Complete performance of the Scott Munson Jazz Quintet at the West Side Community Garden on June 16, 2024. CONTACT: barcrawlradio@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 21, 2024•52 min•Season 10Ep. 233
A full length presentation of a performance by La Manga in the West Side Community Garden in June 2024. For a conversation with La Manga founder, Daniela Serna, go to BCR #230. Alan Winson barcrawlradio@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 14, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 10Ep. 231
For the fourth time this summer Bar Crawl Radio podcast is not at a bar. But we are continuing to have conversations with neighbors doing positive work for their community. We will be talking with a citizen journalists who works in the field of peace activism and whose writing is published in Pressenza – an international news agency pushing ideas of peace, non-violence, and human rights For this BCR recording we were ensconced in our mobile studio in the southeast corner of the West Side Communi...
Jun 14, 2024•43 min•Season 10Ep. 230
For this BCR conversation we were not at a bar having a conversation with people working positively for their communities – but at Inwood Park – in upper Manhattan – former home of the Lenape People. Catholic Worker, Anthony Donovan, opens this program as he talks to a group of about 20 people who had joined the Veteran's for Peace " 2024 Peace Walk" -- for the day. The VFP Walk started in Ogunquit Maine on May 5th and will arrive in Washington, DC July 5th – a nearly 600 mile trek. Some walk fo...
Jun 07, 2024•29 min•Season 10Ep. 229
For this BCR conversation at the West Side Community Garden we investigated the stories of two ladies--one affected by chance--the other by choice. The first story is about a chance phone call that led to instant and fleeting fame – and the other -- a choice to help recently arrived neighbors which will lead to – what? Rebecca McKean and I were set-up in the southeast corner of the West Side Community Garden . As our UWS neighbors sought their favorite spots to listen to the Cassatt String Quart...
Jun 07, 2024•42 min•Season 10Ep. 228
Kumara is a uniquely global trio of musicians who create a synthesis of sound that is unique and beautifully inspiring across and within cultures and communities. I spoke with Samite who plays African Harps and the Kalimba and Shem Guibbory, a classical violinist the day before the WSCG concert. Guitarist Sean Harkness couldn’t make it; he was in a recording studio. This program presents the entire Kumara performance at the West Side Community Garden Concert on Sunday, May 26, 2024. Alan Winson ...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 10Ep. 227
It was another post COVID, pre climate catastrophe Sunday on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Rebecca McKean and I – Alan Winson – co-hosts of BCR podcast – had erected our sound studio in the southwest corner of the West Side Community Garden and waited for our guests. Stop the Chop has worked to rid our city of those pesky, rotor-whirling metal blobs that spew noise and GHG pollution for no positive reason. We spoke with Melissa Elstein and Ken Couglin, leaders of Stop the Chop. and we were o...
May 29, 2024•45 min•Season 10Ep. 226
This BCR conversation talks about suicide in the U.S military. A growing statistic: Women and men who had dedicated their lives and minds to the most destructive military ever – are killing themselves at increasing rates. I spoke with Angus Benfield – an Australian actor – now working in the U,S, -- about his newest feature film – "The Keeper" which he stars in, produced, and co-directed. “The Keeper” is a true story about George Eshleman an artillery officer who participated in Desert Storm. Ye...
May 27, 2024•46 min•Season 10Ep. 225
An unedited recording of Karou Watanabe's performance at the West Side Community Garden's 2024 Summer Concert Series -- May 19th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 23, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 10Ep. 224
Kaoru Watanabe was the featured music artist of the first summer concert in the West Side Community of 2024. Rebecca and I got to the Garden early and set up our portable studio in a corner alcove to talk with Jody Sperling -- dancer and choreographer -- and the Artistic Director of Time Lapse Dance which explores environmental performance forms. Also, Jody is the Eco-Artist in Residence at the New York Society of Ethical Culture. We talked about her artistic work to raise emotions about the cli...
May 23, 2024•46 min•Season 10Ep. 223
This is the first "Park Bench Chat" of the 2024 Summer Season – a production of Bar Crawl Radio. During the warming days of spring and summer, Rebecca and I sit at our favorite park bench in the “You’ve Got Mail” garden in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side and talk with our neighbors. Today’s topic--“grammar.” Ellen Jovin is a self-proclaimed “grammar nerd.” She has degrees from Harvard and UCLA in language-related subjects and has studied bunches of languages because she lives in NYC -- a m...
