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Chris Satullo at WHYY
Re “Chris Satullo at WHYY: Solution or problem?” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
Birthplace of the original ideas that once created our entire nation, Philadelphia has (since the days of Dilworth) sunk into such mediocrity that no one in power seems to notice any more. Other than the care and feeding of tourists and anesthetizing TV audiences, the spark that once ignited the rest of the world has disappeared. Surely our city is capable of producing more.
Margaret Chew Barringer
Penn Valley, Pa.
December 24, 2008
I’m confused. You accuse Chris Satullo of not being gutsy, yet you criticize him for a gutsy editorial calling for Clinton’s resignation. Then you criticize him for an old column of yours that he killed, a decision that sounds like he did what he was paid to do— make editorial decisions based on fairness and good judgment.
Because he’s been heavily involved in civic engagement programs, you assume that’s all he’ll do in his new post at WHYY. That doesn’t seem fair.
You have every right to say he’s a bad choice for the job, but I strongly disagree with your reasoning. Let’s see how he does.
Murray Dubin
University City
December 24, 2008
Editor’s note: The writer was a longtime reporter for the Inquirer.
Satullo is what used to be known— maybe still is, as far as I know— as a “goo-goo”: a “good government” type. Back in the day, they’d support non-partisan Plan E government (i.e., city manager form) as a way of “de-politicizing” elective office. Of course, goo-goos created their own brand of politics— government run by Chamber of Commerce types. These guys have been around since, al least, George F. Babbitt.
Richard Carreño
Center City
December 24, 2008
While I would like to see a lot more local programming—Philadelphia has such a wealth of creative talent— I might begin with something that has totally bewildered me and might play to Mr. Satullo’s strengths.
I have been watching the Lehrer hour for about 30 years or so. I have not been watching the local news because I can get the weather forecast on the Internet; I can see the sports results from a variety of sources; and mostly because the news stories are repetitive. In short, why can’t Philadelphia have a local Lehrer hour or half-hour that actually discusses what’s going on or should be going on in the city? I don’t just mean the politics of the day (which the Sunday morning shows do). I mean the full range of stories from business and law to science to the arts and, what the hey, even sports.
As for a WHYY quote to live by— I might go with this one by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.: “Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. After looking at the Alps, I felt that my mind had been stretched beyond the limits of its elasticity, and fitted so loosely on my old ideas of space that I had to spread these to fit it.” (From The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.)
Joe Glantz
Levittown, Pa.
December 24, 2008
Afflicting the comfortable— so that’s what you’ve been doing to me all these years!
Helene Freidman
Narberth, Pa
December 24, 2008
Thanks for your commentary. I remember the Kimberly Ernest case because I lived at that time very near to the place where her body was found. Everyone in that neighborhood was devastated. The vigils and candles and poems at 2100 Pine Street lasted a very long time. I even wrote and published a short poem on the subject of the Ernest murder, which eventually became part of a book, *identity papers*, which was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in 2006.
I also remember a little about the two guys who were caught. Are you saying that they were eventually exonerated?
Jeffrey Ethan Lee
Center City
December 24, 2008
Editor’s comment: Herbert Haak and Richard Wise, the two men arrested for Kimberly Ernest’s murder, were acquitted by a jury a year later, in 1997, largely due to the lack of a DNA match. The two had been breaking into cars for several weeks before the murder, and arresting them for the killing appears to have been a convenient way for the police to get them off the streets. Both defendants were subsequently jailed in other assault cases. Kimberly Ernest’s murderer was never caught.
Editor’s note: To read another response, click here.
Vidocq: Philadelphia’s Sherlock Holmes
Re “Philadelphia’s Answer To Sherlock Holmes,” by Richard Carreño—
Great story. Portly, ay! Please note that Richard Walter, forensic psychologist, was also a founder of the Vidocq Society with Frank Bender and me.
Bill Fleisher
Center City
December 24, 2008
A poet’s question
I like the work that you do in Broadstreetreview.com. But I have often wondered why there is almost nothing in it that reflects the very active literary/poetry/publishing life of Philadelphia. I am only one of many editors/professors in the area. (I am the senior poetry editor for Many Mountains Moving: a literary journal of diverse voices, which publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays and mixed genre works). But I also know professionals who edit and work with many other good publications on the national scene, e.g., Painted Bride Quarterly, CrossConnect, PerContra, American Poetry Review, to name just a few.
Is there any chance that Broadstreetreview.com would want to tap into this vital literary community? Can good poets, writers, editors in the region contribute to what you are doing?
