http://www.federfiles.com/ en-us 2008-04-14T18:00:54-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000092.html Hello Friends... Just saw a movie... Or was it a film? Before I moved to Manhattan I used to--coming from the outer rings of Queens--call everything a movie. When I got to the real Big Apple and mingled with people who had better educations than I did (most people), I discovered that some motion pictures were "films" and the rest were mere movies that Hollywood churned out for the popcorn-chomping masses. I suppose some are both movies AND films... Goodfellas, LA Confidential, etc. Anyway... My wife and I just saw a netflix DVD of "Into The Wild"; based on the book by Jon Krakauer. I hadn't read the book so I didn't have to be troubled by those nagging little comparisons that inevitably devil your mind while you're watching the film/movie of something you first encountered in book form. Course, on the other hand, I have always had a disconcerting... Magazine mikefeder 2008-04-14T18:00:54-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000091.html More political comments/questions (in no particular order)… These are a kind of blend of my own views, those of my listeners and various political scientists and writers that I’ve had on my show on Sirius. 1) Who was surprised that Edwards dropped out before Super Tuesday? If he had stayed in, even if he couldn’t afford to run many commercials or do much campaigning, he might have put himself in a stronger position to make a difference at a “brokered” convention—and/or, (if he is interested) make himself a more viable vice-presidential nominee. Maybe, in the end, it was personal, considering his wife’s illness… 2) Would Edwards be a good choice for either Clinton or Obama as a VP nominee? 3) If not Edwards, who are the possible VP nominees for the Democrats—Who would be best with Clinton—Who would be best for Obama? (I’m assuming those two would never consent to... Magazine mikefeder 2008-02-03T18:31:31-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000090.html It’s not puzzling that John Edwards has been officially designated missing-in-action by the major media organizations. He is so clearly anti-corporate, and the television channels, networks, and most newspapers are either large corporations in themselves or owned by even larger corporations. I doubt there’s any actual memo issued or e-mail sent (though you never really know these days), but it wouldn’t be a shock if someone came forward later to testify that they were told at the highest level to more-or-less stop covering Edward’s run for the nomination; just cease paying attention to the man. What is much more likely is that there’s no direct, person-to-person conspiracy involved; there doesn’t have to be. The corporate influence that prevails everywhere, combined with the supreme superficiality of American popular culture, would be enough to doom John Edwards to obscurity. Doesn’t have to be instant cable news either… I noticed that even... Magazine mikefeder 2008-01-21T15:58:56-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000089.html This following article on Don Imus and his firing by was commissioned back in June by Larry Flint’s Hustler Magazine and appears in the current issue. It is reprinted here with the permission of Hustler Magazine and Larry Flint Publications. Interestingly, an article appeared just recently in The New York Times business section mentioning that Imus had reached a financial settlement with CBS, and speculating when and where he might show up on radio again. Don Imus Imus… play with his name a little and you get: I’m us. And, in a profoundly sad way, Imus is us. He is America. He is/was/will be again when he gets hired someplace else, an angry, powerful, bigoted, white man. But at the same time, Imus is also a victim of the culture that gave birth to him, nurtured him and made him a sort of god to begin with. And in... Magazine mikefeder 2007-08-23T20:52:28-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000088.html The Ravaging Tide, Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities, by Mike Tidwell (in paperback from Free Press) Journalist Mike Tidwell has traveled extensively, especially in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, and, based on his travels, studies and observations, he predicted a hurricane exactly like Katrina—complete with that storm’s disastrous human and material effects—in his 2003 book: Bayou Farewell. But no horrifying, sinister tale ever invented (except descriptions of fire and flood in the Old Testament—Revelations in the New Testament and similar ancient tales of world-wide cataclysm) could compare with the story Tidwell has written here. And that’s because it’s real, its happening right now and its only going to get much worse before (and if) it ever gets better. I haven’t seen Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, and this is the first book