Mean Streets USA: A Collection of Short Crime Fiction

Series produced by KCRW

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Classic and contemporary detective noir fiction, read by actors

This highly-produced 8-part series, recorded and produced at KCRW-Santa Monica, features detective stories by contemporary and classic mystery writers, including Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly, interpreted by actors such as Stacy Keach, Sharon Lawrence, Meschach Taylor, Tony Plana and others. Directed by stage, TV and film director Robert Egan with original music by Karl Lundeberg, and narrated by Daniel Riordan.

Each part is self contained EXCEPT Part One. The story ?The Angry Man? concludes in Part Two. A music tag at end of part one allows stations to do I.D., leading into Part Two and the conclusion of the story.

Part 1 (59:29)

The Angry Man by Ross Macdonald. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Ross Macdonald was the critics? choice as the best private-eye novelist in America. In the 1970s, Macdonald and his books about L.A. detective Lew Archer broke onto the nation?s best-seller lists. The Angry Man? is a Southern California story from the apprehensive 1950s, when Lew Archer was becoming someone who was not only trying to find criminals but maybe trying to understand them, too ? Read by Stacy Keach. From Strangers in Town: Three Newly Discovered Mysteries by Ross Macdonald (Crippen & Landru, 2002)

(MUSIC TAG OUT to Part Two of ?The Angry Man?)

Part 2 (53:37)

The Angry Man by Ross Macdonald, read by Stacy Keach (conclusion).

Karen Makes Out by Elmore Leonard. Something bad almost always takes place in the stories of Elmore Leonard but you're never sure just what it will be, or to whom it will happen. In this tantalizing episode, an attractive and capable Federal marshal encounters the occupational hazard of dating someone who may or may not be a very wrong guy. Either way, it?s going to be interesting to see how Karen Makes Out? Read by Sharon Lawrence. From When the Women Come Out to Dance (Morrow, 2002)

Part 3 (61:47)

Silver Lining by Walter Mosley.
In the 1940s, '50s and '60s, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer were hard-boiled crime-fiction's best-known guides to some of the meaner streets and scenes in Southern California. Then, in 1990, Walter Mosley's unofficial-detective Easy Rawlins began taking readers on a journey through L.A.'s African-American neighborhoods of the 50s and '60s: streets that Marlowe and Archer rarely had cause to visit. This is one of a handful of shorter Easy Rawlins tales ... Read by Meshach Taylor. From Six Easy Pieces (Atria, 2003)

Part 4 (51:33)
Serpent's Dance by Jim Fusilli
Terry Orr, the ex-writer turned New York private cop in the books and stories of author Jim Fusilli, is as knowledgeable about literary matters as he is wise to the ways of the street. Orr has no trouble finding the back-story behind the plot that entangles a good friend. It?s a tale of forbidden fruit in today?s Big Apple that?s as old as the Garden of Eden ? and as seductive as a ?Serpent?s Dance? ? Read by Tate Donovan. From Argosy Magazine #3 (Spring 2005)

Part 5 (49:47)
I?ll Be Waiting? by Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler revitalized American detective fiction, in the 1930s and ?40s, with his novels about Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. But Chandler wrote about other investigators from time to time ? including, in this 1939 short story --- an L.A. hotel detective named Tony Reseck. He finds out that even the savviest operative can be surprised by one last, hidden angle ? Read by Dakin Mathews. From Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler (Knopf/Everyman's Library, 2002)

It?s a Hard World by Andrew Vachss
The mean streets are just as mean, or meaner, for those who walk on the shady side. In this shortest of short stories, Andrew Vachss gives us a glimpse of the fast, cruel thinking often required of the sort of dubious characters whose watchword is: ?be quick or be dead? ? Read by Jon Kevin Tighe. From Born Bad: Collected Stories (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1994)

Part 6 (44:46)
The Parker Shotgun? by Sue Grafton
Sue Grafton?s California investigator Kinsey Millhone was one of several female operatives who brought a new perspective in the 1980s to the formerly male-dominated private-detective story. Kinsey?s eye proved just as keen as her predecessors? at spotting the pertinent details to crack a tough case. In this 1986 story, Millhone finds an object to rival any Maltese Falcon or Brasher Doubloon in fatal value ? Read by Harriet Harris. From Mean Streets (Mysterious Press, 1986)

