Paul Zimmerman is the screenwriter of the film "The King of Comedy," directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis. Zimmerman was previously the movies editor for Newsweek and has written several books. ZImmerman is based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and is active in the Bucks Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament (B.A.N.D.). Now, that "The King of Comedy," has been released, Zimmerman returns to Fresh Air to discuss the film.
Roger "Jim" McGuinn was the leader of the folk-rock group The Byrds whose hits include "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." McGuinn is the one constant member of the group which has gone several personnel changes, including the departures of David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Gram Parsons. McGuinn has also released several solo albums. McGuinn brings his guitar to the studio to share both Byrd hits and new music.
Stanley Tigerman is a Chicago-based architect known as the "enfant terrible" of midwestern architecture. Although he studied with Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, but in 1976 he decided to break with the Chicago School of architecture and declared he had done his last serious piece. In the same year, he was part of the "Chicago 7," a group of architects who organized a "guerrilla" alternative to the "100 Years of Chicago Architecture" show. Since then, Tigerman has incorporated wit in humor in his work.
Charlie Haden is one of the foremost bass players in contemporary jazz. In the 1950s Haden was a part of the first Ornette Coleman Quartet, which was the center of a jazz revolution. He has been involved with both avant-garde and mainstream jazz ever since. In the 1960s he formed the Liberation Music Orchestra, whose pointed political references were controversial. Haden has recently re-formed the Orchestra and also plays with the band Old and New Dreams, made-up of Coleman alumni. He has also recently recorded an album with Denny Zeitlin.
Margaret Atwood is a novelist and poet whose female protagonists have attracted women readers. Atwood considers herself a feminist writer and joins the show to discuss her life, career, and the women's movement. Her latest work is a collection of short stories titled "Dancing Girls."
Coloratura soprano Roberta Peters made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1950, and has sung there every seasons since. Peters has performed in China and the U.S.S.R. Peters joins the show to discuss her life, career, and the current state of opera.
Michael DiBerardinis is an organizer with the Kensington Joint Action Council (KJAC), an community group that attempts to unite Whites, Blacks, and Latinx to tackle neighborhood problems. DiBerardinis joins the show to discuss conditions, racial relations, and politics in the neighborhood. (INTERVIEW BY DAVE DAVIES)
"Seaview" is Toby Olson's second novel, and has been nominated for a Penn/Faulkner Award. The novel follows a golf hustler and dying woman who travel across the U. S. Olson is also well known as a poet, especially in the Philadelphia where he is an active member of the "poetry scene." Olson teaches at Temple University where he is developing a Master's degree program in creative writing.
John Rockwell is the music critic for The New York Times. He believes critics should take (almost) all genres of music equally, and was one the first critics to cover "vernacular music." Rockwell has written the book "All American Music." Rockwell discusses his taste in music (including his beginnings in classical music), journalism, and shares records with Fresh Air.
Norman Mailer is a journalist, novelist, and essayist whose latest novel is "Ancient Evenings." Mailer delivers a talk on "The Problem of Writing" at the University of Pennsylvania.
Poet Gwendolyn Brooks was, in 1954, the first black person to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Brooks has written over fifteen books, her poetry has been widely anthologized, and has received over forty honorary doctorates. Brooks is also the Poet Laureate of Illinois. Brooks is in the are to deliver the "Marion Moore Poetry Reading" at Bryn Mawr College. Brooks discusses her career and reads some of her poetry.
Gerontologist Roy Walford is currently researching the aging process and how to extend life expectancy. His new book "Maximum Life Span," explores the theory he is currently developing on using caloric restriction, or what Walford calls "under nutrition," to extend life expectancy. Walford has been on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) since 1954, and has won many awards for his research and work.
Seymour Shubin is a novelist whose previous work "Anyone's My Name," was a best seller. Shubin is the former managing editor of Official Detective Stories, and has written for medical and psychological journalists. His new novel, "The Captain," is a suspense story that explores the anger and resentment a retired detective living in a nursing home feels towards the nurses, doctors, and the family members who put him there. The novel has been nominated for an Edgar Award.
Stan Mack's cartoon strip "Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies," has run in the Village Voice since 1974. The strip comes with the guarantee "all dialogue reported verbatim," and consists of absurd conversations overheard by Mack. Mack began his career as an art director at The New York Tribune and The New York Times. Mack's new book "In Search of the G Spot" is a collection of "sex spoof jokes."
Peter Bogdanovitch is a screenwriter, director, and producer, whose movies include "The Last Picture Show," "What's Up Doc?," and "Paper Moon." He got his start working for Roger Corman. Bogdanovich is also a critic and journalist, who has written for the Village Voice and Esquire, and also an author of several books about U.S. film directors. His latest film is a romantic comedy titled "They All Laughed," and Bogdanovich is currently distributing it himself through his company Moon Pictures.
Alice Neel is a painter known for her portraits and nudes. Neel was born in 1900 in the Main Line and studied at the Philadelphia School for Design for Women, later Moore College of Art. Neel's work is featured in an exhibit at the Philadelphia College of Art, [later University of the Arts] focusing on women artists whose work appears in the archives of the Women's Interart Center in New York. She discusses her life and career as a woman artist.
Pianist and composer Philip Glass is known for his avant-garde "minimalist" music. Glass was trained classically at Juliard and in Paris. Glass discusses his album "Music With Changing Parts."
Marita Golden became part of a group of black radicals as student at American University in Washington, D.C. After graduating from the Columbia School of Journalism, Golden married a Nigerian and moved to Nigeria with him. Golden was shocked by the role of women and wives in the country, which she found stifling. Taking her son with her, Golden left her husband and returned to the United States. She discuss her life and experiences in her memoir "Migrations of the Heart."
Dr. Walter Lear is the founder and co-chair of the National Gay Health Coalition, the former state Health Commissioner, for Southeast Pennsylvania and the president and founder of the Institute of Social Medicine and Community Health in West Philadelphia. Dr. Nick Ifft is the secretary of Philadelphia Health Professionals for Human Rights (an organization of gay and lesbian physicians and dentists), the coordinator of the Philadelphia A.I.D.S. Task Force, and a general practitioner at South East Health Center in Philadelphia. The doctors join the show to discuss A.I.D.S.
Joyce Johnson became a part of the circle known as the Beat writers: Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac, when she broke away from her middle class Jewish family life and joined the bohemian Greenwich Village crowd. Johnson met Kerouac in 1957 and was in a romantic relationship with him for two years. Her new memoir, "Minor Characters," discusses not only her experiences but also the role of women in the Beat generation. Johnson is also an editor and novelist.
