David Greenberger | |
---|---|
Born | Chicago, U.S. | June 26, 1954
Occupation | Artist, Writer, critic |
Period | 1979–present |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Subject | Aging |
Notable works | Duplex Planet |
Website | |
www |
David Greenberger (born June 26, 1954) is an American artist, writer and radio commentator best known for his Duplex Planet series of zines, comic books, CDs, and spoken word performances and radio plays. From 1996 to 2009, he was a frequent contributor of essays and music reviews for National Public Radio.
Greenberger grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania on the shores of Lake Erie. [1]
In 1979, having just completed a degree in fine arts as a painter, Greenberger took a job as activities director at a nursing home in Boston. On his first day, he met the residents of the nursing home and abandoned painting in favor of conversation. "This is my art," he said. In this unexpected setting, Greenberger found an unusual medium and a desire to portray the people he met as living human beings instead of "just repositories of their memories or the wisdom of the ages." [2] Instead of collecting oral history about significant events, Greenberger focused on talking one-on-one with ordinary people about ordinary things—the joy of a close shave [3] or answers to "Can you fight city hall?". [4]
Greenberger began publishing his conversations with old people in The Duplex Planet, a small, homemade magazine he started in 1979, and continued for 187 issues, concluding in 2010. It has subsequently found larger audiences in other forms, which are all derived from the original template. A series of personal commentaries drawn from Greenberger's experiences with this body of work has aired regularly on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered". Since the mid-90s he has created some 500 audio works of monologues and music with a variety of collaborators (including members of Los Lobos, NRBQ, Robyn Hitchcock, and Wreckless Eric). These have been released on some 20+ CDs. Greenberger was the subject of a segment in 2007's "Life Part 2: Language of Aging", part of a PBS series on aging and his performance of "Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time" with an ensemble led by Paul Cebar at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater was broadcast on PBS stations. His work has been the subject of three documentaries, "Lighthearted Nation" ( dir. Jim McKay, C-hundred Film Corp, 1989), "Your Own True Self" (dir. Paul Athanas & Jay Rooney, Gravita International Films, 1992), and "A King in Milwaukee" (dir. Nicole Docta, UWM Center on Age & Community, 2009), as well as being adapted into the short film by David Kagen, "Whitewash." He gave a TEDx talk titled "A Quarter Million Forgotten Conversations" in 2010 about his recorded work.
Greenberger returned to visual art in 2006, producing several thousand drawings that have been shown and sell regularly. In 1979 he was a founding member, bass player, and lyricist of the band Men & Volts who went on to record five albums over the course of the 1980s. He is also co-writer of some 50+ songs with Chandler Travis as recorded by his various bands from 1985 onwards (The incredible Casuals, Chandler Travis Philharmonic, Catbirds).
A radio dramatization of the original Star Wars film trilogy was produced in 1981, 1983, and 1996. The first two radio series, based on Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, were produced and broadcast by National Public Radio (NPR) as part of NPR Playhouse. A dramatization of Return of the Jedi was produced by most of the same team and it was also broadcast on NPR.
Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon. The show premiered on November 5, 1979; its weekend counterpart is Weekend Edition. Morning Edition and All Things Considered are among the highest rated public radio shows.
Ralph Carney was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer. While his primary instruments were various saxophones and clarinets, Carney also collected and played many instruments, often unusual or obscure ones.
All Things Considered (ATC) is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United States, and worldwide through several different outlets, formerly including the NPR Berlin station in Germany. All Things Considered and Morning Edition were the highest rated public radio programs in the United States in 2002 and 2005. The show combines news, analysis, commentary, interviews, and special features, and its segments vary in length and style. ATC airs weekdays from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (live) or Pacific Time or from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central Time. A weekend version of ATC, Weekend All Things Considered, airs on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award honors excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in journalism. The awards were established in 1942 and administered until 1967 by Washington and Lee University's O. W. Riegel, Curator and Head of the Department of Journalism and Communications. Since 1968 they have been administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, and are considered by some to be the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another program administered by Columbia University.
