CBC Radio One – The Great Gray Bridge

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In Depth Profile of CBC Radio’s Jian Ghomeshi

July 19, 2012/4 Comments/in Canada, Media, Blogging, Internet, Music, Bands & Radio /by Philip Turner

July 25 Update: Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Radio’s ‘Q’ has now also been the subject of a NY Times profile, and here’s a link to it. I’m really pleased to see Jian and his program making so much headway in New York City, and throughout the States.

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CBC Radio One’s morning program ‘Q‘ is one of my favorite shows on any radio network. Though normally produced at CBC’s headquarters in Toronto, host Jian Ghomeshi and his producers occasionally take their show on the road, which allowed my son Ewan and I to attend a live taping held in WNYC’s Greene Space in 2011. That night Jian interviewed guests Joy Behar and Fran Leibowitz and the band The National played too. He was very personable when we talked afterward, and pleased to meet U.S. listeners like us. That visit to NY was a prologue as the show has a spot on WNYC’s evening schedule this summer, 10 PM on the FM frequency, 93.9. I still listen on the Internet most mornings while at my desk, but it’s also great that I can hear it in the evenings if I missed it earlier.

Last month, during the NXNE festival, when fans of CBC Radio 3, the indie rock outpost of CBC, got a tour of CBC HQs, producer Pedro Mendes and Radio 3 host Grant Lawrence brought Jian out to meet the group. He was charming, and when I (re-) introduced myself he remembered having met me and Ewan in NY more than a year ago. That afternoon I took this photo of Jian, in the soccer jersey, and Grant, in flannel.

Today I was glad to read a profile of Jian in the Globe & Mail from last weekend. Reporter Brad Wheeler adopts a somewhat snarky tone, but overall, it’s a good article, with info like this:

“Last month, Ghomeshi won the Gold Award for best talk-show host at the New York Festivals International Radio Awards. Q, the popular daily arts, entertainment and culture magazine he hosts with aplomb and a soothing baritone, air[ing] on 120 public radio stations south of the border, including in major markets such as New York, Chicago and San Diego. . . . Q’s unprecedented American victories are explainable. The show takes pop culture seriously, attracts A-list guests, engages in lively debate and manages a rhythmic flow of its varied content. You have a host in Ghomeshi who comes with an exotic cultural background, a radio-friendly baritone, and who’s cocky and well-read enough to take on a variety of issues and interview subjects in an in-depth way. ‘The type of show Jian does draws on a lot aspects of the host’s personality,’ says Robert Harris, long-time CBC personality and producer. ‘It stretches your brain power, and the audience reacts to it.’ . . . . Some of the new listeners no doubt react to Q’s hip list of musical guests. Moreover, the artists and labels themselves are on board. Would rapper andQ guest Jay-Z have done Radio One five years ago? No chance. ‘American managers are reaching out to me, wanting to know which shows they should do,’ says Patrick Sambrook, a prominent artists’ manager whose clients include Kathleen Edwards and Sarah Harmer. ‘Q is on the top of the list for international artists coming to Canada. It’s the show that you want to be on.’”

To this I would add that ‘Q’ broadcast a nearly one-hour interview with Neil Young and Daniel Lanois, when “LeNoise” was released last year, a rare bit of media access that Neil chose to give ‘Q.’ More recently, Jian interviewed Chinese dissident artist, Ai Weiwei, who chose to appear on ‘Q’ despite continuing threats to his freedom by the Chinese government. I haven’t heard Ai WeiWei on any NPR programs. Clearly, ‘Q’ has become a go-to show for artists, authors, and many public figures. If you enjoy filling your day with intelligent talk radio, I recommend you listen to this terrific program. Being nowhere near Canadian air waves doesn’t matter, as it’s easy to listen to CBC on the Web.

Jian, whose family comes orginally from Iran, moved from England to Canada when he was fourteen is writing a book, 1982, about his teenage obsession with David Bowie, which will be published in Canada, and he told me, the U.S.

Reading Richard Ford’s “Canada”

May 30, 2012/8 Comments/in Books & Writing, Canada /by Philip Turner

I enjoyed reading Richard Ford’s first book Piece of my Heart, and then his breakout novel, The Sportswriter, and still own the copies I read in the 1980s. However, I missed several of the books that followed–this was during the long interregnum when as an in-house editor of topical nonfiction for several publishing companies, I rarely had a chance to read novels, or really anything for recreation. I noted Ford’s subsequent books as they came out, but never had a chance to pick up another one. Now that I’m running my own editorial services business and curating and writing this blog, my reading diet is as broad and nourishing as I can make it–as those who follow my weekly #FridayReads posts will have noticed–and I can make time to read books like Ford’s latest.

