Actor and Director Joel Grey ... Shirley Jahad's EV diaries ... James Beard Foundation award winners Jonathan Gold and Colman Andrews ... Eat-LA, a guide to help you avoid "Food Panic" ... Dinner Party Download meets Marissa Silver ... Cabaret with The Brown Betties ...
Joel Grey, Off-Ramp listener & guest, on his 60 years in film, theatre, and tv.
Monday, the Geffen Playhouse is hosting a staged reading of “The Normal Heart,” Larry Kramer’s wrenching play about the AIDS crisis. It's a 25th anniversary benefit performance for a clinic at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, and it's directed by Joel Grey, who played Ned in “The Normal Heart” 25 years ago. (COME INSIDE for a link to the production, a look at Grey many years ago, and info on Grey's new exhibit of celphone photos.)
This time on Off-Ramp, in a four-part interview, Joel Grey talks with host John Rabe about his decades in show business, including "Dallas," "Alias," "Cabaret," "Wicked," and even an appearance on Tom Jones' variety show in the 1960s.
Roky Erickson Returns!
Back in 1965, Roky Erickson fronted The 13th Floor Elevators, arguably America's first psychedelic rock band. His life went great until 1969, when—in a tragedy of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" proportions—he pleaded insanity to a drug conviction and ended up in the infamous and terrifying Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. It took him years to fully recover from his time at Rusk, but he's back and better than ever, and for the first time in years, he's playing in LA on Tuesday.
COME INSIDE for the gig details, and listen to Kevin Ferguson's 2008 interview with Roky himself, including a very rare Erickson track.
The subject of many a top-ten list, a documentary and even a Daniel Johnston song, Roky personifies rock and roll and the American story of triumph over adversity. He's just released a new album with Austin-based indie outfit Okkervil River and is doing an extremely rare performance Tuesday, May 18 at the Music Box in Hollywood. As a bonus, L.A. Record founder and loyal Erickson devotee Chris Ziegler will be DJing the night through.
This piece also features a special NEVER RELEASED recording of an old Roky Erickson song "Bo Diddley is a Headhunter." Roky recorded this in 2008 with fellow Austin psychedelic band The Black Angels and the songs from this session have yet to be released.
Jonathan Gold and Colman Andrews win James Beard Awards
Congratulations to Colman Andrews and the LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold, who took home James Beard awards over the weekend for their tasty food writing. It is unclear at this point whether they won because they have appeared on Off-Ramp, but we'll assume that's the case and offer these interviews from the archive.
John Rabe talked with Gold when he won the Pulitzer in 2007; John talked with Andrews after discovering Andrews' 1984 guidebook to LA restaurants ("Best Restaurants LA"), which is a time machine to an entirely different era for food in Southern California.
Gold won the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews award for his LA Weekly pieces “Sauced,” “Hot Birria, Cold Cerveza,” and “Hare Today”; Andrews won Cookbook of the Year for "The Country Cooking of Ireland."
COME INSIDE for the James Beard news release, a way to buy Andrews' book on Irish cooking AND help KPCC; and the entire Gold LA Weekly archive. NEW YORK, NY (May 2, 2010) – The James Beard Foundation, the nation’s preeminent recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries, announced this evening the winners of the 2010 James Beard Foundation Media & Book Awards. At an exclusive invitation-only dinner at Espace in New York City hosted by Kelly Choi of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters and Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods, awards were presented to the winners of the Books, Broadcast Media and Journalism categories. Highlights of this year’s winners included: Cookbook of the Year: The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews (Chronicle Books) Cookbook Hall of Fame: A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: Francine Prose, Saveur, “Faith and Bacon” Television Show, In Studio or Fixed Location: French Food at Home with Laura Calder, Host: Laura Calder, Network: Food Network Canada, Producer: Johanna Eliot Television Show, On Location: Chefs A’ Field: King of Alaska, Host: Rick Moonen, Network: PBS, Producers: Heidi Hanson and Chris Warner TV Food Personality: Andrew Zimmern, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, Network: The Travel Channel Newspaper Food Section: The Washington Post, Joe Yonan Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews: Jonathan Gold, LA Weekly, “Sauced,” “Hot Birria, Cold Cerveza,” “Hare Today” Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition: Chow.com, Jane Goldman Food Blog: Serious Eats, Ed Levine, Seriouseats.com The Book Award judges (more than 50 in total) are comprised of editors, authors, journalists, and culinary educators who have not published a culinary book during the current Awards year. The Broadcast Media Award judges (more than 30 in total) are comprised of producers, educators, editors, and print journalists. Journalism Award judges (more than 80 in total) are comprised of working editors, journalists (not covering food and beverage topics), retired food and beverage editors and writers, and deans and professors of leading journalism colleges.
Dinner Party Download -- "Radio that smells like bacon and thinks like Robert Benchley!"
Brendan Newnam and Rico Gagliano's Dinner Party Download: Celebrated author Marisa Silver exorcises her right to write... We go on the lam with Ronnie Biggs... and Brendan discovers a sandwich shop inside a bodega wrapped up in an enigma.
The Brown Betties -- African-American Cabaret
The Brown Betties is an African-American Cabaret group that's been performing in Los Angeles since 2005. We sent Off-Ramp correspondent Jenee Darden to check out the current Brown Betties show, "Brown Betties & Joe: A Bedtime Story," which looks at the many faces of love.
A Plug for Electric Cars? Part 4 of Shirley Jahad's EV Diaries ...
... in which the reporter -- driving the quarter-million dollar prototype -- sees a turtle and gets toad. COME INSIDE FOR A LINK TO THE PIECE.