November 7, 2010: David Grossman brings us 'To the End of the Land' - 'Death of a Salesman' Revived - Finding Alpha (Doc) - A Farewell to Camelot
To the End of the Land - David Grossman is not only Israel's best known novelist he is also one of its most astringent critics. For decades he has condemned his government's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories and called for an end to new settlements. He has labored for peace while at the same time turning out world class literature. His latest best seller, To the End of the Land is set against the background of the latest Lebanon war. A war in which his young son Uri was killed. In this hour, a powerful conversation with David Grossman about parenthood, the loss of a child and the heart-breaking search for peace in his troubled land.
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Listen to Hour One:
Death of a Salesman brought to life by Soulpepper Theatre - In our Second Hour, Mr. And Mrs. Willie Loman. Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk are two superb performers who are married in real life. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, they bring to life two of the best known characters in one of theatre's best known plays. And they do it without confusing their stage marriage for the real one.
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Listen to Hour Two:
Finding Alpha - Documentary - Three young graffiti artists in Montreal dies last Sunday, after being struck by a train while they were trespassing on private property. We'll take a look at this subculture with a documentary called, Finding Alpha.
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Listen to Hour Three:
Elsewhere on the show: What next for the Tea Party after Tuesday's vote; A farewell to Camelot; And to mark Remembrance Day, a homage to a Canadian hero, tortured to death by the Nazis... Peter Pickersgill tells us the story of the uncle he never knew.
Music
Song: Sinfonia Concertante K.297b
Artist: English Chamber Orchestra
Album: Sinfonia Concertante
Michael's Essay
In his essay this week, Michael discusses the Freedom of speech and whether the police are too quick to confuse public displays of dissent with incitement to commit violent acts?
Music
Song: Dance From Down Under
Artist: David Piltch and Aaron Davis
Album: Piltch & Davis: Feast
To the End of the Land
On August 12th, 2006, Uri Grossman, an Israeli soldier in his early 20s was killed when his tank was hit by a rocket. Just days before the end of the Second Lebanon War.
At the Jerusalem home of David Grossman, Israel's greatest living novelist, there was the late night knock on the door from the Notifiers, those soldiers whose job it is to inform families of a death.
Grossman later said: "As I walked to the door, I said to myself, that's it. Life is over."
He and his son Uri had often talked about the new novel, To the End of the Land.
After Uri's funeral, Grossman returned to the writing to see if he could in fact finish it.
It is probably his greatest work. Just translated into English, it is getting glowing reviews worldwide and David Grossman is being compared to Tolstoy and Flaubert.
He is the author of numerous works of fiction non-fiction and children's literature. His book, The Yellow Wind , a sympathetic portrait of Palestinians in the occupied territories, caused a sensation when it was published in 1987.
Music
Song: Spiritual
Artist: Sonny Greenwich & Marilyn Lerner
Album: Special Angel
Mail Pack #1
A couple of weeks ago Ian Tyson was by. This prompted many of you to write in.
We do like to hear from you here at the Sunday Edition. If you have thoughts, comments, and opinions about what you have heard on the show... drop us a line! Please send your e-mails to thesundayedition@cbc.ca or you can go to our http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/contact.html page, right here on our site.
Music
Song: Waltse For Abbey
Artist: Chick Corea & Bela Fleck
Album: The Enchantment
Death of a Salesman brought to life by Soulpepper Theatre
"I don't say he's a great man. Willie Loman never made a lot of money. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid."
It is one of the most evocative lines in English theatre, Linda Loman's plea for her husband in Arthur Miller's, Death of a Salesman. It falls to Linda to voice the tragedy at the heart of Miller's play, the desperate need to be noticed amid the banalities of a shop-worn life. In the end, it is only Willy's wife who really understands him.
Which makes Death of a Salesman as much about the strained intimacies of Willy and Linda's marriage, as it is about Willy's personal demons. And it is gripping drama.
The play happens to be Soulpepper's current production in Toronto. Adding to the gripping and dramatic quotient is the fact the Willy and Linda are played by two outstanding actors who also happen to be a married couple themselves.
Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk are founding members of Soulpepper and have been entertaining and compelling Canadian audiences for thirty years. And they were both in our studio.
Music
Song: If I Had a Boat
Artist: Joel Fafard
Album: Cluck Old Hen
Mail Pack #2
Last week, The Sunday Edition reported from the town of Gainesville in the battleground state of Florida. Many of you wrote in about this special report.
