Stuart Kaminsky's irascible Soviet detective Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov travels to Siberia to find a murderer in a village full of exiles and incompetents.
Music: String Quartet No. 1, Op 7, by Bela Bartok, performed by the Borromeo String Quartet.
Alan surveys that American celluloid genre called "film noir": sinister, evocative, and doom-laden, both in style and content.
Image: "The Photographer," by Joaquim Alves Gaspar
Mr. Neutron explores the dark underbelly of mainstream popular music in the form of Portland's three-sister-act, "Joseph"
The Lone Reader takes aim at Joshua Hunt's scalding critique of the massive influence that the sports apparel manufacturer Nike wields over the University of Oregon and its football program.
The Treatment tips into the recent dark successors of films like "The Maltese Falcon," "Touch of Evil," "Chinatown," and "Reservoir Dogs":
"Bad Times at the El Royale," and "Under the Silver Lake."
Everett Public Library’s latest podcast explores the Great Book Scare of the early 20th century and how libraries coped with it, particularly here in Everett. The seven-minute-long audio podcast is part of the Smokestacks Soundbites series of local-history podcasts.
Credits:
Voice actors:
Van Ramsey
Cameron Johnson
Script: Cameron Johnson
Audio editing and engineering: Cameron Johnson
Music:
“Klincek Stojo Pod Oblokom” — Tomo Sombolac
“String Quartet N. 14, Op. 131” (Beethoven, Ludwig van)
Cited works:
Nice, L.B. “The Disinfection of Books,” c1911
“Suggestions For Disinfection,” Wisconsin Library Bulletin, April 1906.
“Public Library Is A Popular Institution,” Everett Herald, 7 April 1906.
Sound effects from Freesound.org
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From punk to country, from old-timey, to sugar-coated power pop, Mr. Neutron scales the best of 2019.
Jonathan White's description of and homage to the mysterious phenomena we call tides.
Music: Francesco Iannuzzelli, "Tarantellamodale"
A new Everett Public Library (WA) audio podcast brings to life the early history of Everett Public Library, in which a small group of determined Everett women parlayed political muscle and donated books into an enduring civic institution. The podcast is part of the City’s observance of the 125th anniversary of the library’s birth.
21 min.
Voice actors: Abigail Cooley, Van Ramsey, Mindy Van Wingen, Ron Averill, Lisa Labovitch, Andrea Wallis, Carol Ellison, Eileen Schnarr, Alan Jacobson, Joyce Peter, Laura McCarty, Cameron Johnson.
Script: Cameron Johnson
Audio editing: Cameron Johnson
Excerpts:
1Clark, Norman H. Mill Town. Seattle: University of Washington Press, c1970.
2Everett News, July 5, 1894
3 Croly, Mrs. J.C. The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America, New York: Henry G. Allen & Co., c1898
4 Dilgard, David. “Origins of the Everett Public Library” [unpublished]
5Book Club Member Frances King Sears, 1921 letter [unpublished]
6 “Woman’s Book Club,” composed by WBC Historian Nellie R. Hake. Published in A History of Woman’s Book Club, November 12, 1962. Foremothers’ Luncheon, Elks Home—Everett, WA [Unpublished]
7From: “The Magic City,” date unknown, author unknown. [Unpublished]
8Spriesterbach, Cora. History of Everett Woman’s Book Club: 1894-1940 [Unpublished]
9Everett Public Library Historical Sketch, 1894-1954 [Unpublished]
10Herald editorial November 1, 1894
11 Spriesterbach, Cora. History of Everett Woman’s Book Club: 1894-1940 [Unpublished]
12Origins of the Everett Public Library—date unknown [Unpublished]
13Everett—Thumbnail History. HistoryLink.org
14Origins of the Everett Public Library [Unpublished]
15Herald April 27, 1901
16 “The Origins of Everett Public Library.” [Unpublished]
17Everett News, July 5, 1925
18 Everett Herald January 20, 1903
19Spriesterbach, Cora. History of Everett Woman’s Book Club: 1894-1940 [Unpublished]
20Application for National Register status [Unpublished]
21 Everett Herald April 7, 1906
22Dilgard, David. EPL Evergreen Branch [Unpublished]
Music:
Bach, Johan Sebastian. Cello Suite No. 1 in G. John Michel.
Beethoven, Ludwig van. “Choral Fantasia, op. 80”, Washtenaw Community Orchestra Chorus, Michigan, 20 December 2009.
Barnacled, Cloud Pump.
edba-4217
Killian, Joy and Richard Beserra, Exotic Music from Enchanted Lands.”
Pianodamper. Schubert, Franz, “Piano Sonata #13.” STE-043-cut-reverb. Internet archive.
Sound effects from freesound.org:
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Alan reviews this gorgeously-rendered 2017 Todd Haynes film, which received a three-minute-long standing ovation when it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
Mr. Neutron is beguiled by the many flavors of Pacific Northwest pop music, as it infectiously invades his brain and heart with a mishmash of resplendent gravity and joy.
The Lone Reader takes aim at Henry Ford's incredible and futile effort to farm rubber trees and bring Midwestern small-town life to the Amazon jungle. A story of technological hubris and cultural arrogance, it's "Fordlandia," by Greg Grandin.
Music: "Tango," by Mischa Elman, Josef Bonime, I. Albeniz, Elman
A sweet love story set in 1970s Harlem. "Beale Street" features a hypnotically poetic environment, gorgeous cinematography, haunting music, exacting screenplay and incredible performances.
Alan Jacobson supplies "The Treatment".
Mr. Neutron searches his record closet for twang and bonyfidy country western stars from the Pacific Northwest.
Mr. Neutron is Ron Averill of Everett Public Library (WA)
Frank Herbert's "Dune": Interstellar intrigue! Psychedelic mind trips, swordplay, and a righteous triumph! It's time to re-read the most enduringly popular science fiction book in history.
Music: "Music for String Instruments, Percussion, and Celesta." Bela Bartok. Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, Harold Byrns, conductor. Recorded 1949.
Alan gives "the treatment" to Hiromasa Yonebyashi's anime masterwork, a worthy successor to such masterpieces as "Princess Mononoke," and "Spirited Away."
Jug band, hokum, whatever you call it, the Pacific Northwest has it.
Cameron Johnson is the Lone Reader. Kranz's book is the inside story of the geek squad that made the space program possible: Mission Control.
Music: "Beats," by Crooked Vision.
Alan pays homage to a film that "transcends the superhero genre to emerge as an epic of operatic proportions."
Mr. Neutron's panegyric to the varieties of current Pacific Northwest Punk.
The Lone Reader holds forth on David Buerge's magisterial take on the life and significance of Chief Seattle.
Music: Wind Quintet op. 43, by Carl Nielsen, performed by James Galway and the Carion Quintet.
Alan gives The Treatment to Kathryn Bigelow's riveting depiction of Detroit's 12th Street Riot of 1967.
Mr. Neutron pontificates on the profusion of fine surf bands in the Pacific Northwest
The Lone Reader talks about Dr. Coll Thrush's book Native Seattle, which credits native peoples' contributions to early Seattle. The book's second edition was published in 2017.
Music is "Klincek stojo pod oblokom," by Tomo Sombolac.
Alan Jacobson's Treatment of Bill and Turner Ross's 2012 film Tchoupitoulas, an immersive documentary about three teenaged brothers rambling on New Orleans' Tchoupitoulas Street at night. It's an impressionist travelogue, a hybrid of dream and documentary, a rite of passage.