta, knife skills, fish techniques, and more, while also getting well known local chefs to teach their cultural cuisines. We chat everything from French food culture, to best bakeries in LA, the chocolate renaissance, and the farm bill.

Christine Cattell and I talk about identity, and the wide variety of roles and female identity that are present in today’s society. We discuss pursuing creative careers, mother guilt, how society reacts to career driven women having kids, the state of today’s education system, rebuilding your life after deep change has taken place, how she fought against ageism in the workplace and why this moment right now is what she calls “an exciting time for women”.

Alex De Rita had an interesting road to acting, all the way from being an orphan in Russia to baring everything as an underwear model in New York, now sharpening his acting skills here in Los Angeles. We talk about the moment when acting becomes real, what a great actor/director relationship looks like, how to forget the camera is there, the inconsistencies of speech and the surprise of response in believable conversation, and battling the dissociation of self between the individual and the character.

Patrick Tamisiea and I talk about the importance of comedy being divisive and the line between funny and offensive with today’s audiences. We dive into validation and neediness. We talk about feedback during the writing process, his intimate connection with the Farley family, and the state of stand up comedy today. We talk about why Santa Claus might be a pedophile, why a man named Kenneth is always wet, crooked bankers and headshots that go completely wrong.

JD Shultz comes from a long line of artists, and has now opened his own gallery on a lovely stretch of Tujunga Ave in Studio City. His art is colorful and playful, while also being introspective and pop culturally intertwined. His large scale paintings range from serious to abstract, and he has attracted notable collectors like Larry King and Kobe Bryant. His artwork also hangs in the Bellagio in Las Vegas, as well as the Four Seasons Hotels.

Monica Lago-Kaytis was talented Associate Producer with Disney Animation for many years. Then she won an intense fight with breast cancer and went on to found her own production company Frogbot Studios. We discuss female identity and diversity, especially within film and the film industry, how to listen and give credit, the process of optioning a book and developing your own ideas, how mainstream media shapes thoughts and beliefs, and what life is like before and after cancer.

Mimi is an incredible fabric artist and photographer. We talk about Kodak disc cameras, developing film in a bathtub in Paris, why jellyfish are basically fabric, and bubbling swirling vats of living indigo, along with capturing your world as a reminder of who you really are, why her sculpture shuns the human figure, and what advice she has for young artists.

Seth Benhaim is the founder of Infuse Spirits and Broken Barrel. When he was 25 years old, he became the youngest brand owner to ever win Best-in-Show and Double-Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Our conversation covers a wide variety of topics including what you can and can't age in vodka, and how the world of traditional aged whiskey is fragmenting and what’s next for the entire industry. We also did a live whiskey tasting on the show of three different whiskeys!