Dancer and choreographer Marta Renzi. Typical of her work is "Mountainview," a half-hour dance narrative that premieres this Thursday, August 3 on the PBS program "Alive From Off Center." "Mountainview" is set at the bar of rundown resort run by three generations of the same family. The families loves and jealousies are played out to the sounds of the jukebox, which features the music of Bruce Springsteen, Tammy Wynette and Aretha Franklin. RENZI choreographed the dances and other movements and collaborated with filmmaker John Sayles on the camera work.
Writer Joe Kane. In 1985, Kane, who had been a freelance writer living in San Francisco, was asked to follow the first attempt to navigate the entire Amazon River, starting in the Andes of Peru and ending in the Atlantic Ocean. Kane was going to follow the group at intervals, publicizing their progress for the American and European press.
Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the final three performances of the PepsiCo Summerfare Arts Festival at Purchase, New York. For ten years, the Pepsi-Cola company has underwritten an annual international arts festival that will best be remembered for its ambitious presentations of operas by Mozart and Handel that were directed by Peter Sellars. In this segment, Lloyd reviews performances of Mozart's three great Italian operas, "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni" and "Cosi fan tutte."
Rock historian Ed Ward profiles Gene Vincent, an early rocker who, it has been said, "sounded more like Elvis than Elvis." After Elvis burst onto the scene, record companies scrambled to find Elvis look-alikes and sound-alikes. He became a bigger hit in England than America, but he's easily remembered for his hit "Be-Bop-A-Lula."
Musicologist David Lewiston. Since the early 60s, Lewiston has traveled the world collecting the music of the indigenous cultures. He's recorded the Andean music of Peru, the fiestas of southern Mexico and the marimba music of Guatemala. In addition, he's travelled extensively in the Himalayas and other remote, mountainous areas of the Far East. These recordings have been released as part of the Nonesuch Record Company's Explorer Series. Over the last few years, Lewiston has focused on the music and rituals of the people of Tibet, now living in exile in northern India.
Time Magazine correspondent Otto Friedrich. Friedrich talks of his work at Time and Newsweek, from his coverage of the French war in Indochina, to the essays and cover stories he now writes at Time. A collection of his essays, titled The Grave of Alice B. Toklas, has just been published.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new reissue of the late tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler. A key part of the free jazz movement of the 1960s, Ayler's sound has been likened to speaking in tongues.
Social policy analyst David L. Kirp The author of many books on education in America, David Kirp's latest, Learning by Heart," describes the battles in 7 different communities over whether to allow children infected with AIDS to attend local schools.
Blues musician John Hammond returns in Fresh Air's weekly performance segment with a demonstration of his slide guitar style. He plays songs by Son House and Big Bill Broonzey.
Commentator Stewart Brand reports on his first journey through cyberspace, a type of three-dimensional computer-generated world that humans can `fly through' by simply pointing a finger. Brand traces the evolution of Cyberspace through recent fiction.
Author Jose Torres. His new book, Fire and Fear, charts the personal turmoil and the athletic rise of heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. Torres comes to the Tyson story well qualified: he's the former world light heavyweight boxing champion (his lifetime record was 52-3-1), and he trained with the same man who trained Mike Tyson. Since retiring, Torres has served as the New York state boxing commissioner and written a biography of Mohammad Ali titled Sting Like A Bee.
Author and satirist Robert Kaplow. Kaplow is the leader of the satirical group, "The Punsters," which has appeared on "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered," and more recently here on Fresh Air. Kaplow himself portrays Moe Moscowitz, the hyper-kinetic self-promoter and pitchman. Kaplow also writes novels for young adults. His latest novel is titled Alessandra in Love.
Joel Rosenman and John Roberts. Twenty years ago Rosenman and Roberts were in their 20s when they came into a large inheritance. They decided to take the money and promote a rock concert in upstate New York. What they ended up organizing was Woodstock, possibly the one event that best sums up an entire era of American history.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Turner and Hooch," the new comedy starring Tom Hanks as a man who's life is turned upside down when he inherits a huge, slobbering dog.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews two new reggae albums, "One Bright Day," by Ziggy Marley (son of the late Bob Marley) and "Cumbolo" by the Jamaican group Culture.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews two new compact discs of music conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Schwartz says these two discs are rare examples of Toscanini conducting live performances while still at the height of his powers.
Pianist Dubravka Tomsic. Tomsic came to the United States from her native Yugoslavia as a teenager. Her playing so impressed Arthur Rubinstein that he personally intervened with the Yugoslavian government to fund her music studies here. Tomsic returned to Yugoslavia after her graduation from Juilliard. She is now back in the United States for the first time in 30 years, for a small number of concerts and recording sessions.
Commentator Maureen Corrigan looks back at Ex-Wife a 1929 novel by Ursula Parrott that has recently been re-printed. Corrigan finds many of the issues of contemporary feminism wrapped up in this story of a flapper who tries an "open" marriage.
Filmmaker Wayne Wang. With the films "Chan is Missing," "Dim Sum," and "Slam Dance" to his credit, Wang is the first Chinese-American film director to make an impact in the American film industry. Wang has focussed his work around the problems of identity and assimilation, and other issues in the lives of Chinese-American immigrants. He made his first film, "Chan is Missing," on a budget of only $22,000, but the mystery set in San Francisco's Chinatown became both a critical and box-office success.