Jeffrey Ethan Lee
Center City
December 24, 2008
Editor’s comment: We’re a forum for anyone who has something compelling to say— even poets.
Talk Radio
Re Jim Rutter’s review of Talk Radio—
Why are some of the reviewers who are writing about Talk Radio not doing their research properly? Talk Radio, the play, was not based on Alan Berg’s life. Eric Bogosian wrote that play as a one-man show and then expanded it into a play and then, when Oliver Stone got the rights to the film version of the play, it was combined with the ending of the book based on Berg’s life, Talked to Death by Stephen Sinclair.
Since New City Stage is doing the regional premiere, I also talked with Mr. Bogosian’s assistant about this at length, because she wanted to make sure that I understood that the play is not based on Berg, which is a common misconception, even though all of this can be found with a simple Internet search about the play.
Also, Mr. Bogosian started working on this material in his mid-20s and played the character at that age. From what I have been given from his assistant, the character of Barry Champlain is between 27 and 34, which is not a stretch for Paul Felder, who is almost 26.
I have no problem with an unfavorable review, but I do have a problem with a poorly researched one. It’s unfair to the public because it misleads them about play.
Ginger Dayle
Producing Artistic Director
New City Stage Company
Center City
Jim Rutter replies: I apologize for the factual error about Alan Berg, but stand by my judgments about Felder’s inability to play the role properly. And I disagree with Ginger Dayle about the Champlain character’s age. New City Stage’s program lists the setting as “A November Friday evening in 1987.” In the script, the radio show’s producer refers to Champlain’s having been “stationed at Fort Dix for six months in 1969.” So, unless the draft board made a huge mistake (or the script is intentionally misleading), Champlain could be no younger than 35. Also, not to split hairs, but Mr. Felder’s MySpace page lists his age as 24 as of July 2008.
Science Fiction conference
In “Science fiction vs. science fantasy,” Tom Purdom writes of “an annual World Science Fiction Convention that attracts several thousand people and justifies its title by moving to sites like Tokyo and Melbourne at least once every four years.”
I’m afraid this isn’t correct. The only condition on where a Worldcon is held is that it must be at least 500 miles from the location of the Worldcon at which they vote. Usually one a decade is held in Britain, and one a decade in Australia, but such is not required by any means.
Tom Galloway
Las Vegas, Nev.
December 18, 2008
Tom Purdom replies: I don’t think you can talk about a “typical” decade when something is still developing. Science fiction seems to boom in countries that are going through a period of rapid technological and economic development. Japan became an important market for American science fiction writers in the ’60s. Right now, the genre is apparently thriving in China and the former Iron Curtain countries. Michael Swanwick is probably the most popular science fiction writer currently living in Philadelphia, and he’s been a guest of honor at conventions in China and Russia in the last two or three years.
Schmucks at the Wilma
Re Jim Rutter’s review of Schmucks at the Wilma—
My wife and I left Schmucks at intermission— getting to be our routine at the Wilma. As usual the sets are stunningly great — and the acting is somewhere between poor and dead (although Caitlin Clouthier was OK). Woody Allen was the only recognizable persona on stage last night, and it wasn’t supposed to be Woody Allen.
Funny? About as funny as ’60s comedy replayed in ‘08. Shouldn’t those actors have appeared to be having some fun? Ugh. One further note. Good actors can enunciate and seem natural. Those guys did neither. (One man’s opinion)
John Langdon
Fairmount
December 18, 2008
Lucinda Williams
Re “Lucinda Williams and Bob Dylan,” by Dan Coren—
Yo, Dan: Lighten up on Lucinda. “If Wishes Were Horses” is worth the price of the whole deal. At least Lucinda ain’t shillin’ on TV like Dylan.
But, you’re right, Chase Utley is a poet. You’re fuckin’ right!
Bob Ingram
Burleigh, N.J.
December 17, 2008
A pianist’s memory
Re ”The pianist who recovered her memory”—
Thanks, Maria Corley, for sharing so much of yourself in this wonderful article. One question, though: I’ve always thought that absolute and relative pitch were mutually exclusive skills.
For example, most of the time, I have fairly accurate relative pitch. Give me an A and, on a good day, I can name any other note you play after that. But I don’t have absolute pitch. If you play me an A in isolation, I can’t identify it. So what do you mean when you say you were born with “absolute relative pitch”?
Dan Coren
Queen Village
November 26, 2008
Maria Corley replies: I used to call it perfect pitch, but that’s not quite true, because in Europe A is (or was) tuned to 444, and here it’s 440. So it’s perfect in relation to whatever tuning system I’m hearing (although lately it’s not as acute— I understand this is normal).
