InHospitable

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Medical bankruptcy is the number one cause of family bankruptcy in the US. But maybe what’s not as well known is that the major factor driving up the cost of healthcare in the US is due to hospital mergers. Now in a new documentary, Inhospitable, director Sandra Alvarez shows that hospitals are big business and even when dubbed non-profit, the money flows in a way that is not about prioritizing patient care or patient finances.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my review of InHospitable as broadcast today on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Labor Day Weekend Viewing Picks

Posted on September 3, 2022 by Jack Shalom

In preparation for this labor-day weekend, I thought it might be fun to watch and rewatch a bunch of labour-related films, in particular those that highlight union or workplace struggles. Well, I am somewhat bleary eyed from my home film fest, but I am going to focus on a half dozen of the films that I most enjoyed.

Click on the grey triangle or Mp3 link above to hear my picks as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM and Pacifica affiliates across the country.

The Marx Brothers Play Bridge

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Jack Shalom

From Animal Crackers, Chico and Harpo have an amazing run of luck at cards.

Thanks to YouTuber Christ Ward

Pickpocketing Picks

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Ben Seidman, who is an excellent magician and does some pickpocketing in his act, gives a fun analysis of the plausibility of pickpocketing scenes in a number of films.

Thanks to YouTuber Vanity Fair

August’s Actors And Authors

Posted on August 20, 2022 by Jack Shalom

This month in the Arts Express Magazine:

** Veteran Actor Carl Lumbly talks about playing Miles Davis, Gil Scott-Heron, and his new film, I’m Charlie Walker

** Caitlin Johnstone‘s new poems on the latest world madness

** Julia Stein catalogues the city of Los Angeles as a character in modern fiction…and more!

Listen to Arts Express Radio Saturdays 6AM ET on WBAI.org

View online here: August 2022 AE Magazine

Get your free subscription to the Arts Express Magazine, the companion magazine to Arts Express Radio, by sending an email with the word “subscribe” in the subject line to: artsexpresslist@gmail.com

They All Laughed

Posted on August 19, 2022 by Jack Shalom

I’m not a fan of Ginger Rogers’s singing, but Fred Astaire’s dancing afterwards is just great.

Thanks to YouTuber Comic Spirit

Mary Spender’s Church Bells

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Jack Shalom

(Click on the video above to play)

Monday morning, crack guitar player, singer, songwriter, and videomaker Mary Spender takes us behind the scenes to her castle, as she gives us a backstage explanation of how she put together her Romeo-and-Juliet influenced music video with zero crew. A really fascinating look at what talent and resourcefulness can do. Oh, and add camera drone operator to that list.

More at Mary Spender

Gun Show!

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Jack Shalom

The American mass obsession with guns is clearly unique and filmmaker Richard Chisolm has made an intriguing short documentary called Gun Show which details one artist’s attempt to come to grips with the national gun worship.

Click on the triangle above or the mp3 link to hear my review as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

My Old School: Alan Cumming And Jono McLeod On The Great School Hoaxer

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Jack Shalom

In 1995, the students of a secondary school in Scotland, found out they were the victims of a hoax. Their popular student companion of the previous year, Brandon Lee, turned out not to be who he seemed to be, but an imposter. Now, one of those school students, Jono McLeod, who grew up to be a filmmaker, has made a film that takes that shaggy dog story further yet, as Jono and his former school companions investigate the effect that the student they knew as Brandon Lee had on all of them. And in a virtuoso turn, Alan Cumming plays the camera-shy Brandon.

I was very happy to interview the director of the film, My Old School, Jono McLeod, and its star, Alan Cumming, for Arts Express radio heard on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as broadcast today

The Thief of Bad Gags

Posted on July 24, 2022 by Jack Shalom

(Click to enlarge)

Magic fans will enjoy this parody film poster advertising the Golden Gate Gathering, a magic convention organized by Anthony Miller and Rosie Rings.

Magician Kent Gunn explains on the Genii forum that Rosie and Tony are both huge movie poster aficionados. and that they’ve come up with Rosie-fied old movie posters for the GGG for several years.

Thanks to Kent Gunn for the photo of the poster.

Misinformed

Posted on July 13, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Not just you, Rick, not just you…

Thanks to YouTuber Andrew Barbin

June Magazine Jewels

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Jack Shalom

June is Busting Out All Over! This month:

** Castro’s Spies: Director Gary Lennon phones in from Dublin to talk about his documentary depicting the heroic undercover Cubans infiltrating Miami, known as the Cuban Five.

** Decolonizing Museums: A review of the new book by Shimrit Lee on the service of museums to imperialism

** Lost People, Places and Spaces: Dennis Broe on the international crime novel writing festival in Lyons

and more!!

View online here: June 2022 Arts Express Magazine

Every American Rom-Com Set In Ireland

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Eleanor Morton and friends nail it!

More at Eleanor Morton

Mighty May’s Magazine

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Jack Shalom

This month in the Arts Express Magazine:

** Veteran Actor Jim Broadbent on playing a true-life working class hero in The Duke

** Artist Tom Keough shares scenes from his graphic bio about the Irish revolutionary, James Connolly

** Dennis Broe on the constructed media representations of Zelensky in “Mr. Zelensky Goes to Washington”

and more!

