‘Friday Nights with Nautica’ & ‘The Rahner Report’

ICYMI: Hour Two of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – ‘Friday Nights’ with L.A. Radio Legend Nautica De La Cruz checking out “The Hammer Museum” AND highlighting today’s ‘Hidden Gem,’ with Jennifer Werber, and “Extraordinary Families” which is a Foster Family Agency committed to making a positive impact on children’s lives…PLUS - Mark Rahner reviews the new Jennifer Lopez action-fueled sci-fi Netflix release “Atlas” in ‘The Rahner Report’ - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kellyon demand from KFI AM six forty.
It's now time for Friday Nights withNauticadila Cruz. Thank you so very much.
Mo. Well, this past weekI discovered a nice little hidden gem
of the Hammer Museum in west Village. The addresses one zero eight nine nine
Wilshop Boulevard in Westwood of Village.Now it's open Tuesday through Sunday, eleven

(00:25):
am to six pm. It isgoing to be a closed on Memorial Day,
and I'm going to kind of giveyou a recap of this amazing museum.
By the way, it is absolutelyfree. We love that word,
right free ski free nineteen nine nine. Well. The Hammer Museum was founded
by doctor Armand Hammer, from aformer chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation. Hammer

(00:47):
graduated from Columbia College in nineteen nineteenand received his medical degree from the Columbia
College of Physicians and Surgeons in nineteentwenty one, but he never practiced medicine.
Went to school all those years,but never practiced medicine. The Hammer
Museum is located in Westwood Village andhas three floors with an entrance to the

(01:07):
courtyard where you see this intricate ThomasHeatherwick sponge chair. Now you must sit
in one of the chairs. There'sabout eight of them in the courtyard.
It's a weird chair, but believeit or not, it is very,
very comfortable. Now on the terracelevel number three, you'll see the exhibit
called Groove, and they have artfrom the fifteen hundreds to now. It

(01:34):
features more than eighty prints. NowGroove presents works across five hundred years of
art by Albert Durr, Rembrandt,Ernest, Ludwig Kirchner, Mark Bradford,
Grayson Perry, and perhaps one ofthe most influential artists of the twentieth century.
Take a guess. Okay, yousaid Pablo Picasso. That's correct,

(01:57):
Pablo Picasso. Yeah, I guesshe's twenty. It's interesting like he's maybe
nineteenth century. Yes, well,check this out. I had never seen
any of Pablo Picasto's real art ondisplay. Now, I've seen art books,
replica posters or magazines, but toactually see a piece of art of
his was just phenomenal. I gotto see the winged bowl watched by four

(02:23):
children, which was beautiful. Thatparticular piece was etched in nineteen thirty four.
It is so detailed and every markand line makes the picture whole.
Now, the second piece of hisartwork was the Frugal Repass, which was
etched in nineteen oh four. Now, this piece of art shows an impoverished

(02:45):
kind of couple at a sparse table. I'm sure you've probably seen it in
a few magazines. Now, manyof the pieces of the exhibit Groove are
in black and white, and Imust say that some of the piecesmo are
a little dark, may even looka little violent, not too graphic.
But after all, it's art andyou don't know how that artist was feeling

(03:07):
that day when they were, youknow, sketching or painting. Now,
as you move on to gallery numberfive, the Armanhammer collection, that's the
one that is there to say,you kind of see the quite opposite from
the dark gallery to this one,which is very colorful. It also has

(03:28):
art from Gustave Moro an oil oncanvas called King David, which is beautiful
from eighteen seventy eight, which isvery colorful, and it depicts the story
of seated on this throne looking pensivelytowards an angel that is perched at his
feet. Also on display is theView of Bodhidega, which was painted in

(03:49):
eighteen eighty four by none other thanClaude Monette, and the Hospital at Saint
Remy from eighteen eighty nine, paintedby the very miss Vincent van Goeel.
Of course, last, but notleast, the painting that probably sticks out
the most, and when you seeit, it's like, ah, you

