Fresh Air on WRVO-1: NPR News

Marcus Samuelsson: On Becoming A Top Chef

editor — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:55:00 +0000

A longer version of this interview was originally broadcast on June 28, 2012.

Marcus Samuelsson owns two restaurants in New York City and two restaurants in Sweden. He's cooked for President Obama and prime ministers, served as a judge on Top Chef and Chopped, and recently competed against 21 other chefs on Top Chef Masters.

Julianne Moore, Relishing Complicated Characters

editor — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:03:00 +0000

In the film What Maisie Knew, Julianne Moore plays a troubled rock star whose young daughter witnesses her parents' volatile behavior as they argue over custody during their rocky separation.

On the surface, Moore's character, Susanna, might seem to be an entirely terrible one — a self-involved person and inappropriate mother who's not paying attention to her child. But Moore makes her more complicated than that.

"What's interesting to me about Susanna as a mother, particularly, is how inconsistent she is," Moore tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'

David Bianculli — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:09:00 +0000

Before you see any of Behind the Candelabra -- when you just consider the concept of the TV movie and its casting — this new HBO Films production raises all sorts of questions: How much will be based on verifiable fact, and how much will be fictionalized? On an anything-goes premium-cable network such as HBO, how graphic will the sex scenes be?

And the most important questions involve the drama's two leading men, playing an ultra-flamboyant piano player and the wide-eyed young man who becomes his behind-the-scenes companion for five years. Michael Douglas?

Fictional 'Mothers' Reveal Facts Of A Painful Adoption Process

editor — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:08:00 +0000

After years of trying to conceive, novelist Jennifer Gilmore and her husband decided to pursue a domestic open adoption. They were told they'd be matched within a year; it took four. And along the way they faced complicated decisions and heartbreak.

Gilmore, who has channeled those decisions and heartbreaks into personal essays and articles for outlets such as The New York Times and The Atlantic, has now turned to fiction, her native genre, to explore the experience.

Daft Punk: Accessing Electronic Music's Humanity

Ken Tucker — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:14:00 +0000

I freely admit that, until the new Random Access Memories, I wasn't much of a Daft Punk fan. I could appreciate the craft and imagination that went into creating the French duo's mixture of electronic genres — techno, house, disco — but the mechanical repetitions and heavily filtered vocals didn't turn me on in any other way.

But now, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have come up with an album that exposes the human side of their musical impulses.

Soderbergh's Liberace, 'Behind The Candelabra'

editor — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:51:00 +0000

Director Steven Soderbergh had been looking for a way to frame a film about the extravagant entertainer Liberace for years when a friend recommended the book Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace.

The book — a memoir — is by Scott Thorson, who for five years was Liberace's lover, though that wasn't publicly disclosed at the time.

Thorson was 40 years younger than Liberace and still in his teens when they met in 1977.

Brooks: "I'm An EGOT; I Don't Need Any More"

editor — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:40:00 +0000

Over the 60 years that Mel Brooks has been in the entertainment business, his name has become synonymous with comedy.

Sarah Vaughan: A New Box Set Revels In Glorious Imperfections

Kevin Whitehead — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Singer Sarah Vaughan came up in the 1940s alongside bebop lions Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, starting out in Earl Hines' big band. Hines had hired her as his singer and deputy pianist, while Gillespie praised her fine ear for chords as she grasped the arcane refinements of bebop harmony.

Fresh Air Weekend: Gerwig, Baumbach, Dawes And Polley

editor — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:09:00 +0000

Fresh Air Weekendhighlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interview with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Jerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It

Ed Ward — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:40:00 +0000

It was April 4, 1964, and Jerry Lee Lewis had officially bottomed out. He hadn't charted a record in years, and now, on tour in England and Germany, he was getting paid so little that he couldn't afford to bring his own musicians. Instead, he was forced to use pickup bands in England, and then, when he arrived in Hamburg, a British band called the Nashville Teens was waiting for him. The venue was the Star Club, where The Beatles, who had just leaped into stardom in America, had played not long before.

Bill Hader On Sketch Comedy, Classic Hollywood

editor — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:40:00 +0000

This interview was originally broadcast on Aug. 22, 2012.

