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Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
Brooklyn, New York
Magnolia Fireworks
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Monthly Archives: March 2023
Slip Slidin’Away: Reina Del Cid
John Sayles’s New Novel: Jamie MacGillivray
Filmmaker, actor, and writer John Sayles captured my imagination ever since his first film, Return of the Secaucus 7. Soon, other great films followed: Brother From Another Planet, Matewan, Eight Men Out, Amigo, and so many others. But of course, John Sayles is not only a filmmaker, but also the author of short stories and novels including Union Dues, Amigo, and Yellow Earth. Now he’s come out with a new novel called Jamie Magillivray: The Renegade’s Journey. I was very happy to speak with John Sayles on the Arts Express radio program.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to listen to my interview with John Sayles as broadcast today on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.
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Troubled Settlers
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Got to shake my head at the Education Department of the State of New York, even if this sign was just at a Thruway rest stop. You’ll probably want to enlarge this one in order to read it. We don’t recall such a use of the word “pacify” since the 1970s when the US military used to say that bombed Vietnamese villages had been “pacified.” And those “troubled” settlers, as if they were teenagers going through the throes of adolescence, “Gee, Officer Krupke!” And omitting that the mills and tanneries that “used timber and bark from the forests,” were enabled by enslaved people who dragged the timber from the mountains down to the scenic Hudson River. Ain’t nature wonderful!
Kingston, New York
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Thou Swell
Monday morning, Ella Fitzgerald with a great Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart song.
More at Ella Fitzgerald
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Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright…
Who’s That Knocking?
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A Red-bellied Woodpecker
Prospect Park
Brooklyn, New York
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Breakfast: Jim Gaffigan
Coriolanus: Class War
Imagine please: A working class uprising. The lower classes are starving. They demand the right to eat. They want access to the great stores of grain that have been won in the recent war, confiscated from the enemy, but withheld from the peasants. And so begins the most class-conscious play that Shakespeare ever wrote, called Coriolanus.
Click on the triangle above or mp3 link to hear our commentary on Coriolanus, as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation
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Special Delivery
The fabulous Four Step Brothers, from “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (1942).
Thanks to YouTuber What the Eye Hears
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An Uninvited Guest
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This handsome guy is a Great Kiskadee which is the national bird of Costa Rica. You can’t miss it, because even if you can’t see it, you’ll hear it’s call, “KISS-KA-DEE.” It caused some havoc, though, one afternoon, when he flew into our hotel room via the terrace sliding glass door, and started flapping around our room! It got really worrisome when he saw himself in the wardrobe mirror and started attacking the mirror. Fortunately, we finally managed to get him to fly back out, and he seemed okay.
Manuel Antonio,
Costa Rica
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Rita Payés: Nunca Vas A Comprender
Monday morning, a delightful family picnic, what a way to spend the day. And dig the trombone. It’s a family affair, with mother on the guitar. Every meal should be like this.
Elisabeth Roma: Guitar Rita Payés: Trombone, guitar and vocals; Horacio: Contrabass; Juan Berbín: Percussion.
More at Rita Payés
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This Bud’s For You
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Prospect Park
Brooklyn, New York
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Silent Treatment
Pretty nice magic trick by magician Sanjeev Vinodh. Once he said the cards could be examined, he fooled me for sure.
More at Sanjeev Vinodh
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The Chase Is On
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The Wood Duck is trying to make a quick getaway with its piece of bread before the aggressive gull can snatch it away.
Prospect Park
Brooklyn, New York
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Help Me Rhonda: The Beach Boys
Eleanor Has A Celebrity Encounter
I had some definite laughs from this! Comedian Eleanor Morton with companion Michael Fry, and Sean Burke as Julius Caesar
More at Eleanor Morton
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Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Art Ford’s Jazz Party
Monday morning, Art Ford introduces a great all-star band on his 1958 television program who play a Dixieland number, “I’ve Found a New Baby.”
The musicians are: Johnny Windhurst, trumpet; Tyree Glenn, trombone; Hank D’Amico, clarinet; Coleman Hawkins, tenor sax; Teddy Charles, vibraphone; Alec Templeton, piano; Mary Osborne, guitar; Doc Goldberg, acoustic double bass; Morey Feld, drums;
Thanks to YouTuber MisterStereo
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Day Of The Iguana
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Manuel Antonio,
Costa Rica
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The Invisible Pass Routine
The irrepressible Harry Lorayne doing what he does best–talking fast and making cards do magic. I don’t think you can catch what he’s doing even if you play this at slow motion.
More at HarryLorayneOnVideo
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You Really Got A Hold On Me
From their second album, The Beatles cover a great Smokey Robinson song. One of my favorite John Lennon performances.
More at The Beatles
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Monkey Business
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A monkey stole an apple from a table in the hotel pool area and tried to get away with it by running from the other monkeys, including a mother with a baby on its back
Manuel Antonio,
Costa Rica
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Connie Norgren: Recent Poems
The wonderful Connie Norgen, reading some of her recent poems, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to listen
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Scarlet Macaw
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An unexpected visitor to our hotel. Both the males and the females have this same extraordinary plumage, and they live 40-50 years in the wild. They must like the way they look because they are monogamous!
Manuel Antonio,
Costa Rica