(04:10):
have this aha moment. It isfrom the Hammer collection also and it's called
Juno, the wife of Jupiter,King of Gods. Juno was particularly associated
with marriage and wealth. Now,the frontal post creates an effect of calm
majesty, which is reinforced by herwidely spaced, large eyes and even illumination

(04:32):
over her face and her body.Now this piece is stunning. And when
I say bold colors, I meanbold colors. The Hammer Museum is one
of the nicest museums that Southern Californiahas to offer. So don't forget to
stop by the Hammer Store, whereyou could also buy art books, different
types of pottery, and even someart supplies if you're into art. Some

(04:55):
parts of the gallery are closed rightnow due to remodeling, but they will
open and there is a new exhibitstarting Saturday, June eighth, twenty twenty
four. You could also visit theirwebsite for some great summer activities for the
kids, the family and great datenights. Hammer Museum is located at one
zero eight nine nine Wilshire Boulevard.Like I said, it's open Tuesday through

(05:17):
Sunday, eleven am to six pm. It will be closed on Memorial Day.
And for more information you could goto Hammer dot UCLA dot edu.
That's Hammer dot UCLA dot ed U. And I just want to tell you
a side note too. So Iwas talking to one of the curators there.
Because I always like to ask questions, I would say that I'm a

(05:39):
reporter from KFI and a fall allthe time. But I was talking to
one of the curators there and Isaid, you know, what did you
know doctor Hammer actually do? Andso they told me, you know,
he went to medical school, buthe never practiced medicine. And they and
I said, is there anything thatI should really know, you know,
other than Wikipedia? She said,well, there is a sad note and

(06:00):
I said, what is that?So the museum opened in November of nineteen
ninety and he passed away December ofnineteen ninety. He never got to see
the opening of our museum. Iwas like, excuse me, can you
repeat that again? She was likeyes. So he was traveling and by
the time he came over back tothe States, he didn't get to see

(06:23):
the opening of the museum. Andalso, here's a side note. Because
his name is doctor Arman Hammer,he was not the owner of Armin Hammer
brand. You know, the bakerknew that there's going to be a baking
soda reference in this conversation at thispoint, so let me just jump in.
Baking soda is arm uh huh andhammer m M hammer exactly. But

(06:46):
the funny thing was when this companywas opened, because his name was so
relative to the you know, tothe baking soda company, let's just call
it that, they thought that heowned it. But ironically he was an
investor and one day he wanted toopen it to own it because of his
name. So there is a backdoorconnection to it. It is, yes,

(07:09):
but it's arm aarm and hammer,not armand hammer. So there you
going right. The more you know, I thought it was absolutely fascinating,
but it really is a beautiful museum. And I picked up a catalog and
the catalog is huge, so justreal quick on a reference. They have
art lectures, screenings, family flicks, jazz in the Courtyard, and summer

(07:35):
night movies. And like I said, go to their website. They have
a calendar from May all the waytill September. And that's Hammer dot UCLA
dot edu. And we'll have morewith Natica de la Cruz that she has
her weekly hidden Gym. In justa moment, you're listening to later with

(07:55):
Moe Kelly on Demand from KFI AMsix forty. Let's pick it back with
Nardica della Cruz. Thank you somuch, Mo, I said, May
Mo so much. Man now,but this ang major you want to kind
of start busting out at some hiphop, all right? Today's Hidden Jem
is Jennifer Werber. Jennifer Werber,Los Angeles, California native was born and

(08:16):
raised in San Fernando Valley. Froma young age, Jennifer's value centered around
family, friendship, love, andkindness. Her innate caretaking nature led her
to believe she would one day becomea mother. With a particular inclination towards
adoption, Jennifer's journey towards fostering andadoption was deeply influenced by her close friendship

(08:39):
with someone who experienced childhood in thefoster care system. Witnessing her friend's longing
for stability, love, and familyleft a profound impact on her. Additionally,
after facing her own challenges with fertility, Jennifer made a decision to pursue
becoming a foster to adopt parent.Driven by her desire to provide a loving

