KPFA - Bookwaves/Artwaves

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Don Winslow, author of “City on Fire,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded at Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera on April 27, 2022.

Don Winslow is the author of 21 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 on Fire,” tells the story of a mob war in the 1980s in Rhode Island using as a template the story of the Trojan War, The Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid and other works. This is the first of a trilogy, already completed, that marks the end of Don Winslow’s career as a novelist.

Don Winslow also produces political videos aimed at saving the American democracy from insurrectionists and fascists, and is a vital force on Twitter. Photos: Richard Wolinsky.

Film critic and historian David Thomson discusses his latest book, “A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors” with host Richard Wolinsky.

David Thomson is the author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film, How to Watch a Movie, The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies, Have You Seen… and several other books examining film and the people who make movies.

This book discusses directors and their role in the making of films. In the interview, he talks about reassessment of films and directors, directors Fritz Lang, D.W. Griffith and Alfred Hitchcock, and changes in how we watch films in the past several years, focusing on how our lives have changed during the pandemic.

The complete 50-minute interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Review: “Octet” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theater through May 29, 2022.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – May 5, 2022: Don Winslow – David Thomson appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

A conversation with A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic of the New York Times and author of Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth, Hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Encore podcast originally posted on April 7, 2016.

A.O. Scott is one of America’s foremost film critics. Since 2002, he’s shared the chief movie review slot at the New York Times with Mahnola Dargis. His book, Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth, takes a look at reviewing and criticism, at some of the challenges critics face, and at some of the issues that roll across his mind every time he writes a review.

In this interview, he talks about many of those issues, including the rise of algorithms, the relationship between taste and popularity, the relationship between taste and quality, and his own beliefs about aesthetics. Scott also looks at the 2016 controversy involving diversity at the Academy Awards, and how he and Mahnola Dargis divvy up reviews.

Complete Interview.

Max Von Sydow (1929-2020). A brief three-minute phone interview from December, 2020 while he was promoting the film Flash Gordon.. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky and Lawrence Davidson, recorded live on air.

Review: “Gem of the Ocean” at TheatreWorks Mountain View Center for the Arts through May 1, 2022.

Review: “Fefu and her Friends” at ACT Strand Theater through May 1, 2022.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 28, 2022: A.O. Scott appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018), who broke the artificial wall between science fiction and literature, died on January 22nd, 2018 at the age of 88. An essayist and poet along with being a fiction writer, she transcended all genres with the quality of her prose and the allegorical nature of her work.

Best known for her novels The Left Hand of Darkness, which dealt with gender; The Dispossessed, which dealt with a utopian civilization; her series of novels in the fantasy realm of Earthsea; and her short stories, especially “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Ursula K. Le Guin broke ground in several directions over the course of her writing life.

But she started in science fiction fantasy. On September 29th, 2000, Richard Wolinsky and his then co-host Richard A. Lupoff spoke with Ursula K. Le Guin about her career as a writer and about her latest novel, a political and social science fiction allegory, “The Telling.”

An extended version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Gene Wolfe (1931-2019), author of several science fiction novels and short stories, including “The Book of the New Sun,” interviewed by Richard Wolinsky, Lawrence Davidson and Richard A. Lupoff at Bay Con, Thanksgiving weekend, 1982.

The noted fantasy and science fiction writer Gene Wolfe died on April 14, 2019, one month shy of his 88th birthday. By the time of his death, he’d achieved a lifetime achievement award from the World Fantasy Convention, he’d been acclaimed a science fiction Grand Master from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, had won several awards from various organizations in the field, and was considered a writer’s writer.

Digitizing, remastering & re-editing by Richard Wolinsky in 2019. Sound quality is variable.

Complete Radio Wolinsky podcast

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 21, 2022: Ursula K. LeGuin – Gene Wolfe appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Jane Smiley, whose latest novel is “Perestroika in Paris,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

The author of sixteen adult fiction novels, two short story collections, five non-fiction works plus several young adult novels, Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “A Thousand Acres,” and more recently The Last Hundred Years Trilogy. She current teaches creative writing.

