Winter storms blast the U.S., but not San Diego

S1: The weather outside is frightful everywhere but San Diego.

S2: It's not just going to be those northern areas that feel this arctic blast. It's going to be really all the way down , even to some areas approaching , even like the Mexican border , for example.

S1: I'm M.G. Peres with Jade Heineman. Maureen is off. This is KPBS midday edition. An update on local evictions.

S3: So basically , we're now in the stage where all of these evictions that would have been filed during that period of time where there were moratoriums in place have now been on pause.

S1: Here , the sounds of the season , mariachi style and a new Godzilla book , Perfect for a Coffee Table near You. That's ahead on Midday Edition. If you're driving on the freeway right now or just looking out your window at work , you see sunny skies and feel some comfortably cool temperatures by Christmas Day. The forecast is expected to be even milder here in San Diego County. But meanwhile , just about every other part of the U.S. is preparing for a bitterly cold winter storm powered by an arctic blast. If you're like me , you might have travel plans for the Christmas holiday. So what does brutal weather elsewhere mean for us ? Joining me now is Bryan Adams , meteorologist with the National Weather Service to figure it out. Bryan , welcome to Midday. Hello.

S2: Hello. Thank you for having me.

S1: So let's get right to it.

S2: We did see some observed wind chill temperatures of approaching -60 to -70 degrees. Once that really arctic air began to filter farther southward into the country. And that's going to really be felt across a lot of the country going forward over the next few days. Looking at high temperatures in portions of the upper Midwest and the northern Plains to be getting below zero over the next few days. Minneapolis , I believe we're looking at highs of around like minus four for the through the weekend. And then looking at that colder air to kind of keep going through the next few days , portions of the Great Lakes and into the northeastern United States , dropping into the teens. And it's not just going to be those northern areas that feel this arctic blast. It's going to be really all the way down , even to some areas approaching , even like the Mexican border , for example. Portions of southern Texas will be dropping into the twenties for low temperatures. We typically look at like South Florida , Miami , for example , as you know , one of the traditionally warmest spots in the country during the winter months. We are actually going to be winding up warmer than them over the next going through the weekend here. I believe we're looking at temperatures in southern Florida , the top out , maybe only in the lower sixties. Now , if you're looking up even a little bit farther north of there , that closer to Orlando or Tampa , for example , they may only get into the lower fifties for a high later on this weekend , whereas here we're going to be sitting probably in the middle seventies in a lot of spots. Okay.

S1: Okay. So it is the first official day of winter.

S2: You need something to really push it farther south. What we have going on just off to our west , out over the Pacific Ocean is a really strong area of high pressure that's kind of nudging its way in. And as it strengthens , it's kind of forcing all of that colder air to dive southward. And that's you know , that coupled with a very active jet stream , is what's helping to allow that storm system over the central United States now to kind of rapidly strengthen. So that area of high pressure is kind of what's ultimately driving all of this and forcing all of that colder air into areas east of the Rockies , whereas we here kind of reap the benefits of this high pressure and wind up under that much warmer air.

S1:

S2: This area of high pressure is going to largely remain kind of anchored in place through probably the early portions of next week before it finally weakens and moves off to the east , resulting then in kind of more of just a more mild pattern for the vast majority of the country , which means obviously areas east of the Rockies will warm up from the frigid air that they're going to be experiencing this weekend , whereas then we will also kind of meet them in the middle , so to say , and cool down a little bit. But that will also also sort of open the door , so to say for them for there to be some potential precipitation chances then approaching the West Coast as we enter the early and middle portions of next week.

S1: Okay , Brian , let's get to the important stuff. Travel. I have a flight out of San Diego Friday night , headed to Houston to be with my family. What is the worst day for travel or is it all going to be bad.

S2: As a whole ? I mean , you have to factor in already. I mean , this weekend in general , the holiday weekend is already going to be kind of hectic travel wise. But it seems like especially Friday and Saturday do seem like they're going to be pretty rough because there's more sun , you know , those more southern portions of the country not quite used to this extreme cold , you know , so strapped. So travel there is already going to be hectic weather. It's just the typical holiday air traffic versus then the ground traffic with any potential for , you know , really cold air and potentially any wintry. The station involved there as well. With these a lot of these like some more southern areas , you don't we're not typically used to seeing , you know , more wintery impacts. So they want to budget , you know , more than more than enough travel time that you would ever really think of if you're going to be visiting really anywhere approaching the Gulf Coast later on this weekend. Okay.