The case for live classical music
Re: ”In the age of the iPod, the case for live classical music,” by Beeri Moalem—
This is one of the best essays I’ve read on the state of music in our current society. As a performing jazz musician, I am profoundly touched by Beeri Moalem’s provocative insights. Thanks for a terrific article.
Judy Roberts
Phoenix, Ariz.
December 4, 2008
Booing at the opera
Re ”Why opera audiences boo,” by Diana Burgwyn—
At Bryn Mawr Theatre’s recent broadcasting of the La Scala opening, the conductor was booed. I was reminded of enjoying a concert at La Scala in 1962, and seeing/hearing (during La Bohème) the Maria Callas claque and the “other’s” claque opposing each other, from the high balcony, by throwing more and more roses after each aria, etc. At the time, it reminded me of fans at a football game. Now, I wonder if Philadelphia’s vigorous sports booing is a descendant of this practice.
Jeff Shapiro
Bala, Pa.
December 10, 2008
Stockhausen
I’m covering the concert here tonight at the Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing Stockhausen, Cage and others. When I was looking up what they were playing, I came across Dan Coren’s piece (”Stockhausen: The road not taken”). What a shock! I was so saddened to see that he passed away, and so recently.
My experience with Karlheinz Stockhausen’s compositions goes back to the early ’70s, when “one of my husbands” was playing his juries to get into grad school at Juilliard. One of his pieces was the Stockhausen work that features the same note well over a hundred times. I was used to it; one of the jurors of them wasn’t.
One jurist claimed that if he played that piece he (the jurist) would leave; another said if he didn’t play that piece he would leave. He played the piece, got into Juilliard, studied with Mme. Lhevinne, got his master’s, got a Fulbright, studied with Mlle. Boulanger and Olivier Messien, and got a divorce. So, I got to meet all those wonderful musicians without ever having to practice.
I’m not sure what to expect tonight. It just will have a different tenor knowing that Stockhausen’s gone, and so recently.
Melissa Berry
www.Buzzine.com
Los Angeles
December 9, 2008
Editor’s comment: Is mastery of Stockhausen a litmus test for your next husband? If so, Dan Coren advises me that the work referenced here is most likely Stockhausen’s Klavierstucke IX.
Moving the Barnes (continued)
Re: “Barnes on the Parkway,” by Gresham Riley—
Most of what I read about the Barnes Foundation comes from people who have obviously not studied there. The central point is not so much to teach art history as to how to objectify one’s perception. This can only be done with experiencing the actual materials. Once one has begun to understand this, it is a simple matter to see the sources of an individual artist’s work in the traditions and other influences they were exposed to. “Rebelling against” something is not a source for a visual artist. It might be a motivation, but it has nothing to do with what ended up on the canvas.
At this stage, I think the most compelling argument against moving the collection is the very one that was promoted as the reason to do it: money. In 2004, the financial study proffered by the Foundation’s trustees in court required $3 to $4 million in annual fund-raising. At the time, the judge called the plan “audacious.” This was before the cost of the building doubled. There is zero evidence that this level of fund-raising is possible, and the weight of the economic data shows that it will be highly unlikely in the years to come.
The project will end up deep in the red and the items that are not protected by the Barnes indenture will end up on the block. This could be done now and the collection could have a great endowment and stay where it belongs, but the pashas who strutted like peacocks on the Parkway last month won’t have a wall to carve their names on. Their well-supported friend in the governor’s office will see that they get their wishes, just in time to watch the project go bust.
Albert Barnes’s worst mistake was in assuming the law would trump politics. Objective observer that he was, he should have known better.
Nick Tinari
Broomall, Pa.
December 10, 2008
Gresham Riley replies:
Mr. Tinari is correct about only one matter. I was never a student at the Barnes Foundation. On the other hand, as a longtime participant in the debate about the move of the Barnes collection (now scheduled for some point in 2011), I have been struck by the lack of a positive correlation between cogency of argument and past or present enrollment in the Barnes program.
Mr. Tinari thinks that the most compelling argument against moving the collection is “money.” Obviously, he has not read any of my earlier postings in defense of the move. Albert Barnes’s expressed intention about the centrality of the educational mission of his Foundation for a specific audience of students has been the core of my argument.
Barnes’s worst mistake was not assuming that the law would trump politics; it was the hubristic notion that he could remain the master of his universe from the grave. For more on this topic see Jeannette H. Maurer , “A Tale of Two Trusts: The Barnes Foundation and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
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