Friends of Michael

Bookworm

KCRW

Arts

4.5 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Longtime friend and editor of Bookworm, Alan Howard, returns to host this episode, the last of 10 shows to journey through Bookworm’s 33 years and offer a retrospective look at Michael’s accomplishments on behalf of writers and readers. For decades Michael has read almost all of a writer’s work, not just the book which has been most recently published. Howard has watched writers glow as they realize that they’ve been seriously witnessed by the ultimate Bookworm. All of the writers on today’s show have become friends of Michael’s and of Bookworm. We’ll hear from rock band Sparks (brothers Ron and Russell Mael), Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, Ann Beattie, Susan Sontag, and Dennis Cooper.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.
0:04.7	Boots!
0:08.7	Where would we be without books?
0:12.5	Where would we be without Gutenberg?
0:16.2	Even the thought of it so absurd.
0:19.8	Where would we be without books? where would we be without books?
0:23.3	Where would we be without books?
0:25.4	Where would we be?
0:26.8	Where would we be without good to burn?
0:30.6	It's a rhetorical question, sir, but where would we be without books?
0:43.4	From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Sopherblatt, and this is Bookworm.
0:53.1	You've just heard something brand new, bookworm's new theme music, written and performed by the fantastic, brilliant, thrilling rock band Sparks.
0:55.8	I have Sparks here with me today.
0:59.9	I'm so excited to be talking with the legendary rockers from Sparks,
1:02.0	brothers Ron and Russell Nail.
1:06.1	Now, I'm so completely thrilled.
1:08.7	This is the dream of a lifetime.
1:14.1	For me, if George Gershwin had written a theme song for a bookworm, it couldn't be better than Sparks.
1:15.8	It came as the result of a request, and the result is a dream come true.
1:23.4	Tell me, how did you write the song?
1:26.0	Well, to be honest, Michael, it's a dream come true for us as well,
1:30.4	partly just because of our respect for your show and for you personally.
	...

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