“Perestroika in Paris” is a departure from her other works. Clearly an adult novel, it focuses on several animals on the loose in Paris in 2008, including a horse named Perestroika (Paras), based in part on Jane Smiley’s own horse of the same name, a dog named Frida (based in part on Jane Smiley’s own German short-haired pointer) and an array of other creatures, all of whom communicate with one another, and create a bond with a young orphan named Etienne, who lives with his elderly grandmother near the Eiffel Tower.

As Jane points out in the interview, in an era when we are overwhelmed with angst in politics and during the pandemic, a book that takes us far away can often seem like a necessary relief.

Extended 39-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Brian Garfield, who died on December 29, 2018, one month shy of his eightieth birthday, wrote at least sixty-five novels, most of them westerns, three collections of short stories, three books of non-fiction and several works for film and television. Though writing mostly in the western genre, he is best known for the revenge novel Death Wish, which became a hit movie starring Charles Bronson in 1974, along with Hopscotch, which became a successful film with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson in 1980. His 1982 Western Films: A Complete Guide is still the definitive work on the subject.

In 1983,Richard Wolinsky, along with Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson sat down with Brian Garfield to talk about his career. An extremely prolific writer at the time of the interview, and only in his early 40s, Brian Garfield’s output declined precipitously afterward, with only two novels and one non-fiction book published over the final 35 years of his life.

Brian Garfield’s best novel, Wild Times, is currently out of print, though a kindle edition is available for a low price. The mini-series of Wild Times and the musical Legs never came out on DVD and are unavailable for streaming, The original Death Wish and its sequels can be rented on Amazon and Hopscotch is available free on Kanopy through your public library. A remake of Death Wish came out in theaters in 2018, starring Bruce Willis, and promptly flopped. It is currently streaming on Epix.

This podcast was digitized and re-edited in 2019 by Richard Wolinsky. The podcast is dedicated to the memory of Patricia Lupoff, who was also present at the interview.

Complete 58-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 14, 2022: Jane Smiley – Brian Garfield appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Robert Macfarlane, whose latest book is “Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places,” written in collaboration with artist Stanley Donwood and writer Dan Richards, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.

This short book examines two strange areas in England, Orford Ness, a spit of sand in the southeast of England, not far from Cambridge, which was used as a weapons testing site in the Cold War, and the holloways of Dorset, strange paths beaten over centuries, and often covered over by trees, almost as caves.

In this interview, recorded December 8, 2020, he talks about the book, both places in England, and about the pandemic and climate change.

The author of several books, including “Underland,” “Mountains of the Mind” and “The Old Ways,” Robert Macfarlane teaches at Cambridge University.

An extended 40-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Miranda July, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, while on tour for The First Bad Man, recorded in November 2015.

Miranda July is a multi-talented artist, working in film, fiction, monologue, digital media presentations, and live performance art. In 2022, her films You, Me and Everyone We Know is available by subscription on AMC+ and can be rented from Apple TV, and The Future can be rented from Apple TV.

The First Bad Man remains her most recent book to date. In 2020, a film Kajillionaire, starring Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, Gina Rodriguez and Evan Rachel Wood was written and directed by Miranda July and is currently streaming on HBO Max and can be rented via Apple TV.

From Miranda July’s webpage: Miranda’s collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and has been published in twenty-three countries. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker; It Chooses You was her first book of non-fiction.  She wrote, directed and starred in The Future and Me and You and Everyone We Know — winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. July’s participatory art works include the website Learning to Love You More (with artist Harrell Fletcher), Eleven Heavy Things (a sculpture garden created for the 2009 Venice Biennale), New Society (a performance), and Somebody (a messaging app.) Raised in Berkeley, California, July lives in Los Angeles.

Complete interview

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 7, 2022: Robert Macfarlane – Miranda July appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Today’s program is devoted to the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Named after the noted playwright (A Raisin in the Sun), the company was formed in 1981 by Stanley E. Williams and Quentin Easter,  the Lorraine Hansberry had established itself as the premier African American theatre company in the Bay Area within a few short years, and over the next decades produced and premiered several plays by major black playwrights. Both founders died of cancer in 2010, and Steven Anthony Jones served as Artistic Director until 2017 and was followed by two interim directors, until 2020, when noted Bay Area actor Margo Hall became the new artistic director.The first live production since the pandemic, Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, plays April 1 – 16 at the Magic Theatre in Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

Margo Hall, Artistic Director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and noted Bay Area actor, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

Margo Hall has established herself as one of the premiere actors on Bay Area stages, having performed at Marin Theatre Company, Cal Shakes, Shotgun Players, ACT and elsewhere. A playwright whose work appeared at Berkeley Rep, she has also directed several plays around the area, and currently teaches at both UC Berkeley and Chabot College. She is also a featured performer in the TV series Blindspotting, on STARZ and in the original Blindspotting film. Complete 36-minute interview.

