Society & Culture

Terry talks with Fresh Air's rock critic, Ken Tucker, about rock in the 80s.

Language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses choosing children's names.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead looks back on jazz in the 80s...the big figures, the big trends, the big albums, and he takes a guess as to what the 90s will bring.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan looks at the Nancy Drew mystery series. The venerable series of girls' books have been updated for the 90s.

Jazz guitarist Jim Hall. In the 50s, Hall was part of the West Coast jazz scene. Several years later he was touring South America with Ella Fitzgerald when the Bossa Nova craze hit. That music's been a lasting influence on Hall. In the 70s, Hall recorded with free-jazz player Ornette Coleman and made several albums with jazz's best bassists. In all, Hall's made more than 100 albums, his latest, with his quartet, is called "All Across The City." It's on the Concord jazz label.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Near the Magician: A Memoir of My Father, Edmund Wilson." It's a memoir of the great 20th century critic written by his daughter, Rosalind Baker Wilson.

Writer Ken Kesey. Kesey was a leading figure of the 60's counterculture. As the leader of the Merry Pranksters, Kesey did as much as anyone to popularize the use of LSD and other hallucinogens. Kesey also wrote two of the most popular books of the era, "Sometimes a Great Notion" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." In 1986, Kesey wrote "Demon Box," a look back at his life since the 60s. Kesey has a new book, called "Caverns." It's a novel he co-wrote with the 13 members of his University of Oregon fiction class.

World Music critic Milo Miles takes a look at the music of two Latin American singers who live as ex-patriots: Celia Cruz and La Lupe. And he considers how being an ex-patriot can influence a singer's work.

Commentator Leslie Savan has some thoughts on Nissan's "Infiniti" and Toyota's "Lexus" car ads.

Knitwear designer Kaffe Fassett (the first name rhymes with "safe," the last name rhymes with "basset"). He's elevated needlework from a simple craft to an art form. Fassett started out as a painter, but while working in England he visited a Scottish wool mill, and was dazzled by the colors and textures he discovered there. He's since made tapestries, clothes, chairs, and other objects, and authored several books that have influenced textile designers.

Adventurer and author Tristan Jones. Tristan Jones is almost certainly the most intrepid sailor alive. At last count he's journeyed more than 450-thousand miles in small boats. That includes 20 crossings of the Atlantic, and 3 and a half circumnavigations. Many of those miles were racked up during the course of exceedingly dangerous, some would say foolhardy, adventures. Jones tried to sail as close as possible to the North Pole, and as a result spent a year frozen in the Arctic ice pack.

Poet Michael Ryan. Ryan's poems have earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a nomination for the National Book Award. He's just released his third collection of poems, called "God Hunger."

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg takes a look at enunciation and diction.

Character actor Vincent Gardenia.

Artist-teacher Tim Rollins and his student Carlos Rivera. In collaboration with his South Bronx high-school students Rollins has created "excellent...slightly miraculous art." ("New York" Magazine). Since 1981, the group known as K.O.S. (for Kids of Survival -- mostly black and Puerto Rican students), has had showings of its work in over 50 shows. Now there's a showing of their own, "Amerika," in New York.

Poet Mark Halliday reads one of his works.

Photographer Bert Andrews. Since the early '50s, Andrews has been photographing the African-American theatre. There's now a collection of Andrews' photos, called "In The Shadow of the Great White Way: Images From the Black Theatre."

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews clarinetist John Carter's new album, "Shadows on a Wall." The album concludes Carter's 5 album musical saga of the African-American experience. Kevin says the series doesn't recreate history, but it DOES reimagine it.

Rock historian Ed Ward reacquaints us with the music of Louis Jordan. In the late 1940's he was one of the highest-grossing black acts in the country.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg examines the epitome of Americans trying to cop some highbrow British style, using the word "shall" when they mean "will."