My dear friend, Dr Gudata Hinika, had a big dream of building a hospital in the rural Ethiopia where he grew up. It took many years of hard work, but finally Negele Arsi General Hospital and Medical College opened its door to the community in July 2017. Dr Hinika, a general surgeon/trauma surgeon in Los Angeles, asked me to undertake the first educational trip to the hospital, work with the local surgeons, transfer the knowledge and skills to them so that they will be sufficient to provide the care to the community. They have three general surgeons, who covered general surgery, trau...
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Today I had a pleasure to see the world premiere of the presentation "The War of the Worlds". Many may have seen the Tom Cruise movie version of the H. G. Wells' science fiction classic, published in 1898. In 1938, Orson Welles produced a 1-hour radio drama based on the same book. The radio show had a format of simulated news bulletins. Reportedly, the radio show caused chaos throughout the US that many people believed the broadcast was real. It showcased Orson Welles' brilliance. Now, in 2017, the new opera group, the Industry, and LA phil put together the new version of this b...
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Ballaké Sissoko is a Mali-born kora player. Kora is a traditional West African harp. It has a half spherical wound at the bottom as a resonator and a wooden stick that holds the strings. It was January 2011 in New York when I saw him play. GlobalFest 2011 at Webster Hall in NYC. Ballaké and Vincent played at the stage in the first floor, an intimate venue, with mesmerizingly beautiful melodies and rhythms. I was so drawn to their music, which I thought they were the highlight of that night's festival. They had the first album at that time, Chamber Music. Since then, Ball...
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Ludovico Einaudi is an Italian pianist-composer known for his work on movies and contemporary classical music with minimalist quality. I saw him play about 10 years ago at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. It was shortly after he released Divenire album where he worked with electronic music. As you may know, Hotel Cafe is a small venue with standing room only. Since then, he has gained popularity, particularly because of the movie soundtrack works, as well as collaboration with other musicians including Ballake Sissoko. When he came to UCLA last year, to play Elements, the Royce Hall was...
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