I’ve read on global warming. But its all the information I... Magazine mikefeder 2007-07-15T20:38:20-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000087.html Review by Emily Feder, Arts Producer: The Mike Feder Show People who like Liev Schreiber argue that his intense facial expressions display a profound understanding of the dark, complex elements of human existence. I agree that Schreiber has a rigorous and dramatic intensity to him, but I have always thought his look was pretty much exactly the same, no matter what role he was playing: it seems more attributable to a desire to feel something, rather than the phenomenon of inhabiting a distinct, genuine role. I only began to have more respect for Schreiber as an artist after I saw him star in "Talk Radio" last weekend. "Talk Radio" is a revival of a play Eric Bogosian wrote twenty years ago about a radio personality named Barry Champlain, who is profound, defiantly charming, nasty, and unsympathetic all at once. Champlain is on the brink of mainstream success when the play... Magazine mikefeder 2007-03-11T17:35:01-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000086.html The Great Kisser by David Evanier (Rager Media, 2006) David Evanier (one of my closest friends) has been a writer all his life… He is the author of The One Star Jew, Red Love (a novelization of the life and times of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) and dozens of stories, reviews and essays published in leading literary journals. He has also written for New York Magazine, The Village Voice, and The New York Times Magazine. In addition to his literary work, David has also written several wonderful biographies, most prominent among them: Making The Wise Guys Weep—The Jimmy Roselli Story, and Roman Candle, The Life of Bobby Darin. David calls The Great Kisser, a “novel in stories”. And it is more or less just that. It’s a collection of short and long stories, which don’t always proceed in particularly chronological order but follow a different sort of time line—the... Magazine mikefeder 2006-12-15T20:47:23-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000084.html There are a few new books out now (or coming out soon) on impeaching the current president. (A digression…I try to avoid saying “President Bush” because it still pains me to say or write George Bush’s name in conjunction with the word “President”— Even when I read it in the paper or hear it from some newsperson or comedian it makes me wince). In any case, I’ve just read two of the books on impeachment… The first is: The Impeachment of George W. Bush, A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens by Elizabeth Holtzman and Cynthia Cooper (journalist and author). Liz Holtzman was, as most of you over 50 might remember, the very young congresswoman from Brooklyn who sat on the House Judiciary Committee that recommended the impeachment of Richard Nixon. The second book is by Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky. Lindorff is an investigative journalist and author, and Olshansky... Magazine mikefeder 2006-11-15T16:40:13-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000083.html Just wanted anyone who checks in here from time to time, (or anyone who stumbled across this site on their way to Vegas Big-Deal or Hot Mormon Chicks or whatever)… I am going to be doing a new radio program (in addition to my regular show on Sirius Satellite). The new show will be one hour-- from 2-3pm, every Thursday (Eastern Time) on Gary Null’s Progressive Radio Network. This is internet radio… So what you do is go to the website: http://www.progressiveradionetwork.org -- then click on listen. You can also call in live to the show—something I always encourage. (I will be giving out the number on the air) There is also a mention on the site of shows being archived (available for listening at a different time) but this seems, for the moment, to be a work in progress…... Magazine mikefeder 2006-10-17T11:07:48-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000082.html I better post something just to show (myself) and, perhaps, the world, that I actually have a heartbeat… beat… beat… Something, not with form or function, because I’m not interested in or even quite capable of that just at this moment More something stream-of-consciousness-like… Sitting here in my apartment, bricks to the left of me, bricks to the right of me, bricks in front of me… Into the valley of bricks rode the Six Hundred (is it six hundred? I’m too lazy to go on-line and check it. I think Six hundred was the size of a British light cavalry brigade in the middle of the 19th century)… Anyways, the point is that they were undaunted (the Six Hundred). Never felt the slightest daunt… They rode straight into the Valley of Death because—well, because they were a bunch of homosuicidal drunk-on-their-own-imperial-glory killers who couldn’t believe a bunch of Wogs could... Magazine mikefeder 