S1: Okay.

S2: And then if you go just a little bit farther inland , maybe closer to like the 15 , for example , we will probably see a lot of locations reaching or even exceeding the 80 degree mark. So it'll be pretty darn nice to through a lot of this weekend.

S1: I've been talking to Brian Adams , meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Brian , I've got my fingers crossed for my flight and for all those who will be traveling this weekend. Thanks for being here , Brian.

S2: Yes , thank you. And fingers crossed for you as well. Hope it goes smoothly.

S4: New eviction cases are on the rise , according to data from the San Diego County Superior Court , showing that the once looming crisis of housing displacement has begun to materialize in the region. I news source reporter Danielle Dawson has been looking into what's happening and joins me now with more. Danielle , welcome.

S3: Hi , thanks for having me.

S4: So preliminary court filings for eviction proceedings reached a five year high in October. Tell me about what's happening. Yes.

S3: Yes. So over the course of the pandemic , we had some eviction protections in place. And now that we're moving past the expiration of many of these protections , a lot of property owners are now starting to file for eviction. Experts are saying that this is kind of the beginning of the tsunami of evictions that was kind of talked about when cities and counties were exploring , implementing various rental assistance programs. So basically , we're now in the stage where all of these evictions that would have been filed during that period of time when there were moratoriums in place have now been unpause.

S4: And advocates have been saying that the pandemic will lead to an eviction crisis and now they say it's finally happening.

S3: One thing is the expiration of the rental assistance program. You know , aside from just providing tenants who are experiencing financial hardship due to the pandemic a sum of money that could help cover any loss of income. The these programs had additional protections in place that prevented a property owner from evicting their tenant while they had an application processing. And now that the counties in this and the cities in this area are no longer accepting applications for rental assistance , those protections are no longer available. Another factor that's led to this increase is the expiration of the no fault eviction moratorium in the city of San Diego that expired on September 30th. And so housing experts say that that has definitely helped this wave of evictions that we're seeing. The other kind of factor that plays into this is the housing market and how the rent prices for many of the units in this area have increased significantly over the last couple of months. And so many tenants who are already extremely financially rent burdened are seeing more of their income go to rent. And so all of those factors kind of combined have led to what we're seeing right now with the processes going on at the court.

S4: What did you learn about what led to people filing these claims when you looked at some of the cases now in court ? Yeah.

S3: So the data shows that nearly all of the cases that were filed in October were classified as civil , limited , unlawful detainers , which means that the tenant owes less than $25,000 in rental debt. And these are also cases that could have been no fault evictions. The court does not track fault status. So the about 1070 cases that were designated as Civil Limited could have also been individuals who were subject to protections under the no fault eviction moratorium.

S4: You spoke to some people who are in this situation.

S3: They're angry and they're also scared. You know , one tenant I spoke to at a rally recently , Letty Morales. She's a single mom of three living in San Isidro and has been trying to pay her rental debt that she wasn't able to get covered by the emergency rental assistance program. And so she's struggling. Here's a clip of her. I'm trying to pay for this.

S5: I'm struggling. I have family and my kids need me. And I'm not able to be there because I have to go to work , because I have to pay.

S2: All those almost $6,000.

S3: That is right now that I have. Hmm.

S4: And you've touched on this , but I mean , again , how much of this is happening because tenant protections put in place during the pandemic have expired.

S3: Housing experts I spoke to have , you know , really echoed that. This is a lot of what's happening now is because of the fact that there are limited tenant protections in place. You know , this is essentially a period where we've unpause many of the , you know , eviction cases that would have been filed previously. But many of those could have also been a part of stronger tenant protections. That is the no fault eviction. Moratorium it Had that been continued , many of these tenants could still be in their homes.

S4: And what tenant protections remain Now.

S3: Only one moratorium is still in place. The City of San Diego. Applying to nonpayment. However , this is very specific and limited. The new policy that was instituted earlier this year only covers rental debt accrued after July 1st and due to the city's participation in the state's IRA program or emergency rental assistance programs that limited what they could do in terms of additional protections prior to June 30th. Because that was a regulation set by the state.

