John Penner is The Times’ deputy A-1 editor and a longtime editor and writer for the paper. A graduate of Cal State Long Beach, he also attended USC’s Graduate School of Film and Television and studied playwriting in Edward Albee’s master class at the University of Houston. His writing has won a number of awards, including a Lowell Thomas Award for travel journalism and multiple California Journalism Awards for his essay on chasing the April 2024 total solar eclipse.
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Alvin recalls his long friendship with Gerald Locklin and the night in the 1970s the Long Beach State professor-poet let him teach class.
Gerald Locklin, who died of COVID-19 this year, was a poet-professor who helped shape West Coast literature and turn Long Beach into a poetry hub. A Times staff writer who was his student and others reflect on his influence.
Admired by Charles Bukowski and legions of Cal State Long Beach students
Over half a century in two countries, with vastly different cultures and filmmaking languages, Passer directed a steady series of much-admired and often underappreciated films of economy, fidelity, humor and subtle beauty, among them “Intimate Lighting,” “Cutter’s Way,” “Stalin,” “Haunted Summer” and “Born to Win.”
The great filmmaker Milos Forman never spoke about his defection. In fact, he never called it a defection.
Czechoslovakia owes its unfortunate history to its lot as a main stage for the great conflicts of the 20th century.