This reading by Amy Ryan of N.M. Kelby’s “Jubilation, Florida,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Love Songs?” hosted by Robert Sean Leonard.
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Jubilation, Florida
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I Love Girl
This reading by Michael Ian Black of Simon Rich’s “I Love Girl,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Love Songs?” hosted by Robert Sean Leonard.
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When We Lived Together In the Belly of a Whale
This reading by BD Wong of Mara McCormick Sternberg’s “When We Lived Together In the Belly of a Whale, Some Nights Were Perfect,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Love Songs?” hosted by Robert Sean Leonard.
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Love Songs and Other Promises
Guest host Robert Sean Leonard presents a program of stories about finding love in unexpected places.
First, from the fertile brain of Simon Rich, cave boy meets cave girl in “I Love Girl,” in which Cro-Magnon suitors via for the same woman. The reader is Michael Ian Black, a writer, comedian, and actor who has created and starred in many television series, including “Stella” and “The State.”
Next, if Jonah had started a commune, it might have the same strange quality as the world of “When We Lived Together in the Belly of a Whale, Some Nights Were Perfect,” by Mara McCormick Sternberg, which was the winning entry in SELECTED SHORTS’ 2013 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize competition. It is read by Tony Award-winning actor BD Wong.
Our last work on this program of stories about finding love when and where you least expect it is N.M Kelby’s “Jubilation, Florida.” These lovers are gently used, a little cynical, and married to other people, but at least for one night, they seem to be destined for each other. Amy Ryan performed “Jubilation, Florida” at the Boston University Theatre in Boston. The story was original published in One Story magazine. Kelby (Nicole Mary Kelby) is also the author of the novels In the Company of Angels, White Truffles in Winter, and The Pink Suit.
“I Love Girl,” by Simon Rich; performed by Michael Ian Black
“When We Lived Together In the Belly of a Whale, Some Nights Were Perfect,” by Mara McCormick Sternberg, performed by BD Wong
“Jubilation, Florida,” by N.M Kelby, performed by Amy Ryan
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
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Fear and Loathing with Hunter S. Thompson
Guest host Stephen Colbert celebrates a classic by Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson was the original bad boy of journalism, creating in the 1960s an entirely new style of reporting called “gonzo” that threw out traditional standards of journalistic objectivity. Instead, Thompson became a leading character in his stories, and influenced a generation of writers. He contributed regularly to Rolling Stone, among other magazines, and his other books include Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Hells Angels, and Rum Diary.
Stephen Colbert says he first read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when he was in his 20s: “I was immediately struck by the constant torrent of ideas on every page, the creative destruction and fluid chaos of the experiences that Thompson was pouring out at the reader.”
We hear three chapters from this 1972 book, which began as an assignment from Sports Illustrated to cover a high-profile motorcycle race, and winds up being what Thompson called, in the subtitle of the eventual book, “a savage journey to the heart of the American dream.” His manic cross-country road trip, fuelled by drugs, tequila, and other people’s money, turns into a kind of metaphor of American excess.
In between readings by Alec Baldwin, Anthony Rapp, and Michael Imperioli, we hear about Thompson’s legacy from friends and literary heirs. Terry McDonell, who interviewed Thompson for The Paris Review, said Thompson’s aim was to be more interesting to his subjects than they were to him, and talks about their long friendship—a wild man who was somehow never scary. Chuck Klosterman, whose style in Killing Yourself to Live was compared to Thompson’s, says it’s impossible to really write like Thompson without living on the edge, and few people can. Fear and Loathing could never be published today, he says, in the age of fact checking and the Internet, but somehow Thompson’s fabrications and hyperbole, seem essentially, if not actually, true to his times.
Matt Taibbi, a contributing editor to Rolling Stone, talks about how Thompson’s essential honesty—warts and all—exposed other people’s hypocrisy.