S4:

S3: The rental market , as it is right now , is incredibly competitive , and having eviction on your record is something that a lot of property owners might deny an applicant for. A lot of these tenants are also , low income rental requirements are a pretty big component to that where a lot of units. On their application are requesting you know two and a half three times the rental rate income. Just given how competitive it is and how the housing market trend has been pushing rents up , there are very limited number of affordable units. So it's very , very competitive and very difficult for someone to find an apartment as soon as they've been evicted. Hmm.

S4: Hmm. What organizations work with people facing eviction and what are they telling you about what's happening to their clients and if they're able to help ? Yes.

S3: So. Legal Aid Society of San Diego is one of the biggest , you know , supports for those who are facing eviction. They help their , you know , tenants who come to them work through the legal processes because it can get kind of complicated. Other organizations in the city like PATH , for instance , that help with homelessness. They have a very narrow ability to help people. So they're kind of scared and frustrated , you know , that people are falling into homelessness because of eviction faster than they can help. How is people who are already experiencing homelessness ? And that's kind of a gap that , you know , allows people to fall through the cracks. A lot of the homeless services available to people right now or a lot of the support services that are available to people who are experiencing housing insecurity are only available as soon as you're homeless. And so , you know , those few resources that are available to help people stay in their homes like Legal Aid Society , are swamped with clients coming to them for help.

S4: I've been speaking with our new source , reporter Daniel Dawson. Daniel , thank you very much. Thank you. I News Source is an independently funded nonprofit partner of KPBS in San.

S1: I'm M.G. Perez with Jade Heineman. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. Schools across the county are closed for the holidays. But COVID 19 does not take a break and the infection rate is again surging. It's an unwelcome reminder that many children are still feeling the effects of school shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This fall , I spoke with Anya KAMENETZ , former education correspondent with NPR and author of the new book The Stolen Year How COVID Changed Children's Lives and Where We Go Now for the Book. She spoke to kids and families across the country from a wide variety of backgrounds. Here's our conversation.

S3: Two things I would say. One is that they were stretched to their breaking point by the very stresses of the pandemic economic , social , the fear , the political division. And the other thread , of course , is the love. I mean , every family I talked with. As hard as it was , they found solace in being together even during the darkest parts of this pandemic.

S1:

S3: That's an average. Obviously , some kids are fine right now and some kids might never catch up. We also know that there's been a huge downturn in public school enrollment as well as in college going , you know , some of those kids are homeschooled or they're in private schools and they're going to be fine. But some of those kids have dropped out and they have drifted into paid work. And that's very bothersome for the future of this country.

S1: In your introduction , you write that you were thinking of this book as a little like restorative justice or therapy.

S3: I mean , everybody who has a child understands that you're affected differently by the sound or the side of a suffering child. And unfortunately , that sentiment oftentimes leads us to not pay attention to what is actually happening. So I wrote this book to make sure we took a good hard look at what happened to kids during the beginning of this pandemic. And with that hope in restorative justice comes , you know , figuring out what the harms are around. We redress it. And in a therapeutic context , you start talking about what happened because , again , that's going to help you identify how you're going to feel better about it.

S1: So we have been here before in the sense that your book talks about other examples where schools were closed down and the impact. One of those was in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Tell us what happened to those kids.

S3: Yeah , So I was down there as a young reporter. I went to high school in New Orleans as well. And what we found is that kids were out of school usually for a few weeks. The public schools in the city shuttered were closed for the fall semester of 2005 and mostly never reopened because they were all replaced with charter schools. Over time , those kids suffered extreme academic setbacks. That took a couple of years actually to recover the ground that they lost , even though they weren't out of school very long. And the impact on youth in general. We saw a downturn in college going a downturn in high school graduation rates that persisted for up to a decade after the storm.

S1: So your book talks about schools are much more than just places of learning , but also essential for food and nutrition , childcare and health care. Do you think that government and school officials could have done more to fill those gaps while schools were closed ? Absolutely.

S3: They could have and should have. I point to countries in Europe that despite the fact that they struggled as well with the pandemic and various waves of the pandemic , they made a concerted effort to prioritize children for reopening. And that's exactly what we never did in this country. We obviously had red states that opened everything up with almost no precautions. And then we had blue states that allowed our bars and restaurants to be open while schools and daycares were shut. And that's the part that's so hard for me to understand , not only as a reporter , but as a parent.

S1: So full disclosure , I was a special ed teacher with San Diego Unified for seven years before taking this job. You profile those students with special needs who are especially impacted. Tell us about them. Yes.

