KPFA - Bookwaves/Artwaves

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

Trina Robbins (1938-2024) who died following a stroke on April 10, 2024, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded at her home in San Francisco on February 6, 2018.

Trina Robbins was a legend in comic book circles, an artist at a time when hardly any women drew comics. In this interview, she discusses her 2017 memoir, “Last Girl Standing,” which deals with her life as an artist, author, and clothing designer. She was the first woman to edit a comic book created by women, “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the first woman to draw “Wonder Woman,” and the single most influential historian chronicling the women who created comics and cartoons.

In this interview, she also talks about her other recent books including a history of women drawing comics during World War II, a graphic novel version of a short story collection originally written by her father in Yiddish, and a graphic novel based on a work by British author Sax Rohmer. Trina Robbins was clothing designer for Los Angeles rock and roll bands in the 1960s and for the Warhol factory in New York. She also was a regular contributor to “Wimmens Comix,” a series of comic books created by women from the 1970s through 1990s. Photo: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.

Robert MacNeil (1931-2024), who died at the age of 93 on April 12, 2003, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios while on tour for the memoir, Looking for My Country.

Robert MacNeil spent several years as a correspondent and news anchor for NBC, the BBC, and PBS before becoming the co-host of the PBS evening news show, originally the Robert MacNeil Report, and later the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour from 1975 to 1995. Since that time, he wrote novels and plays as well as continuing to work in television.

In this interview he talks about his feelings about the United States from the vantage point of being born in Canada as well as his views on meeting various American presidents.

Robert MacNeil Wikipedia page.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 25, 2024: Trina Robbins – Robert MacNeil appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

Don Winslow, author of “City in Ruins,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded via zencastr on April 10, 2024

Don Winslow is the author of 22 novels, many of which focus on crime and the criminal underworld, including The Cartel, The Force, Savages (which became an Oliver Stone film), and The Border. His latest novel,  “City in Ruins”, concludes the trilogy of “City on Fire” and “City of Dreams,” which told of a mob war using as a template the story of the Trojan War, The Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid and other works. In this latest novel, we follow the character of Danny Ryan, (Aeneas) as he winds up in Las Vegas (the founding of Rome), with forays into the Odyssey and the greek tragedies of Aeschylus and Europides.  Don Winslow has stated that these will be his final novels.

Don Winslow also produces political videos aimed at saving the American democracy from Donald Trump, and is a vital force on Twitter.

Photos: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.

A conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, The Sympathizer, which has now been adapted into a television miniseries. The interview was recorded in the KPFA studios, May 5, 2016. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky

Viet Thanh Nguyen came over from Vietnam with his family at the time of the fall of Saigon. The Sympathizer is the story of a Communist exile in America following the end of the Vietnam War, both a spy and in some respects, a lover of American culture.

An Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, Viet Thanh Nguyen is the author of two non-fiction books, Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America and Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, a non-fiction bookend to his novel. A sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed, was published in 2021.

Complete 40-minute interview.

Review of “Tiger Style!” at TheatreWorks Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts through April 28, 2024.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 18, 2024: Don Winslow – Viet Thanh Nguyen appeared first on KPFA.

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

Margot Livesey, author of the novel, “The Road from Belhaven,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Recorded March 19, 2024 at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California.

Margot Livesey is the author of ten novels, including “The Missing World,” “Mercury” and “The Boy in the Field,” which range from literary novels to psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Scotland. she currently teaches at the Iowa Writers Workshop.

“The Road from Belhaven” is set in the late 1800s in rural Scotland and Glasgow, and concerns a young woman artist with second sight who finds herself in difficult circumstances. It’s based on stories of Margot Livesey’s great grandmother as told by her grandmother and relatives in Australia.

Special thanks to Elaine Petrocelli and the folks at Book Passage Bookstore. Photo: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.

Review of “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” at ACT Strand Theatre through May 5, 2024.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 11, 2024: Margot Livesey, “The Road from Belhaven” appeared first on KPFA.

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

Rebecca Makkai, whose latest novel is “I Have Some Questions for You,” just released in trade paperback, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

Rebecca Makkai is the author of three earlier novels, The Great Believers, The Hundred Year House and The Borrowers, and one collection of stories, Music for Wartime.

This latest novel is a mystery of sorts that takes place in a New England boarding school and involves a murder that took place twenty years earlier, a murder in which an athletic coach was arrested and convicted, but likely isn’t the guilty party.

In this fast-paced book, Rebecca Makkai takes on the #MeToo movement, misogyny in high school, true crime podcasts, and hidden abuse.

The interview was recorded on March 2, 2023 at Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco. Photos: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.

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Otessa Moshfegh, recorded while on tour for the acclaimed short story collection, “Homesick for Another World, in the KPFA studios on February 2, 2017. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky. First posted March 28, 2017.

The author of the highly acclaimed novel, short-listed for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, “Eileen,” Otessa Moshfegh is the daughter of an Iranian father and Croatian mother, both forced out of Iran following the 1979 revolution. Her stories are filled with dark humor, focusing on how we feel about our bodies and our lives in this physical universe. Her vision is very idiosyncratic.

