Monday, March 7, 2011: Millions of people have heard Charles Fox’s music without ever knowing it. He composed some of the most recognizable television theme songs of all time including “Happy Days,” “Wonder Woman,” “The Love Boat,” “Love, American Style,” “Laverne and Shirley,” as well as “Monday Night Football” and “The Wide World of Sports.” Fox recently published his memories titled after another of his most famous compositions, made famous by Roberta Flack. It’s called Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music. Then, this winter, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond hosts Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris, the largest Picasso exhibition seen in the U.S. in the past 70 years. Robin Nicholson is Deputy Director for Exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011: Journalist Daleen Berry is a victim of sex abuse. In her memoir, Sister of Silence, she recounts the early acts of violence that led her to the near suicide-murder of her own child. Berry describes the trauma, repression and, finally, the therapy that helped her recover from teenage rape and domestic violence.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011: Pioneer TV journalist Belva Davis overcame racism and sexism to become the first black female news anchor on the West Coast. She tells her story in her memoir Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism. Then, the Colorado-based band DeVotchKa, the Russian word for “girl,” burst onto the music scene in 2006 with their soundtrack for the hit film Little Miss Sunshine. Labeled “Gypsy punk,” DeVotchKa’s sound is an eclectic mash-up of Klezmer and American roots music. Front man Nick Urata talks with Bob about their most recent album 100 Lovers.
Thursday, March 10, 2011: Each year in early March, high school seniors receive their college acceptance and rejection letters. In Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kids into College, Andrew Ferguson shares his family’s tales of college admissions woe. Then, long before his Oscar-winning performance in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, actor Alan Arkin was a favorite of both critics and audiences alike. A skilled comedian, Arkin first came to popular notice in the 1966 farce The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Since then, Arkin has acted in and directed some 100 films, many of which he details in his new memoir An Improvised Life.
Friday, March 11, 2011: National Journal Group Congressional correspondent Susan Davis joins Bob to talk about politics and other news. Next, musicians Eric Brace, Peter Cooper and Mike Auldridge join Bob in our performance studio to play a few tunes and to talk about their latest CD titled Master Sessions. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Kimberly Woodbury. She is a student at the Episcopal Seminary at Yale. She is fascinated by the relationship between science and faith. After her graduation, Woodbury will work as an Episcopal priest and chemistry teacher in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She sees the Big Bang and the story of Genesis as two sides of the same coin.