Chinese chef Ken Hom. He's the author of the new cookbook, "Fragrant Harbor Taste: The New Chinese Cooking of Hong Kong." Hong Kong is in the midst of a culinary revolution, with Japanese, European, and American foods and styles of preparation all merging with traditional Chinese cuisine. Hom has taught cooking in Hong Kong for the past ten years. He's also written several previous cookbooks and hosted the public T-V series "Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery."
World music commentator Milo Miles reviews David Byrne's "Brazil Classics" series and talks about the recent trend among Western rock stars to borrow rhythms and singers from the musical traditions of Africa, the Near East, and South America. He asks whether this is valuable exposure for little-known musicians or a form of exploitation.
Commentator Patsy McLaughlin (mc-LOFF-lin) reflects on advertising's "Breck" girl becoming the "Breck" woman. McLaughlin will speak with this year's Breck model, Pamela Chew.
Rock critic Ken Tucker review the new albums from Janet Jackson and Laurie Anderson. Ken says the two performers are seemingly miles apart...Jackson's the sister of Michael Jackson and her albums are huge urban contemporary hits, and Anderson's a product of the New York performance scene...but there is common ground. Both albums (Jackson's is called "Rhythm Nation 1814" and Anderson's is titled "Strange Angels") have unifying themes and draw heavily on the latest technology.
Psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom. Yalom is one of the world's leading psychotherapists, and his theories have been adopted by most of this country's clinics and hospitals. Yalom has written several books on psychotherapy, aimed both at experts and the layman. Yalom's new book is called "Love's Executioner & Other Tales of Psychotherapy." It's a collection of ten stories, each featuring one of Yalom's patients, that illustrate the individual difficulties and common threads of psychotherapy.
Critic Owen Gleiberman (GLY-ber-man) reviews the 1964 movie "Bedtime Story" starring David Niven and Marlon Brando as a pair of conniving womanizers. It's now out on home video. That movie inspired last year's film, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
John Malpede and Kevin Williams of the Los Angeles Poverty Department, a performance group comprised primarily of homeless and formerly homeless people. The LAPD tries to show the reality of life on the streets. John Malpede is a former performance artist and founder of LAPD (in 1985). He now serves as the group's director and a legal advocate for the homeless. Kevin Wiliams is LAPD's assistant director and former resident of Skid Row.
Veteran arms negotiator and diplomat Paul Nitze. Nitze has spent nearly 50 years at the highest levels of this country's foreign policy, and advised every President from F. D. R. to George Bush. He helped form the Marshall Plan after World War Two, dealt with the Berlin War and Cuban Missile crises, and engaged in the famous "walk in the woods," during the U-S/Soviet INF treaty negotiations. Nitze has just written a memoir of his public life, called "From Hiroshima to Glasnost."
Book critic John Leonard reviews "Foucault's Pendulum," the new novel by Umberto Eco. Eco's first novel was the critically acclaimed bestseller "The Name of the Rose."
Songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. They wrote the songs for the 1944 Judy Garland film classic, "Meet Me in St. Louis," including "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." A musical based on the film is opening on Broadway this week.
Writer John Updike. Updike is known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of some thirty novels and short stories, including the "Rabbit" novels. His latest effort is not a work of fiction, but a book on art. It's a collection of 23 essays called "Just Looking" that offers Updike's personal reactions to some of the world's masterpieces. He also comments on some of the recent "megashows" such as Renoir at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and Andrew Wyeth's "Helga" paintings.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two new albums by composer, saxophonist and clarinetist Anthony Braxton. Although Braxton's music has been much criticized, Kevin calls him one of his heroes. Braxton's new albums are "19 Solo Compositions 1988" and "Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989."
Television critic David Bianculli previews "Cross of Fire," a four-hour NBC miniseries based on true events in the 1920s, when a charismatic leader of the Ku Klux Klan came to power in Indiana.
Writer Marita Golden. Her new novel, "Long Distance Life," examines half a century in the life of a black middle-class family in the other Washington, D.C., the one not filled with shiny buildings and corridors of power. Previously, Golden published a widely acclaimed memoir, "Migrations of the Heart."
Rock historian Ed Ward looks at rock's fascination with teen death and suicide, an influence that led to hits like "Teen Angel" and "Leader of the Pack."
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new albums from singers Linda Ronstadt and Kate Bush. Ronstadt's is called "Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind," and Ken says it's a return to her early pop-rock sound. Bush's new work, "The Sensual World," continues what Ken calls her "lulling loopiness."
Critic at large Laurie Stone reviews comic Billy Crystal's new HBO special, "Midnight Train to Moscow." The premise is that Crystal has been invited to be the first American stand-up artist to perform in the Soviet Union. In addition to his act, there are cameo appearances by a flock of Crystal characters.