Comedian Bill Hader is adept onstage and doing live TV. But he's scared to death of standup.

He remembers watching Chris Rock's 1996 HBO special, Bring the Pain, and thinking, "I don't know how people do that."

"I need a character," Hader tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

The Tricky Business Of Retirement: Hidden 401(K) Fees

editor — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:04:00 +0000

A couple generations ago, when older Americans retired they could rely on pension plans to support them. Then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many companies switched their retirement plans over to 401(k) accounts. The security of workers' retirement savings suddenly became subject to the vagaries of the stock market.

What's more, the financial institutions that manage 401(k)s charge a host of hidden fees to plan participants, says Robert Hiltonsmith, a policy analyst at the New York-based think tank Demos.

100 Years Of Woody Herman: The Early Bloomer Who Kept Blooming

Kevin Whitehead — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:48:00 +0000

Woody Herman, who would have turned 100 on Thursday, bloomed early and late — and then later still. He turned pro by age 9, singing and dancing in movie theaters on summer vacation. He'd perform one song deemed too risqué for radio when he recorded it decades later: "My Gee Gee From the Fiji Isles."

Herman was 17 when he went on the road playing saxophone in traveling bands. Eventually, he joined songwriter Isham Jones' orchestra. When Jones broke it up in 1936, his jazzier guys reformed as a co-op with Herman out front.

'Into Darkness,' Boldly And With A Few Twists

David Edelstein — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:32:00 +0000

Before I tell you about J.J. Abrams' second Star Trek film, with its youngish new Starship Enterprise crew, let me say that just because I've seen every episode of the original Star Trek and of The Next Generation, and most of the spinoff series, and every movie, I'm not a Trekkie — meaning someone who goes to conventions or speaks Klingon or greets people with a Vulcan salute.

But hey, even President Obama can give the Vulcan salute; it's mainstream. We live — thanks to the Internet — in a fan culture. We can all get up to speed on anything quickly.

Coming To 'Americanah': Two Tales Of Immigrant Experience

Maureen Corrigan — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:08:00 +0000

First things first: Can we talk about hair? Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a big knockout of a novel about immigration, American dreams, the power of first love, and the shifting meanings of skin color; but, as Adichie has said in interviews, she also knows that black women's hair can speak volumes about racial politics.

A Polley Family Secret, Pieced Deftly Together

editor — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:08:00 +0000

Sarah Polley earned wide acclaim for directing the drama Away from Her, about a woman fading into the twilight of Alzheimer's, as well as for her acting performances in an array of films including The Sweet Hereafter and My Life Without Me.

Gerwig, Baumbach Poke At Post-College Pangs

editor — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:22:00 +0000

In the film Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig stars as the title character, a 27-year-old living a good but not particularly successful post-college life in New York City.

Frances becomes unmoored, though, when her best friend decides to move out of the apartment they share and move on with her own independent life. It's a turning point Gerwig says is a common experience for many young people who've struggled in the years after college, when adolescence is lingering and adulthood has yet to fully coalesce.

Dawes Knows Where It's Been And Where It's Headed

Ken Tucker — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:07:00 +0000

If you heard the Dawes song "Just Beneath the Surface" and said, "Somebody's been listening to their old Jackson Browne albums," you're not exactly insulting Dawes. The band has actually backed Browne on tour — and Browne has sung backup on at least one of its songs — so you could say that Dawes comes by its riffs and phrasing honestly.

In 'Passage', Caro Mines LBJ's Changing Political Roles

editor — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:38:00 +0000

For the past 37 years, Robert Caro has devoted his life to writing the definitive biography of Lyndon Johnson. So far, The Years of Lyndon Johnson has four acclaimed volumes and has shown readers just how complex the 36th president was, as both a politician and a man.

There was the Johnson who grew up poor in the Texas hill country; the Johnson who blackmailed a fellow student to win a college election; and the Johnson who, as a congressman, humiliated loyal aides for fun and brazenly stole votes to get into the Senate.

Bing Crosby: From The Vaults, Surprising Breadth

Kevin Whitehead — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:59:00 +0000

Bing Crosby was the biggest thing in pop singing in the 1930s, a star on radio and in the movies. He remained a top star in the '40s, when Frank Sinatra began giving him competition.