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Part One, Chapter 1,” by Hunter S. Thompson; performed by Alec Baldwin
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Part One, Chapter 3,” by Hunter S. Thompson; performed by Anthony Rapp
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Part One, Chapter 10,” by Hunter S. Thompson; performed by Michael Imperioli
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Chapter 10
This reading by Michael Imperioli from Chapter 10 of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Bad Boy: Celebrating Hunter S. Thompson” hosted by Stephen Colbert.
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Chapter 3
This reading by Anthony Rapp from Chapter 3 of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Bad Boy: Celebrating Hunter S. Thompson” hosted by Stephen Colbert.
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Chapter 1
This reading by Alec Baldwin from Chapter 1 of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Bad Boy: Celebrating Hunter S. Thompson” hosted by Stephen Colbert.
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Ho, Ho, Huh? Selected Shorts for Christmas
Guest host Jane Kaczmarek presents four Christmas-themed works to bring you comfort, joy, and a little sass.
Our first two stories present very different family Christmases. First, one of our favorite pieces, Ron Carlson’s “The H Street Sledding Record.” Carlson now lives and teaches in California, at UC Irvine, but for a time he did this in Salt Lake City, Utah, his hometown, and that’s where this charming and funny piece is set. It begins with a young father throwing horse dung on his roof on Christmas Eve, to simulate the landing of reindeer, and ends, as is fitting at Christmas, with a promise. Ron Carlson’s story collections include News of the World, Plan B for the Middle Class and A Kind of Flying. His most recent novel is The Signal.
Reader Keith Szarabajka is best known for his role as Mickey Kostmayer in the television series “The Equalizer,” among many other appearances. His films include “The Dark Knight” and “Argo.” He also lends his deep voice to many action-packed video games. But here, he is the perfect dad, in Ron Carlson’s “The H Street Sledding Record.”
Next, Frank O’Connor’s “Christmas Morning” gives us a richly detailed picture of a family in turn-of-the-century Ireland, but this family’s Christmas is overshadowed by poverty. It’s a touching portrait of a mother’s attempt to make things perfect for her young sons one day of the year, and a coming-of-age story told through the eyes of one of them. The story first appeared in the New Yorker magazine, and was later anthologized in the celebratory volume Christmas At The New Yorker.
Reader Malachy McCourt knows this landscape well—it’s the same emotional world that informs his memoirs A Monk Swimming and Singing My Him Song, and his late brother Frank’s bestselling Angela’s Ashes.
Next, a whimsical comedy from a different era, George Shepard’s “Occurrence on the Six-Seventeen,” also from Christmas At The New Yorker. When we think of Christmas miracles they are usually either exalted—the birth of Christ—or sentimental, as in the classic movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” in which a department-store Santa turns out to be the real deal. But in this story, published in 1939, Shepard imagines a smaller miracle: sober, self-absorbed commuters, “with necks that know exactly how long they must be pressed against the seat back”, briefly unite in Christmas joie de vivre.
Tony Roberts, who reads this story, is a long-time Broadway star and featured player in many Woody Allen films. He also guest starred as Ebenezer Scrooge in New York Public Radio’s live performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 2013.
And speaking of “Bah, Humbug!”, humorist Calvin Trillin is dreaming of the perfect Christmas—anywhere but here. His witty ditty “Christmas in Qatar” bemoans meaningless gifts, underdone feasts, and appalling relations. Enjoy.
“The H Street Sledding Record,” by Ron Carlson, performed by Keith Szarabajka
“Christmas Morning,” by Frank O’Connor, performed by Malachy McCourt
“Occurrence on the Six-Seventeen,” George Shepard, performed by Tony Roberts
“Christmas in Qatar” (poem), by Calvin Trillin, performed by Calvin Trillin
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
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The H Street Sledding Record
This reading by Keith Szarabajka of Ron Carlson’s “The H Street Sledding Record” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Ho, Ho, Huh? Selected Shorts for Christmas” hosted by Jane Kaczmarek.
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Christmas Morning
This reading by Malachy McCourt of Frank O’Connor’s “Christmas Morning” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Ho, Ho, Huh? Selected Shorts for Christmas” hosted by Jane Kaczmarek.
