Advertise on podcast: KUCI: Get the Funk Out

SYNOPSIS For thousands of years women have been locked out of Taiko drumming. Not anymore. In the dead of a Minnesota winter, Asian drumming divas smash gender roles and redefine power on their own terms. FINDING HER BEAT dives into the rhythms and struggles that lead to an electrifying historic performance that changes everything. World Premiere Scheduled - Fall 2022 Directed by Dawn Mikkelson & Keri Pickett -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Extraordinary, acclaimed and the feel-good movie of the year, “Finding Her Beat” completed a more than 50 Film Festival run worldwide –earning more than a dozen awards –most recently Best Music Documentary at Award This! A critical darling cinema verité style feature documentary film “Finding Her Beat,” crisscrossed the globe in theatrical release this fall inspiring audiences with electrifying LIVE Taiko drumming with local artists and Q&A with filmmakers. The film will now be available for audiences everywhere digitally – offering February 2024 to be a month of love – for self, community, and cinema. This is an important story of women paving their own road by banging their own drum. A moving and immersive cinematic experience from filmmakers and co-directors Dawn Mikkelson (“Minnesota Mean,” “Risking Light,” “The Red Tail”) and Keri Pickett (“Ribbon Skirt Warriors,” “First Daughter and the Black Snake,” “The Fabulous Ice Age”), Indie Rights will release the film to audiences in The UK, Australia, North America (USA & Canada) and Japan, and so many more will have a chance to watch this electric music documentary in the comfort of their homes on February 14th, 2024. In the dead of a Minnesota winter right before the world shut down for a global pandemic, Asian drumming divas from around the world met to perform, smash gender roles, and redefine power on their own terms. The rhythm revolution includes rock stars from the world of Taiko: Tiffany Tamaribuchi, Kaoly Asano, Chieko Kojima, Megan Chao-Smith, and Jennifer Weir. “Finding Her Beat” dives into the rhythms and struggles that lead to an electrifying historic performance that changes everything.

Eric Ebel currently manages several of NAMM’s Market Development / NAMM Foundation programs, including Music Educator and Music Advocacy programming, The Day of Service, Roomful of Pianos, and The Grand Rally for Music Education at the annual NAMM Show. Since joining the NAMM team in 1997, Mr. Ebel has had diverse experiences with the trade association. Before his current position, Ebel was show manager for NAMM’s “Music and Sound Expo” and was senior trade show sales representative for NAMM’s world-renowned international trade shows. For the past 40 years, he’s held various positions within the music industry ranging from products specialist and sales director for an international percussion manufacturer, professional touring musician, faculty at the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles, and percussion specialist with the United States Marine Corps Far-East band. He maintains a moderate performance schedule with various commercial agencies based in Southern California. https://www.namm.org/

Noted neurologist and Chief Wellness Officer Dr. Romie Mushtaq reveals the hidden connection between insomnia, anxiety, and adult ADD/ADHD – and gives you a science-backed plan to heal burnout and your Busy Brain in just 8 weeks. Do racing thoughts keep you from falling asleep at night? Is it impossible to focus, even on tasks that used to stimulate you? Are you mindlessly stress-eating throughout the day? These are signs that you have a “Busy Brain,” a term coined by triple-board certified physician Dr. Romie Mushtaq to describe a brain riddled with anxiety, insomnia, and ADD/ADHD. Have the boundaries between your job, sleep, and personal life disappeared? Are you wearing stress as a badge of honor or resigned to feeling stuck in the hustle culture? The reality is that chronic stress kills. Just ask Dr. Romie Mushtaq who suffered from career burnout and underwent life-saving surgery. And as a brain doctor, she should have known better. Dr. Romie embarked on a global journey to research and heal the negative impact of the stress responses on our brains, bodies, and teams. The solution led to this eye-opening book for professionals eager to break the relentless cycles of stress, anxiety, and burnout. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

From acclaimed author Veera Hiranandani comes AMIL AND THE AFTER (Kokila; on sale January 23 2024; ISBN 9780525555063; $17.99; ages 8-12), the highly anticipated companion novel to the Newbery Honor book The Night Diary. Filled with hope and the idea of finding joy after tragedy, the novel picks up where The Night Diary left off following the aftermath of the Partition of India, the greatest human migration in history. Through Amil’s story, young readers will learn of the complicated physical, emotional, and psychological impact that comes from being forced to leave your home—an experience many kids globally still experience today. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Combining digital art, literature, and interpretation, VOIDOPOLIS is a time-sensitive, augmented reality book that quite literally degrades as you read it, so apropos for our time span, and tentative connection with each other. Shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize. Winner of the Arts And Letters ‘Unclassifiable’ Prize For Literature Winner of the Dante Prize, Dante Society London /Ars Electronica Prize Shortlist Chautauqua Janus Prize For Literature Finalist A hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of an augmented reality book, which retells Dante's Inferno as if it were set in pandemic-ravaged New York City. A first-of-its-kind augmented reality book from MIT Press, Voidopolis is a unique and deeply affecting artwork that speaks as much to our existential moment as it does to the fragility of experience, reality, and our connection to one another. Kat Mustatea is a transmedia playwright and artist known for language and performance works that enlist absurdity, hybridity, and the computational uncanny to dig deeply into what it means to be human. Her TED Talk, about puppets and AI, takes a novel approach to the meaning of machines making art. A hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of an augmented reality book, which retells Dante's Inferno as if it were set in pandemic-ravaged New York City. Voidopolis is a digital performance about loss and memory presented as an augmented reality (AR) book with a limited lifespan. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

An important message from Janeane For some of you, the holiday season is anything but relaxing and stress-free. You might be struggling mentally and emotionally, reflecting on your rocky road over the past few years or your entire lifetime. You are not alone. In my end of year message, I share the importance of boundaries, mindfulness and taking time to connect and nurture yourself mentally, physically and emotionally. Remember to be good to you. As a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Westside Los Angeles, I want to share some NAMI mental health resources, support groups and the HelpLine. Take time to explore the NAMI website, because there are resources for teens and young adults, as well, and plenty of other helpful information. www.nami.org Remember to check in with yourself and others, and especially the happy ones.