2006-09-15T18:18:54-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000080.html In the early seventies, which I unashamedly think of as the good old days, the way you sold old books if you didn’t have a store was by advertising them in the weekly magazine of the old book trade—The AB Bookman’s Weekly. It was an unslick, approximately 100 page magazine that had articles on collecting, book business problems, the fine points of certain books and long, long lists of books wanted by dealers and collectors and books for sale by dealers. It was a monopoly AB had; there was no other way for the itinerant ramblers in the trade to sell their books for a decent price. Course, you could always sell them for an indecent price—You could go a used book store but they never paid more than a couple of dollars for a book, and you were lucky to get that much—even for a hard-to-find book worth 40... Magazine mikefeder 2006-08-06T19:25:39-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000079.html I can’t say I am completely mystified about what Israel is doing right now— I’m pretty sure I can see some political plan to their current military behavior. But no matter what “sense” I can make of what they are doing—it has become necessary for me to say that I am completely disgusted by their indiscriminate use of violence on innocent civilians. Well, there’s nothing startling or revolutionary about saying that—the whole world is, and should be, disgusted by what Israel doing right now. (It’s so bad that even the New York Daily News, the most blindly pro-Israel newspaper in the country, featured a huge headline and article about the massacre Israeli jets just perpetrated in Lebanon yesterday. Usually The News finds a way to ignore, downplay or justify anything violent done by the Israelis to anyone else). So, no big deal to say I am repelled by Israel’s current... Magazine mikefeder 2006-07-31T19:32:36-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000078.html I recently interviewed an author on my program on Sirius who has written a book I advise everyone to read. The book is Kingdom Coming, The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg., published by Norton. Ms. Goldberg is a professional journalist who has worked for years for Salon.com and traveled the country extensively covering various cultural and political phenomena (She has also covered the Middle East). Her book is about the vast, interlocking network of aggressive Christian/Evangelical organizations, publications, "scientific" foundations, MegaChurches, and lobbying groups whose central goal is to make The USA a Christian Country (all others need not apply or can take a walk—if they have time to pack when it all comes down). These evangelicals, who are truly the base upon which Bush builds his elections and who influence his personal worldview are not a merely a FRINGE group of loons who believe in Creationism ("Intelligent... Magazine mikefeder 2006-06-24T15:28:37-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000077.html The Great Deluge, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and The Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Douglas Brinkley… Published by William Morrow This is a long book; 716 pages—over 250, 000 words. Actually, to be precise, 254,839 words—not counting notes and bibliography. I hear you all asking (and you might try raising your hands for once, instead of shouting out all at once). How is it, Mike, that you know exactly how many words there are in this book? I mean, give me a break, did you really count them? In fact I did—or, rather, my word counter on the computer did. And the reason for that is because I abridged this book for the publisher. I shortened it to 56,000 words to be recorded and put on 6 CD’s. As is generally the case, they sent me the manuscript about six weeks before publication and I abridged it so it could be... Magazine mikefeder 2006-05-22T16:20:14-05:00 http://www.federfiles.com/archives/000076.html My fellow Americans... When I'm home during the day, working-- or, at least, intending to or seeming to work, I keep some easy-listening station on in the background-- And, of course, I hear the hourly news reports. One news item yesterday, in the midst of all this tragic craziness about oil and gasoline prices that I found completely astounding, and, sadly, perfectly symbolic about the near fatal illness of this country... The announcer said that Exonn-Mobil had announced a quarterly profit of 8 Billion dollars... OK, that's criminal enough, considering everything that surrounds that figure and what it means for all of us-- but here's the real kicker... The newsguy went on to say: "...Wall Street expressed dissapointment in the report, expecting the profits to be higher-- and sent the Exonn's stock down slightly." (Historical note: Wall Street was named for the wall put up by the Dutch to keep... Magazine mikefeder 2006-04-28T18:38:20-05:00