Radio Tania

Music, Electric Style

This week I spoke with Academy Award winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (also the director of An Inconvenient Truth) about his latest film, It Might Get Loud. This film centers on the history, evolution, and artistry of the electric guitar through three of the most significant guitarists of our time: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes). Blending concert footage with interviews with the musicians, Guggenheim highlights three unique approaches to the electric guitar.

The legendary Jimmy Page,an undeniable influence on all of today's musicians, equates playing guitar to having sex, likening the curves of the guitar to those of a female body and comparing the progression of "Stairway to Heaven" to making love, gradually building in sound and intensity to the equivalent of a guitar climax.

The Edge, real name David Howell Evans, has a sound that is at once melodic and abrasive, focusing on heavy distortion, delay and effects pedals to create more of the arena rock sound that distinguishes U2 from other bands.

Known for his minimalist rock sound, Jack White articulates the influence that old blues musicians have had on his sound and style. One scene shows White playing the song "Blue Vein" with his band The Raconteurs and he seems to be engaged in a violent struggle with his guitar, playing it so hard that his hands visibly bleed all over it.

In the film, Page, The Edge and White come together for a meeting (which ends up being a jam session) perfectly exemplifying how the electric guitar can produce varying sounds and effects based on the techniques with which it is played, and that it is a language onto itself.

 

Next week I will be speaking with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the director of the film, "Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love." The film focuses on world-renowned singer Youssou N'Dour, who is credited with popularizing mbalax, a genre that combines traditional griot percussion, praise-singing and Afro-Cuban arrangements. The film documents the frustrations that N'Dour has with the world's misconceptions of  Islam as a violent and dangerous religion. In an attempt to convey to the world the positive messages found in Islam, N'Dour released "Egypt" in 2004, a heavily spiritual album that found success with Western audiences but stirred up a big pot of controversy in his home country of Senegal for what many said was a blasphemous integration of sacred Muslim themes into his songs. Vasarhelyi follows N'Dour from Senegal to Paris to New York and every in between to capture the artistry and charisma that is Youssou N'Dour.

Ways of Seeing

As the world's eyes are on the passing of one of the biggest icons to date, the reaction of his fans, foes, and the media offers a fascinating insight into the nexus of American culture. A prodigal performer from day one, Michael Jackson grew up alongside America with the promise of greatness, churning out hit after hit and literally lighting up the floor with innovation. But our expectation of Jackson fell short of reality as he collected as many disturbing rumours as he did animals for his Neverland Ranch; our icon became the personification of misguided talent.

 

Fifty years ago, American culture was similarly perceived through the lens of photographer Robert Frank, who thought he would capture candid scenes of life in the young and exciting US of A, beginning the project as documenting a young, growing country fulfilling its unbounded potential. What resulted however was the pervading sadness, both of the much American urban environment and the people who strode upon it. Behind all of the glitz and shiny exterior, there is a gritty alley and a lost gaze, or sometimes, a scene of pure weariness. Thus the seminal book, The Americans, was born and it is celebrating its 50th with an exhibition in San Francisco. I spoke with the co-curator Corey Keller. Both these stories represented how beauty and tragedy rest side by side. 

Frank documented the seemingly banal during the 1950s and when the advent of the video camera became available, conceptual artists in LA started recording their own banal actions, tracking their own processes and those of their colleagues. One of the pioneers was artist John Baldessari who turned the lens towards himself and others—painting, moving, walking, sitting, making art. He has an exhibition coming up in San Francisco and I will be speaking with in in mid-July. Stay tuned!

 

Warhol, The Oscars, Fame

For the past couple of weeks, I have aired pieces played earlier this year—two interviews with two directors up for Academy Awards. Those directors were Ari Folman of Waltz with Bashir and Laurent Cantet of The Class. Neither won the Academy Award and, in light of Mickey Rourke's loss, I wonder what value the Oscar has (even Sean Penn seemed shocked when he got the award against Rourke). The point being that both these films were great surprises. The Class continues to be chronicled, reviewed and revered in well respected publications across the globe. Waltz with Bashir was a groundbreaking work and well worth the fiscal sacrifices Folman took to create the film. While neither walked away with a gold statue, I still would have voted for them and, in my heart, they won. So after two weeks of repeats, I have just posted a new piece about Warhol and his relationship to music. The interview was with respected curator Tim Burgard, who restructured my thoughts about Warhol. Like many, I saw Warhol as an aloof, self interested, blown up artist but the truth is that he brought portraiture back into modern art, he is one of the most important and prolific filmmakers of our time and he was able to revive the communal aspect of art making by bringing people together to create great work. His open door policy and his keen eye changed people's lives and that is the best thing you can do while alive, make a difference. Check the interviews out and listen to the podcast, Sight Unseen, on iTunes.