If you have thoughts, comments, and opinions about what you have heard on the show... drop us a line! Please send your e-mails to thesundayedition@cbc.ca or you can go to our http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/contact.html page, right here on our site.
The Life and Work of Ted Sorenson
Ted Sorensen's death last Sunday at the age of 82 marked the end of an era.
Ted Sorensen was often called John F. Kennedy's speechwriter and just as often he objected to the term. He thought it diminished his role and connection with JFK and he thought it robbed John F. Kennedy of the true power of his oratory. Sorensen, was incredibly smart, attentive to detail and intensely loyal to a man he thought of as a true giant in American History.
Sorensen worked with Kennedy for just over a decade and when Kennedy was assassinated, Sorensen was only in his mid-30s. He went on to be a very successful lawyer and writer.
But his attachment to the Kennedy era would overshadow everything else he accomplished while also insuring his place in history.
In 2003, as part of a special program we produced on the 40th anniversary of the Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, I had the opportunity to interview Ted Sorensen in New York. We met in a boardroom on the 28th floor of the building housing his law firm. He was in his mid seventies and moving a bit slower, but as you'll hear, his mind was sharp and crisp as ever.
We aired part of that conversation for you on our show. If you would like to hear the full interview, we have posted it for you in the 'Special Features' section of our website. Click here to listen.
Music
Song: Ring Dem Bells
Artist: Andy Kirk & Mary Lou Williams
Album: Mary's Idea
Personal Essay
It was a kind of pilgrimage. A chance to honour an uncle and his comrades, to stand on the ground where their lives - and the lives of thousands of others - ended so cruelly.
This week, - the week of Remembrance Day - Peter Pickersgill will see his own family's war story through a new lens.
You may find this story difficult to listen to.
Music
Song: Lark Ascending
Artist: Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Album: Lark Ascending
Music
Song: Drown in my Own Tears
Artist: 2B3
Album: The Toronto Sessions
The Tea Party...the true heirs to the American Revolution?
It started on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in a live hit with MSNBC commentator Rick Santelli. It was February 19, 2009 - less than one month after Barack Obama was inaugurated. Mr. Santelli and company wanted to "take the country back" from a President who hadn't even been in office for thirty days.
The revolution proclaimed - or re-proclaimed - by the former financial trader has been gaining momentum ever since. And this week, the self-appointed members of the Tea Party movement are claiming major victories in the mid-term elections.
Whether or not the Tea Party was responsible, the Democratic Party certainly did emerge from Tuesday's vote with historic losses in the House of Representatives.
But for Harvard historian and New Yorker magazine staff writer Jill Lepore, the story of the modern tea party movement isn't as much about making history as it is about making up history. In her new book The Whites of Their Eyes, she argues that the Tea Party movement, which claims to embody the principles of the Founding Fathers, has fundamentally misunderstood what the American Revolution was really all about.
Music
Song: Blue Browne
Artist: Brian Brown Trio
Album: Blue Browne
Finding Alpha - Documentary
It was last Sunday, just after 1:30AM, and they were on their way to a friend's place in Montreal. But, as they were prone to do, the five teenagers took a detour. They decided to tag - or spray-paint their names - on a tunnel in the Turcot rail yards. Three of the boys were standing on the tracks when the Via Rail passenger train approached. But they didn't hear it. Moments later those three taggers - Dylan Ford, Mitchell Bracken and Richard Conesa were killed.
In the graffiti community, the danger is part of the point of the art. That's why you see it in the most unlikely places.
On the sides of trains. On the bottom of a highway overpass. Boldly written across structures that look impossible to reach.
The more dangerous the location of the hit, the more respect you earn for your work.
A classmate of the three boys died under similar circumstances two years ago.
Five years ago, an 18-year old graffiti artist in Toronto was killed the same way. His name was Bardia Bryan Zargham - but his tag name was "Alpha." He was known as "the King of the Bombers."
That May, The Sunday Edition's Elizabeth Gray went in search of the teenage subculture in which Alpha played a central role. Her documentary was called, Finding Alpha and today, we are presenting it again. And a warning - this documentary includes some language that may offend some viewers.
Music
Song: Local Motion
Artist: Jayme Stone
Album: The Utmost
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