One of the classic Bob Newhart comedy routines.
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Tag Archives: writing
A Memo From Mr. Mamet
The Unit, a TV series which aired about fifteen years ago, while not my particular cup of tea, was widely recognized as one of the best written series on television. That was in no small part because playwright and screenwriter David Mamet was the creator of the show. A little while after the series was cancelled in its fourth year, a leaked memo from Mamet to the writing staff emerged. In it, Mamet gave some of the best and most succinct writing advice that can be given for writers of a screenplay. Here’s David Mamet’s memo to the writing staff of The Unit.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my reading of that memo, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio show, heard on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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Working Class Playwright: Monty Python
Kurt Vonnegut On The Shape of Stories
Wish I could find more of this lecture, but it’s fun anyway.
Thanks to YouTuber David Comberg
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Jack And Rick’s Radio Shack!
Yes, it’s yet another episode of our ersatz Bob & Ray comedy segment with yours truly and Rick Tuman. In this new episode, we hear from the CEO of the Neighborly Rent-a Robot Company and also from a master of the denizens of the deep, the Shark Whisperer.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the segment as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.
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June Jottings
Happy June! Here’s the latest installment of the magazine we put together every month
Get your free email 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
Or you can view this issue online by clicking here: June 2023 Arts Express Magazine
Inside:
** Actor/Singer Leslie Uggams talks about her new film, Dotty and Soul
** Artist Cécile Houel in Conversation with Peter Wise
** Dennis Broe on the Demise of Streaming TV and its effect on the industry, including striking writers
and more!
Listen to Arts Express Radio–New Time: Wednesdays 9PM on WBAI 99.5 FM NY and WBAI.ORG
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Die Laughing: Steve Martin & Martin Short Eulogize Each Other
Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers
The song “Shy” from the Broadway musical, Once Upon a Mattress, made a star out of Carol Burnett. The score was composed by Mary Rodgers, and of course, the last name Rodgers should ring a bell because indeed, Mary Rodgers was the daughter of Richard Rodgers, which was both her blessing and her curse. “Shy” is not only the name of the song but also the name of Mary Rodgers’ recent autobiography, published posthumously with the help of NY Times theatre critic Jesse Green. if there is a major theme in the story of Mary Rodgers life, it is how does a talented daughter get out from under the shadow of a very famous musical genius.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my review of Shy, as broadcast today on the Art Express radio program, heard on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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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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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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From Approximately Coast To Coast…
March is the birthday of golden age radio comedians Bob and Ray, so herein, our Bob & Ray-ish radio segment, featuring Rick Tuman, as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the nation
Cllck on the triangle or mp3 link to listen.
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Arts Express Satire And Humor Fundraiser
Yesterday, locally on WBAI FM NYC radio, we were charged with running a fundraising program, so we put together a satire and humor special featuring some of our favorite pieces we wrote for Arts Express over the year. Feel free to skip over the pitching…
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the broadcast as aired last night.
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Jim Carrey’s Wild National Television Debut
Nine minutes of “You can’t ignore my talent” from a very young Jim Carrey.
Thanks to YouTuber Johnny Carson
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The Home Shopping Weapons Network
Making shopping decisions can be tough, but this holiday we’ve come to the rescue! Take a listen to our latest Arts Express Playhouse sketch, written and produced by your correspondent, and featuring the brilliant talent and skill of Mary Murphy and Lucy McMichael.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the piece as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio show on WBAI-FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the country
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A Song Made Out Of Dad Jokes
Elise Ecklund had me furiously writing down these jokes, which I can’t wait to spring on my son.
More at Elise Ecklund
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Daodejing
Any course can be taken
as the right course to take,
but no course like that
can be the course taken always.
Any name can be named
to determine what is or should be,
but no name like that
can be what determines them always
Those are the opening lines of one of the oldest pieces of literature known, the Tao Te Ching. Aside from the Bible, it is also probably the most translated piece of literature known, written in about 400BC. Now, in a new translation by Brook Ziporyn transliterated as the Daodejing, English readers can get some new insight into this provocative and ambiguous classic, which I’ll be reading from.
If you’ve never encountered the Daodejing, you may be startled by its startling modern dialectical approach to life. This new translation with be published this January by Liveright Publishing; you can find more info here.
Click on the triangle or the mp3 link above to hear the reading as heard today on the Arts Express radio show broadcast today on WBAI FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
And for our NY friends–we’re on at a new time on WBAI FM: Wednesdays, 9pm.
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November Notions
** Actress Inger Tudor of Goliath speaks about Voodoo Macbeth and playing Rose McClendon, the legendary Depression-era African-American theater actress.
** A portfolio of photos from the actual historic 1936 Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth
** 28 Children: Artist Mary McClusker’s moving tribute to children killed by guns
and more!
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
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Welcome To Her Channel
The Man From Hostility
The Absurd Theater Players (Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber) with a really funny sketch about dealing with difficult people.
Thanks to YouTuber moshez
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Leaving WWII Behind: David Swanson
As wars rage all around us, one war, WW II, still stands as the exemplar for the Good War. But is that a useful or accurate designation? And if not, why does that view still have such an outsized influence in the national discourse? I spoke with David Swanson who has written a book called Leaving World War II Behind which challenges the notion of WWII as the Good War.
Click on the grey triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with David Swanson on the Arts Express radio program on Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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October 2022 Arts Express Magazine
** Fighting Times: Organizing on the Front Lines of the Class War: a special extended conversation with veteran union UAW organizer and hellraiser, Jon Melrod
**Little Amal Comes to Brooklyn: Little Amal is a 10-year-old refugee from Syria. She is also a 12-foot puppet who has traveled 5,000 miles across Turkey and Europe and now to Brooklyn, in search of her mother. A photo essay.
** Dennis Broe on Robert Colescott’s Anti-Racist, Anti-Imperialist paintings
and more!
View online here: October 2022 AE MAGAZINE
Get your free email 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
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A Public Service: A Guide For Whistleblowers
Fewer than 10 years ago, former NSA employee Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the US government’s illegal, unconstitutional, worldwide warrantless surveillance. Throughout history, brave whistleblowers have risked their lives and livelihoods for what they considered the greater good. But what is the cost these whistle blowers pay, and more importantly, how do the successful whistleblowers succeed?
I was happy to talk with author Tim Schwartz who has written a how-to guide for would-be whistle-blowers, uncovering many of the traps and missteps one can fall into, A Public Service: Whistleblowing, Disclosure, and Anonymity.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the conversation with Tim Schwartz as broadcast today on the Arts Express program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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Fighting Times
As corporations are making record profits, workers are being squeezed more than ever. But workers are fighting back in surprising ways. Jon Melrod, has been involved as hell raiser and union organizer for decades, ever since his groundbreaking union organizing on the shop floor for the United Auto Workers in the 70s and 1980s. He’s now written a rip-roaring memoir called Fighting Times: Organizing on the Front Lines of the Class War about his fight to make workers lives better, and I was happy to get the chance to interview him.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Jon Melrod, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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“The War Prayer”: Mark Twain
Here’s a story by Mark Twain that was never published until after his death.
“The War Prayer” was written in 1905, in response to both the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American Wars, but even Mark Twain didn’t have the courage to publish it in his lifetime. It was left unpublished at his death in April 1910. Twain said about it, “I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead.”
Click on the triangle to hear the story as broadcast today on the Art Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
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August’s Actors And Authors
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
