Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews "Crossroads," the 2-CD, 73-song retrospective of the 25-year career of British guitarist Eric Clapton. The package includes previously unreleased material.
Actor John Lithgow. He's currently starring in the Broadway play "M Butterfly." His film roles include "Terms of Endearment" and "The World According to Garp."
Image consultant Dorothy Sarnoff. In her new book, Never Be Nervous Again, Sarnoff shares some of her advice on how to overcome nervousness and anxiety when speaking to others.. Her clients include politicians, authors on tour, diplomats and television newscasters
Language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg looks back on the long nights he spent in a private club in Rome where the only requirement for membership was that you be a native-English speaker. He reflects on how the language brought together people who otherwise had nothing in common.
British conductor Simon Rattle. While Rattle has won acclaim for his guest conducting in America and Europe, he is best known for the success of his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Rattle's success has created a new legitimacy in England for regional orchestras. The orchestra is now touring in America.
Baseball writer Roger Angell. His new book, Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion, is a compilation of essays published in The New Yorker magazine over the last five seasons. The essays cover subjects from spring training, Astroturf versus grass and drug abuse. Angell's previous books include The Summer Game, Five Seasons and Late Innings. Angell is the senior fiction editor of The New Yorker.
Rock historian Ed Ward takes on the notion that old-time rock and roll had no message or meaning, that it was simply fun. This is the message that the purveyors of collections of 50s and 60s hits are conveying in ads that recall the "fun" of the era without also evoking the harsher realities.
Short story writer and novelist Alice Adams. Her fiction deals often with women in transit and transition. She's best known for the 1984 novel Superior Women. Her new novel is titled Second Chances.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a 1939 live performance of the Bloch Violin Concerto performed by the Hungarian soloist Joseph Szigeti and conducted by Willem Mengelberg.
Rock historian Ed Ward profiles the work of TK Productions, the Miami recording company that in the mid-70s brought out acts like K.C. and the Sunshine Band ("That's the Way I Like it" and "Get Down Tonight"), George McRae ("Rock Your Baby") and Betty Wright ("Where is the Love"), musicians who combined classic southern rhythm and blues with the up-tempo beat of disco.
Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar. He compares his films, like "Law of Desire" and "What Have I Done To Deserve This?," to the films of the American film director John Waters. Like Waters, Almodovar's films take a humorous view of popular culture's cliches.
New York Times reporter Nan Robertson. Her new book, Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, reveals the inner workings of Alcoholics Anonymous, one of the most successful self-help movements of modern times. The book is based on four years of research, which included access to A.A.'s archives and some of the key figures who helped chart the course of the movement, as well as interviews with A.A.'s rank-and-file members. Herself a recovering alcoholic, Robertson won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winner for her account of her own near-fatal attack of toxic-shock syndrome.
Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to bandleader and arranger Gil Evans, who died on March 20. A reissue of Evans' music from the early 60s has just been released, and Whitehead uses that record to comment on Evans' varied contribution over the course of his 40-year career.
Television Critic David Bianculli reviews the new ABC series "China Beach." Like "M*A*S*H," "China Beach" features the medical corps that tend to the wounded. But unlike "M*A*S*H," most all the main characters in "China Beach" are women - the nurses who work in the operating rooms and run the USO clubs - and the setting is Vietnam.
Journalist James Adams, the defense correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. His new book, Secret Armies, explores the role of covert special fighting forces who combat terrorism around the world.
Television writer Gerald Gardner. His new book, The Censorship Papers, is a collection of memos from the Hays Commission, which was the censorship arm of Hollywood's production studios from 1930 to 1968. The dossiers were released last year and Gardner covers those concerning 70 of Hollywood's best known films, including "The Maltese Falcon," "Pal Joey" and "Notorious."
Film director Wim Wender. His films include "The American Friend," "Alice in the Cities" "Kings of the Road," and "Paris, Texas." Though his subject matter seems mundane, - a cross-country trip by two men in a van, a day in the life of a disgruntled soccer goalie - Wender shapes his stories into something much more deliberate and affecting. Wender's new film, set in his native Germany, is titled "Wings of Desire."
New Orleans pianist and singer Mac Rebennack (also known as Dr. John) plays two songs recently made popular by other New Orleans artists. This is part six of a seven-part performance series.
