The Lone Reader turns his gaze to this series of essays and photos describing the fate of the lower Duwamish River, which empties into Elliott Bay in Seattle. cc Audio: Early morning on Yaquina Bay, by daveincamas Inderhalle
Samantha "Sam" Power's memoir of her time as a close confidant to President Barack Obama in the realm of foreign affairs. Music: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden," by Franz Schubert, courtesy of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Reveals the hidden world of "nomads," financially strapped older people that live in vans and cheap RVs, driving where their work takes them. Music: Darkdance, by Eric Kanold
Mr. Neutron gives the skinny on this early Lawrence, KS punk band, whose music is "somewhat repetitive, minimal, slow to develop, without much growth or direction. Vocals are stylistically odd and sparse. There is a sloppy feel to the whole endeavor. But it all works together brilliantly!"
A manifesto against the belief that older people are weak, drab, depressed, dimwitted clones of one another. Music: Blues Jam 2011, by Steve Belong
Alan takes us on a social justice trip to Oakland, through the medium of two recent films: 2013's "Fruitvale Station" and 2018's "Blindspotting." Music: Flatwound: A View Southward, by John Pazdan
What do Akron Ohio and Portland Oregon have in common? Why, iconic first-wave punk music. Mr. Neutron elucidates...
The story of the engineering of California's water supply. California leads the way, so they say. Unfortunately, as regards water, it seems to be leading us down a sinkhole. Music: Supernal Liquid (Reign Water Remix)
At times funky, possible progenitors of post-punk, filled with the occasional outburst of bubbly pop music, Talking Heads brought a healthy arsenal of tools to their repertoire.
Garry Kasparov, one of the strongest world chess champions of all time, also grew into his prime during the rise of computer chess-playing programs. This is Kasparov's story of the evolution of these programs, including his 1997 loss to the IBM-funded Deep Blue, a dedicated chess-playing supercomputer able to analyze 200 million positions per second. Music: Petak 13Friday13, by Tomo Sombolac
Savage aliens make the mistake of invading a London council block (low-income neighborhood), the turf of a group of street youths. Outer space meets inner city. A thinking man's action film, bursting with humor and satire. And aliens.
Demonstrating a praiseworthy diversity of styles from this fabulous album. Mr. Neutron is Ron Averill of Everett Public Library (WA).
The Lone Reader follows food guru Michael Pollan's foray into feeding not your body but your head: Reviewing studies in which carefully controlled doses of psychedelics like LSD and Psilocybin are shown effective in treating certain types of mental illness. Music: Beats, by Crooked Vision
Two films, 87 years apart, put the flutter in our ribcages.
The Lone Reader seeks relief for his tech-driven nightmares through reading a radically different world view: Native American religion, as interpreted by Indian writer Vine Deloria, Jr. It doesn't help.
Alan illuminates some underappreciated noir classics.
Stuart Kaminsky's irascible Soviet detective Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov travels to Siberia to find a murderer in a village full of exiles and incompetents. Music: String Quartet No. 1, Op 7, by Bela Bartok, performed by the Borromeo String Quartet.
Alan surveys that American celluloid genre called "film noir": sinister, evocative, and doom-laden, both in style and content. Image: "The Photographer," by Joaquim Alves Gaspar
Mr. Neutron explores the dark underbelly of mainstream popular music in the form of Portland's three-sister-act, "Joseph"
The Lone Reader takes aim at Joshua Hunt's scalding critique of the massive influence that the sports apparel manufacturer Nike wields over the University of Oregon and its football program.
The Treatment tips into the recent dark successors of films like "The Maltese Falcon," "Touch of Evil," "Chinatown," and "Reservoir Dogs": "Bad Times at the El Royale," and "Under the Silver Lake."
Everett Public Library’s latest podcast explores the Great Book Scare of the early 20th century and how libraries coped with it, particularly here in Everett. The seven-minute-long audio podcast is part of the Smokestacks Soundbites series of local-history podcasts. Credits: Voice actors: Van Ramsey Cameron Johnson Script: Cameron Johnson Audio editing and engineering: Cameron Johnson Music: “Klincek Stojo Pod Oblokom” — Tomo Sombolac “String Quartet N. 14, Op. 131” (Beethoven, Ludwig van) Orion...
From punk to country, from old-timey, to sugar-coated power pop, Mr. Neutron scales the best of 2019.
Jonathan White's description of and homage to the mysterious phenomena we call tides. Music: Francesco Iannuzzelli, "Tarantellamodale"
A new Everett Public Library (WA) audio podcast brings to life the early history of Everett Public Library, in which a small group of determined Everett women parlayed political muscle and donated books into an enduring civic institution. The podcast is part of the City’s observance of the 125th anniversary of the library’s birth. 21 min. Voice actors: Abigail Cooley, Van Ramsey, Mindy Van Wingen, Ron Averill, Lisa Labovitch, Andrea Wallis, Carol Ellison, Eileen Schnarr, Alan Jacobson, Joyce Pet...
Alan reviews this gorgeously-rendered 2017 Todd Haynes film, which received a three-minute-long standing ovation when it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
Mr. Neutron is beguiled by the many flavors of Pacific Northwest pop music, as it infectiously invades his brain and heart with a mishmash of resplendent gravity and joy.
The Lone Reader takes aim at Henry Ford's incredible and futile effort to farm rubber trees and bring Midwestern small-town life to the Amazon jungle. A story of technological hubris and cultural arrogance, it's "Fordlandia," by Greg Grandin. Music: "Tango," by Mischa Elman, Josef Bonime, I. Albeniz, Elman
A sweet love story set in 1970s Harlem. "Beale Street" features a hypnotically poetic environment, gorgeous cinematography, haunting music, exacting screenplay and incredible performances. Alan Jacobson supplies "The Treatment".
Mr. Neutron searches his record closet for twang and bonyfidy country western stars from the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Neutron is Ron Averill of Everett Public Library (WA)
