Author, blogger, journalist, artist, Ed Newman has interviewed some of our favorite celebrities, including Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Holly, mass protests in the '70s, and more! These are stories you have never heard before. And they are straight from a person who was there! Sit for a moment and listen in as OWC host, Cirina Catania talks with Ed about some of his most interesting experiences.

In This Episode

00:08 - Cirina introduces Ed Newman, an author, blogger, journalist, and artist.06:30 - Cirina and Ed talk about how Kurt Vonnegut was a fascinating and intuitive man.13:15 - Ed shares the turning point in life when he felt he wanted to be a writer back in his younger years.19:32 - Ed and Cirina talk about how they met Riki McManus, director of the Upper MN Film Office.25:06 - Ed tells the story of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P “Big Bopper” Richardson’s tragic plane crash.32:28 - Ed shares how he hitchhiked to the 1971 Mayday Anti War Protest 38:05 - Ed describes how the protest started and how the organizers planned for it to be a nonviolent protest.43:46 - Ed talks about the chaos and how the police ended up arresting 14,000 people over the two days of the protest. 50:22 - Ed shares a book he read, Cold War’s Killing Fields, about the horrible things that have happened to civilians.55:11 - Visit Ed Newman’s blog, Ennyman’s Territory at pioneerproductions.blogspot.com, to learn more about him.

Jump to Links and Resources

Transcript

This is Cirina Catania with OWC Radio. And I am talking with Ed Newman, who is an author, a blogger, an artist, and one of the most entertaining and informed people I've spoken within a long time. I met him through my connections in Duluth when I was recently working on the two-day master workshop on filmmaking that we were doing. And Ed and I started talking on the phone the other day, and he was telling me, Ed, I gotta say you have some interesting stories.

I have had a lot of interesting experiences, and you haven't heard a piece of it. Thank you for having me on your show. This is great. 

It's fun. I think you blew me away when you said you had interviewed Kurt Vonnegut. Did you interview him? 

Yeah, It was by telephone. It was set up, I guess. When you interview lots of people over a period of time, you learn a few things. One of them is always to be punctual. But it was a lot of fun. I started by pitching a story to screen printing magazine, about Jonathan Winters as an artist. Most people know him as a comedian. And so they weren't that interested. But then I pitched a story on Joe Pietro, the Kentucky screen printer who actually did Jonathan Winters' part. And he had done Kurt Vonnegut and Ralph Steadman. And so I got in the inside, basically, to access to all these people and it was really fun. When I called Kurt Vonnegut, he was sitting at home watching Sunday afternoon football, New York Giants. Like any guy, who's into football. So anyway, it was really rewarding.

So talk to me about him as an artist. 

Well, he had gone to give a lecture in Lexington, Kentucky. And Joe Pietro was the one who was doing posters for this, which is how they got to publicize speakers. And so he basically interacted with Mr. Vonnegut, and one thing led to another, and the next thing they were friends, and he was illustrating a lot of Kurt Vonnegut's art. Just like some of his stories, as you know, there's a humorous side underneath. And some of the artwork was that way, too.

I just really admire his work. I wish we had visuals, and we could show people, maybe we'll do a print version of this, so we could put some of this up. What was your takeaway when you talked with him? 

My take away from him? Oh, gosh, he was very perceptive. I kind of tried to build a bridge with him and said that I had read all his books when I was in college and all of his books and Hermann Hesse's books. And his response to me was, "You must have been lonely.