 

Wim Wenders and Steven Soderbergh and me

OK, so I have a couple of exciting interviews coming up in the next week and while I normally don't voice my excitement over these sorts of things (people had to pry it out that I had interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama), this time I am changing my ways. Maybe it's a 2009 thing, the year of the ox supposedly, a year of great struggle and great work. Maybe it's just that I am really looking forward to these two interviews with Steven Soderbergh and Wim Wenders. Regardless, I wanted to share a few things about each director. First, Philip and I just got through seeing CHE, Soderbergh's epic film about the legendary, near mythical revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, played by a subdued and potent Benicio del Toro. It was an interesting role for him, and one that must have meant a great deal to him since he co-produced CHE. It takes great passion and drive to produce a film. I also wonder about the challenges of making films about legendary figures. The film was gorgeous and deserved the four plus hours of screen time because it offered the pace and sense and challenge of starting revolutions. From the lush, jungle quality of Cuba's countryside to the arid mountains of Bolivia, the cinematorgraphy was magnificent and real. For those interested in revolutionaries or in Che himself, I recommend it. Then next week, I am speaking with Wim Wenders about his recent film Palermo Shooting. I have interviewed Wenders before but I have always worried that in that interview I confused him with Werner Herzog. I think I might have said, "in your previous film, Grizzly Man...." Oops! I hope that didn't happen but at least I have a second chance to redeem myself!

 

From one Thought to Another

This weekend, I went to the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, a building designed by Herzog and de Meuron that is changing color over time. I went with my Mom and Grandma, a tradition we seem to be creating, weekend excursions together to places we enjoy. Last week was Half Moon Bay, this week, the museum. We went there to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, be all girly and decide which outfit we would most want to wear (I chose a brown dress). While there, we saw the work of artist Maya Lin. I had the opportunity to interview her but turned it down. When I saw her extraordinary work, I regretted that choice. She creates landscapes from plywood, almost as if she has filled The Grand Canyon with carefully carved birch wood. Some pieces could be held in our arms, others were massive. My Grandma particularly liked the work and I trust her opinion, especially given that she was impressed by contemporary art. She is an artist in her own right and her painting hangs on my bedroom wall. The Lin pieces reminded me of another artist who depicts landscapes, these being real and, according to him, manufactured ones. That's Edward Burtynsky and I interviewed him earlier this year. You can find that here. I then remembered another interviewee that inspired me—Jennifer Fox—who traversed the landscape of this world asking women about being women in Flying: Confessions of  Free Woman. Here's that interview. The idea of landscapes just leads to so much! (Oh, and what inspired this whole posting was the bottom image that I saw on one of my favorite sites.)

Fiction, Fantasy and the Power of Film

This past year, I have had the honor of interviewing some extraordinary filmmakers, all of whom navigate this fine line between fact and fiction. Maybe all filmmakers do that (now that I think about it!) but it seemed to come up over and over again. Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, NY moved me to tears (honestly). And Steve Buscemi's Interview really got under my skin. John Waters' Pink Flamingos simply shocked me. Today, I had a lovely conversation with Laurent Cantet who made The Class, a film that looks at the racially diverse, inner city classroom in Paris and the clashes that arise amongst students and with the teacher. Speaking with Cantet reminded me of the work of Frederick Wiseman, who made a cinema verité documentary called High School in the 70s. I also interviewed Frederick Wiseman early on when I still worked at WBAI. He had just made a film in Paris, so maybe everything comes together full circle.

 

 

 

 

my country my country?

Laura Poitras, a Peabody award winning filmmaker, who credits her vision to that of Frederick Wiseman and the brilliant Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, travelled to Baghdad on her own, without protection, contacts or knowledge of the language, to make a documentary about the elections there. She got inimitable access—in one scene, she is filming a black market arms deal between an Australian mercenary and a Afghani.

look more closely, or maybe just watch

The work of Sarah Bostwick is unassuming, from far you may not even be able to recognize what she is revealing. Here titles, of course, give it all away. Her work is reminiscent of Arp reliefs, of Gordon Matta-Clark, who at one point purchased all the spaces between buildings in a section of New York, or even Rachel Whiteread, who observes the surfaces of places, the edges, dents, contours, removing the interior to reveal the ever more fascinating exterior. Bostwick does much the same, reminding us of the things we miss when we think we are looking so closely.

Open me

I met this artist at a radio conference a few years ago. He had created a piece that was made up of a card catalog and every drawer would make a different sound. He had set it up in his apartment in New York, a whole wall of sound. Alan Berliner. He also made a film about his life long struggle with insomnia.