Sunday, August 16, 2009

Jean Shepherd - On NPR -Hearing Voices

Talk about the Woodstock nostalgia craze going on this weekend (later, see my personal story - no, I was not there but in Europe that summer).

My friends and I were fierce Shepherd fans as teens.
Even if you have no idea who he is (best known as author of "A Christmas Story" story) check it out.

The narrator, Harry Shearer, just told the story of Shepherd holding a milling where he tells listeners to go to an empty parking lot late at night to just mill about and crowds showed up (he didn't). Certainly confused the cops when they asked what was going on and were told, "We're just milling"). Maybe we should do Tweedings.

And remember that scene from the movie Network when Peter Finch yells out the window, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore"? Must have come from stuff Shepherd did. He used to have listeners put their radios on their window sills facing out and he would should things like "You filthy pragmatist."

I remember one great story of a lightning storm at Yankee stadium and Shepherd's description of the absolute fear of Phil Rizzuto. Priceless stuff.

If you miss it check the archives at http://hearingvoices.com/news/2009/08/hv067-jean-shepherd-1/

Or you might want to capture this show for future listening, preferably in bed late at night with earphones.

More on Shepherd at http://www.ep.tc/realist/42/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

check out randi's trusteeship in oregon..big aft mistake....word has it that she is threatening to put uft under trusteeship..less than a day after she left.omg is she coming back...just when we thought there was hope..get over yourself randi

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing Jean Shephard with us tonight. Next week, would you play him doing the Sheik of Arabe (spelling) on his kazoo?