She is currently the author of four novels, most recently Death in her Hands in 2020 and Lapvona in 2022. Otessa Moshfegh is also listed as co-writer for the 2022 film “Causeway,” which is now streaming via an Apple+ subscription.

Complete Interview

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 4, 2024: Rebecca Makkai – Otessa Moshfegh appeared first on KPFA.

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), discusses the current retrospective of the films of the great Belgian-French film maker Agnes Varda (1928-2019) with host Richard Wolinsky.

Agnes Varda began her career as a stills photographer and became a director with La Point Courte (1954), having seen very few films in her life. She went on to international fame with Cleo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond, but her late life films The Beaches of Agnes and Faces, Places established her as one of the most important directors of the modern era.

All the films discussed in this interview (except the new documentary Viva Varda!) are available to stream on the Criterion app, save for Faces, Places, which can be streamed on Kanopy. Cleo from 5 to 7 can also be streamed on Max. Complete Interview.

​​​​​Burton Lane, Broadway and Hollywood composer and sometime lyricist, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, August 17, 1992 in New York, second of two parts.

Burton Lane, who died at the age of 84 in 1997, was best known for composing the scores for the hit Broadway shows Finian’s Rainbow (with E.Y. (Yip) Harburg) and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (with Alan J. Lerner). As a teenager, he was considered a protégé of George Gershwin, and was close to the Gershwin family until he moved to Los Angeles to compose songs for a variety of different musicals, including the Fred Astaire film, Royal Wedding . His other Broadway show, Carmelina, was produced in 1979.

The Gershwin Project

Review of “The 39 Steps” at San Francisco Playhouse through April 20, 2024.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 28, 2024: The Films of Agnes Varda – Burton Lane Part Two appeared first on KPFA.

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

​​​​​Burton Lane, Broadway and Hollywood composer and sometime lyricist, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, August 17, 1992 in New York.

Burton Lane, who died at the age of 84 in 1997, was best known for composing the scores for the hit Broadway shows Finian’s Rainbow (with E.Y. (Yip) Harburg) and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (with Alan J. Lerner). As a teenager, he was considered a protégé of George Gershwin, and was close to the Gershwin family until he moved to Los Angeles to compose songs for a variety of different musicals, including the Fred Astaire film, Royal Wedding . His other Broadway show, Carmelina, was produced in 1979.

In 1992, after creating a radio documentary about Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wolinsky embarked on another documentary on the life and music of George Gershwin, which started with a Morning Concert program featuring Ira Gershwin’s nephew Michael Strunsky and Gershwin expert Deena Rosenberg. That was followed followed with interviews with Michael’s father English Strunsky, with Ira Gershwin’s archivist, later a noted cabaret performer, Michael Feinstein, and New York Grande Dame Kitty Carlisle, who dated George Gershwin in the 1930s. This interview as the fifth of seven interviews, after which for personal reasons, the project was abandoned.

Special thanks to Ernie Harburg, son of Burton Lane’s lyricist E.Y. Yip Harburg, and to Gershwin historian Deena Rosenberg Harburg for their assistance in setting up this, and the other interviews in the Gershwin Project.

George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his brother Ira two years earlier. At the age of 15 he took a job as a song-plugger, playing other people’s songs on a piano for Remick Music Publisher for the sale of their sheet music. His first composed song was published when he was 17, and at 21 he scored his first big hit, Swanee. But it wasn’t until 1924 when he teamed up with his brother Ira as lyricist that George Gershwin became, what we might call a superstar, which he remained until his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira Gershwin, who went on to work with other composers until he retired in the early 1960s, died in 1983.

The Gershwin Project: complete interviews

Interview I: English Strunsky, Ira Gershwin’s brother-in-law and George’s wingman in the 1920s.

Review of “The Far Country” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre through April 14, 2024.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 21, 2024: Burton Lane (1912-1997) appeared first on KPFA.

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues 

David Thomson, film critic and historian, discusses his latest book, “The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film” with host Richard Wolinsky.

Author of over forty books, most of which deal with film and film history, David Thomson here discusses how movies have influenced how our society sees and understands war. He is hosting war films at Pacific Film Archive on March 13 (Paths of Glory), March 20 (They Shall Not Grow Old) and March 27 (1917).

In the interview, he talks about how war films rarely focus on the reasons why individual wars are fought, the soldier mentality, the two World Wars on film, fascism and resistance on film, along with such films as Black Hawk Down, The Deer Hunter and A Man Escapes.

Special thanks to AJ Fox and Susan Oxtoby of Pacific Film Archive, where the interview was recorded. Photo of David Thomson: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.

Review of “Queen” at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Lucie Stern Theatre through March 31, 2024.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post David Thomson, “The Fatal Alliance,” 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode is preempted by special KPFA Winter Fund Drive programming.

The post Special KPFA Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode is preempted by special KPFA programming marking the last day of Black History month.

The post Special KPFA Programming – Black History Month appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode is preempted by special KPFA Winter Fund Drive programming.

The post Special KPFA Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.