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JCC Conversations | Ed Surovell and his passion for books
Listen to Chuck as he interviews Ed Surovell and explores his passion for books and his career as the founder of Edward Surovell Realtors. His amazing collection includes rare books about Ann Arbor, Michigan, Native Americans and some even dating back to the 1800s.
“I was destined to buy books – I couldn’t escape the things. I was born to them and married them. They come whispering to me in the middle of the night.” – Ed Surovell.
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JCC Conversations | Ethan Kross – Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It
Chuck Newman interviews Award-Winning Psychologist Ethan Kross who released his First Book, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It
Ethan Kross, psychologist, professor, and author shares his research on how the conversations people have with themselves impacts their health, performance, decisions and relationships and shape their lives and give them the power to change themselves. He describes groundbreaking behavioral and brain research with colorful real-world examples.
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JCC Conversations | Rich Retyi, Author of The Book of Ann Arbor: An Extremely Serious History Book
The 41 stories in the book include a suicide submarine parade. Ann Arbor’s top 10 astronauts. Shakey Jake, The Embassy Hotel, and stories of trains crashing into buildings. The birth of Iggy Pop. Punching Nazis. The day the dictator came to town. The music mobile, the naked mile, and a brief history of poop. Rich and his book are truly fun!
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for December 2022: Martin interviews Mitchell Cohen, author of Looking for the Magic: New York City, the ‘70s and the Rise of Arista Records.
Looking for the Magic is a cultural-historical remix, a fresh perspective on how Arista Records reflected its place and time, New York in the 1970s and early 1980s. Through interviews with dozens of artists and executives, music journalist Mitchell Cohen goes inside the business of making and marketing music during this vibrant and diverse period. Under Clive Davis, rock, pop, punk, jazz, R&B, disco, cabaret and Broadway were all represented on Arista. The label sounded like the city it was at the geographical center of.
From its inception as a new entity built on the pop and soul foundation of Bell Records, to groundbreaking artists like Gil Scott-Heron and Patti Smith, to revitalized legends like the Kinks and Aretha Franklin, up to its launching of its biggest star, Whitney Houston, Arista Records’ story has never been told like this. Looking for the Magic covers the wide scope of the label’s roster: its giant pop successes (Barry Manilow), its dedication to cutting-edge jazz (Anthony Braxton) and its embrace of rock royalty (Lou Reed, the Grateful Dead).
Mitchell Cohen has written about music and film for Creem, High Fidelity, Film Comment, the Village Voice, Musician and Phonograph Record. He began working at Arista Records in the late ‘70s as a publicity and advertising copywriter and then as one of the label’s A&R executives.
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for October 2022: Martin interviews Dennis Duncan, author of Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age, by Dennis Duncan
Most of us give little thought to the back of the book―it’s just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history -- a New York Times Editors' Choice Book -- hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In Index, A History of the, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past.
Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists’ living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and prime ministers, poets, librarians and―of course―indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakers at heart―and we have been for eight hundred years.
Martin’s interview with Dennis Duncan was recorded on March 10th, 2022.
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Off the Shelf | Episode 7
Tune in each month as library staff recommends awesome books for awesome people in 3rd-5th grades!
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for September 2022: Martin interviews Mark Clague, author of O Say Can You Hear?: A Cultural History of The Star Spangled Banner.
Most Americans learn the tale in elementary school: During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key witnessed the daylong bombardment of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry by British navy ships; seeing the Stars and Stripes still flying proudly at first light, he was inspired to pen his famous lyric. What Americans don’t know is the story of how this everyday “broadside ballad,” one of thousands of such topical songs that captured the events and emotions of early American life, rose to become the nation’s one and only anthem and today’s magnet for controversy.
In O Say Can You Hear? Mark Clague brilliantly weaves together the stories of the song and the nation it represents. Examining the origins of both text and music, alternate lyrics and translations, and the song’s use in sports, at times of war, and for political protest, he argues that the anthem’s meaning reflects―and is reflected by―the nation’s quest to become a more perfect union. From victory song to hymn of sacrifice and vehicle for protest, the story of Key’s song is the story of America itself.
Each chapter in the book explores a different facet of the anthem’s story. In one, we learn the real history behind the singing of the anthem at sporting events; in another, Clague explores Key’s complicated relationship with slavery and its repercussions today. An entire is chapter devoted to some of the most famous performances of the anthem, from Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock to Jose Feliciano at the 1968 World Series. At every turn, the book goes beyond the events to explore the song’s resonance and meaning.
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for July 2022: Martin interviews Alex B. Hill, author of Detroit in 50 Maps
Detroit in 50 Maps shows you the Motor City from entirely new perspectives, from neighborhood coffee shops to the legacy of redlining.
There are thousands of ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and railways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population growth shows you its changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what that city's really like. Detroit in 50 Maps deconstructs the Motor City in surprising new ways. Track where new coffee shops and co-working spaces have opened and closed in the last five years. Find the areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, Coney Island hot dog shops, or ring-necked pheasants. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America’s most misunderstood cities and the people who live here.
A conversation starter for Detroiters past, present, and future, Detroit in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and surprising ways.
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for June 2022: Martin interviews Scott A. Small, author of Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering.
Dr. Scott Small has dedicated his career to understanding why memory forsakes us. As director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Columbia University, he focuses largely on patients who experience pathological forgetting, and it is in contrast to their suffering that normal forgetting, which we experience every day, appears in sharp relief.
Until recently, most everyone—memory scientists included—believed that forgetting served no purpose. But new research in psychology, neurobiology, medicine, and computer science tells a different story. Forgetting is not a failure of our minds. It’s not even a benign glitch. It is, in fact, good for us—and, alongside memory, it is a required function for our minds to work best.
Forgetting benefits our cognitive and creative abilities, emotional well-being, and even our personal and societal health. As frustrating as a typical lapse can be, it’s precisely what opens up our minds to making better decisions, experiencing joy and relationships, and flourishing artistically.
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for May 2022: Martin interviews Scott Eyman, author of 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio
From New York Times bestselling author Scott Eyman, 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio is the story one of the most influential studios in film history, from its glory days under the leadership of legendary movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck up to its 2019 buyout by Disney.
March 20, 2019 marked the end of an era -- Disney took ownership of the movie empire that was Fox. For almost a century before that historic date, Twentieth Century-Fox was one of the preeminent producers of films, stars, and filmmakers. Its unique identity in the industry and place in movie history is unparalleled -- and one of the greatest stories to come out of Hollywood.
This narrative tells the complete tale of the films, stars, intrigue, and innovations of the iconic studio that was.