S3: Yes. Thanks for bringing that up. So , you know , 14% of kids have disabilities. It's not some tiny margin. And for the most part , what families told me was that Zoom was not an effective delivery system for the education , the socialization and the therapies that those kids needed. And what you see with kids with disabilities is that not only do they not make progress , but they can go backwards , they can regress , because these are developmental disorders and they follow developmental pathways. And so we're seeing so many struggles and with. Oftentimes the school struggles and the social struggles come mental health struggles as well. I mean , one of the most heartbreaking families that I talked with was it was a child in Hawaii and she had multiple severe disabilities. She was autistic and nonverbal , but she loved school and she was in a mainstream classroom. Her classmates surrounded her with love and affection When she was cut off from all of that , she had no real way of understanding why. And she became horribly depressed and regressed in a number of ways. And her mother says that she just she's never been the same.

S1: So there is another population that you address , and that is students along the US-Mexico border. Closer to home for us here in San Diego. Tell us about the experiences of those children.

S3: Yeah , you know , I mean , this would have taken a whole other book , and I hope that there is another book out there. But as we know , you know , MPP , the Remain in Mexico policy created a really upsetting situation on the U.S. border. And what I talk I talk to professionals , a lawyer and a couple of psychologists who dealt with kids in that situation , and occasionally migrant children who did cross the border during the pandemic were quarantined all by themselves. So it was a really awful situation. And , you know , the long term issue as well , obviously , there's been an interruption in kind of immigration patterns. And so we're seeing that now with with the flow of kids over the border and trying to resettle them and reintegrate them , which is obviously a long term concern.

S1: Anya , you say in your book that the story is not over.

S3: It was really disappointing when the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. You know , it was a huge Democratic victory lunch on climate and on health care. But they left out the provisions that had been in the broader Joe Biden's broader agenda when it came to children and families. And a lot of people thought this was going to be the moment that we'd finally get subsidized child care , federally guaranteed paid leave and a child tax credit. So I really hope that those I don't just hope , but I would exhort anyone who is paying attention to politics and wants to get involved to say , you know , this , this can't wait any longer.

S1: I like to end on an encouraging note.

S3: And all of the families I followed during the pandemic , they all felt that they were silver linings in simply being able to be together when the world stopped. And so I think I hope that we all kind of get a chance to keep that in mind as we go forward to a , you know , a more normal and a busier world that that there's something really magical about being able to be together with your loving family when you can.

S1: I have been speaking with Anya KAMENETZ , author of the new book The Stolen Years How COVID Changed Children's Lives and Where We Go Now. Anya , thank you.

S3: Thanks for having me.

S1: San Diego jazz trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos has a new album out , his first in almost a decade. The record also represents a triumph return to music for Castellanos. After a rocky few years. KPBS arts producer and editor Julia Dixon , Evans takes a closer look.

S5: It's been a period of waiting and uncertainty for Gilbert Castellanos , local jazz trumpet great , and the founder of the Young Lions Jazz Conservancy. Since 2019 , his career was interrupted by debilitating jaw and mouth pain and a string of major surgeries to correct serious dental problems caused by playing the trumpet. And then there was the pandemic. But Castellanos is back , and he is deeply , unflinchingly grateful.

S2: Every time I play , I treat it like it's like my last day living. I treat it like it's like the altar when I step on that bandstand. I call it the altar of joy because it's a privilege to do what I do. My whole attitude has changed when it comes to music. And who knows if I'll ever get to play music again. And I want to make it count every time I play.

S5: Cassian has just released a new jazz album called Experiment and Al Cielo. It translates to Wait for Me in Heaven. It's a collection of the songs that provided solace during the dark time and also hope that soon he'd play the trumpet again.

S2: The thing about this album that's so special to me is that it really kind of represents the period of of everything that I've been going through for these last three years. You know , it's been just my life. It's just been turned upside down. And this music is the music that got me through that.

S5: Jazz pianist and composer Joshua White arranged the songs on the album for a five piece band. Piano , drums , bass , alto saxophone and Cassiano son trumpet. The album begins with the chaotic and fragmented opening notes of Bilal as Sudan Cassini's trumpet floats in with arpeggios and truncated phrasing.

