Ann Leary, author of The Good House
Author of The Good House
I’ve been a little busy.
Early Friday morning I went off on an ambulance call that sounded serious but fortunately was not. Still, I learned things. At this point, as a novice EMT, I learn a great deal on every call. Mostly I learn how little I know and how much I have yet to learn. I’m so grateful to our wonderful and dedicated crew who always take the time to teach me and are very patient with my lack of mental retention ability, ADD, hyperactivity, etc.
Tomorrow, a new episode of IN HOUSE will air at 2:00 on WHDD-FM (robinhoodradio.com).
For this week’s IN HOUSE, I visited the very beautiful and entirely eco-friendly Manhattan townhouse belonging to Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher and their three children. Lisa is a two-time EMMY award winning former producer who is now a publishing executive. Paul is an award winning architect. They have three amazing kids and they’re all quite interested (Lisa admits she’s obsessed) in the environment, and in trying to live in a safer, less toxic world.
Maybe some of you will recall that I have a weekly NPR radio show called IN HOUSE. The show was on hiatus for a while because I had surgery and then really needed some time to work on my book. Well, tomorrow WHDD-FM, (robinhoodradio.com), will broadcast a brand new episode of IN HOUSE, featuring author and NPR commentator Heather King.
Here’s a link to my Terry Gross interview.
Terry Gross really did make me sound better than I was.
Thanks to all of you with the kind comments and emails that gave me the courage to listen to it!
I wish I could somehow download the audio right here. Will see if I can.
Many months ago, I was interviewed by Terry Gross for her NPR program, Fresh AIr. This was very exciting to me. This was extremely exciting to me. This was, in my mind, one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to me! I love Terry Gross. It turned out that Terry Gross’s producer was a big fan of both my books!
Due to my schedule, I’ve had to broadcast reruns of IN HOUSE the past two Saturdays, but tomorrow, tune in for an all-new IN HOUSE interview with my guest, the brilliant and wildly eccentric dancer/choreographer Moses Pendleton, who directs the word-famous dance company, MOMIX
I got to sit in on a few rehearsals of Botanica, Momix’s exciting new show and I used the music from the show throughout the interview, making it, I think, one of the most enjoyable shows I’ve done. Well, Moses made it enjoyable too, of course. If you’re into gardening, New England, the environment, dance, Van Gogh, sex, love, skiing, John Keats, bees, the psychological effects of color on mood, music or the creative process – if one or all of these things appeals to you – you’ll love tomorrow’s show.
I posted this while I was doing my book tour last June.
Today I did a radio tour. I sat in a studio in Times Square and was interviewed by DJs and talk show hosts in radio stations all over the country.
Most of the interviewers were nice. The most interesting question? What’s it like having Dennis Miller mouthing off around the house all the time. I said that I imagined it would be a living hell. Then I said that of course, I could only venture a guess, as I’ve never met Dennis Miller. The poor man had just spent ten minutes thinking he was interviewing Dennis Miller’s wife. He began stammering his apologies and it became clear that he had no idea whose wife it was that he was interviewing and I felt so sorry for him that I ended up repeatedly apologizing to him for not being Dennis Miller’s wife.
I have spent the entire day trying to edit my four hours of digital Moses Pendleton into a concise half-hour for my radio show, IN HOUSE.
Why, you might ask, did you interview the man for four hours, when you have a half-hour show? The answer is, because a half hour is just not enough for a man whose kitchen looks like this:
Whose office looks like this:
And whose hallway looks like this:
If you’re in or near the Sharon, CT area, this afternoon at 2:00, tune into 91.9FM, WHDD, to listen to my IN HOUSE interview with Playwright A.R. Gurney. If you don’t live in the area, you may still hear it as it’s broadcast, by going to robinhoodradio.com, and clicking on the “Listen Live” link. If you miss it, I’ll have it downloaded here on my site, sometime later today.
For twelve years now, I have been driving past the house belonging to choreographers Moses Pendleton and Cynthia Quinn. It’s a rather aged white Victorian set slightly back from the road. Across the street is an old carriage barn. I’ve known that Moses and Cynthia use the property as the headquarters for MOMIX, his world-famous dance company, but when you drive by, it just looks like any great old New England house that hasn’t been “done.” There are usually a few cars parked in the driveway. There’s a bit of lawn out front. Yesterday, I entered the Pendleton house, because I had scheduled an interview with Moses for my NPR show, IN HOUSE, and I don’t think I’ll ever be quite the same again.