Crosby often sounded funnier, and more at ease, on radio than on records. It's not hard to hear why, with some of the settings record producers put him in — like a '70s funk version of "Georgia on My Mind," heard on the Crosby CD A Southern Memoir.

Fresh Air Weekend: Messud, Volk And Scorsese

editor — Sat, 11 May 2013 13:03:00 +0000

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts.

Rainn Wilson: 'The Office' Drone Outside Of Work

editor — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:12:00 +0000
This interview was originally broadcast on July 30, 2008.
While his Office character always took himself seriously, actor Rainn Wilson seems to be all about the laughs. For the entirety of the series, Wilson has played beet-farming, archery-loving middle-management kook Dwight Schrute on the NBC hit television series.
While working on The Office, Wilson explored film opportunities as well. In the 2008 film The Rocker, Wilson played a failed hair-metal musician.

Jenna Fischer: Keeping It Real At 'The Office'

editor — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:12:00 +0000
This interview was originally broadcast on June 3, 2008.
For nearly a decade, Jenna Fischer has played Pam, one of The Office's most recognizably real characters.
If you've ever worked in a clerical position in an alienating office, you'll relate to what Pam goes through.

The 'Real Life' Of Actor Steve Carell

editor — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:12:00 +0000
This interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 24, 2007.
By the end of The-40-Year-Old Virgin, the title character had lost his virginity — and actor Steve Carell had become a star.
The actor, who was a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show for several years, has gone on to films including Little Miss Sunshine and Evan Almighty.

'The Woman Upstairs': A Saga Of Anger And Thwarted Ambition

editor — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:51:00 +0000
"How angry am I? You don't want to know. Nobody wants to know." Those are the opening lines of Claire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs. The novel is about a single woman, Nora, who hasn't fulfilled her dreams of being an artist and having children. Nora's plight is complicated when she befriends a woman who has done both.
The book explores deeper themes about what it means to sacrifice everything for one's art and the inner life of a person whose dreams have been thwarted in relation to external realities.

In A Cluster Of New Sitcoms, 'Family Tree' Stands Tall

David Bianculli — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:29:00 +0000
Christopher Guest, co-creator with Jim Piddock of the new HBO comedy series Family Tree, obviously is having a good time making this show — and it's contagious. It's several shows in one, and every element is a self-assured little delight.
Christopher Guest, of course, has made a career — quite an impressive one — out of marching to his own comedy drummer.

Remembering Monster-Maker Ray Harryhausen

editor — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:20:00 +0000
Ray Harryhausen, who died Tuesday in London at age 92, became fascinated with animation after seeing King Kong in 1933. He went on to create some of the most memorable monsters of old Hollywood, from dinosaurs to mythological creatures.
His monsters, however, were never completely divorced from the real world.
"I do a lot of research when I create a creature," he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 2003. "I like to make him logical.

Nearly Three Years After Dodd-Frank, Reforms Happen Slowly

editor — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:33:00 +0000
On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly known as the Dodd-Frank bill. Reporter Gary Rivlin says "the passage of Dodd-Frank was something of a miracle." But to the chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents 100 of the country's largest financial institutions, it was just "halftime."

Natalie Maines: A Country-Music Rebel Rocks On Her Own

Ken Tucker — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:30:00 +0000
Natalie Maines doesn't hesitate to make audacious moves, and wresting away "Mother" — Roger Waters' hymn to oppressive maternal authority figures from Pink Floyd — is the biggest one on her first solo album. Maines takes the "Mother" from Pink Floyd's The Wall and deconstructs it, emotional brick by emotional brick.

'Shocked': Patricia Volk's Memoir About Beauty And Its Beholders

editor — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:18:00 +0000
Patricia Volk's mother was beautiful in a way that stopped people on the street. Strangers compared her to Lana Turner and Grace Kelly. She was stylish and vain: Her beauty and its preservation mattered to her. "She had an icy blond beauty, an imperious kind of beauty," Volk tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
It was the kind of beauty that Volk knew from an early age she would never match, but that didn't stop her mother from hoping. When Volk would arrive home from a party, the first question her mother would ask her was whether Volk had been the prettiest girl there.