View online here: May 2022 Arts Express Magazine

Abbott and Costello Explain Labor Law

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Jack Shalom

And this was in the days before Amazon…

Thanks to YouTuber ibnteos

Rhythm Tap with John Bubbles

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Jack Shalom

John “Bubbles” Sublett, who taught Fred Astaire how to tap, and played Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess, was a master of rhythm tap. He appears in the clip above in the 1937 film, Varsity Show, with his long time partner Ford “Buck” Washington.

Thanks to YouTuber AndresDCE

The Company Way

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Jack Shalom

One more lesson in obsequiousness from How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. The late Robert Morse rings every bit of humor from the song. The clever lyrics and music are by Frank Loesser.

Thanks to YouTuber Movieclips

Laurel And Hardy: Tit For Tat

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Jack Shalom

As a youngster I didn’t much like Laurel and Hardy, but viewing this short recently, I couldn’t help laugh at their absolutely perfect timing. I’m assuming that part of the way it comes across on this film is due to the director, Charles Rogers.

Thanks to YouTuber Culture & Education

April’s Artists

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Jack Shalom

April issue here

** Veteran Danish Director Bille August discusses his new film, The Pact, and Ingmar Bergman

**An Arts Express exclusive excerpt from the re-release of the Ballad of An American: the Autobiography of Earl Robinson, the composer of “Joe Hill,” “The House I Live In,” and “Ballad for Americans”

**Our April Fools “Dear Ethicist”–advice for the morally confused

**The Freebie Zone: The best of the free ‘net

and more!

Listen to Arts Express Radio Saturdays 6AM ET on WBAI.org and WBAI 99.5 FM NYC

**Arts Express, Always Fresh —

Never A Repeat Show**

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Posted on April 11, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Monday morning, Allison Young singing at least as well as anybody else is ever going to sing that E.Y. Harburg-Harold Arlen classic that was almost cut out of the movie.

More at Allison Young

Cell-Based Meat? Meat The Future

Posted on April 9, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Imagine a world where meat is produced from animal cells rather than a slaughter house. Dr. Uma Valeti, the co-founder and CEO of Upside Foods claims such a world is now within reach. A new film documentary, Meat the Future—that’s meat spelled M-E-A-T–follows Dr. Valeti over a five-year period as he attempts to make his dream a reality. From the world’s first cell-based meatball which cost $18,000 per pound to the establishment of a growing industry, Meat the Future presents a different kind of meat-eating future. I was happy to have as my guest on Arts Express, Meat the Future’s director, Liz Marshall.

Click on the triangle above to hear my interview with director Liz Marshall, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Guantanamo Diary Revisited

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Jack Shalom

In 2002 a Mauritanian engineer named Mohamedou Slahi was bundled onto a military transport plane and imprisoned by the US at Guantanamo for 14 years enduring years of physical and psychological torture. He wrote a book about it while he was in there that eventually got made into a film called The Mauritanian. But after the film’s release, journalist John Goetz found himself enlisted by Slahi on an obsessive mission that Goetz could never have predicted. Goetz documents his journey with Slahi in a new film called Guantanamo Diary Revisited. I was very happy to speak with Goetz about his new film.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview with John Goetz as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Mr. Bachmann And His Class

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Two of the best films I’ve seen about teachers were foreign documentaries about the teachers of younger children. The first is a French film called To Be and To Have, released about two decades ago, about a rural teacher who taught in a kind of one room school house. But my new favorite teaching film is a recently released German documentary titled Mr. Bachmann and His Class. The Mr. Bachmann of the title is a 6th grade teacher who teaches new immigrants to Germany, and he is decidedly unorthodox.

Click on the grey triangle or mp3 link above to hear my review as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

March Arts Express Magazine

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Get your free subscription to the Arts Express Magazine, the companion magazine to Arts Express Radio, by sending an email with the word “subscribe” in the subject line to:

artsexpresslist@gmail.com

This month in the Arts Express Magazine:

** The Unforgivable: Director Nora Fingscheidt on the Sandra Bullock film about eviction and life after incarceration

** Caitlin Johnstone’s Three Poems for Today: “Sources Say,” “To-do List” and “Crazy”

** Red Book Day Art--International celebrations of Left books and the anniversary of the Communist Manifesto.

** War Is A Racket

**The Freebie Zone: The best of the free ‘net

and more!

Click on the logo above to view

Why Is We Americans?

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Jack Shalom

Amiri Baraka was an internationally known poet, playwright, political activist and theorist. But as prolific and influential as he was, the rest of his family, including his wife Amina and children Ras and Middy, are just as special. A recent documentary called Why is We Americans provides a portrait of the Baraka family and how they helped shape modern Newark, NJ, the nation, politics, arts and subsequent generations. I was happy to talk with the directors of the film, Why is We Americans, Udi Aloni and Ayanna Morris, and also one of the subjects of Why is We Americans, Amiri Baraka Jr, known as Middy.

Click on the grey triangle or MP3 link above to hear the interview as broadcast recently on Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

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