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Occurrence on the Six-Seventeen
This reading by Tony Roberts of George Shepard’s “Occurrence on the Six-Seventeen” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Ho, Ho, Huh? Selected Shorts for Christmas” hosted by Jane Kaczmarek.
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Christmas in Qatar
This reading by Calvin Trillin of his poem “Christmas in Qatar” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Ho, Ho, Huh? Selected Shorts for Christmas” hosted by Jane Kaczmarek.
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James Joyce's "The Dead" Part 1: Family and Friends
This reading by Cynthia Nixon of James Joyce’s “The Dead” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Family and Friends: James Joyce’s “The Dead” Part 1, hosted by Cynthia Nixon.
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Family and Friends: James Joyce's "The Dead" Part 1
Cynthia Nixon presents the first of two programs devoted to a reading of James Joyce’s memorable story, “The Dead.”
“The Dead” takes place at a New Year’s dinner-dance in Dublin in 1904. It is filled with colorful characters, wonderful period detail, and is both humorous and poignant.
The hostesses of the annual dinner are the Misses Kate and Julia Morkan, the elderly aunts of the story’s central character, Gabriel Conroy. In this first part of the story, the Morkan’s house is filling up with family and friends, dancing is under way, and Gabriel is looking forward to carving the goose, but not to giving an after-dinner speech.
“The Dead,” is the final work in Joyce’s famous collection of short stories, Dubliners, which depicts the lives of different people living in and around Dublin, Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. The book was published 100 years ago this year, and Cynthia Nixon read the first part of “The Dead” at an evening at Symphony Space celebrating the anniversary.
“The Dead,” by James Joyce, Part 1. Performed by Cynthia Nixon.
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
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James Joyce's "The Dead" Part 1: Family and Friends, Continued
This reading by Cynthia Nixon of James Joyce’s “The Dead” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Family and Friends: James Joyce’s “The Dead” Part 1, hosted by Cynthia Nixon.
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The Persistence of Memory: James Joyce's "The Dead" Part 2
Cynthia Nixon presents the second of two programs devoted to a reading of James Joyce’s memorable story, “The Dead.”
“The Dead” takes place at a New Year’s dinner-dance in Dublin in 1904. It is filled with colorful characters, wonderful period detail, and is both humorous and poignant.
The hostesses of the annual dinner are the Misses Kate and Julia Morkan, the elderly aunts of the story’s central character, Gabriel Conroy. In this second part of the story, Gabriel pays tribute to his aunts and the tradition of Irish hospitality at the end of the feast, and the departure of the guests involves much confusion and humorous anecdotes. Once they are gone, Gabriel longs to be alone with his wife Gretta, and to rekindle their relationship. For her, a song overheard reawakens old and painful memories.
“The Dead,” is the final work in Joyce’s famous collection of short stories, "Dubliners," which depicts the lives of different people living in and around Dublin, Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. The book marked its 100th anniversary in 2014, and was celebrated at an evening at Symphony Space. Cynthia Nixon is the first reader, and the story’s conclusion is read by Colum McCann, the award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin and Transatlantic.
“The Dead,” by James Joyce, Part 2. Performed by Cynthia Nixon and Colum McCann.
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
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James Joyce's "The Dead" Part 2: The Persistence of Memory
This reading by Cynthia Nixon of James Joyce’s “The Dead” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “The Persistence of Memory: James Joyce’s “The Dead” Part 2, hosted by Cynthia Nixon.
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James Joyce's "The Dead" Part 2: The Persistence of Memory, Continued
This reading by Colum McCann of James Joyce’s “The Dead” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “The Persistence of Memory: James Joyce’s “The Dead” Part 2, hosted by Cynthia Nixon.
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Partners
This reading by Michael Cerveris, Patricia Kalember, and Isaiah Sheffer of Veronica Geng’s “Partners” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Family Ties” hosted by David Sedaris.
Wacky wedding announcements↧