Part 7 (57:17)
The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us by George P. Pelecanos
George P. Pelecanos is one of the most widely-praised crime-fiction writers of the 21st century. This dark short-story about a Greek immigrant in Washington, DC takes us back to 1933 and the height of the Depression ? a time when ?everyone was poor except the hard core criminals on both sides of the law? ? Read by Tony Plana.
From The Best American Mystery Stories, 2003 (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)

A Tough Case to Figure by Dick Lochte On the twisted byways where crimes are planned and executed, even the crime professionals sometimes have trouble knowing who?s who and what?s what. Author Dick Lochte takes us to New Orleans for a surprising example of how even the simplest job for a private detective can turn into ?A Tough Case to Figure? ? Read by Jefferson Mays. From Lucky Dog and Other Tales of Murder (Five Star, 2000)

Part 8 (41:45)
Cielo Azul by Michael Connelly
Best-selling novelist Michael Connelly is often named as a modern successor to Raymond Chandler. But his books? protagonists, especially L.A. police detective Harry Bosch, bring a personal intensity to their work that the private eyes of Chandler?s era didn?t have. In this slice of fiction that shifts back and forth in time and place, Detective Bosch discovers that his professional obsession can be not only a saving grace but a curse ? Read by John Michael Higgins. From Dangerous Women (Mysterious Press, 2005)

PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL
PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Sarah Spitz 310 314-4627
Email: sarah.spitz@kcrw.org

?Mean Streets USA: A Collection of Short Crime Fiction?
A KCRW Production

This highly-produced 8-part series, recorded and produced at KCRW, features detective stories by contemporary and classic mystery writers, including Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly, interpreted by Stacy Keach, Sharon Lawrence, Meschach Taylor, Tony Plana and others.

Robert Egan directs, and with longtime musical collaborator, Karl Lundeberg, establishes a moody noir tone, in a moral universe where black and white are not always what they seem.

Egan explains: ?Most of the detectives in these stories have a kind of profound and complex appreciation of the existential nature of the world they live in. There are people doing profoundly disturbing things, and sometimes, as in the world we live in, there aren't clear moral answers to that darkness. I think it?s important, at this particular juncture in American history, that we remind ourselves there?s a diversity of moral perspectives. There?s morality on the landscape, but the journey to find it is a complicated and difficult one.?

Egan established his stage credentials primarily at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles over a 25-year career, running more than 350 stage plays. For Mean Streets USA, he worked with the actors in intense rehearsals before they recorded their solo-voice renditions of the stories.

?The stories have a kind of rapturous darkness, you?re sort of inside the head of the detective narrator. We would read the story, talk about it, about the intimacy, about the style, and then talk about each character and the best way to achieve each character. The actors have to embrace the drama of the story using only the gestural and emotional life of their voice. They literally have to do it all vocally, and be fearless about being intimate and in your head.?

Composer Karl Lundeberg, a theatre and ballet composer who also recorded albums with his own group, Full Circle on Columbia Records, has collaborated with Egan for about 15 years. For this series, he?s created an atmospheric soundtrack with individual themes that weave in and out of each story.

?Music casts a spell. It can elevate a scene, or suspend time, or signal that you?ve gone to another place. Everything is highly stylized. Sometimes I play against the story, for example with a classical instrumentation like cellos, violin and flute, or a jazzy feel with trumpet, bass and piano, or a jazzy feel with a rock element. In one piece, with clarinet and piano as the main instruments, I tried for a 1940s feel but skewed the harmonies slightly, in a sort of cubist way.?

MEAN STREETS USA is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The series is produced by public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica, 89.9 FM and KCRW.com, a community service of Santa Monica College.
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This highly-produced 8-part series, recorded and produced at KCRW-Santa Monica, features detective stories by contemporary and classic mystery writers, including Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly, interpreted by actors such as Stacy Keach, Sharon Lawrence, Meschach Taylor, Tony Plana and others. Directed by stage, TV and film director Robert Egan with original music by Karl Lundeberg, and narrated by Daniel Riordan. Each part is self contained EXCEPT Part One. The story ?The Angry Man? concludes in Part Two. A music tag at end of part one allows stations to do I.D., leading into Part Two and the conclusion of the story. Part 1 (59:29) The Angry Man by Ross Macdonald. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Ross Macdonald was the critics? choice as the best... Show full description


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