Ford changed publishers after Lay of the Land in 2006, leaving Knopf after many years there for Ecco Books, where Dan Halpern must have been eager to add him to his list, at least partially on the strength of this newest novel. As a confirmed Canuck-ophile and honorary Canadian, I was certainly intrigued when I saw the title of the new book–Canada. After about 150 pages into it, I can totally see why Dan wrote this in a personal letter printed in the advance readers’ copy [Letter also pictured below–click on it for a larger view.] :

“The first thing you’re going to notice here is the voice, and the language that carries it from Montana to Saskatchewan. You’re not likely to read prose more arresting than this any time soon. Then there are the breathtaking sentences that present the prairies of Saskatchewan, stark and moody, brooding and foreboding. . . . I understand that, as Richard’s publisher, my response to Canada may strike you as hyperbolic, as it should and rightly so. Until you read the book for yourself.”

I also admire the work of Saskatchewan native Guy Vanderhaeghe, especially his two novels set on the Canadian prairie, The Englishman’s Boy and The Last Crossing, and so, in addition to reacquainting myself with Ford’s work, I was eager to be snared by the locales of the new book, and that is just what’s happening. Ford renders a sense of place and an interior state of mind with strength and assurance. The narrator with the compelling voice one notices instantly is a teenage boy, Dell Parsons, who in the course of the narrative is swept up in a bizarre and destructive family breakdown. Dell’s modesty and manner of telling have bound me to his uncertain fate. And the sentence-making, as Dan promises, is full of constructions that are giving me joy in the reading of them, sentences to savor as they trip along the paragraphs and pages. As for the plot, it centers around an improbable bank robbery by Dell’s hapless parents, an escapade that evokes Sidney Lumet’s classic 1975 film with Al Pacino and John Cazale, “Dog Day Afternoon,” featuring another bank heist by two ill-prepared robbers.

This past Monday night, reading late in bed as is my wont, with my little bicycle light serving as my book light, I was at the same time listening to CBC Radio over the Internet, with my TuneIn Radio app on my IPod Touch. CBC Radio’s nightly news program “As It Happens” replays at midnight, and so that’s what I was listening to when I heard co-host Jeff Douglas introduce an upcoming segment,

“Richard Ford is one of the few living writers who can say he’s written the great American novel. Arguably he’s written three of them–they’re known collectively as the Sportswriter trilogy. The second of these books, Independence Day, won the Pulitzer Prize. Like his other work, his latest novel is sweeping, ambitious and touches on themes of American identity. But it has a very un-American name: it’s called Canada. Richard Ford joined Carol [Off] earlier today from a studio in Canada–Vancouver, Canada–to discuss his latest novel.”

That announcement was about the only thing that could make me put the book down, and so I listened for the next half-hour as Ms. Off led Ford through a deep conversation about fiction-writing, his own creative enterprise, and this new book. Following this link will allow you to listen to their conversation. It was after 1:00 AM by the time the program ended, but I couldn’t resist reading a couple more chapters, having gained new insight into this deeply satisfying book which I’m so eager to continue reading in upcoming days.
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The Soundtrack of My Teens–Hearing Neil Young Live in 1969

March 27, 2012/5 Comments/in Books & Writing, Music, Bands & Radio /by Philip Turner

This is really exciting news. On June 6, to promote his forthcoming memoir Waging Heavy Peace, Neil Young will speak at BEA, the annual book industry convention. I’ve been attending BEA most years since I got started in the book biz in 1978, back when it was still called ABA, and have usually taken a pass on the guest speakers, but not this year. I am very eager to be there for Neil’s appearance and I’m sure lots of other book people will be there too. His publisher, the Blue Rider imprint of Penguin Putnam has put out this release along with the news, explaining that he will be interviewed by someone to be named later. [May 24 update: It’s been announced that Neil’s interlocutor will be Patti Smith.] Speaking of interviews, Jian Gomeshi of CBC Radio One’s “Q” program conducted a great interview last year with Neil, and Daniel Lanois, producer of Neil’s 2011 album “Le Noise.”

I’ve admired Neil since I was fourteen when I saw him perform in Cleveland. I went with my older brother Joel–with whom I would later operate our Cleveland bookstore Undercover Books–and despite my being way under-age, Joel, who would have just turned eighteen, somehow got me past the front door with him. Confirming my memories, Jimmy McDonough’s indispensable book Shakey describes the venue as “a tiny basement coffeehouse,” though I recall it also served liquor. I recall Neil played two consecutive nights, and we even went back for night #2. This was soon after Buffalo Springfield had split up around when his first solo album was released, and before Neil released “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” the first album with Crazy Horse.

Neil played solo acoustic sets both nights, but he also had a backing band that opened on its own and later played with him, a tight and country-tinged outfit called Natchez Trace, about whom I’ve found a faint trace online. From that source, a Buffalo Springfield fan site, I see that the shows were on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1. I recall that the club was not crowded either night. At some point during the two nights, Joel and I availed ourselves of the opportunity to go up and say hello to him. I extended a hand and shared a shake with Neil, then so young, and a bit shy in fringed buckskins and extremely thin, as he was not many years past the polio that had defined his early years, also chronicled in Shakey. When I hear Neil speak on June 6, I’ll be remembering those La Cave gigs and the early days of Neil’s career.