(09:03):
and stable home for a child inneed, Jennifer delved into understanding the foster
care system in Los Angeles. Shewas shocked and saddened to learn that there
are over thirty thousand children in fostercare in Los Angeles and wanted to help
at least one of these children.She discovered Extraordinary Families, a foster family

(09:24):
agency committed to making a positive impacton children's lives. Following training and of
course, paperwork, Jennifer became certifiedas a foster to adopt parent. Over
four years, Jennifer welcomed four infantsinto her home, including three newborns she
brought home from the hospital. Thoughadoption did not materialize, Jennifer remains in

(09:50):
contact with her last foster child,now three years of age, and cherishes
the bond she shares with him andhis family. While while no longer an
active foster parent, Jennifer continues toserve as a proud ambassador for Extraordinary Families.
She passionately supports and advocates for thoseconsidering fostering, drawing from her own

(10:13):
experience and insights. Jennifer's journey alsointersects with her good friends, who introduce
her to Extraordinary Families and have sinceadopted three wonderful boys. She is thrilled
to be a part of their family'sjourney. Extraordinary Families is dedicated to helping
children and youth in foster care tohave the childhood, childhoods, and futures

(10:39):
they rightly deserve. Their vision isthat every child, youth, and family
and child welfare should have the abilityto achieve their hopes, fulfill their dreams,
and absolutely thrive. You could alsolearn more, get involved, volunteer,
fundraise, or donate at Extraordinary Dinaryfamiliesdot org. That's Extraordinary Families dot

(11:03):
org and one hundred percent of thedonations will go towards helping children and youth
and need. Extraordinary Families is locatedin Los Angeles and for more information,
if you're interested their numbers two onthree, three, six, five,
twenty nine hundred. And I haveto say Jennifer has a really really big

(11:26):
heart. You could just see herglow when she talks about the children that
she has foster. And I thinkit takes a big heart, love patience
to foster a child and to knowyou want to give them love and a
future is extraordinary. And I alwayssay you don't have to be blood to

(11:46):
be related to have it to bea parent. It's really all about who
gives you love, who gives youwarmth, who gives you a home,
who gives you TLC and you knowit. Also, I believe it takes
a little courage to be a fosterparent and to go through this system and
to also know when you bring achild from the hospital, you know what

(12:09):
what what kind of circumstances or whatdoes this entitle? What? You know,
how was the mother did? Wasthis child well nourished? Was was
you know? Was she taking herprenatal vitamins? So it's it's also kind
of a risk. But I seeI think sometimes that people who foster infants
or children, it's kind of thewhat you know, it's kind of the

(12:31):
unknown. You have to be aspecial individual, and I mean this in
the most positive way, a specialindividual to become a foster parent, to
be able to take relative strangers intoyour home. They're unsure about you,
you're unsure about them because you don'tknow each other. You haven't had the
time to bond, and you don'tknow if you will have the long term

(12:56):
potential or opportunity to bond. Andchildren may come in and out of your
life, and you try to bethe best you can for them for that
time in their lives. I thinkit's amazing how people can undertake that responsibility
again and again and again, openup their hearts and open up their houses
for these children who need some degreeof stability. It is true, you

(13:18):
know, at my previous home,right next door to me was a good
neighbor, and she had her herhusband is a pastor, and she was
a teacher, and she had achild of her own. Now, her
first child came with complications, andso she decided she was scared to have
her second child, so she decidedshe wanted to foster. She ended up

(13:41):
adopting five other children, so shehas a family of six. But I
remember the last one she adopted.It was kind of a story because she
adopted this little boy and he cameas an infant, but his mother had
been on substance abuse and so shethe child would cry a lot, and

(14:05):
it was very fidgety and colicky andjust cried, cried, cried. I
would always hear, you know,the infant cry. And one day I
saw her walking in the stroller andI said, you know, I said,
do you ever need a break?You know, you could just call
me, and she's like no,I'm okay. I was like okay,
but you can see this face oflike ah. And so anyways, so