S2: It almost sounds like you're going to go into a bout and then all of a sudden it's just like a sucker punch. And we go into this hard bop melody that's just kind of in your face.

S5: Another track is Big P , written by American jazz legend Jimmy Heath. For his brother , bassist Hurst. Kazianis wanted to record it as a tribute to the Heath family. He says the track hasn't been recorded much. The past is a big part of jazz , he says , and it's central to the way he teaches music.

S2: And Jack in particular. I think that the history plays a huge , huge role. I look at it as being your DNA for becoming a great jazz musician and having your own voice.

S5: And a title track. As for me , and Alcala is a mournful Latin American piece.

S2: It's a beautiful bolero , and to this day , it just brings tears to my eyes.

S5: The original song has lyrics which are crafted into the trumpet melody. Cassiano delivers a low , understated trumpet sound. It almost seems like singing. That simple , subdued song is the one he spent the most time working on.

S2: I know when you listen to the album , you hear some of the more complex and just more intricate arrangements. But this one is is the one that is my heart and soul.

S5: Cassiano still has one more surgery to repair his jaw , but for the time being , he's basking in the joy of this album. It's a love letter to perseverance , hope and to music. Julia Dixon Evans , KPBS news.

S1: San Diego jazz trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos new album as Spider Man in Yellow is out now. Even without the lyrics , the music is so familiar and guaranteed to get you in the holiday spirit. The song , of course , is Feliz Navidad , delivered with the sound of symphonic mariachis. Mariachis are a big part of the Christmas season in the Mexican culture , providing a musical gift to the rest of the world as well. Southwestern College in Chula Vista was the first to offer training and a degree in mariachi music. Jeff Nevin developed the curriculum and is the founder and conductor of Southwestern Group Mariachi Garibaldi and director of all things Mariachi at the college and well Beyond. He joins us now. Jeff , Bienvenido. Many of you began your music career at a very young age playing the trumpet.

S2: My dad actually played trumpet when he was young and into college and medical school , so he played probably up until 24 or 25 years old. So when I was a kid , I used to hear my dad playing trumpet a lot. My mom tells the story that , you know , at Christmastime , actually of my dad , that's when he would pull out his horn and my mom would play piano and he would play trumpet and my brothers would run away screaming and say , Hey , you know , what are you making that horrible note for ? And for some reason , when I was two or three years old , I used to sit in front of the trumpet and kind of stare at my dad. And so when I was , I guess , ten years old , fifth grade , our elementary school had a band program. And I said , Maybe I want to do that. The teacher demonstrated all the different instruments , and I said , I think the trumpets , the one I want , I want to focus on.

S1: Jeff , you are not Mexican and do not have any Latino heritage. And yet by the time you were in high school , you were invited to join a mariachi band.

S2: There's a youth mariachi in Tucson that's fairly well-known and has a funny name. It's called Losing It. Those famous.

S1: Ugly monkeys.

S2: Yeah , exactly. The ugly little monkeys. And the short version of the story is that in the mariachi , I felt really confident. I felt really good.

S1:

S2: I mean , we think of money , actually , and it's like I have heard them and it has a certain sound. Violins are one of the main instruments. Trumpets , mariachi trumpet has a very specific style , but it's the same instrument we play in the symphony orchestra. Then we have three kinds of guitars. One is called the Guitar Run , which is a real big. It's about the size of a cello. But you play it like a guitar. There's a viola , which is a smaller instrument , so it's actually smaller than a standard guitar. And then one standard nylon string guitar. And then , of course , voices. The singing and mariachi really is something that captivates a lot of people.

S1: And so you've been talking about the symphonic mariachi sound.

S2:

S1: The symphony is often paired with the ballet at this time of year for The Nutcracker. Tell us about this very familiar piece of Russian music and how the Mexican flavor influences it.

S2: You know , just when I heard it , that's the thought that it is just I can just imagine the mariachi playing that. And I just I knew that this would make something that czajkowski would say , wow , you know , that's a really good version of that. If Tchaikovsky happened to find himself someplace where those were the musicians he had available , he would have written in more or less that way. But it's fun for us to play with different styles and different expectations , and that really is something that money that you do all the time is to play music from a lot of different , different cultures.

S1: Southwestern College offers the most extensive curriculum in this type of music.

