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Paul Combs Delivers JazzWeek Award to Eric Jackson

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:11 PM +0000

Eric Jackson accepts the 2012 Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award (Annie Shreffler/WGBH)

Listen to Jackson and Combs talk about the award and Duke Dubois.

Last month at the JazzWeek Awards in Detroit, Michigan, saxophonist Paul Combs accepted the Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award on behalf of this years honoree, WGBH 89.7 Jazz host Eric Jackson. Combs visited the WGBH studios to deliver the award in person.

This prestigious lifetime achievement award is named for the late jazz radio promoter Duke Dubois, who was a pioneer in the field and a mentor to many, including Jackson himself, in the jazz radio and record business. to an individual to recognize a longstanding commitment to jazz, jazz radio, jazz education and generous service to the jazz community.

This is Jackson’s second award from JazzWeek as he was honored in 2008 as Major Market Programmer of the Year.

Combs' performs and teaches in the Boston area and has recently completed his book, Dameronia, about the influence of Jazz composer and pianist, Tadd Dameron.

Teacher of the Year Questions School Funding

Wed, 30 May 2012 17:25 PM +0000

May 31, 2012

Teacher Kathleen Turner at the WGBH studios. (Annie Shreffler/WGBH)

BOSTON — The newly appointed Massachusetts Teacher of the Year is about to spend 12 months traveling the state, making speeches and conducting workshops, in addition to teaching. And she's already voiced concern for the wide variations in funding for public schools from town to town.

Kathleen Turner teaches French at Sharon High School. She said the demographic makeup of her town is always changing.

"There are increasing numbers of students for whom English is a second language. We have students who speak Russian; we have students who speak Asian languages," she said.

Turner, who grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1994, said she'd like to see new funding models for public schools, which currently draw from local budgets.

"I think that there should be some way that property tax not be the primary source of funding for public education," she said. "What if all of the property taxes went into a main pool and then it got redistributed per pupil in the state?"

After writing essays and conducting interviews to win the state award, Turner will move on to the National Teacher of the Year Competition. Those results will be announced next spring. Turner also received a $3,000 grant for classroom initiatives and professional development.

> > EXTENDED AUDIO: Turner talks with Emily Rooney

Watch Turner's appearance on Greater Boston.

How Three Minutes Changed a Father's Life

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00 PM +0000

May 18, 2012

Author Buzz Bissinger visited the WGBH studios to talk about his new memoir, Father's Day: A Journey into the Heart and Mind of My Extraordinary Son, chronicling a road trip he took with his special-needs son, Zach. (Photo: Annie Shreffler)

BOSTON — Buzz Bissinger knew from the minute his son Zach was born, the second of twin boys to be born prematurely and weighing in at just over a pound, that he was faced with the challenge of getting to know the kind of son he never expected or wanted.

"In some ways this book is about three minutes," Bissinger said, explaining that because Zach was deprived of oxygen and suffered brain damage, his family's life was changed instantly.

It was after years of struggling and difficulty with marriage as well as how to be a father to these boys that Bissinger got the idea to take a road trip with Zach and get to know him better, one-on-one. But Bissinger is the first to admit he's not easy to travel with.

"I can be volatile. I get lost a lot," he said. Along the way he discovered that Zach's unflappable demeanor and talent for reading maps had a soothing effect and gave Bissinger the empathy he needed to find a way to talk with, and about, his son.

Bissinger's style in his memoir is to be blunt and state the whole range of emotions he experiences as a parent of a child with special needs. He feels rage and a sense of being cheated when faced with "really feeling stuck" in a situation he can't change. He decided the voice he would take on was one that could voice those frustrations that other parents might feel unable to express.

Driving across the country gave Bissinger the opportunity to ask a lot of direct questions. "My brain isn't right, I can't go to school like my brother does," Zach said to his father in answer to whether or not he knew what brain damage was. But he also told his father that the endless questions along their journey were upsetting and he couldn't answer them all. That gave Bissinger the understanding that his son was actually maturing. The trip drew them closer and helped a father understand how to accept his relationship with his son, wherever it goes next.

Watch Bissinger's interview with Emily Rooney on Greater Boston.

Kirsten Greenidge and "Luck of the Irish"

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:02 AM +0000

April 24, 2012

Playwright Kirsten Greenidge's latest play, "The Luck of the Irish", is about an upwardly mobile African American family in the 1950s that moves from inner-city Boston to a white part of town.

