Standup-comic Bob Newhart. This Friday he performs at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. Newhart has been a part of the American comedy landscape since 1961 when his debut comedy album "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart" became a surprise hit. (Now available on CD, on the Warner label) Since then he's starred in three TV shows, including the Peabody award winning original "The Bob Newhart Show." And appeared in numerous films.
Novelist Richard Bausch's newest book is "In the Night Season." (Harper Collins) some of his books include: "Good Evening Mr. and Mrs America and All the Ships at Sea," "Rebel Powers," and "Violence." He is also known for his stories which have been published in "The Atlantic Monthly," "Esquire," "Harper's," "The New Yorker," "Playboy," and "The Southern Review." Bausch lives in rural Virginia.
Armistead Maupin is the author of "Tales of the City." It depicted San Francisco gay and straight lifestyles in the 1970's. In 1994 "Tales of the City" was adapted into a controversial PBS miniseries. His second novel from 1980 "More Tales of the City" (Harper Perennial) has been adapted into a Showtime channel miniseries that begins airing this month.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the CD "In the World From Natchez to New York" by Olu Dara from Atlantic Records. Dara who plays coronet, has been a fixture in the New York jazz scene since the 1970's. He performed with drummer Art Blakey, Julius Hemphill, David Murray and Henry Threadgill. This is his first CD of his own.
Maxwell Taylor Kennedy is the youngest son of Robert F. Kennedy. He has edited a new collection of his father's private journal entries called "Make Gentle The Life of this World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy." (Harcourt Brace) Max Kennedy, as he is called, has written stories for the Santa Monica News, and for the magazines Doubletake and Conde Nast Traveler. He also served as a prosecutor in Philadelphia. He lives in Boston.
Jack Newfield wrote the highly acclaimed 1969 book "Robert Kennedy: A Memoir by Jack Newfield." (Dutton) This Sunday, The Discovery Channel will air a 3-hour documentary co-produced by Newfield. The series is based on his book.
Actress Jane Alexander talks about her 4 years as Chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts. She served from 1993 through 1997 when the GOP controlled Congress targeted the agency for budget cuts. She was the first artist to head the NEA. Alexander has returned to acting and is writing a book on her experiences at the NEA.
Bill Ivey is the new Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He won Senate confirmation last month. He last served as the director of the Country Music Foundation. There he co-produced a new 3 CD set called "From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music." (Warner Bros) The collection traces the contributions African-Americans have had in country music. (stations: This was recorded before his confirmation hearings. He declined to talk about the NEA at that time.)
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Bridget Jones's Diary," a novel by Helen Fielding that began as a newspaper column. It has been the best selling novel in Great Britain for six months and has just won the British Book Award of the Year.
We'll hear from two people who worked on a new Maisin (My-sin) tribal art exhibit "Tapa Style" now showing in Philadelphia. The goal of the exhibit is to promote Maisin culture as an alternative to selling logging rights to their portion of a rainforest in Papau New Guinea. John Wesley Vaso is a Maisin tribal leader. Larry Rinder was the curator for the exhibit and is Director of the Institute for Exhibitions and Public Programs at the California College of Arts and Crafts.
Singer and songwriter John Fogerty. He has just released the double CD "live" concert album "Premonition." (Reprise) Featured on the recording is many of his biggest hits with Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Down on the Corner," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Proud Mary." Fogerty won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his album "Blue Moon, Swamp." Fogerty will also be featured on this month's VH-1 Biography.
Author Diane Wood Middlebrook has written "Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton." (Houghton Mifflin) It traces the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton who passed as a man most of her life. Middlebrooke also wrote "Anne Sexton: A Biography." She is a professor of english at Stanford University in California.
Nicholas Papandreou is the son of former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Nicholas as written the novel "A Crowded Heart." (Picador) It is a fictional retelling of his own childhood in Greece. Born in Berkeley, California, he now lives in Athens, Greece.
We pay tribute to ragtime composer and performer Eubie Blake.He was born on February 7,1883 in Baltimore, Md. He wrote the songs for the Broadway hit Shuffle Along. African American ragtime musicians of the day sought out Eubie to write their songs. Two of Eubie Blake's best known songs are "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "Love Will Find A Way." Just over one hundred years after his life began, on February 12, 1983, Eubie Blake died in Brooklyn, New York.
