Lee G. Kushner

If you read The Kronos Interference at Starbucks, you’d be doing two of the most popular things ever, at one time!!!

A good friend, Edward Miller, one of the brilliant authors of the newly-released, spellbinding novel, “The Kronos Interference,” always spouted off the most intriguing science fiction scenarios, to me, while we were growing up in Northeast Philly.  They were based upon a thorough and intricate knowledge of physics, relativity, biochemistry and history, so pronounced that Ed always astounded me. Now, those qualities have come to home to roost, in the form of his and Jerry Manas’ masterful work, the story of which delves into the issue of human conscience, and when it should limit even well-intentioned technology.

Scientist Jacob Newman travels back into the past, using a device discovered aboard a foreboding, alien ship, and tries to help his grandparents complete their plot to kill Hitler. However, he soon discovers something more personally agonizing: that altering history can produce destructive effects of its own.

I am pleased to have had a developing hand in the publishing of this book, insofar as editing, and providing input into, the draft that was presented for publication. “The Kronos Interference” was released on June 3oth, has achieved rave responses from Kirkus Reviews, and is available at Barnes and Noble and other retailers, and on Amazon  for only 12.99 !! CLICK HERE  (Since its release, it has been in the top 100 sellers, in the Science Fiction/Alternate History category, and in one weekend, became one of Amazon’s best-selling fiction works.)

UPDATE: JULY 7TH: THE BOOK HAS ACHIEVED A #7 POSITION IN SALES, IN AMAZON’S TECHNO-THRILLER CATEGORY, BEATING OUT CRICHTON AND CLANCY!!! 

For those interested in learning a little more about us and the book, here’s a Q&A Interview with Ed and I.

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I am a member of Reel Ladies, a group dedicated to encouraging, promoting and educating women filmmakers, as I believe in women’s issues; also, many of my strongest screenplay/TV characters are female.

Nikki Love, the Founder of the group, has sent all members a request for support for her latest effort, an invaluable drama that she hopes will open a necessary, now practically closed, book of communication about the tragedy of Postpartum Disorders.

Please click below, watch the development video, as well, and kick in a few bucks. You need not start at 20 dollars, by selecting the “other amount ” option and typing some denomination in. Remember, many constructive things have happened after an awareness of an issue was fostered by a film!

Cheers, Lee

Tears of A Clown
 

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The extent of the devastation in Japan, mostly arising from the horrendous Tsunami that was triggered by one of the largest earthquakes in history (over 9 on the Richter scale), has reached over 10,000 dead. There are probably more than that number injured, and the Japanese are also beset with resultant, exploding nuclear reactors, from the lack of electrical cooling, spewing dangerous amounts of radiation into the immediate area.

Your help and everyone’s is needed, and you may provide greatly appreciated assistance by clicking on this link, and contributing.

You may pick your specific charity to accomplish the purpose, and all are approved by the Better Business Bureau. The one I selected on the site was the Red Cross, earmarking the funds for the Japanese crisis, by choosing their International Red Cross. Thanks, and you will feel like you did something worthwhile.

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This following is the original, Artist’s Bio of Norman Schwartz, which I composed for his extraordinary and alluring exhibit of photographs of the Kelso Dunes (Mojave National Preserve). “Sand and Sky” runs from 5/6-5/28.

Meet the Photographer : Norman Schwartz

After receiving a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Norman Schwartz began a career as an aerospace engineer. Possessing a marked creative instinct, he soon rebelled against the rigidly formulaic aspects of the field, discarding it to enter law school. Norman was thrilled by the type of adaptive thinking and focus on people that were involved in the practice of law. He thus pursued that endeavor for over thirty years. In the 1980's, he developed a passion for solo flying and for related adventure, finding these to be great sources of tranquility. After years of training, Norman earned an Airline Transport Pilot's license, and then, purchased an airplane. He has flown to the North Pole, circling the globe in 21 days, and piloted into remote areas of Africa, where the welcoming committee often consisted of creatures like elephants or rampaging giraffes. In 2006, Norman began capturing alluring photographic images, which incorporated his fascination with people, minute detail, and the panoramic. He has studied photography in community college and in the extension program at UCLA, and has combined flying and photography with trips to Alaska, Canada and Mexico.