(14:26):
they the mom decided she wanted himback, and it crushed her. It
just crushed her. But the momalso had six other children. This was
her seventh baby, and so shewas very sad because at the same time,
she was like, you have sixother children, you're barely taking care

(14:46):
of them, and here's your seventhone. And anyways, long story short,
she ended up getting the little boyback. So she adopted it,
and it was it was it wasnice to see that the you know,
it just came full circle and she'sgiven this this little boy a great home,
lot of love and she's also whatdo you call it, she's a

(15:09):
teacher, but she does a homeschoolingculture, so you know, and she
has the patience and she's a reallyreally good mom. And I think that,
you know, for you to evenfoster a child, like you said,
it takes that kind of a personwith patience, and it's it's like
a different kind of caliber of anindividual, you know what I mean.
But Jennifer Werewer, thank you forgiving me your story, for telling me

(15:33):
your story, and I know asan ambassador you will do amazing things for
extraordinary families. And for more informationonce again, you could go to Extraordinary
Families dot org. That's Extraordinary Familiesdot org. You could also call them
at two one three, three sixtyfive twenty nine hundred if you'd like to
get involved. You're listening to Laterwith Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM

(15:56):
six forty. Sty's way, Wellmo Kelly. Turning up now is The
Run Report with Mark Ronner. TonightAtlas a new science fiction action movie with
Jennifer Lopez on Netflix now. MostDATEA passed his bedtime to watch it last
night. I'm going to open upthe floor after I've unburdened myself here.

(16:18):
When I reviewed a movie called TheCell back in two thousand, I wrote
something along the lines of, ifwe had to rely on acting to save
lives, Jennifer Lopez would be responsiblefor mass graves. However much you might
like her, she was more ofa star than an actress, and putting
her up against Bencent Donofrio didn't doher any favors in that movie. That
said, she's been in some reallygood movies. The Cell is actually a

(16:40):
near classic despite j LO, andOut of Sight's another great one, just
to name a couple. Steve McQueen'sanother example of this kind of thing i'm
talking about. He's always been oneof my favorites. I'm talking about actors
of what you might generously call limitedrange. They got to find the right
parts, and when they don't choosewell, a movie can highlight their limits.
But when they do, they canbecome iconic. For instance, Steve

(17:02):
McQueen smartly turned down Close Encounters andCuckoo's Nest. He did other stuff better.
J LO could learn from McQueen.Atlas certainly is topical. Takes place
in a future where AI's ruined theEarth and neurlinks or Commonplace, and j
Lo plays the titular Atlas Shepherd,a brilliant analyst who has to save humanity.

(17:22):
Here's some of the trailer. Goodmorning, Atlas, time to wake
up. I'm away Agent Atlas Shepherdhas spent years of her life on the
artificial intelligence still was Harlem originally engineeredto advance humanity instead nearly ended it.

(17:45):
If you really want to try tocapture Harlem, you need me a Mapisi
mayday, we are under attack.That's Sterling K. Brown telling Jlo to
strap into a big robotic Mecca thingwhile everybody's exploding all around him. Where
everything's exploding. He gets all thebest lines in the movie and he's not

(18:08):
in that much of it. Ohmy god. Okay, this is that
a good show? This planet isunstable and inhospitable, abbas, my name
is Smith. Is it really necessary? You're a computer program? I'm dropping

(18:29):
too, No, I'm not.No, what are you? Then?
I am a computer program named Smith. No one likes the smartest Smith.
And if you like that, NieSlapper, there's plenty more like it in
the next long two hours. JLoo slash Atlas hates and distrusts Ai.
Now, when I tell you that, it's like telling you that Indiana Jones

(18:51):
hates snakes. You know her arcin the movie like this, She's gonna
have to get up close and personalwith say it with me and Ai.
Simu Liu from Marvel's Shang Chi isthe evil robot. Harlan doesn't get much
to do apart from looking diabolical withdiabolical contact lenses until a climactic boss fight.
He wants to cleanse the earth ofhumans. I gotta wonder if Harlan