Terry Gross is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NPR in 1975, Gross has interviewed thousands of guests.
Paul Edward Begala is an American political consultant and political commentator, best known as the former advisor to President Bill Clinton.
Stanley Louis Cavell was an American philosopher. He was the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. He worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, and ordinary language philosophy. As an interpreter, he produced influential works on Wittgenstein, Austin, Emerson, Thoreau, and Heidegger. His work is characterized by its conversational tone and frequent literary references.
Erik Lindgren is an American composer and pianist. He runs Arf! Arf! Records, and has led or been a member of several ensembles such as The Space Negros and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.
Will Durst is an American political satirist. He has been likened to Mort Sahl and Will Rogers.
John Ridley IV is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the anthology series American Crime. In 2017 he directed the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.
Michael Marcus Hearst is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer. He is best known for his solo albums Songs For Ice Cream Trucks, Songs For Unusual Creatures, Songs For Fearful Flyers, Songs For Unconventional Vehicles and Songs For Extraordinary People, as well as the children's books Unusual Creatures, Extraordinary People, Curious Constructions and Unconventional Vehicles. He has composed the music for a number of films including The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, Chicken People, To Be Takei, Magic Camp, and House of Suh. In 2014, he co-produced and co-directed Unusual Creatures, a ten episode series for PBS Digital Studios. Hearst is also a founding member of the eclectic musical group One Ring Zero.
The Duplex Planet is a zine edited and published by David Greenberger since 1979. It contains transcriptions of his interviews with elderly residents of senior centers and "meal sites" in the Massachusetts area. For many years, the zine focused on the residents of the Duplex Nursing Home, located in Boston.
Paul Cebar is an American songwriter, singer, guitarist and bandleader from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who plays African, Latin American and Caribbean music. He has released four albums and an EP with his band, Paul Cebar & the Milwaukeeans, which have received airplay from adult album alternative stations across the US, album with all his bands, including the latest incarnation Paul Cebar and Tomorrow Sound, and a solo album.
Downloading the Repertoire is a 1996 novelty album by American singer John "Jack" Mudurian.
David Folkenflik is an American reporter based in New York City and serving as media correspondent for National Public Radio. He was also one of the hosts of NPR & WBUR's On Point. His work primarily appears on the NPR news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He also appeared regularly on the "Media Circus" segment on the former Talk of the Nation.
David Shenk is an American writer, lecturer, and songwriter. He is author of six books, including The Genius in All of Us (2010), Data Smog (1997), The Forgetting (2001), and The Immortal Game (2006), and has contributed to National Geographic, Slate, The New York Times, Gourmet, Harper's, Wired, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, The American Scholar, NPR and PBS. In mid-2009, he joined TheAtlantic.com as a correspondent. He is a 1988 graduate of Brown University.
Guy Raz is a podcast host and creator. His shows include How I Built This, The Great Creators, Wow in the World, Wisdom from the Top, and several others. He has been described by The New York Times as "one of the most popular podcasters in history" and his podcasts have a combined monthly audience of 19.2 million downloads.
Tamara Dawnell Keith is an American journalist. She is the White House correspondent for NPR and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast with Scott Detrow. She regularly appears on the PBS NewsHour weekly segment "Politics Monday". Keith is on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association, of which she is also the president.
Peter Chandler Travis is an American musician, songwriter, producer and owner of Iddy Biddy record label. Travis plays many unique styles of music sometimes labeled as an "alternative Dixieland," though it is difficult to classify into genres. His career began with the comedic songwriting duo started with Steve Shook, Travis Shook and the Club Wow, which worked closely with top comedians of the time like George Carlin and Martin Mull. Travis co-founded Sonic Trout Records with Chris Blood and later created his own record company, Iddy Biddy. He has toured across America, Europe and Japan, and has developed a Japanese fan-base leading to several of Travis' albums being released on Japanese labels.