Eric Salzman, 84

Eric Salzman, Composer Who Championed Avant-Garde, Dies at 84
by Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times, November 24, 2017

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Margot Adler on the contemporary Pagan movement

The Moonfire series of public presentations will host a workshop facilitated by National Public Radio journalist Margot Adler:

The Pagan Movement: What's New, What's Different, What's Changed

Saturday, May 22 (5pm-7pm)

In the last 15 years, the Pagan Movement (Wicca, Goddess Spirituality, Druids, Norse Religionists, Reconstructionist Pagans, and more) has grown, so that now scholars are saying that there are at least a million contemporary Pagans worldwide, and perhaps three-quarters of that number are in the U.S.

In the last few years, Wiccans have fought and won a number of civil rights. There are now peer-reviewed academic Pagan journals, more than 100 Pagan Pride Festivals, and a strong Pagan and Wiccan presence at the Parliament of the World's Religions. What does this foretell?  What is the promise and what are the pitfalls of modern Paganism becoming a World Religion?


Margot Adler is a writer, pagan priestess and broadcast journalist.  She is the author of Drawing Down The Moon, the classic study of Paganism, Goddess Spirituality and Wicca. A lecturer and ritual leader, she has been a correspondent with National Public Radio for more than 30 years. Before NPR, she reported, produced and hosted live radio on Pacifica's WBAI-FM and was the creator of Hour of the Wolf and two other free-form radio shows there.  She was also the hostess for eight years of Justice Talking, a show about the Constitution and how it affects our daily lives, that aired on a hundred radio stations until the summer of 2008.

Admission: $6

All are welcome!

Location:
LGBT Community Center
208 West 13th Street (near 7th Avenue), Manhattan

For further information, click here to email Moonfire's founder, Amethyst.

Radio days: Air America and WBAI

Goodnight, Air America.

Thank you for introducing the world to the magnificent Rachel Maddow and acting as a political launching pad for Al Franken who might one day grow into a valuable senator. It's just too bad that what started out as a clever, aggressive reaction to Bush/Cheney and the right-wing lie-mongers in radio and Congress never took root, financially or otherwise. Air America's programming and scheduling always seemed to me to be hastily thrown together with no design, no thought-out strategy. Most of the shows made for tedious listening, and a so-called star host like Randi Rhodes was permitted to waste hours of airtime ranting and repeating herself. If you wanted to listen to Rhodes at all, you quickly learned to turn her off after, say, 15 to 20 minutes, because the rest of the show would be a pointless regurgitation.

Here are two reports on the demise of Air America:

Media Decoder: Air America to Cease Broadcasting Immediately
by Brian Stelter, The New York Times, January 21, 2010

Farewell, Air America, when we need it most
by Ron Reagan, Salon, January 24, 2010

Liberal Radio, Even Without Air America
by Brian Stelter, The New York Times, January 24, 2010

Back in the late '80s, I did time at Pacifica Radio's WBAI with what was then the Women's Radio Collective and the Gay and Lesbian Independent Broadcasters, as well as producing some specials on my own. Broadcasting was totally new to me and--after listening to a women's news program--I'd been drawn into it on a spunky impulse that, for a basically shy person, was a form of courage. This new challenge stimulated my creativity, and I brought to it a typical Virgo's preference and competence for organization, much appreciated by the station's engineers.

But WBAI was a roiling mess--and still is, if Michael Powell's hilariously snarky report on a meeting of the station's board is to be believed. And, having seen that place from the inside--I sat in a staff workshop on diversity where a fistfight broke out right in front of me--I do believe.

99.5 FM, Where the Board Meetings Make the Broadcasts Seem Tame
by Michael Powell, The New York Times, January 15, 2010