Linguist Geoff Nunberg comments on the way films like Star Wars have influenced the language of corporate culture. Enron picked names such as Jedi Capital and Obi-1 Holdings, Inc. to hide funds offshore.
Soprano Eileen Farrell has died at the age of 82. Well listen back to a 1992 interview. Her career began in radio, with her own show on CBS, in the 1940s. In the fifties she started singing opera, and performed with every major opera company and symphony orchestra in the US, including five seasons with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Starting in the sixties, she began putting out albums of jazz standards. Her 1999 autobiography is entitled, Cant Help Singing. She was also a professor of music at Indiana University and the University of Maine.
Writer, actor, and comedian Buck Henry co-wrote the script for the 1967 film. (This interview was held before an audience at the Film Forum in New York City on Feb 13, 1997 during a 30th anniversary presentation of The Graduate.
Singer, songwriter, musician and arranger Barry Manilow made the pop charts over and over again during the 1970s and early 80s with love ballads such as "Mandy," "Looks Like We Made It," "I Write the Songs" and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." Before becoming a singer he was Bette Midler's accompanist and arranger. He's currently on tour and has a new album of material Here at the Mayflower, (his first pop album since the 1980s) and a new anthology of his hits.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new CD Wish You Were Here: Love Songs for New York, a new anthology of songs recorded in reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Writer and retired New York city firefighter Dennis Smith arrived at the site of the World Trade Center towers on the day of the attacks to volunteer with the rescue effort. His new book Report from Ground Zero (Viking) is composed of first-person testimony of rescuers who were there when the towers were attacked and fell, and who helped in the efforts afterwards. Smith spent 18 years with the fire department. He is the author of nine books, including the bestseller Report from Engine Co. 82 about his years in the city's most dangerous and active firehouse.
Srdja Popovic is one of the founders of the nonviolent student group which helped bring down Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The group known as Otpor (the Serbian word for "resistance") had a clenched fist as its symbol, but used humor and theater to ridicule Milosevic and other government officials. The new PBS documentary Bringing Down a Dictator tells their story. Popovic is now a member of Parliament.
He just won a Golden Globe for his score for the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and the score has also been nominated for an Academy Award. Shore has over 60 film scores to his credit, including The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, The Silence of the Lambs, Ed Wood and Philadelphia. Shore was also one of the original creators of Saturday Night Live, serving as musical director from 1975 to 1980. His chamber music is featured on the CD Reel Life — The Private Music of Film Composers Vol. 1.
Writer Jake Arnott's new novel is He Kills Coppers, a dark thriller set in London in 1966. Arnott's first novel, The Long Firm, is being made into a five-part series for the BBC.
Percussionist Jonathan Haas is a solo timpani player who has garnered international praise. He plays all styles of music, from classical to jazz and rock. Haas is the principal timpanist for the New York Chamber Symphony, the Aspen Chamber Orchestra and the EOS Ensemble. He regularly performs with numerous other orchestras worldwide. Haas also teaches percussion at the Aspen Music School and has been the director of the Peabody Conservatory Percussion Studio for 17 years. He's also the head of Sunset Records, Kettles and Company, and Gemini Music Productions.
Chris Waddell has won metals in both the winter and summer Paralympic Games, competing as both an alpine mono-skier and a wheelchair racer. Waddell is currently competing in the Paralympics in Salt Lake City. He has already won a silver medal this week.
Actor Guy Pearce is currently starring in the films The Time Machine and The Count of Monte Cristo. His other movies include Memento, L.A. Confidential, Rules of Engagement, and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. His first big acting break came in the 1980s, when he starred in an Australian syndicated TV series called Neighbours.
Father Donald Cozzens is the author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflection on the Priest's Crisis of Soul. He is president-rector and professor of pastoral theology at Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Cleveland. He is also the editor of The Spirituality of the Diocesan Priest. Father Cozzens will talk about the church's current sexual abuse scandals, and other crises facing the priesthood.