"Luck of the Irish"(Hungtington Theatre)

BOSTON — In the late 1950s, Lucy and Rex Taylor, a well-to-do African-American couple living in Boston’s South End, aspire to move to a nearby suburb to provide a better life for their two daughters. Unable to purchase a home in a segregated neighborhood themselves, they pay Patty Ann and Joe Donovan, a struggling Irish family to “ghost-buy” the house on their behalf and then sign over the deed. Fifty years later, Lucy’s granddaughter Hannah lives in the house with her family, where she grapples with the contemporary racial and social issues that stem from living in a primarily white community. When Lucy dies and leaves the house to Hannah and her sister Nessa, the now elderly Donovans return and ask for “their” house back.

Though the play is not autobiographical, Greenidge writes what she knows. Her grandparents moved from Boston to Arlington in the '60s. It’s an era that Greenidge captures in her play. In toggling between 1950s and the 21st century, "The Luck of the Irish" explores the timeless themes of race, class, and intergenerational conflict.

The play's director, Melia Bensussen, praises Greenidge's script. "The core, emotional truth sang to me the first time I read this play. It's so honest. There are no villains. There are no heroes. There are human beings trying to make the right choices….It's also about the struggle of being a parent. When you see Hannah in this perfect storm of race, class and modern parenting, she has a wonderful monologue, and I don't know a working mother who has seen the play and not been utterly recognized by Kirsten's writing, no matter race or class, because it outlines the emotional difficulty of what contemporary society asks of all of us. The construction of the Luck of the Irish and the complexity of all these lives revealed to us, without judgment, it's revelatory in this way," she said.

Although the plot would suggest a right and wrong, Greenidge said, "It was really important to me not to vilify anybody. You've got an African-American family and an Irish Catholic family together on stage in Boston, and you've got to do that stuff right."

NPR Hosts Visit WGBH, Play Trivia

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:31 PM +0000

April 12, 2012

NPR Hosts Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal, the dynamic duo from the weekly radio show "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" visited the WGBH studios. (WGBH/Annie Shreffler)

BOSTON — The cast from one of NPR's award-winning weekend shows, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (The NPR News Quiz) was in town this week for a live taping of their show at the Citi Performing Arts Center. The hosts of the show, Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal, paid a visit to the WGBH studios to greet public media supporters, and they sat down for a few minutes with WGBH's own All Things Considered host, Jordan Weinstein.

Weinstein subjected the pair to his own game, which he called "Stump the Boston Visitors with Our Favorite Trivia," with questions sent to him by WGBH Facebook fans. Listen to the uncut interview to find out just how well Sagal could recall Boston trivia from his days here as a Harvard student, and also learn a few fun Massachusetts facts to share at your next party. Sagal did call foul on Weinstein's question about the original name of the Boston Red Sox, claiming the first name was the Boston Pilgrims, not the Red Stockings.

(Well, Sagal, we've consulted Baseball Almanac's Bill Nowlin, and he asserts that the Pilgrim moniker never existed.)

However, it's clear that WGBH didn't have the answer quite right, either. As teams for the National and American Leagues started to establish themselves in the early 1900s, all kinds of nicknames were applied to both of Boston's baseball teams: Pilgrims, Puritans, Plymouth Rocks, Somersets, Collinsmen, Beaneaters, Triumvirs or Seleemen (after manager Frank Selee).

But the name that really stuck with the early Red Sox team, if you judge by the "BA" uniform in an old photograph Nowlin displays, was The Americans.

Thanks to the WGBH staff and supporters who contributed a trivia question for Sagal and Kasell.
Alison Cohen, Maria Daniels, Richie Downing, Carrie English, Joel Lempicki, Seth Mascolo, Michele O'Brien, Tere Ramos-Dunne, Rachel Silverman-Sommer, Mike Wood and Olivia Wong.

Re-energize with a Glass: Sam Adam's New Brew

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:11 PM +0000

April 11, 2012

Co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company, Jim Koch, shows off a pint of Sam Adams in the WGBH studios. Photo: Annie Shreffler

BOSTON — Jim Koch started Samuel Adams as a niche craft brewery in 1984, using a brewing recipe developed by his great-great-grandfather. Koch grew it into the second largest U.S. beer maker, and one of Boston's most recognizable exports.

He talked with Callie Crossley about the new beer Samuel Adams is brewing up: a "26.2 Brew" in honor of the Boston Marathon. The limited-run beer will be served at the finish line next Monday, as well as in bars along the Marathon route.