Jan Hunter, director of “Intimate Apparel” by Lynn Nottage, produced by the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at the Magic Theatre in Fort Mason, April 1 – 16, 2022, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

“Intimate Apparel” tells the story of a young black seamstress and her struggles in 1905 New York, her relationships and the way she deals with adversity. In 2004, “Intimate Apparel” won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Play and was one of the highlights of that year’s off-Broadway season.

Jan Hunter has been an actor and director in both the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, and spent thirty years as the Director of the Performing Arts Academy at Skyline High School in Oakland. Most recently she performed in the cast of Interlude at New Conservaatory Theatre in San Francisco.

Complete Jan Hunter interview.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 31, 2022: Margo Hall – Jan Hunter appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Wayne Wang, director of such films as “Chan is Missing,” “The Joy Luck Club” and “Smoke,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

In this second of two parts , the noted filmmaker discusses his move toward the mainstream, from independently-minded studio films like The Joy Luck Club and Smoke to such movies as Anywhere But Here and Maid in Manhattan. He goes on to discuss his later films, and his views on Asian-American participation in the film world..

A Wayne Wang retrospective is currently on view at Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive, featuring several of his films, including Chan is Missing, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, Life Is Cheap..But Toilet Paper Is Expensive, Chinese Box and others, several of which are introduced live by the filmmaker. BAMPFA Website and schedule.

Complete 64-minute podcast interview.

Susan Oxtoby, curator of the “Federico Fellini at 100” retrospective at Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive, running into April 2022, in which films directed by Fellini, along with the films he wrote prior to becoming a director, will be shown in mostly new digitized restorations, talks about Fellini and the films with Richard Wolinsky.

Federico Fellini is considered one of the greatest film directors of all time, with such masterpieces as La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and Amarcord to his credit. Born January 20, 1920, this year will see many restrospectives of his work.

For more information, go to the BAM/PFA website.

Complete 30-minute interview from 2020.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 24, 2022: Wayne Wang – Susan Oxtoby appeared first on KPFA.

Links to assorted local theater & book venues

Paul Gordon, composer/lyricist for the musical adaptation of “Sense & Sensibility,” and other works, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

Paul Gordon was a pop music songwriter when he decided to create a musical adaptation of Jane Eyre, which arrived in Broadway in December 2000 and ran for six months. Since then, he’s written the music and lyrics for several shows, including Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Daddy Long Legs, Estella Scrooge and Sleepy Hollow.

His version of Jane Austen’s  Sense and Sensibility, directed by Robert Kelley, plays at the Lucie Stern Theatre as part of the TheatreWorks Silicon Valley current season, and runs through April 3, 2022. His earlier Pride & Prejudice at TheatreWorks can be rented through Amazon Prime.

In this interview, he discusses the trajectory of his career, some of the challenges facing adaptations of Jane Austen, elements of the current production, and his work at streamingmusicals.com

Compete 45-minute podcast interview.

Wayne Wang, director of such films as “Chan is Missing,” “The Joy Luck Club” and “Smoke,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

In this first of two parts (to conclude next week), the noted filmmaker discusses the origins of his work as a director and his early years as a student, the gestation of “Chan Is Missing” and “Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart” and the origins of his move toward making films in Hollywood.

A Wayne Wang retrospective is currently on view at Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive, featuring several of his films, including Chan is Missing, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, Life Is Cheap..But Toilet Paper Is Expensive, Chinese Box and others, several of which are introduced live by the filmmaker. BAMPFA Website and schedule.

Complete 64-minute podcast interview.

Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links

Note: Most in-person events still require proof of full vaccination for all audience members over 12 and masks. Many venues will require proof of boosters. Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination status requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time.

Book Stores

Live Theater Companies

Misc. Listings:

Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.

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

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 17, 2022: Paul Gordon – Wayne Wang appeared first on KPFA.