(19:12):
is named after Harlan Ellison. He'sthe author of the most famous story about
Ai gone out of control and destroyinghumanity. It's called I Have No Mouth
and I Must Scream, which isalso the best title of any story like
that. Just briefly, I HaveNo Mouth and I Must Scream, as
about a computer intelligence that links upwith all the other ones in the world,
becomes sentient and kills everyone except fora handful of people it keeps around

(19:34):
to torture for its pleasure. Landmarkssci fi short story well worth your time,
and Harlan Ellison was a dear,dear friend of mine and Atlas,
the evil AI. Harlan runs offto another planet the plot wiping out humanity,
and the Earth good guys who areall synced up with robot mecchas go
on a mission to get him,and they got to bring j Lo slash

(19:55):
at list because she's the one whoknows Harlan the best. She spends a
good deal of the movie inside herMeccha suit. These aren't the giant ones
like in Pacific Rim, but theywouldn't fit in an suv without a shoehorn
either. The movie looks okay forthe most part, all CGI everywhere,
but the FX will never for asecond convince you that j Lo and Sterling
K. Brown, who's the mainsoldier, are in the same room as

(20:18):
some of the big mechas around him. To borrow another term from Pacific Rim
and robot jocks and movies like that. As far as Jlo goes look,
playing super Smart exceeds her range.She can't get the Jenny from the block
out of her voice. She couldbe a MENSA member in real life for
all I know. I'm just sayingplaying someone brainy is beyond her acting range,
way beyond. It reminds me ofhow we were supposed to buy Will

(20:40):
Smith as a scientist, and Iam legend you might like him, but
that's not the part for them.Now, there's a scene where, pressed
to name a species of plant shefinds on an alien planet at Las,
Slash Jlo comes up with planty.Wait wait, wait, comes up with
planty and she's super smart supposedly.Yes, yes, now that's obviously all
so on the director and the writers, but you got to sell it too

(21:02):
if you're the actor. The director'sBrad Payton. He's responsible for Rampage and
San Andreas. Not exactly a bunchof highbrowse stuff there. This movie plays
like a just slightly less low rentrobot Jocks. If you've ever seen that,
you might know what I'm talking about, or if you're familiar with these
full Moon movies that used to bedirect to video way back in the VHS
days. Now, yesterday Moe andI were talking about grading on the curve

(21:25):
for Netflix movies, and by talking, I mean shouting at each other and
insulting each other. But something Ithink we can pull out of that talk
is that in some ways, Netflixreally is the new directive video, along
with some of the other streamers venuesfor movies that wouldn't cut it in theaters,
but range from hidden gems to outrightcheap trash and the whole spectrum in
between. And when I think ofit that way, I can get behind

(21:47):
movies like this a little more.That's where you'd get, say a Tremor's
sequel or a three or four ofthem, or a Starship Trooper's sequel,
or a Butterfly Effects sequel or aneight Millimeters sequel. Those are real or
as we were arguing about yesterday,along on the soooth Beverly Hills Cop sequel.
So bearing all that in mind,Atlas isn't much good objectively as a
movie. It's too long for whatit's trying to do. The story suffers

(22:10):
from some real terminal obviousness. Ifeveryone involved in this movie didn't have that
miserable save the Cat movie formula Bookmemorized, I'd fill my pants with surprise
wow in the back, not thefront wow. As I mentioned, uh
j Lo, Atlas had a sadeighteen percent on Rotten Tomatoes last time I
looked, but as harmless trash watchingsure crack a beer torch up a little

(22:33):
junk food and the movie Diet's okaynow? And then let's put it in
another way. Let's say an Indianaten would be in LA six, and
I've lived there too, so saveyour outrage on that. I'm gonna call
Atlas in LA four. But it'lldo in a pinch mo. You know,
I thought this was better than eitherRebel Moon movie that was also on
Netflix. Well, that was complete, hot, flaming garbage. No,

