Society & Culture

World Music Critic Milo Miles reviews music of Chicano bandleader and accordionist Steve Jordan. The eclectic performer's recorded almost 40 albums and has provided music for films like, "Born in East L.A." and "True Stories."

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new CD collection of songs by the late Roland Hayes. Hayes was the first major black concert singer, and paved the way for performers such as Marion Anderson. (It's issued by the Smithsonian).

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin (mic-LOFF-lin) tells us how to dress for Earth Day.

Spiritual teacher RAM DASS. Ram Dass' book, "Be Here Now," was a widely used spiritual guide during the early 70s. Ram Dass followed that book up with several others, among them "The Only Dance There Is" and "How Can I Help?" Ram Dass started out as Harvard professor Richard Alpert. While at Harvard in the early 60s, Alpert joined with Timothy Leary and others in the early psychedelic experiments. That led him to investigations of meditation and spiritual practices.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Deirdre Bair's new biography of Simone de Beauvoir.

Critic Maureen Corrigan shares her thoughts on celebrity stars, thoughts generated by her recent trip from the East Coast halls of Academe to Hollywood.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new reissue, "Uptown," featuring the Gene Krupa Orchestra with Roy Eldridge and singer Anita O'Day. It's on Columbia.

Author Paul Monette. His memoir, "Borrowed Time," (Avon books) told his story of living with death and aids. His latest book is a novel, "Afterlife," (Crown books) about how three different men deal with the grief of losing a lover from aids. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Writer Hettie Jones. Her new memoir, "How I became Hettie Jones" (published by E.P. Dutton) is an account of living at the center of New York bohemianism during the 50's and 60's. It's also the story of Jones' interracial marriage to black poet LeRoi Jones. LeRoi Jones later became involved in the black militant movement, and changed his name to Amiri Baraka. The two divorced.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new book by British writer Fay Weldon, "The Cloning of Joanna May." Weldon has also written, "The Life and Love of a She-Devil."

Batman creator Bob Kane. In his new autobiography, "Batman & Me," Kane tells how he came up with the idea for the caped crusader, and what influence he had on the T-V series and last year's movie. Kane drew Batman from its inception in 1939 to the late 60s.

Poet Mark Halliday joins us again to read a poem.

Author and Journalist T.J. English. His new book is "The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob." From the 1960's to the 1980's the mob led by James Coonan terrorized Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Testimony from a former hitman of the gang, Mickey Featherstone, eventually broke up the gang. English's book has been called, "a grotesque chronicle" of the gang and "reminiscent of Poe and Dostoyevsky in subject and character," by New York Newsday. English's book is published by Putnam.

Cuban-born poet Heberto Padilla (air-BARE-toe puh-DEE-uh). He was a friend of Castro and an early supporter of the revolution in Cuba. But later he became disillusioned and was imprisoned by Castro as a counter-revolutionary in 1971. He left Cuba in 1980 and has been living and teaching in the U.S. He has a new memoir, "Self Portrait of the Other," published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg has some thoughts on the different accents you'll find in California. Not all of them are as distinctive as those of a "Valley Girl." (originally broadcast 3/9/88).

Historian John Hope Franklin. Years before there were any black history departments, Franklin was researching the stories of free-blacks in the antebellum south. His interest in black history began while he was a graduate student in the 1930's. Since then he has written a number of books on the subject. His latest book "Race and History," is a collection of essays written between 1938 and 1988. Franklin is Professor of Legal History at Duke University.

Critic Maureen Corrigan gives us her family's version of how to celebrate St. Patricks Day, and recommends the novel "Motherland" by Timothy O'Grady as perfect St. Patrick's Day reading.

World music commentator Milo Miles explores the continuing influence of punk rock on Japanese music in the second of his two-part examination of Japanese pop music. Milo looks at two Japanese groups -- The Plastics and The Frank Chickens.

Journalist and essayist Francine Du Plessix Gray. In her latest book, "Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope," Gray documents the lives and attitudes of contemporary Soviet women in the era of glasnost. They talk about everything from birth control to Stalin to the constant struggle to balance the demands of work and family in their lives. ("Soviet Women" is published by Doubleday.)

With winter still here, but spring hinting it's arrival, commentator Patricia McLaughlin considers the perils of winter on the mind, body, and spirit.