Ah, the holidays. Lucy Raulie (Raye Levine Spielberg) has always had a complicated relationship with her dysfunctional family, but when her mother disappears on Christmas Eve (and it’s maybe Lucy’s fault...) it’s going to be up to Lucy to bring her family back together again, whether she knows it or not. Directors Caroline Keene and Dan Kennedy are releasing an upcoming Dark Comedy with a Warm Heart titled MERRY GOOD ENOUGH in partnership with Freestyle Digital Media starring Ray Levine Spielberg, Sawyer Spielberg, Susan Gallagher (Cobra Kai), and Joel Murray (God Bless America). The film will bring unconventional Holiday cheer to audiences as they follow the less-than-perfect Raulie family this Holiday Season. You can check out the trailer here. The film is releasing on VOD on 12/19. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 13, 2023 — The Basic Needs Center at the University of California, Irvine will unveil its new mobile food pantry, a 22-foot-long customized delivery van, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, at the Pereira Drive roundabout in front of the Aldrich Hall flagpoles. The first 200 attendees will receive collapsible Tupperware products. The center will also launch its ZotFunder campaign, running until Dec. 31, to raise money to stock the mobile pantry, which is designed to make food more accessible to all enrolled students at UCI and bring it nearer to where they live. The UCI Basic Needs Center received an innovation grant of $245,000 from the UC Office of the President to purchase and adapt the van, now painted blue and adorned with colorful images of produce and anteaters. Food distributions will begin on Dec. 8 at Arroyo Vista housing and on Dec. 15 at Verano 8 housing. The winter-quarter distribution schedule is pending, but the vehicle will be at these locations once per month on Fridays. “For years, we’ve been hearing from students that access is really important to them. We envisioned a second pantry model that would bring food closer to students, and with the mobile food pantry, it’s now available,” said Andrea Mora, director of the UCI Basic Needs Center. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Elie Kaplan Spitz is an author, rabbi, attorney, meditation teacher, and popular lecturer. He served as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Israel of Tustin, CA for over 33 years and as a member of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee of Jewish Law and Standards for twenty years. He has published four books: Does the Soul Survive? Jewish Views of the Afterlife, Past Lives, and Living with Purpose (2000, 2015); Healing from Despair: Choosing Wholeness in a Broken World (2008), and Increasing Wholeness: Jewish Wisdom and Guided Meditations to Strengthen and Calm Body, Heart, Mind and Spirit (2015), and Duets on Psalms: Drawing New Meanings from Ancient Words (2023). more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Kelly Sather, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for her forthcoming powerhouse of a book, Small in Real Life. As a former entertainment lawyer, and screenwriter, Kelly has really captured the emotion, ambition, humanity, and conflict in her characters on their search for power, fame, love, and the possibility of and redemption. Kelly's writing is undeniably moving and sharp-- an easy read with so much to discuss-- the dark side of the quest for a better life. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

UC Irvine-led science team shows how to eat our way out of the climate crisis Researchers explore the benefits of producing farm-free food Irvine, Calif., Nov. 6, 2023 — Agriculture is one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize; people must eat, but the land-use practices associated with growing crops account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions evaluate a new solution to this problem, one that eliminates farms altogether. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, the UCI-led team of scientists assess the potential for widescale synthetic production of dietary fats through chemical and biological processes. The raw materials for this method are the same as those used by plants: hydrogen in water and carbon dioxide in the air. “Large-scale synthesis of edible molecules through chemical and biological means without agricultural feedstocks is a very real possibility,” said lead author Steven Davis, UCI professor of Earth system science. “Such ‘food without the farm’ could avoid enormous quantities of climate-warming emissions while also safeguarding biodiverse lands that might otherwise be cleared for farms.” Davis and his co-authors highlight other environmental and societal benefits of farm-free food in the paper, including a reduction in water use and watershed pollution, local control over food production, diminished risk of weather-related food shortages, and less need for low-paying and physically demanding agricultural labor. Another plus, according to Davis, would be the possibility of returning existing farmlands to a natural state, which could enhance biodiversity and build up natural carbon sinks. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

What do you do when you find out you have terminal brain cancer just before graduating from high school? Live life to the fullest, of course, which is what Nathan Lee does in this high-spirited Asian LGBTQ+ film. This high-spirited LGBTQ+ drama LAST SUMMER NATHAN LEE, starring Harrison Xu, Natasha Tina Lia, Matthew Mitchell Espinosa, Dru Perez, and Aaron Guest, follows Nathan Lee (Harrison Xu), an Asian American teenager, who finds out that he has terminal brain cancer right before his 18th birthday, and vows to live the remains of his life with passion and laughter for one last summer with his friends and family...and refuses to die a virgin. Knowing that his gay best friend, Dash (Matthew Mitchell Espinosa), wants to become a filmmaker, Nathan offers himself as a documentary subject to Dash, who is also in love with Nathan. LAST SUMMER OF NATHAN LEE A coming-of-age story releasing in theaters October 20th and available on VOD November 22nd. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org