S2: The technique that you need to play many violin is the same to think you need to play classical violin. The technique. You need to play trumpet. You need to breathe in the buzzy lips. You need to know your skills. You need to. The technique is fundamentally the same. The degree we created is actually 90% the same as the normal music degree that we already offered , but it's a degree in music with the mariachi specialization. What we're preparing those students for is , on the one hand , to be professional musicians. Mariachis , you know , are not doing too bad. If you're good and you can sing and you can play different instruments and you have a strong repertoire , there's a heck of a lot of work. In towns like San Diego , Los Angeles , all over the Southwest , when they graduate , they're offered several different jobs and they literally have their pick of which place they would want to live in order to be a full time money teacher or music teacher who also teaches mariachi. And then they can continue to perform on the side of the.

S1: You are part of the Mariachi Scholarship Foundation , supporting education in schools and providing college scholarships to students who graduate from mariachi programs. Tell us about the fundraising concert happening Thursday.

S2: So we raised money with programs like this concert to give college scholarships to those students when they graduate. So the high school kids and high school mariachi students get a scholarship to go on to college. And if they get good grades and stay in school. So the concert that we have on Thursday allows Posadas is a mexican , a traditional Mexican Christmas celebration. Las Posadas is something that Mexican folks traditionally celebrate on Christmas Eve. So what they do is they reenact Mary and Joseph going into Bethlehem following the North Star. There's a song they sing called Last Fall Sabbath.

UU: Big boy. Lovely.

S2: And Posada means like shelter. So it's a song requesting shelter. And then we do different songs that are praising Mary and the Virgin Mary. And then we have songs that are really just like a party that we would have afterwards. And that's a really , really nice depiction of a traditional Mexican Christmas Eve.

S1:

S2: Tickets. You can get them at Ticketmaster or go to Mariachi SD. SD for San Diego , SD dot 4G. That's the Money Entry Scholarship Foundation website. You can also make a donation to help support the scholarships and money for education in San Diego. And we have linked directly to the tickets.

S1: I have been speaking with Jeff Nevin , professor of music and director of mariachi activities at Southwestern College and the ambassador of mariachi music. Jeff , can I ask.

S2: What I got out of the. And. Be less force , less money.

UU: And then. Yup.

S4: At 68 , Japan's Godzilla is nowhere near ready for retirement. The iconic monster that was born out of an atomic blast is poised for a cinematic rematch with Kong in 2024. Plus , he is the topic of a new coffee table book that makes a perfect last minute Christmas gift. In an excerpt from today's Cinema Junkie podcast. KPBS resident Godzilla fan Beth ACCOMANDO speaks with author Graham Skipper about Godzilla the ultimate illustrated guide.

S5: Graham , You have just written a book , Godzilla The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters.

S2: And my grandparents had one of these. And so they got HBO. And I would turn on HBO and watch movies all day. And I remember very specifically , I can't remember how old I was , eight or nine probably , and they were showing some movie on HBO. But the ad for the upcoming movie was King Kong versus Godzilla. King Kong versus Godzilla heading for that colossal collision , shattering every obstacle that stands between them in the most fantastic rampage of elation ever recorded on film. I had seen neither movie , but I knew , of course , who King Kong was. I knew who Godzilla was. I was definitely a monster kid. I was into monsters. And I thought , Well , obviously I'm going to like this movie. So I stayed. I watched King Kong versus Godzilla totally fell in love. King Kong versus Godzilla. It was my gateway. Still one of my favorites. I mean , objectively , maybe not one of the best of the movies , but it holds a very special place in my heart.

S5:

S2: And what it did was it basically went through and it told like a brief history of every character , and that had a bunch of really beautiful pictures of them. And so when offered the opportunity to write this book , I said , I want to write the Godzilla book for that kid. I want to write a Godzilla book where a kid who's eight , nine , ten gets this book and opens it up and this whole world is just presented before them. You know , when they're done watching the movies , they can go back , they can read the book , they can learn more about how the movie was made. And that that to me , I just found so inspiring personally as a kid growing up with a book like that , that the thought of having a book like that for others was really exciting. And of course , it's not just for kids. I mean , this is something that there's a lot of interesting information that I found through my research. It's all out there , but this is the first time that everything has really been contained into one single , really beautiful sort of collectible edition. And I've already gotten some incredible feedback from people who have like shots of their kids , you know , sitting in their bunk bed , like reading the book , you know , totally engrossed. And that just fills me with so much joy. Because Godzilla , I think , brings joy to the world. And I know Godzilla has brought joy to me through my life. And so if this book can bring a similar kind of joy to to people , especially to kids , as they're as they're just beginning to form their their cinematic love , I hope that's what sticks with folks , is that it's just it's sort of a joyful celebration and deep dive into into a thing that that we all and do a thing that we all love.