Rachel Dratch: Life after SNL

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:16 PM +0000

April 9, 2012

Rachel Dracht and Callie Crossley (Abbie Ruzicka/WGBH)

BOSTON — Lexington, Mass. native Rachel Dratch began her career in comedic acting on the mainstage at famed improv house Second City in Chicago. From there, she earned a coveted spot among comic actors: a 7-year run as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Dratch came to WGBH to talk about her new book, a midlife memoir that chronicles what happens to a comedian when the roles and gigs go away, Girl Walks into a Bar... Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle.

Although Dratch says she still has those "pinch me moments" from her time at SNL, it wasn't the ticket to endless success she might have wished for. Instead, she started to get calls to play the tough, unattractive female characters. "I wasn't getting called in to play the lipstick lesbians," Dratch says of the gnarly parts she received from the casting offices. As she tries to avoid getting typecast, however, she says she is happy about a recent pilot she acted in, where she plays "the odd friend."

What's really impacted Dratch's life in such a way that she felt it deserved its own memoir is her imminent entry into motherhood. Dratch shares many a hilarious moment about her dating life, and agrees with Callie in the end that good things show up when you're not looking for them — like a great guy who can change your life. But she hasn't lost her sympathy for women out there still wondering if they'll start a family. In fact, she kinda rushed through opening her baby shower gifts for just that reason.

There are people who like baby showers: women in their 20s, grandmas to be, people who already have babies and people who love to look at stuff. These are 'the Shower People.' There are people who hate baby showers: women in their late 30s to early 40s who think they might want kids but haven't met the right guy yet (a.k.a., me!); also, people who don't like looking at stuff and have to pass it around and say, 'Oh, it's a shirt, only it's a tiny shirt!' or 'It's pants, only they're tiny!' (a.k.a., me!). This deadly combo made me really have to steel myself to go to a baby shower.

Off the Menu with Corby Kummer

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:22 PM +0000

April 5, 2012

Corby Kummer, senior editor at The Atlantic, brought along Easter Peeps on his visit to WGBH studios.

BOSTON — Corby Kummer, senior editor at The Atlantic, recipient of five James Beard Journalism Awards and one of the most widely read, authoritative, and creative food writers in the U.S. returns to The Emily Rooney Show for another conversation about what's Off the Menu and what's on. He questions all the dust kicked-up about pink slime in your ground beef, shares his review of The Blue Room in Kendall Square and saves your Easter or Passover meal with his favorite recipe recommendations from these terrific cookbooks:

Try an Italian Panada di Milano (Rich Easter Soup); Pastiera (Neapolitan Easter Ricotta Cake); Crostata di Ricotta (Italian Cheesecake) from The Italian Baker, by Carol Field.

Ever try an Apple Cider Syllabub? Corby described this version to Emily. It comes from The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes that Made the Modern Cookbook, by Anne Willan.

Apple Cider Syllabub
2 c (500 ml) demi-sec hard cider
1/2 c (100 g) sugar, more to taste
2 c (500 ml) heavy cream

In a bowl, whisk together the cider and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Warm the cream to room temperature, testing it with your finger, then transfer it to a pitcher. Gradually whisk the warm cream into the citder, a few spoonfuls at a time, pouring it from a height of at least 6 inches (15 cm). When all the cream has been added, continue whisking for 1 minute. (You can also use an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.) Taste and adjust the sugar.
Spoon the mixture into 8 syllabub glasses, cover loosely, and leave in a cool place. It will soon start to separate into a layer of cider punch topped with creamy mousse, two treats in one. Syllabub can be kept for a day or two in the refrigerator and the flavor will mellow. Serve it cool, or chilled.

To get you up and in the kitchen, here is one of his favorite recipes from The Brisket Book: A Love Story with Recipes, by Stephanie Pierson.

Nach Waxman's Brisket of Beef

1 (6-pound) first-cut beef brisket, trimmed so that a thin layer of fat remains
All-purpose flour, for dusting
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons corn oil
8 medium onions, peeled and thickly sliced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
Kosher salt
2 to 4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
1 carrot, peeled and trimmed

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Lightly dust the brisket with flour, then sprinkle with pepper to taste. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large ovenproof enameled cast-iron pot or other heavy pot with a lid just large enough to hold the brisket snugly. Add the brisket to the pot and brown on both sides until crusty brown areas appear on the surface here and there, 5 to 7 minutes per side. Transfer the brisket to a platter, turn up the heat a bit, then add the onions to the pot and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Cook until the onions have softened and developed a rich brown color but aren't yet caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and place the brisket and any accumulated juices on top of the onions.
Spread the tomato paste over the brisket as if you were icing a cake. Sprinkle with salt and more pepper to taste, then add the garlic and carrot to the pot. Cover the pot, transfer to the oven, and cook the brisket for 1 1/2 hours.

