Speechification

Two New York gems. A really lovely afternoon play (you don’t hear that very often round her do you?) called Imagining Them from Judith Kampfner and a glorious RadioLab. Kampfner is an unusual creature: transatlantic radio talent. She makes programmes for the BBC and for Public Radio via an independent production company grandly called The Corporation for Independent Media.

The play, which is in three parts—written and performed by Wendy Spero, Meg Wolitzer and David Cale—is so New York it hurts. It really stood out from the schedule this afternoon (it originally went out in February last year). The short RadioLab is an aural treat recorded by Ben Rubin on the open outcry trading floor at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Now, pay attention: here’s an MP3 of Imagining Them and here’s one for the RadioLab show. Only Imagining Them will show up in the podcast and the RadioLab might go away at some point because I’ve linked to the MP3 at the WNYC web site. You could get an MP3 of your own by subscribing to RadioLab’s podcast, which I would recommend. And while you’re at it you could make a donation to WNYC funds here. And while I’m going on and on: the credits below are for Imagining Them.

Thoroughly entertaining memoir of the events of May ‘68 in Paris, London, New York and San Francisco. From David Zane Mairowitz, who was both there and can recall enough of it to vividly conjure it up for us. Some fabulous archive footage, some hilariously frank, half-remembered incidents.

(Bonus points for starting with the beautiful, sparkling tones of ‘Dark Star’, double-bonus for some interstellar Syd-era Pink Floyd in the middle, and triple-bonus points for a raucous splash of Albert Ayler at the end.)

Radio Eye: My 68 [mp3]

I stayed at The Chelsea Hotel once. Spent a few nights there in the early nineties (with my old pal Ivan). I guess things had gone off the boil a bit at The Chelsea by then but it was still unbelievably exciting to be walking those corridors and riding those clunky old lifts. There were still plenty of nicely-pickled old artists and junkies in (permanent) residence - but nobody you’d have heard of.

Stanley Bard - the owner - still patrolled the public areas talking to anyone. Cats wandered the halls. Someone who looked like he probably ought to go upstairs for a lie down was painting a mural in the lobby - it was like a kind of old people’s home for beats and punks. My TV didn’t work but that didn’t seem terribly important. I mentioned it at the front desk, though, and they sent a very old man in a wig up to look at it.

Anyway, here’s another item from the archive: a Radio 3 interval talk from April 2005 by Barry Miles, a slightly bouffant beat historian who spent time at The Chelsea back when it was the centre of the world. He has some lovely stories and delivers them in an appropriately laid-back tone. I wonder if it’s been turned into a themed boutique hotel by now? (MP3).

The pic is by wallyg on flickr.