Somewhere on PRX we need to allow for docs with windows for the news. I mention this here because 60 secs. into this story, where we are just getting to meet our host, we are then thrown not exactly into a tangent but somewhat off direction by essentially a news magazine-like story on Alzheimer's.

The host, new to my ears, is pleasant enough to hear. The writing is good. What is lacking here for me is the sheer hard edge of fact. We tend to use words like "epidemic" unquestioningly; "lots of money" cited early on is obtuse (how much, for example, is the government devoting to Alzheimer's research?).

It's hard not to be sympathetic to any Alzheimer's story, but when the purpose is to call to arms, it is more important still to equip us with knowledge, not pleasant sensibility.

This was such fun to listen to—completely entertaining. The progression of answering machine messages is such a satisfying structural device. I was a little disappointed that the end point was farcical, because some of the emotional places the story goes to feel genuine. Anyway, I can imagine the format of the sequential answering message becoming a whole genre unto itself. There’s so much to be done with it. It’s sort of the closest you can get to the panel-by-panel sequence of a comic book on radio. Valentine’s Day is coming up and a story like this would offer such a nice counterpoint to all the romantic stuff that’ll be going on.

As a painter, the only critique I have of this piece is that the producer missed a great opportunity to explore why clothing is harder to paint than the human body. That's a fascinating point.

Pieces about the visual arts are hard to do on radio. So is humor. This piece presented much food for thought -- but unfortunately, too quickly. It needed to breathe more. Also, the humor it contained tended to be unnecessarily broad and cutesy, especially when the producer assumed that I was thinking (wink, wink!) of...you know what (wink, wink, wink!).

Well, I wasn't. I was thinking of something else:

I was thinking about the time one of my art reports was censored on public radio (the only time). It was in the mid-1990s, when I produced a story for a national news program about an exhibition of work by a gay photographer of yesteryear -- Wilhelm von Gloeden.

Even National Geographic Magazine acquired some of Von Gloeden's more chaste photos, of 19th century Sicilian landscapes and village life. But it was his depictions of peasant youths posed against scenic backdrops of Roman ruins and Mt. Etna, playing pan-pipes, wearing veils or leopard skins -- or nothing at all -- that became all the rage at the turn of the last century.

Wilhelm von Gloeden got along just fine with his neighbors in Sicily, and -- honorable man -- paid his models a commission. His nudes were extremely popular; and so they remain, for they are wonderfully sensual and evocative -- and poignant too, for the lads would be around 120 years old by now.

According to modern critics (and this was the crux of my radio report), Von Gloeden's pictures struct a chord for reasons beyond the erotic:

Apparently the Victorians and Edwardians suffered from generational angst brought about by the Industrial Revolution and the First World War, when a generation of golden youths perished in the trenches. These were shattering events, and for some people Von Gloeden's nudes offered not only a certain frisson, but also escape from the present into an imaginary Arcady, a Never-Never Land, a past Golden Age that was so much pleasanter than anything the grim, grey 20th Century seemed likely to offer.

That at least was the gist of my report, but it got yanked from the show at the last minute: the program editor worried that listeners would think the network was condoning...child abuse.

So much for presenting male frontal nudity -- on radio.

-- Alex van Oss

immediately grabbed me. Nice duet of the artist's thoughts and her singing - keeps you present, waiting for more. Remarkably meaningful content in a short span - without getting too heavy or glossing over. Can't speak for the whole series but if they are all as full of talent and articulate as this - it's a prize. This should be an endless series - excellent respite for ANY of the mainstream news shows or music programming.
vm

One of the pieces on "thirst" commissioned by the Third Coast Festival this fall. It's a compelling, moving remembrance by a Russian man about his trip as a boy to the Siberian Gulag. For him thirst was physical torture as well as an emotional and existential nightmare.
The piece is thoughtful and engaging. I'd suggest running all of the Thirst pieces together. Together, they tell a kind of radio story.

This is the freshest sound I've heard on public radio in a long time. I've listened now to all of the available "Pop Vulture" shows and I think this is a hit. It sounds exactly like what it's meant to be -- young people talking about music --which isn't so easy to pull off. It's very conversational, it's funny, it's well produced, it's full of music, it doesn't sound forced or earnest or contrived, the weekly themes are fun and creative (bad pop music, angst in pop music, music we're afraid to admit we like). I'm a new fan and so are my kids. Station Programmers: want young listeners? Put this on the air on the weekends.

A piece that needs an environment where it would be balanced with its political dark side -- Ann Coulter in a leather mini-skirt immediately leaps to mind.

Thoughtful producers provide two versions, one with a sweet scene – the pianist outside Carnegie Hall – one without. It’s just wonderful to hear this pianist talk -- he’s so excited -- and his playing is amazing. This is perfect to air around his extensive upcoming US tour, the producers offer the details. But as is the case with the others in this series, any time airing is fine. To hear these kind of pieces in the middle of the news day is like when the sun surprisingly breaks through on a solid gray afternoon. There's nothing like a little hit of art oxygen to refresh the soul. sl

What a treat. Some guy in a hotel talking about his heart, lonely longing, carving soap. It’s like a scene from a film, intriguing, surprising, sending you off on your own thoughts. It would be a good drop-in on NPR, news from the middle letter, the one we don’t always hear from….the public. sl

Good character study of the man who's made a mission of proving the existance of Bigfoot. I found my attention drifting about two or three minutes into it; maybe a minute could be cut. The Yogi Bear theme music at the end is an unwelcome attempt at being cute. Overall the piece is well-produced, thought-provoking, and entertaining.