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Here's a recommendation that you see the feature film "The Soloist," which opened nationwide over the weekend. It's a story of the power of music and the importance of friendship, based on the 2008 book of the same name by L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez.
What you may not know is that Nathaniel Ayers, the "soloist" and brilliant musician beset by mental illness, was a classmate of Yo-Yo Ma (Bryan Series, Oct. 26) at Julliard. Lopez learned this in conversation with Ayers on the streets of Los Angeles.
Lopez described a meeting between Ayers and Ma when he appeared on the Tavis Smiley's PBS talk show in April 2008:
Lopez: One day I go to see Nathaniel and he has -- he's wearing a shirt and on it he has written "Yo-Yo Ma" and the date of a concert at Disney Hall.
And I said, "What's that?" And he said, "Yo-Yo Ma is coming to town." And I said, "Well, that's great." And he said, "Yeah, can you get tickets?" And I said, "Well, sure, we can just call our friends at the L.A. Phil. You're a VIP there; of course we can go." (Laughter) And he says, "Well, I want to see him, that's my old classmate." And I did not know that he had been at Juilliard with Yo-Yo Ma.
Smiley: With Yo-Yo Ma.
Lopez: And they had been briefly in the same orchestra. So he was very excited and he got dressed up and he was very concerned about how he looked and patting his hair down in the mirror. And we go up there and he sees the performance and he's just awestruck.
So we're here at Disney Hall and we see the performance, and later we go backstage. And here's this meeting, and before Yo-Yo Ma comes in, Nathaniel's nervous. He's on his toes, he's looking in the mirror, he's not sure what he's going to say.
Yo-Yo Ma walks into the room and is so gracious, it was unbelievable. And looks over at him and had read the columns and knew the story. Goes over, shakes his hand, puts his arms around him and said, "We're brothers. We are brothers in music. I really appreciate anybody who loves music as much as you do, and we are brothers." And Nathaniel just didn't even know what to say.
And Yo-Yo Ma then hands him his cello and says, "I've got to go out and meet some other people. Why don't you give it a try?"
Read the transcript of the Tavis Smiley show interview here.
Read Lopez's October 2005 L.A. Times column about a visit by Ayers to Disney Hall here.
Past and present Bryan Series speakers Doris Kearns Goodwin and David Gregory and series "person of interest" Jon Meacham discussed President Obama's first 100 days on "Meet the Press" April 26.
The trio discussed the topic during the final segment of Sunday's program and continued the conversation online in the Take Two Web extra segment. (Beware that a commercial may precede the video).
Goodwin said, of Obama, "I think we've learned a lot about his leadership. We've learned that he's a man who is enjoying the job of being president, which is really important."
Meacham said, "He's ... running a countercultural presidency. In ... a world run by news cycles that move so fast, stories burn so brightly, he's saying, no, that we will be -- he quoted St. Paul in his inaugural address, to use another one, 'Be patient in tribulation.'"
Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, was the third speaker overall and first woman to appear in the series Oct. 12, 2000. I heard her talk about the American presidency while sitting amongst Guilford students in the back of Dana Auditorium nine months before I started working at the college. She was insightful and funny, especially when talking about her time as an intern for President Lyndon Johnson. If you haven't read her latest book, Team of Rivals, do so.
Gregory has been hosting "Meet the Press," the longest running series on TV, since December 2008 when he replaced the late Tim Russert. He brings the fresh voice of a leader in the new generation of broadcast journalists and is proving capable in the MTP chair after taking the reins of the most-watched Sunday morning interview program. Did you know his kids are at Sidwell Friends School in D.C., along with the Obama daughters?
Meacham moved up into the Top 20 in last fall's subscriber survey. He was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his Andrew Jackson biography, American Lion (a great read, along with American Gospel). A liberal arts grad (University of the South), he's been an editor at Newsweek (which features Anna Quindlen) since he was 26. I heard him speak at Davidson in November, a week after the election-- very witty and brilliant in his political analysis.
We've been talking about bringing Meacham to the series for several years but have not made a speaking offer. Is he someone you want to hear? Let us know.
Participants in the first poll on our new Web page indicated they are looking "most forward" to Yo-Yo Ma among the five programs scheduled in the 2009-10 Bryan Series.
Results of the poll, which ran from April 14-21, were:
Yo-Yo Ma, 42.3% David Gregory, 19.2% Gary Trudeau, 15.4% Paul Krugman, 15.4% Anna Deavere Smith, 7.7%
The current poll asks "Which 2008-09 program did you enjoy most?"
Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist who speaks in the Bryan Series Nov. 3, was the subject of the Newsweek cover story April 6, entitled "Obama is Wrong."
The story, by Evan Thomas, notes that Krugman has emerged as President Obama's toughest liberal critic, writing, "He criticizes the Obamaites for trying to prop up a financial system that he regards as essentially a dead man walking. In conversation, he portrays Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and other top officials as, in effect, tools of Wall Street (a ridiculous charge, say Geithner defenders)."
Thomas goes on to say, "If you are of the establishment persuasion (and I am), reading Krugman makes you uneasy. You hope he's wrong, and you sense he's being a little harsh (especially about Geithner), but you have a creeping feeling that he knows something that others cannot, or will not, see."
In addition, Krugman joined Newt Gingrich and other commentators for an economic roundtable on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" April 12.
On a lighter note, a singer in a You Tube rock video, "Hey, Paul Krugman," croons, "We need you on the front lines, not just writing for The New York Times."
Contrary to conventional wisdom, “This is a very, very good time for readers and for reading,” author Anna Quindlen told a Bryan Series audience April 14.
In her talk, “Choices and Changes,” Quindlen spoke of her life-long love of reading and its importance in shaping her life, calling it “the ultimate democratic act of a democratic country ... It is the thing that gives us global opportunities and global thought, even if we stay in one place.”
“To my mind, in a democracy it’s more of a threat to cut library budgets than defense budgets,” Quindlen said to applause.
Quindlen, a novelist who also writes a regular column for Newsweek, also talked about the news industry, particularly the radical changes facing print journalism. She addressed previous shifts in news methods, such as the addition of analysis and first-person journalism. “I came in at a moment of great change and, well, it’s another moment of great change … Somehow we prevailed then, and we will prevail now,” she said.
Quindlen’s talk was the last of the 2008-09 series, which also featured authors Khaled Hosseini and Salman Rushdie, journalist Christiane Amanpour and former diplomat James Rubin.
Following the program, President Kent Chabotar announced the line-up for the 2009-10 series, including Garry Trudeau, Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Krugman, Anna Deavere Smith and David Gregory.
Anna Deavere Smith
Feb. 28, 2010