Transfer the brisket to a cutting board and, using a very sharp knife, slice the meat across the grain into approximately 1/8-inch-thick slices. Return the slices to the pot, overlapping them at an angle so that you can see a bit of the top edge of each slice. The end result should resemble the original unsliced brisket leaning slightly backward. Check the seasonings and, if absolutely necessary, add 2 to 3 teaspoons of water to the pot.

Cover the pot and return to the oven. Lower the heat to 325°F and cook the brisket until it is fork-tender, about 2 hours. Check once or twice during cooking to make sure that the liquid is not bubbling away. If it is, add a few more teaspoons of water—but not more. Also, each time you check, spoon some of the liquid on top of the roast so that it drips down between the slices.

It is ready to serve with its juices, but, in fact, it's even better the second day.

Yul Kwon Visits WGBH

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:05 PM +0000

April 3, 2012

Yul Kwon, host of the PBS series America Revealed. (Photo: Annie Shreffler)

BOSTON — He's known for his good looks and his survival skills, and now he'll help us understand what's behind the complex systems that keep our high-tech society functioning. He's Yul Kwon, and he stopped in at WGBH studios to talk about his upcoming show, the PBS series America Revealed. (Premiering on WGBH 2 on Wednesday, April 11 at 10pm.)

Kwon made his mark in television when he won on the 13th season of Survivor in 2006, and People Magazine named him "Sexiest Man Alive" that same year. Now Kwon will put his Stanford degree in Symbolic Systems to use, showing viewers the details behind systems we never consider, like how fruit gets from California to Maine, or how we keep thousands of active flights organized in the air at any given time, or perhaps how our electricity delivery system keeps 300 thousand Americans enlightened.

Why PBS and why now? Kwon told Emily Rooney, "I grew up watching PBS. My parents emigrated to this country from South Korea without any money, and they couldn't afford to put me or my brother into preschool. The way that we learned English and saw a better life for ourselves was by watching programs like The Electric Company and Sesame Street and later on, Nature and NOVA. I've always felt that public media is one of the most valuable resources that this country has, especially for people who don't have a lot of means. [Hosting America Revealed] was an opportunity for me to give back and introduce PBS to a whole new generation of viewers."

Watch Kwon's conversation with Emily Rooney on "Greater Boston."

W-G-B-H Staff Show Off Speller Skillz

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:56 AM +0000

March 20, 2012

A total of 18 teams signed up for WGBH's first spelling bee. (Photos by Annie Shreffler)

BOSTON — The lobby of WGBH's Brighton studios filled to capacity last week as staff came out in droves to see their colleagues show off some pretty great speller skills in the first WGBH Spelling Bee.

Organizers of the Bee, searching for top spellers to represent WGBH at the First Literacy 23rd Corporate Spelling Bee in May, were pleasantly surprised at the number of Bee enthusiasts who work among them. A total of 18 teams entered the contest, representing WGBH productions (Frontline's The Bee-Line, American Experience's Could You Use That in a Sentence), broadcast services (Spellenium Falcons from 89.7 WGBH Radio), and business departments (The Libarians from the WGBH Media Library and Archives, The Bees Neese from WGBH's National Marketing team).

Hosting the WGBH Bee was Mike Wood. By day, he's part of the team that promotes such WGBH-produced children's series as Arthur, Curious George, and Martha Speaks. Wood operates his own trivia company, Egghead Team Trivia, by night, and also performs stand-up comedy around the Boston area.

Skye Morrison Kramer, CEO of First Literacy, an organization dedicated to helping more adults develop reading and communication skills, joined WGBH employees in the audience, checking off the words that her staff had provided. Kramer called the First Literacy Corporate Spelling Bee "one of the better kept secrets in Boston": It's the biggest fundraiser her organization holds each year, and she hopes to expand its reach and surpass their $300,000 goal this year.

During the WGBH Bee, teams fell to tough words: yapok, hyssop, bowdlerize. In the end, the trophy went to the Foundation De-SPELL-opment team—Christian Gay, Linda Harrar, and Jesse Hergert, all from WGBH's Foundation Development group—with the word contumelious, but thankfully they did not "behave in a scornful or insulting manner" toward their competitors.

The winning team now goes on to represent WGBH in the First Literacy Bee on May 3rd in downtown Boston. They will face tough challengers from Houghton Mifflin, The Cabot Corporation, newcomers The United Way, and others, but their ultimate goal is to capture the title from last year's winners, Eaton Vance Investment Managers.

See more photos from the event: