Meryl Frank: Politician, Diplomat, Author
MERYL FRANK is an American politician, non-profit executive, diplomat, and author. In 2023, Hachette Books published Frank’s memoir of searching for the history of her family lost in the Holocaust, “Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust.”
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Author Joel F. Johnson: Tales of the South
JOEL F. JOHNSON is the author of the novel “Never” (Arbitrary Press, 2023), a coming-of-age story in the segregated South, and “Where Inches Seem Miles,” a collection of poetry.
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INTRODUCTION: What’s Your Favorite Movie?
In 2019, we asked composer Orlando Garcia to name his favorite movie. We said to Orlando, “Obviously, it’s impossible to name one favorite movie, but if you are channel-surfing and you see a listing for a film that you have seen many times before, which film would you dive into no matter which part of the movie, because you know most of the dialogue and remember all of the plot. Or to put it another way, if you were on a desert island and could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, which movie would it be?”
We have continued to ask this “favorite movie” question during our video conversations ever since, because the answers are always interesting. Click on “Read More” to see the movies that our ArtSpeak interviewees selected.
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Movie Review: “The Paper” — Michael Who?
“The Paper,” a 1994 product directed by Ron Howard, is about styles of journalism and its responsibilities. Keaton plays Henry Hackett, an editor at The Sun, a New York City daily tabloid. Think Daily News or Daily Mirror, famous for their dazzling headlines and tantalizing leads. Having taught journalists to write fiction for thirty years, I’ve come to realize that journalism is not just a job you go to every weekday, but is a calling, with deeper imperatives than money or status. Young reporters are routinely underpaid and overworked which suggests that “truth” matters to them ahead of any other consideration — money, status, glamorous partners, gold watches or vacations in Tahiti.
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Michael Eckroth: A Musician of Many Genres
“I’m a pianist, keyboardist, arranger and composer working in the genres of jazz, Latin jazz, Cuban, Brazilian, and various American popular styles.” — MICHAEL ECKROTH
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