Founder and Editor in Chief of the online magazine Salon, David Talbot. Last week the magazine had to lay off 13 employees because of financial problems. It was one of three online journalism sites to do so. Talbot started the magazine in 1995. Before that he was the arts and features editor of the San Francisco Examiner. Talbot is also the author of “Burning Desires: Sex in America.” This interview was conducted live before an audience and taped for broadcast.
Singer/Songwriter Aimee Mann. She’s best known for her work on the soundtrack for the film “Magnolia.” Her song “Save Me” from the film was nominated for an Oscar. Her new release is “Bachelor No. 2.” Previously the album was available over her website (Aimeemann.com) and at her concert performances. Now it is available in stores. Mann and her manager had bought the master tapes from her record label in an effort to retain creative and marketing control. It’s the first recording to be released on Mann’s Superego Records.
Writer Jim Knipfel. His first book, the acclaimed memoir Slackjaw (Putnam), is his funny, irreverent account of loosing his sight and trying to take his life. In his new book, Quitting the Nairobi Trio (Tracher/Putnam), he writes about the time he spent in a psychiatric ward. The New York Times says Knipfel is “blessed with a natural, one might even say reflexive, knack for telling stories.” Knipfel is a columnist and staff writer for New York Press.
Nadine Cohodas is the author of “Spinning Blues into Gold: the Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records” (St. Martin’s Press). It’s the story of brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, Jewish immigrants from Poland, who knew little about music, but somehow created the influential blues label, Chess Records. Muddy Waters helped them see the potential in the music and they went on to record Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, and others. Chess Records was located in Chicago.
Bodybuilders Pudgy and Les Stockton. Pudgy was an early pioneer of women’s body building, and began working out and performing at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach in 1939, often teaming up with Les who she married in 1941. Pudgy is featured in an exhibit, “Picturing the Modern Amazon” at New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art (to June 25th). There’s also a companion book of the same title (Rizzoli publications).
Assistant Managing Editor of The New York Times, Allan Siegal. He oversees usage and style at the Times. A revised and expanded edition of his “The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage” (Times Books) has just been published.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the world-premiere recording of Kurt Weill’s opera Die Buergschaft—The Pledge (on EMI). It’s one of Weill’s most neglected works first performed in Berlin in 1932, and was revived last year during the Spoleto Festival USA.
Publisher of the New York Times Arthur Sulzberger Jr. He’s just been named “Publisher of the Year” by Editor and Publisher Magazine. Sulzberger’s family is one of the foremost newspaper families in the world. His great-grandfather Adolph Ochs bought the paper more than a century ago. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., was appointed publisher by his father Arthur Ochs Sulzberger in 1992.
British novelist Martin Amis. He’s considered one of the leading British writers of the late-twentieth century and one of the most controversial. His books include “Night Train,” “Money: A Suicide Note,” “The Information,” and “London Fields.” He’s just written a new memoir, “Experience: a Memoir” (Talk Miramax Books). Much of it is about his father, the late writer Kingsley Amis.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new novels about China: “Becoming Madame Mao”(Houghton Mifflin) a fictional biography by Anchee Min, and the detective novel, “Death of a Red Heroine” (Soho) by Qui Xialong.
Jeffrey Eugenides (“u-GEN-eh-dees”) is the author of “The Virgin Suicides” (paperback, Warner books) a gothic flavored novel about five sisters who kill themselves. The book is set in suburbia in the 1970s and is told in the voice of boys – now men – who were obsessed by them. The book was critically acclaimed when it was first published in 1993. It’s now the subject of a new movie.
World music critic Milo Miles reviews some funny rap music, “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” (Nijatunes) by the Canadian DJ Eric San, MC Paul Barman’s “It’s Very Stimulating” (WordSound), and “Green Velvet” (F-111) by the DJ Green Velvet.
Writer David Sedaris is best known for his contributing work with Public Radio’s “This American Life.” He’s written three books of essays, “Barrel Fever,” “Naked,” and his newest “Me Talk Pretty One Day” (Little Brown)
TV critic David Bianculli reviews “Survivor” the new summer series on CBS, in which 16 contestants are marooned on a tropical island for more than a month. The winner takes home a million dollars.
Jim DeRogatis is the author of “Let it Blurt: The Life & Times of Lester Bangs, America’s Greatest Rock Critic” (Broadway Books). Bangs wrote about rock ‘n’ roll for the Rolling Stone, Cream, and The Village Voice. DeROGATIS describes him as, “the great gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock writing—its Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, and Jack Kerouac all rolled into one.”
