Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the reissue of the original cast album of the legendary 1954 Theatre de Lys’ Off-Broadway production of Kurt Weill’s “Threepenny Opera” starring Lotte Lenya. It’s on the Decca label.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years” (pub., Ivan Dee) a journal of Romanian writer Mihail Sebastian (“Me-hi-eel Sebas-ti-an”) about the Nazification of Europe.
Singer/songwriter Paul Simon. In 1964 he and Art Garfunkle, as the duo Simon & Garfunkle, hit number one on the pop charts with the song “Sound of Silence.” They continued with 5 albums that all sold gold. After a split in 1970, Simon continued writing songs and took up a solo singing career. His albums include “Still Crazy After All These Years,” “Graceland,” and “Rhythm of the Saints.” His new album is “You’re The One.” (Warner Bros.)
Kenneth Kamler, MD is a surgeon who also climbs mountains. He was team doctor on three expeditions to the top of Mount Everest, including the disastrous 1996 trip during which 6 people died. Kamler is both storyteller and advisor in his book, “Doctor on Everest: Emergency Medicine at the Top of the World – A Personal Account including the 1996 Disaster.” (The Lyons Press) Blackened limbs due to severe frostbite were the least of his troubles. I-V fluids are frozen solid, and abrasions cannot heal at such high altitudes.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new recording of Handel’s opera, “Alcina.” (“al-CHEE-na”)It’s a live performance by the Paris Opera (Erato).
Serbian writer Jasmina Tesanovic. She’s just published a book called “The Diary of a Political Idiot,” (Midnight Editions 2000). The book, comprised of excerpts from her personal journal, narrates daily life in Belgrade during the political upheaval and bombings in Serbia. She is one of the founders of 94, the first feminist publishing house in Serbia. She lives and works in Belgrade.
Film director Ang Lee. His new movie is “Crouching Tiger, Killing Dragon,” starring Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeow (“Yo”). He also co-produced the film. Lee is best known for his English-language dramas such as “Sense and Sensibility,” the Jane Austen novel adaptation, as well as the Chinese-American themed “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “The Wedding Banquet.” In “Crouching Tiger,” Lee brings an art-house sensibility to the Hong Kong martial arts genre.
Actress Michelle Yeoh (“Yo”). She’s been called Asia’s foremost female action star. She’s the lead in Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Killing Dragon.” Yeow has starred in many films including “Supercop” with Jackie Chan and the 007 thriller “Tomorrow Never Dies.” Yeow is also a film producer. She is a native of Ipoh, Malaysia, and in fact was once Miss Malaysia.
Writer Michael Patrick Hearn. He’s edited “The Annotated Wizard of Oz: A Centennial Edition” (W.W. Norton). The book commemorates the 100th anniversary of the publication of L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Back in 1900, the first 10,000 copies printed of Baum’s book sold out in two weeks. Baum wrote 14 Oz books in all.
Columnist Stanley Bing (a pseudonym) satirizes the corporate world in his columns for Fortune and Esquire Magazines. He revels his true identity in this interview. His book “Lloyd—what Happened: A Novel of Business” followed the aspirations of an executive who was climbing the corporate ladder. Bing’s newest book is “What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Means” (Harperbusiness) a satirical how-to book for the Machiavellian-minded in the corporate world.
Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde” edited by Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis. (Henry Holt) The volume includes over 1500 letters. November 21, 2000 marked the 100th anniversary of Wilde’s death.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new show “Queer as Folk,” which premieres on Showtime this Sunday night. The series is an American version of the controversial British show of the same name.
Actress Eva Marie Saint. She starred opposite Marlon Brando in the 1954 film “On the Waterfront,” and won an academy award for her portrayal of his convent-reared girlfriend. Later she and Cary Grant teamed up for Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.” Saint studied at the famed Actors Studio where Brando, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe and Dennis Hopper also did. This Sunday she stars in the CBS Sunday Movie, “Papa’s Angels.”
Novelist Jay McInerney (“MAC-in-UR-knee”). He broke onto the literary scene with his bestselling novel “Bright Lights, Big City,” about the excesses of the a Manhattan yuppie in the 1980s. His new book is a collection of essays about the pleasure of wine. It’s called “Bacchus & Me: Adventures in The Wine Cellar” (The Lyons Press).
Historian Alexander Keyssar. In his new book “The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States” (Basic Books), he examines the checkered history of our country’s right to vote, and how this right was not for a time extended to certain groups of people, from propertyless white men, to women, immigrants, and African-Americans. Even now, he argues, that the wealthy and well-educated are for more likely to go to the polls than the poor and under educated. Keyssar is Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University.
Kim Alexander is President of the California Voter Foundation, organized to pioneer new technologies to improve democracy. The group produces the California Online Voter Guide. Recently Alexander was part of the Task Force for Internet Voting put together by California’s Secretary of State.
