May 2, 2010: Canada's "Milliken Moment" - Celebrating Chopin with Janina Fialkowksa - The Secret Life of Thomas de Quincey: The Opium Eater
In our first hour, Michael explores the possibility that maybe, just maybe, future generations will look back on this week as a time when members of parliament began to take back some of the power they had lost. When parliament, and locally elected politicians, began to matter once again.
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Hour 2: Celebrating Chopin with Janina Fialkowksa
Internationally reknowned pianist Janina Fialkowska has loved Chopin since she was a little girl. When you hear her play his music, you'll understand.
Join Michael and Janina Fialkowska for a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth.
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Hour 3: The Secret Life of Thomas de Quincey: The Opium Eater
Thomas de Quincey was one of the most popular writers of the nineteenth century. He was also a drug addict who spent much of his life suffering from chronic debt, poverty and grief. De Quincey's chronicle of his own opium habit was the first; some say still the best, personal exploration of drug addiction. In our third hour, join Michael in conversation with Robert Morrison, author of, The English Opium Eater: a Biography of Thomas de Quincey.
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Elsewhere on show - A dissenting vote on the game of soccer, how governments should measure happiness, repaying an artistic debt and a bag of your mail. Plus, a menu of great music to usher in the darling buds of May.
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Music
Song: John's Blues
Artist: Cedar Walton
Album: Seasoned Wood
Michael's Essay
Michael discussed the reasons why Soccer is the Cheez Whiz of modern sports.
Music
Song: Raider's March
Artist: Erich Kunzel
Album: Great Movie Scores: The Films of Steven Spielberg
Canada's "Milliken Moment"
House speaker Peter Milliken has given Members of Parliament two weeks to resolve their differences. There is a chance that they will. No one wants an election.
This week on the program, Michael explored an idea that maybe, just maybe, future generations will look back on this week-- this "Milliken Moment " as a time when members of parliament began to take back some of the power they had lost. When parliament, and locally elected politicians, began to matter once again.
Michael was in conversation with former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, Political Science Professor Heather McIvor, and Michael Chong, MP. Mr. Chong has been the member of parliament for the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills for the past six years. For one of them, he was in the cabinet, then he did something that you don't see every day. He resigned over a matter of policy. Parliamentary reform has become a cause that is dear to his heart. He now has a private members bill before the House that he hopes will help.
Music
Song: Stay With Me
Artist: Jordan Officer
Album: Jordan Officer
Mail Pack - War and Peace
The torrent of words from you about Tolstoy's War and Peace keep on coming.
A few weeks ago Michael admitted his defeat on the battlefield of that enormous novel. Many have offered advice, approbation, encouragement.
You can write to us about anything you hear on The Sunday Edition. You can email us or click on "contact us" on out website. Our postal address is P.O. Box 500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario. M5W 1E6
Music
Song: Longravity
Artist: Cedar Walton
Album: Seasoned Wood
Listen to Hour One:
Music
Song: Prelude in E Minor
Artist: Gerry Mulligan Sextet
Album: Gerry Mulligan Complete Studio Recordings
Music
Song: Waltz No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64
Artist: Janina Fialkowska
Album: Janina Fialkowska
Celebrating Chopin with Janina Fialkowska
Ms. Fialkowska is internationally renowned as one of the world's great Chopin interpreters; She has loved him since she was a child. And when you hear her play, you'll see why.
This year is the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, and the world is celebrating. Janina herself is touring the world with Chopin's music.
Luckily for us, she found the time to pop into our studios to talk about her passion for Chopin, and to play some of those lovely sounds for us.
Music
Song: Waltz No. 12 in F minor
Artist: Janina Fialkowska
Album: Janina Fialkowska
The Sunday Edition is in Pursuit of Happiness
Happiness. What is it really?
That question has puzzled philosophers and poets for centuries.
This week, Michael was in conversation with Carol Graham. Graham is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and she has been touring the world researching happiness.Music
Song: Mama's Blues
Artist: Jordan Officer
Album: Jordan Officer
Listen to Hour Two:
Music
Song: The
Artist: D.D. Jackson
Album: Sigame
The Secret life of Thomas de Quincey: The Opium Eater
Thomas de Quincey was a prolific essayist, biographer and translator, one of the best writers of the nineteenth century.
But there was another side to the man that not many people know.
He was a drug addict who spent much of his life suffering from chronic debt, poverty and grief. De Quincey's chronicle of his own opium habit was the first; some say still the best, personal exploration of drug addiction. In our third hour, Michael was in conversation with Robert Morrison, author of, The English Opium Eater: a Biography of Thomas de Quincey.Music
Song: Deep Purple
Artist: Terry Tufts
Album: Walk On
You Shouldn't Rush a Lady - Documentary
In the summer of 1968, a young art student in Prague named Jan Huk threw a Molotov cocktail at an invading Soviet tank.
But the Molotov cocktails thrown by Czech teenagers couldn't repel the Soviet invaders, and a few weeks later Jan Huk fled Czechoslovakia. He wound up, with $10 in his pocket, in downtown Toronto. He was 19.
Within a year he became friends with an eccentric 55-year-old bookstore clerk named Anna Russell . She was the widow of a once famous and very successful Canadian artist, John Wentworth Russell, painter of prime ministers, the toast of Paris and the love of Anna's life.
Anna Russell introduced Jan and then his wife, Milada, to the finer points of western culture. To artists and musicians no one living in a communist country was allowed to enjoy. They sampled fine wines together, they travelled together. And in return Jan Huk and his wife looked after Anna .
Now 10 years after Anna Russell's death and 50 years after the death of her much older husband, Jan and Milada Huk have honored a promise they made. They have - against all odds - put together a show of the work of John Wentworth Russell - in their tiny gallery on Pender Island in British Columbia.
The documentary You Shouldn't Rush a Lady was produced by Karin Wells.Music
Song: Burnley Moods
Artist: Jordan Officer
Album: Jordan Officer
Listen to Hour Three:
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