May 20, 2024•49 min•Season 10Ep. 222
The majestic trees in front of Goddard Riverside on the Upper West Side of Manhattan were blushing brightly as the community gathered to learn about and spruce up the beds of our leafy neighbors for the seventh annual “Love Your Street Tree Day” – May 7th 2024. Rebecca and I learned a lot about our urban forest and how to take care of our barked friends – not our barking friends. Which reminds me -- "Don’t piss on our street tree" signs were passed out to our UWS neighbors -- along with buckets ...
May 14, 2024•48 min•Season 10Ep. 221
PHILIPPE DIAZ is a film director – producer – and promoter of “intelligent films.” Born in Paris France, he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. Since 1980 he has produced and distributed international films by auteur directors for world audiences. Diaz has directed both documentary and feature narrative films on political, economic and social issues. In 2003, Diaz and his team created Cinema Libre Studios -- producing and distributing socially relevant independent narrative and documentary films...
May 05, 2024•44 min•Season 10Ep. 220
Rebecca McKean and I walked during Easter week 2024 in the desert north of Las Vegas to the Nevada Nuclear Bomb Test Site– with a community of people who know about the imminent danger of a targeted and ready-to-go American nuclear arsenal. This BCR podcast will not counter the insanity of the deterrence argument – rather here are a few of the people who walked to the white line at the entrance to the most bombed place in the world – run by the U.S. Department of Energy and protected by the U.S ...
Apr 12, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 10Ep. 219
This is a must listen conversation with Gabor Rona -- Law Professor at Cardozo Law School – and in the past served as the International Legal Director of Human Rights First. For over 20 years our government has imprisoned 100s of innocent Muslim men in the Guantanamo Prison and tortured them repeatedly for no good reason – and now cannot try them because they were tortured and cannot release them because they are not allowed on US soil, and it is not clear what other countries would do to them –...
Mar 15, 2024•35 min•Season 10Ep. 218
“We Are Guantanamo” – in other words – you and I -- all of us identifying as "American" are complicit – and insofar as the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp remains an active US military and illegal entity – it belongs to us. Since 2002, the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp has held 779 Muslim men accused of attacking the US on September 11 2001. Nearly all were innocent. 740 have been transferred someplace – 30 remain – 9 died there. I have been speaking with seven people who have tried to close Guant...
Mar 08, 2024•43 min•Season 10Ep. 217
For this BCR program, we talked about that age-old American tradition – book burning – or more precisely – thought control. Our guests were two brave librarians – practicing a profession that is at the core of any effective democracy. Emily Drabinski heads-up the American Library Association [ALA] and Lauren Comito leads Urban Librarians Unite [ULU]. According to ALA findings efforts to ban books in this country are growing at a high rate and the groups engaged in this activity probably do not h...
Mar 01, 2024•54 min•Season 10Ep. 216
For this BCR program, we spoke with two Jewish Israeli's. Nahum Schnitzer is my cousin. Ariella Dubrowin is my cousin once removed. Both have raised their families in Israel, Nahum -- 40 years – Ariella – 20. The conflict in Gaza has encased their world in ways that neither I – nor most of you listening to this podcast – can fully get. Ariella wrote me about a month ago. She was troubled about a recent program I posted – "I want to say Kaddish" – which presented both the intense protests in the ...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 10Ep. 215
In 1963, when the Supreme Court overturned Gideon v Wainwright, Justice Hugo Black wrote: “Even the intelligent and educated layman requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him. Without it, though he be not guilty, he faces the danger of conviction because he does not know how to establish his innocence.” The public defender is that legal bulwark that works for a balance in our justice system. For this BCR conversation we heard from two public defenders from ...
Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 10Ep. 214
May 1961 -- Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, wrote that he was sickened by governments imprisoning citizens for speaking or singing in protest. The work of Amnesty International continues around the world and on the Upper West Side with members of Group 11. Since the early 1970s members of Group 11 have helped to free prisoners of conscience in Iran, Chile, China, Indonesia, Libya, Myanmar, Poland, Rhodesia, South Africa, Vietnam and the former USSR. And, currently, AI-USA’s Gro...
