Dear Faithful Friends and Customers, After eight years of slugging it out in the Italian Market, Molly’s Bookstore is closing its doors. A general shift in the bookselling industry and personal circumstances has simply made it inevitable. I can truly say that I spent my lifetime in the book business and can say, with some qualification, that I am a third generation bookseller. (My grandmother sold “girlie” magazines in the 60s and 70s.) The nature of the business has changed so much in the past few years. The reliance on Amazon to supplement sales made it much more of a […]
TONITE: Military Industrial Complexion
RADIO TIMES: JEREMY SCAHILL has been a critic of Blackwater Worldwide, a private security contractor that has participated in military operations in Iraq and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Scahill continues to write about Blackwater and the company’s plans for further operations. His most recent article is “Blackwater’s Private Spies” published in the June 23rd edition of The Nation. LISTEN USA TODAY: Today, at 38, [Erik] Prince, chief of Blackwater USA, has a real army or at least the makings of one, with weapons, aircraft, armored vehicles and a thousand or more battle-hardened security personnel…Prince landed an internship in the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
WHYY, the leading public broadcasting station in the greater Philadelphia region, presents It’s Our City, a new multi-platform civic engagement project produced by the station’s award-winning News & Information Service. The project will officially launch at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20 with a LIVE 60-minute TV special with Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and host Dave Davies, senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Showcasing WHYY’s broadcast capabilities, this interview will be simulcast on WHYY TV12, WHYY’s primary digital channel 12.1 (Comcast Channel 240, FiOS Channel 812), on WHYY 91FM, and the It’s Our City Web site (www.whyy.org/city), which will also launch […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Comedian Mike Myers has created a slew of memorable characters through his career: Dr. Evil, Austin Powers, Shrek, and Wayne’s World‘s Wayne Campbell all serve as cultural reference points. Now, Myers wants to add another indelible character to that list: The Guru Pitka. In his new comedy The Love Guru, Myers plays a spiritual guide charged with reuniting a hockey star with his estranged wife so that he can lead his team to winning the Stanley Cup. But The Love Guru may be too outrageous for some. Some Hindu groups fear that the movie promotes offensive stereotypes. Some […]
THIS JUST IN: Bloomsday Started Six Minutes Ago!
WHEN: TODAY, Monday, June 16th from Noon – 7 p.m. WHERE: Rosenbach Museum & Library, 2008-2010 Delancey Place, Philadelphia WHAT: The Rosenbach Museum & Library celebrates its 16th annual Bloomsday today. The Rosenbach, home of James Joyce‘s original manuscript for Ulysses, holds this Philadelphia tradition every year on June 16th, drawing hundreds of friends, neighbors, Joyce enthusiasts, book-lovers, and curious passersby to Delancey Place. Bloomsday is free and open to the public and features readings on the steps of the museum from some of the city’s most interesting business, creative, and media personalities, along with a special exhibition of Joyce […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Women We Love
FRESH AIR In her new film, Savage Grace, the actress Julianne Moore plays the wife of the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune, a middle-class woman who’s married up, but who craves more than the comforts money can buy. As her emotional neediness gets entangled with her son’s, boundaries of all kinds get broken — and a tragedy looms. The movie, based on the true story of a scandalous high-society murder, is playing now in limited release; Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers says “Moore delivers a tour de force … [she’s] savagely moving in her haunting delineation of Barbara’s journey […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Thank You For Smoking
FRESH AIR Whether he’s lancing boils, getting crabs from thrift store pants or sitting in a hospital waiting room dressed only in his underwear, one thing is clear: David Sedaris is not shy about sharing those embarrassing, cringe-worthy incidents that members of the general population tend to save for diaries or therapists. In his sixth collection of essays, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Sedaris continues to bare his body and soul, detailing the aforementioned boils and crabs, as well as an uncomfortable incident in which he accidentally spits a lozenge into the lap of his seatmate on an airplane. […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Today marks 40 years since the death of Robert F. Kennedy. He was assassinated shortly after midnight on June 5th and died on June 6. His campaign for the presidency in 1968 was considered by many as inspiring and contemporary observers have noted parallels to the candidacy of Barak Obama. Guest host Dave Davies talks about the Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency with author THURSTON CLARKE and Penn professor TOM SUGRUE. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3 Hour 2 Tune in for a rebroadcast of Dave’s interview about Leni Riefenstahl, the Controversial […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Scott McClellan, a former spokesman for the Bush White House rocked the capital last week with a provocative memoir. He joins Terry Gross to talk about the book — titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception — about what prompted him to go public, and about the torrent of response from both sides of the partisan aisle. Also: Excerpts from some of the more contentious press conferences from McClellan’s days as White House press secretary. Listen Now ALSO, Jenna Fischer is probably best known for her role on NBC’s comedy series The […]
BUBBA AGONISTES: Vanity (Un)Fair?
VANITY FAIR: Bill Clinton’s relevance—and his presence in public life—is as close to permanent as any politician’s can be. Before touching off a string of controversies in his wife’s campaign this year, he was among the most popular figures on the planet, one of only three Democratic presidents in the 20th century to serve two full terms. His looming presence will make him a factor in the Democratic vice-presidential sweepstakes, the fall campaign, and every future presidential election of his lifetime, whatever his wife’s fate. I have covered Clinton on and off for 16 years, since his 1992 presidential campaign. […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Home Before Dark, the 46th album from singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, is No. 1 on the pop charts. It’s the first time Diamond has had a No. 1 debut in a career that’s spanned nearly five decades. For the new album, he enlisted producer Rick Rubin, who also worked on Diamond’s 2005 album 12 Songs — but who’s known more for his work with groundbreaking rap acts. Diamond’s guilty-pleasure hits include “Sweet Caroline,” “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” and “Cherry Cherry.” Writer Michael Chabon won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR In 1964, Democrat Lyndon Johnson won the presidency in a landslide victory; eight years later, Republican president Richard Nixon was reelected in an equally lopsided race. In his new book, Nixonland, historian Rick Perlstein looks at the chaotic years between those elections, a time marked by protests, social upheaval, assassinations and an unpopular war. Perlstein is a senior fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, where he writes the blog The Big Con. He has written for The New Republic Online, Slate, the Village Voice, Newsday and The Nation. Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents, a Nixoniana collection compiled […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Reverend Carroll Pickett was the death-house chaplain at the Walls prison unit in Huntsville, Texas for 13 years. During his tenure, he ministered to 95 inmates executed by lethal injection. Because he was employed by the state, Pickett was unable to voice his disapproval of capitol punishment while performing his ministry. But he has become an opponent of the death penalty since leaving the prison system. Pickett co-authored a memoir with Carlton Stowers, titled Within These Walls. He is now the subject of a new documentary, At the Death House Door. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 is our country’s […]