Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new CD. It's a reissue from The Hollywood String Quartet, a chamber group made up of studio musicians who wanted to perform the classics. (on the Testament label).
Neurophysiologist William Calvin. He assisted in neurosurgery on a patient named Neil. Neil was to have a portion of his temporal lobe removed to cure his severe epilepsy. But the neurosurgeon, George Ojemann, had to know where to cut. A mistake could cost Neil part of his normal brain function. So, while Neil was awake on the operating table, Dr. Ojemann, probed and stimulated Neil's exposed brain, the whole time carrying on a conversation with the patient. The purpose was to create a detailed roadmap of Neil's brain functioning.
Poet Lloyd Van Brunt. He grew up poor and white in Oklahoma. He writes, in the The New York Times magazine section, "To be poor in a country that places a premium on wealth is in itself shameful. To be white and poor is unforgivable." (March 27, 1994). Van Brunt says poor whites have no defenders ("white trash" they are called) and they are made to feel ashamed of themselves because of the assumption that they "should" be able to make a success of themselves. Van Brunt's father abandoned the family, his mother died when he was 8.
Songwriter Stephen Sondheim. Last fall he gave a talk at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City. We broadcast that talk. Sondheim's latest work, "Passion," opens tonight.
Documentary film maker Allie Light. Her new film, "Dialogues With Madwomen," won the 1994 "Freedom of Expression Award" at the Sundance Film Festival. In the film, seven women describe their bouts with mental illness, including Light who checked herself into a day psychiatric facility for three months in 1963 because of problems with depression. Light co-produced the film with Irving Saraf. Their previous work, "In The Shadow of the Stars," won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Former Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello. At the age of 12, she was discovered by Walt Disney at a dance recital; he was looking for kids for his new show, "The Mickey Mouse Club." Funicello became the "most popular" Mouseketeer, and went on to star in a number of Disney films: "The Shaggy Dog," "Babes in Toyland," and "The Monkey's Uncle." Before she went to star in the beach party movies for which she is also known, Disney requested that she wear a one-piece bathing suit instead of a bikini. Funicello agreed.
Texas-born musician and Nashville songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. At 54, he plays with his son in a band called "Shaver" -- their new album is "Tramp on Your Street" (Zoo/Praxis), his first recording in ten years. Shaver's songs, as recorded by Waylon Jennings on the 1973 "Honky Tonk Heroes" album, began the "outlaw" movement in country music. Since then, his songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.
Writer for the Village Voice and The Nation Pagan Kennedy. Kennedy ("Pagan" is not her real first name) has staked out a niche for herself as a "1970's survivor and devotee." Kennedy has written an investigation of that decade, seen through its artifacts and social upheaval, "Platforms: A Microwaved Cultural Chronicle of the 1970's" (St. Martins). In the 70's she says, "we inherited this idea of recycling culture.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead fills in for Stephen Schiff and reviews two new movie releases--"With Honors" with Joe Pesci and "PCU" with David Spade. They're both campus comedies.
Columnist and commentator Murray Kempton. The New Yorker says he's "surely among the greatest of all living newspapermen" . . . "the one true original in the business." For years he wrote a column for the old New York Post. Now he writes for New York Newsday and The New York Review of Books. At 76, he bicycles around Manhattan in his elegant attire to gather material for his columns on the City's "rebels, losers and rascals." His latest book is a collection of his newspaper pieces.
Physician and author Kenneth Iserson, M.D. Iserson wanted to promote organ and tissue donation. So he wrote a book about what happens to dead bodies. It's called "Death to Dust" (Galen Press). Iserson believes that death is the pornography of our culture. He says that after-death activities are shrouded in secrecy. His book explores the mundane--burial choices and advance directives--and the arcane--head shrinking, cannibalism and cryonic preservation.
Ted Hawkins is a singer, a songwriter, and a guitarist who for almost 30 years was a street musician in L.A. His music isn't the blues though he's qualified to sing them: he grew up in poverty in Mississippi, his mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father. As a teenager, Hawkins spent time in jail. His first two marriages ended quickly: one was annulled, his second wife died two months into the marriage.
Writer, feminist, organizer, and the founder of Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem. She has a new book of essays, "Moving Beyond Words, (Simon & Schuster). In one of the essays she wonders -- what if Freud were female? -- and imagines what life would be like if one of the most "enduring, influential, and fiercely defended thinkers" in Western civilization were Dr. Phyllis Freud. In her new book Steinem also reflects on turning 60.
Singer, songwriter, guitar player, Dan Penn. Penn has written soul music classics--"Do Right Woman," "Cry Like a Baby," "Sweet Inspiration," "I'm Your Puppet," for example. His compositions have been made famous by the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke and Otis Redding. Penn left his tiny hometown of Vernon, Alabama when he was sixteen. . . a white kid, singing like Ray Charles and in love with black music.
