Documentarian Bob Mugge's new film "Black Wax" is a performance documentary with poet and activist Gil Scott-Heron. The film documents performances by Scott-Heron, including some with wax figures. Mugge's previous film "Amateur Night at City Hall," was a documentary about Frank Rizzo. The film includes Scott-Heron performing a portion of his poem/song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."
Film and television critic joins Terry Gross to discuss and review the new film with James Caan, Sally Field, and Jeff Bridges, "Kiss Me Goodbye." (PARTIAL INTERVIEW)
Vukan Vuchic is one of the world's leading experts in urban transportation, and is a professor of Civil and Urban Engineering Transportation at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of the book "Public Transportation Systems and Technology," and, in 1982, won the first Dr. Friedrich Lehner Medal, which is awarded to those who have devoted their lives to public transportation.
Son of Duke Ellington, composer and musician Mercer Ellington is the conductor of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The Orchestra will join Peter Nero and the Philly Pops for a pair of concerts of Duke Ellington's work, including a symphony, "The Three Black Kings / Les Trois Rois Noirs," finished by Mercer Ellington after his father's death.
Walter S. Kenton spent seventeen years working in the insurance industry as a salesperson, manager, and broker before deciding he could no longer work in the industry in 1980. Kenton has written a book about what he calls insurance companies' "deceitful" sales tactics, "How Life Insurance Companies Rob You and What You Can Do About It."
Divine is known for acting in drag in John Waters' films. Divine has developed a club act which will play in Philadelphia and is publishing a paper-doll book. Divine's drag persona was developed with director and writer John Waters. A retrospective of Waters' films is currently playing in Philadelphia. The two join the show to discuss their careers, lives, and the public's reaction to their boundary-pushing films.
Blues and bluegrass musician David Bromberg worked as a side member in many jazz and folk bands before striking out as a solo act. Bromberg is a multi-instrumentalist, who focuses on the guitar. He joins the show to discuss his career and play live. (Interview by Bob Carlin )
Marge Piercy is a novelist. Her new book is titled "Braided Lives." She joins the show to discuss looking back on one's past, feminism, and her involvement in leftist politics.
Novelist Edmund White's newest work, "A Boy's Own Story," follows a young gay man growing up in the midwest in the 1950s. The novel has some autobiographical elements. White joins the show to discuss his life, growing up as a homosexual person, and his novel.
Jazz singer Phyllis Hyman was in the original Broadway cast of "Sophisticated Ladies," a musical revue of Duke Ellington's work, along with Gregory Hines and Judith Jamison. Hyman is featured on McCoy Tyner's new album is "Looking Out" and is in town to perform. Hyman discusses the show, her career, and writing jingles for television commercials.
Stanley Crouch is a jazz critic and Village Voice columnist who regularly writes about jazz, theater, and black issues and politics. Crouch is also a drummer who has recorded with several jazz bands. He is in Philadelphia to speak at a jazz forum and concert.
Journalist David Halberstam is best known for his work on the Vietnam War for such publications as the New York Times. Unlike many journalists, Halberstam reported from the countryside. Halberstam delivers a talk on television and contemporary politics as a SPEC (Social Planning and Events Committee) Connaissance Speaker at the University of Pennsylvania.
Vine Deloria is a Native American activist and writer. The member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe joins the show to discuss Native American politics and society.
Journalist David Halberstam is best known for his work on the Vietnam War for such publications as the New York Times. Unlike many journalists, Halberstam reported from the countryside. Halberstam delivers a talk on television and contemporary politics as a SPEC (Social Planning and Events Committee) Connaissance Speaker at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ann Beuf is a sociologist who studies the social and psychological lives of those with illnesses. She has researched the lives of hospitalized children and the psychology of vitiligo patients. Beuf was formerly the director of Womens' Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and currently teaches at Penn and Cedar Crest College. She will travel to New Zealand next year on a Fullbright Scholarship. Beuf recently traveled to China to study their medical system, she will discuss her findings as well as her research into anorexia patients in this interview.
Tom Shales is the film critic for NPR and a television critic and t.v. editor at the Washington Post. His column is syndicated in nearly 150 newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News. A collection of Shales' t.v. columns from 1974-1982, "On the Air," has just been published.
Julian "Winnie" Winston is best known as as a pedal steel guitarist who builds whose own instruments. He also works as a professor of design at the Philadelphia College of the Arts. In this interview, Winston, whose nickname is "Winnie," discusses another field of interest: homeopathy. Winston first experienced homeopathic medicine as a patient, and began to research it for himself. He has spent a year traveling around the country interviewing homeopathic practitioners.
Peter Max is an artists whose "psychedelic" posters and graphics were popular in the 1960s and early 1970s, and he designed the appearance of the film "Yellow Submarine." He switched to painting in the mid-1970s, and his recent paintings of the Statue of Liberty were featured in Reagan's White House. A retrospective of his paintings, drawings, lithographs and etchings will open at the Hallowell Gallery in Conshohocken.
Thomas Keneally recently won the prestigious Booker prize for his novel "Schindler's List." The novel tells the story of German Industrialist Oskar Schindler who, in World War II, created "benign" work and concentration camps. The Australian novelist has published several novels, including "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith," which has been made into a film.
Milo O'Shea is an Irish actor currently starring as a priest in "Mass Appeal" at the Walnut Street Theater. He played the same role on Broadway for which he won several awards and was nominated for a Tony award. O'Shea has appeared in numerous films and plays. He will appear with Paul Newman in the upcoming film "The Verdict."
