Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. In his first-ever film, "Roger & Me," Moore returns to his home town of Flint, Michigan to document what happened when General Motors laid of 35,000 workers there. And he begins a Quixote-like quest to meet with GM Chairman Roger Smith, following him to Detroit, and New York.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz pays tribute to the late mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani (DEE-guy-tahny). DeGaetani died last September; Lloyd reviews her last album, just released by Bridge records. It contains works by Berlioz and Mahler.
Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg reviews a new book called "Doublespeak" by William Lutz, chairman of the Committee on Public Doublespeak of the National Council of Teachers of English. Lutz has been keeping files with examples of doublespeak used in politics and advertising and has compiled some of them in his book.
Novelist Anne Lamott. Her latest novel, "All New People", is an account of growing up in a Northern California railroad town in the midst of the cultural dislocations of the 1960's. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Author Daniel Callahan. He is an expert on medical ethics whose latest book is "What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress." The book questions the assumption that everyone should receive the most life sustaining medical care available. According to Callahan, we need to change our thinking about health and illness and focus on the quality of life rather than the extension of life. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Rock historian Ed Ward profiles the Lovin' Spoonful, who came out of the Greenwich Village folk music scene, but who owed more to Chuck Berry than to Appalachian ballad-singers.
Television critic David Bianculli previews the upcoming animation series by cartoonist Matt Groening. It's called "The Simpsons" and begins on January 14th on the Fox Network.
Journalist Eddy L. Harris. Harris' book, "Mississippi Solo," is Harris' chronicle of his 23-hundred mile journey down the Mississippi by canoe. This was by no means an idyllic voyage for a black man traveling alone, and Harris faced racism and the threat of violence, in addition to the normal problems of such a lengthy journey. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new album from pianist Dick Hyman and cornetist Ruby Braff. The pair have been playing together off and on since the mid 70s. This time they've teamed up and revived an old jazz tradition, playing tunes from Broadway. The album's called "Music from My Fair Lady," and it's on Concord Jazz.
Street performer turned film actor Rick Aviles (a-VEEL-us). Aviles started out doing comedy on the streets of Manhattan, and was named "Comic of the Year" by the Village voice in 1980. He's since appeared in the movies "Mondo NY," "Street Smart," and "Spike of Bensonhurst." Aviles has a part in Jim Jarmusch's new movie, "Mystery Train."
Poet, critic and translator Robert Hass. He won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for his first volume of poetry, "Field Guide," published in 1973. He translated, with poet Robert Pinsky, Czeslaw Milosz's "The Separate Notebooks." His essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Antaeus, and Salmagundi. Many of those essays are collected in his book, "Twentieth Century Pleasures." Hass's new book, "Human Wishes," mixes verse, prose poems. and essays.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Glory," starring Matthew Broderick and Morgan Freeman. It's the true story of a black regiment during the Civil War.
Gladys Hansen is the archivist for the city of San Francisco. She's just written "Denial of Disaster," a book about the 1906 earthquake which corrects misinformation perpetuated about the quake.
Rock critic Ken Tucker looks at the "New Traditionalism" in country music as performed by such singers as Randy Travis and Rodney Crowell, and with a unique twist by the Jayhawks.
Writer Timothy Ryback. He's just written a book chronicling the history of rock music in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In the book, "Rock around the Bloc," RYBACK shows how rock music has been a presence there from the mid-1950's beginning with the Elvis Craze, and continuing with Beatlemania, and punk and heavy metal music. The rock movement spawned officially sanctioned bands as well as underground groups. Ryback says the recent events in Eastern Europe were foreshadowed in 1988 when government policy on rock bands were loosened there.
Charles Solomon is the author of Enchanted Drawings: A History of Animation. His book traces the art form from the magic lantern shows of the 1600's through the silent films of the 1920's to such modern-day phenomena as Roger Rabbit and the California Raisins.
Commentator Maureen Corrigan recently attended the annual conference of the Modern Language Association in Washington D.C. She reports on what the academics are discussing and it's relevance to the rest of us.