Jan 26, 2024•51 min•Season 10Ep. 213
Sharing the joyful and angry sounds of our city at the end of a year of retching violence. Let the human-made turbulence of 2023 pass quickly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 31, 2023•20 min•Season 10Ep. 212
In 1948, all nations signed onto a document stating that the way a government treats its citizens can be judged by the rest of the world. This December, 2023, is the 75th Anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR]. Joining us for this conversation on the Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar porch are three women who explained the significance of the UDHR. Jackie Dugard studies how laws impact social change and justice, focusing on power and exclusion. She is a Seni...
Dec 29, 2023•57 min•Season 10Ep. 211
This BCR conversation may seem complex but its also simple – and – will possibly end human existence. If your physician can access all of your medical records, she will do a better job. And if generative AI knows all about the health of every human -- what then? We talked with two experts developing the power of Artificial Intelligence to keep us healthy. Dr. Mark Braunstein is the guru of FHIR -- not a misspelling -- an acronym for Fast Healthcare interoperability Resources – a technology helpi...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr•Season 10Ep. 210
Late November, 2023 -- John C. Wester -- Archbishop of Sante Fe -- spoke at the Church of Our Savior at E. 38th Street and Park Avenue. About 200 were gathered to honor the 43rd anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day – and – to consider the abolition of nuclear weapons. At the United Nations that week the countries that signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons were meeting. The United States was not one of them. The day after Archbishop Wester spoke – I met with two people who ha...
Dec 15, 2023•1 hr•Season 10Ep. 209
What is a bank? What is a bank for? Can a bank fight evil and right wrongs? Or is a bank no more than a profit-seeking shark working for its investors? Or - both? For this BCR program we had a conversation about a little bank that could … that is, could make our lives better through responsible investments. We invited Ivan Frishberg -- Senior Vice President Chief Sustainability Officer of Amalgamated Bank – to 5Napkin Burger Bar and Restaurant to talk about how he is leading his bank and our wor...
Dec 08, 2023•39 min•Season 10Ep. 208
According to Britannica, a musical composition is the art of conceiving and creating music. I love to sing, and I very much enjoy listening to music. That part I get, but to compose music, to pick out the notes, the instruments… I’m completely at a loss. Fortunately, we have three women composers with us today who will explain what it means to be a female composer in today’s music world. For this BCR program, we spoke with Svjetlana Bukvich , best known for her blending of classical music, media...
Nov 17, 2023•52 min•Season 10Ep. 207
We are looking forward to sharing a conversation about a great American -- Eleanor Roosevelt. Shannon McKenna Schmidt has focused her literary work on travel. She has written for National Geograpic , Traveler , Nashville Public Television and Arrive magazine – and has appeared on Morning Joe and The Travel Show with Arthur and Pauline Frommer. We spoke to Ms. Schmidt about her most recent book “The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back.” Americ...
Nov 03, 2023•46 min•Season 10Ep. 206
BCR likes NYC and our like has grown since we learned about NYCH2O . For this program we talked with the founder and leader of NYCH2O – Matthew Malina. Matt works to educate New Yorkers about their city’s local water ecology – in order protect our natural water resources -- and with Peter Frishauf -- founder of Medscape – but for today – more importantly – Peter is an UWS community leader who works to make life in your neighborhood lively, diverse, and safe for all its citizens. We also spoke wi...
Oct 20, 2023•45 min•Season 10Ep. 205
Rebecca McKean and I drove to Fonda, NY for the 25th Annual Kateri Peace Conference. We spoke with several major players in the contemporary "no war" peace movement in the United States -- who are working to help the rest of us see the insanity of war and its link to the climate disaster. The voices on this program include the following: Maureen Aumond, John Amidon, David Swanson, Gloria Caballero, Nick Mottern, and Debra Sweet. And thanks to Lew Tabackin for allowing us to us his composition "G...
Sep 15, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 10Ep. 204
Becky and I went on a tempestuous drag race at Gebhard’s Beer Culture Bar as we dug down into Drag culture with two young NYC Drag Queens following their command performance for an Open Streets event. We talked with Drag artists Ann Arky and Vampy Von Thickums Galore who had recently performed at the International Drag Queen Celebration on West !03rd Street organized by Park to Park 103 and Open Streets. Before talking to our guest performers we spoke with Bella Gallo a coordinator of the event....
Sep 10, 2023•50 min•Season 10Ep. 203