Norman chose the Kelso Dunes area as the subject of his photographic study, due to its unparalleled beauty, expansiveness, and the multiplicity of different textures and colors, within separate ecological elements. Thus, at one point in time, the sky is pictured as a streaked blue in one area, a streaked white in another, and has a fluffy whiteness in yet a third. At another time period, it possesses brilliant bursts of yellow and blue, and tamer, pastel colors. In the same way, and dependent also on specific locale, the dunes can be grayish, a shade of brown, or blue. They may have shadows, ridges, protrusions and long streaks, to them, usually in some sort of combination. The flat sand has variation in color from tan to pink, white and even black. It may be a grainy pattern, or a rippled or crisscrossed one, and contain, or lack, different types of dry brush.

Norman’s aim in portraying the panoramic along with the close-at-hand, was to elicit the same tranquility and solitude that the Kelso Dunes offer an observer. Experiencing their broader vistas enables one to achieve a transcending perspective over individual concerns. At the same time, being drawn back to the immediate environs facilitates a grounding effect that stabilizes a person. Along the latter lines, close-ups of flat sand were employed to demonstrate that the massive Dunes are the sum of small and interesting parts, which are often tread upon and overlooked. Norman’s timing of sunrise and sunset images was performed in order to entice visitors to explore and experience the "golden hours of photography," rather than the typical mid-day sun, with its absence of shadows and highlights.  Beyond the preplanned, Norman, recognizing the value of spontaneity in creativity, walked around the Dunes, “snapping away” at whatever pleased him. He sincerely hopes that you find these renditions to be just as rewarding.

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I want to preface this article by saying how much I do cherish several community-oriented, outstanding, downtown Los Angeles businesses. There is the Second Street Cigar Shop and Art Gallery (between Spring and Main), with its fantastic selection of smokes, in an exceptional, neighborhood gathering milieu. Bolt Barbers, at 5th and Spring Streets, has an inimitable meld of an old fashioned shop, with its smells of cologne, shoe shine and shaving cream, and a bunch of funky, new age dudes who nonetheless proffer great shearings. Liliya’s China Bistro on 2nd Street, near Spring, has the most delicious selection of wholesome and reasonably priced Chinese/Korean you could have. And, one of the great things about L.A. is the the new Downtown Forum, a really handy, online community-knit hub, for happenings, phenomena, personal offerings and expressions. It was created and is administered by my great friend, Ted. Click Here for It

However, replying to a particular Downtown Forum post (concerning a local business) pointed up the difficulty I have with this area of the city; much of it is regressive and inequitable. The plethora of poor-quality, immigrant business, and the consequent erosion of the tax base, coupled with prevention of mainstream enterprise, due to an ever-worsening and wasteful homelessness, are serious threats to the survival of the area. There has been a recent, geometric increase in the assaultive behavior of unmedicated and psychotic homeless persons. There is also a limitation of alluring art and substantive, world-class culture, and those are entrenched issues. The streets are dirty, neglected and some are full of vermin. The area of 6th Street, around Los Angeles and Maple, has been consistently denied street lighting.

Downtown’s dire problems are self-perpetuating difficulties: Trader Joe’s, for example, will not locate here, due to the security and customer service issues related to the destitute;  yet the massive tax revenues given to developers’ projects, by a human-services-begrudging city council, completely preempts any rehabilitation.

If Downtown is to stop declining, and I look at the lack of job opportunity, as well, we must insist that our city government operate on a higher ground. At one time, the gentrification of this area was a necessary antidote to all the abandoned and fallow buildings which blighted it. But, for several years, our city has been donating millions of dollars to corporations for the expressed purpose of producing an endless glut of low-income housing. At the same time, it permits them to weasel out of  revenue-generating, commercial projects that would create jobs, draw dwellers and make the area truly vibrant. Eli Broad’s failed, mega mall, and his subsequent “museum” bailout by Council, is a prime example.

Our leadership also closes the gates on a productive, Downtown influx when it tries (unsuccessfully) to close a 422 million dollar deficit, with deplorable, Free Library closures and hours restrictions, massive teacher layoffs, and when it “parking fees” and “sales taxes” people into extinction.

When you look at the heart of thriving municipalities like Alhambra and Pasadena, you see an enviable difference. You see locales which do not have parking meters, graffiti, punitive business fees, nor do they make backroom, shoddy deals which condone the loss of tax revenues. They do not have a mayor who resorts to unconscionable tactics of raising utility rates and cutting essential, municipal court employees for the sake of a treasury shortage. And, their libraries are open, their mental health facilities adequately serve, and lo and behold, they have harmonious and balanced, commercial and residential milieus.

Find out where your candidates for Council stand, with regard to these issues, and support the ones who are out for a change.

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