(22:56):
but also about expectations going in andwhen I watched a Netflix movie, and
I think he made a great analogywhen he talked about it being the evolution
of direct to video. That's whatthis is. Would It was not suitable
for an in theater experience, butI was fine watching it at home and

(23:18):
it being part of my subscription.I would have been angry if I had
spent twenty dollars Netflix is twenty twoninety nine. If I had spent twenty
five dollars buying a ticket and somefood is going to be about twenty five
dollars, I would have been madif I spent all my money for the
month on that one movie. Ohme too, well, angrier. Let
me just add in other movies aboutAI android stories like this, whether it's

(23:41):
Westworld, which we both watched ora Blade Runner. The concept is really
about who counts as human and whodoesn't. It's food for thought that should
bleed into our day to day lives, where plenty of people very clearly believe
that their lives are worth more andothers are subhuman or vermin or whatever.
A good sci fi gives us metaphorsfor stuff like that all the time,

(24:03):
Like when it sinks in that HarrisonFord's decorate isn't really the good guy and
Blade Runner? Maybe that clicks withyou. Who do you think you're better
than? But you don't really haveto worry about being burdened with any of
that philosophical stuff or introspection to anysort. With Little Atlas here, Okay,
it's just a lot of CGI stuffgetting hit and blowing up real good
past the funions. You know.It really didn't try to even address the

(24:25):
more philosophical debates when it comes toAI, when it comes to sentience,
they kind of scraped over the surfaceof it, but they never really went
there. And I wasn't mad,if only because I didn't expect much.
But I do appreciate this on agrand level. I do appreciate that Netflix
is presenting stories which are new anddifferent. Some are better than others,

(24:48):
but it's new. It's not asequel. It's something semi original, if
you will, And for that it'sgood enough. I was watching TV.
I was multitasking, you know,I was doing other things while I was
watching a movie. So it's okay, it's it's fine for background noise.
Jennifer Lopez is not a great actress. I'm sorry. If you're listening right

(25:11):
now, Jennifer, I think youwould agree with that. But you know,
well, like I said, she'sa star act Yes, it's not
Sigourney Weaver. No no, no, no, no no no. And
who might have been better for thatrole? Yeah, I mean Sigourney Weaver
can do action and can also sellbeing brainy as well. Right, And
so I'm with you. I'm okaywith lowering the bar grading on the curve

(25:37):
for this kind of thing. Itjust had. It involved an adjustment on
my part. It's in no waya good movie. Well all right,
I'm not gonna hate it that much, because you know I didn't. It's
almost like you turn on a movieon a Saturday afternoon, It's like,
hey, what is this? Andso you just stay with it. To
see where it goes. Yeah,I mean, make no mistake, people,
and I'm one of them. Lovetrash movies and I will watch them,

(26:00):
but let's not kid ourselves about whatthey are. That's all I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, it's fine.But that's one thing I do like
about Netflix. They'll give me somethingnew next month, a couple of something
news. I will find something towatch on Netflix. For example, there
was a movie that came out intheaters in twenty eighteen. I didn't even
know i'd come out in theaters calledUpgrade. It was really really good alway,

(26:22):
is that the one about the guywho I know? Of the movie
you're talking about? That that wasreally good? Yeah, yeah, But
for me it was brand new andwas well worth my time. I think
that was one of those either Blumhouseor a twenty four low budgeters that kind
of snuck through. And it's aboutthe guy who he literally gets a technological
upgrade to his body and then goeson a killing spree of bad guys.

(26:45):
Correct, Yeah, yeah, correct. It had a nice twist at the
end. It was. It wassomething that I wasn't expecting. It was
well worth my time as far asI was concerned. It reminds me why
I keep my Netflix subscription, becauseI can stumble across good stuff like that.
I'm going to count this for onceas you and I agreeing on such
degree, and let's just move onfast. You're listening to Later with Moe

(27:08):
Kelly on demand from KFI AM sixforty