S5: Well , as a longtime fan of Godzilla and someone who's collected far too much stuff , I just loved the book and the photos are so amazing. And you pulled out some stuff that I have never seen before.

S2: So this included , you know , behind the scenes stills and included , you know , stills from the films that were really high quality , really beautiful. It included publicity stuff , some really cool , some my favorite stuff or some of the lobby cards that are in there that are these sort of amalgams of like different shots from the films in sort of an artistic way. And yeah , I mean , basically , like I would just go through and my day was I would get up , I would watch a movie , and then I would write a draft of a chapter about it while doing like research and all of that. And then I would go through that film's folder in the photo archive and I would just pick out , you know , the shots that spoke to me. And at a certain point , I mean , I had way too many pictures , picked , you know , and sent to the publisher. And they're like , we don't have this many pages. You know , we can't include all of these. So it was a matter of trying to go , okay , well , what have I not seen before ? What are some of the most iconic shots ? Again , keeping that kid in me in mind. Like , what's the picture that's going to really send me through the roof here ? You know , What's that shot of King Ghidorah that I'm going to be super stoked about and just trying to pick those out. I mean , it was almost impossible. There was a ton more in there that , you know , we just couldn't include to the space. But I think that we picked some really cool stuff. And I mean , I especially love , you know , even just the poster images at the beginning of every chapter , we have the Japanese poster for for the film. And I even just those I love , you know , they're so expressive and dynamic , very different from what American posters are. So I'm really glad that we got to include all those. Yeah. The pictures are just astonishing and it's and they're so high quality. I mean , you know , you've seen in the book , I mean , some of these are huge two full page , you know , spreads and the quality is just pristine. So so we were really , really lucky to have that opportunity to to go through those archives and just sort of take whatever we wanted.

S5:

S2: I mean , I will say the one I would want to champion the most is all monsters. Attack High on monsters. Attack is is often derided as as maybe the worst of this franchise which might be partly why I'm why I'm drawn to it. It was one of the shareholders favorites. It was one of the ones where he was given essentially no time to make the movie and essentially no money. And so he he made this very personal little film about a little boy who is bullied relentlessly. And this boy has a an imaginary land that he goes to , which is Monster Island , where he hangs out with Manila.

S3: You can't do that. But go called your daughter.

S4: To take.

S2: It out. Go. And that's kind of where he goes not just to escape , but also to kind of learn , you know , things about himself and how he can stand up for himself more and how he can , you know , how do you how do you fight bad guys ? How do you get brave enough to fight them ? And Manila teaches them these lessons. A lot of the movie is especially the monster stuff is all clips from old movies. But I know Honda considered it one of his favorites. I think that despite the fact that they're reusing old footage , that movie really speaks to me just from a from a character standpoint , I think it's maybe the most character centric of all the movies , and it's the one that I don't know whenever whenever I watch it , it just brings me it brings me a lot of joy. And I am telling you , watch All Monster's attack It is sure a Honda approved and Graham Skipper approved. So there you go.

S5: All right. Well , I want to thank you very much for not just talking about the book , but talking about the king of the monsters.

S2: Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. I always love talking about Godzilla with you. And again , I'm just honored that I got to be a part of Godzilla's legacy in some small way. And I hope that this Christmas season a lot of people get a Godzilla book for Christmas. That would be really fun.

S5: It's a perfect stocking stuffer , although it's way too big for a stocking.

S2: Well , unless unless it's Godzilla stocking , I mean , then you could definitely fit it in there.

S4: That was Beth ACCOMANDO speaking with author Graham Skipper. You can still order Godzilla , the ultimate illustrated guide in time for Christmas , and check out the new Cinema Junkie podcast to find out the grueling conditions suit actors endured to bring these monsters to life. Don't forget to watch KPBS Evening Edition at 5 p.m. on KPBS television. And join us again tomorrow for KPBS midday edition at noon. And if you ever miss a show , you can find the Midday Edition podcast wherever you listen to podcast. I'm Jade Hindman with Meg Perez. Thanks for listening.