Emily and Melissa Elsen are the owners of the Brooklyn-based pie shop and café Four & Twenty Blackbirds. They gave the SELECTED SHORTS team a tour, and talked about how cooking came down in their family, and about using seasonal ingredients and facing fear of crusts!
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Pies Rule!
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Boys Just Want to Have Fun
This reading by Colman Domingo of Justin Torres’ story “Trash Kites” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Love, Cake, and Kites,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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A Serial Lover
This reading by Robert Sean Leonard of Mark Strand’s story “True Loves” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Love, Cake, and Kites,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Michael Chabon Meets Bisquick
This reading by David Furr of Michael Chabon’s essay “Art of Cake” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Love, Cake, and Kites,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Selected Shorts: Romantic Calamities
Romantic confusion and comic advice for the lovelorn are offered in the five stories on this program.
First, Patricia Marx tracks a difficult courtship in “Starting from Happy” in an excerpt from her illustrated novel of the same name. The reader is SHORTS’ go-to girl for wacky, Kirsten Vangsness.
If the characters in the first Marx piece are starting from happy, things have ended badly for her second pair. We know this because our guide, Debby, is taking us on an “Audio Tour,” of her ex-boyfriend’s apartment. (“You are standing in Todd Niesle’s foyer. The faux faux-marble table on your right is attributed to Todd Niesle’s mother, circa last Christmas. It’s a fine example of a piece that I, Debby, do not like.”) Marx is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and the story is read by Anna Chlumsky, who starred in the rite-of-passage films “My Girl” and “My Girl 2.” She currently has a featured role on “Veep,” and other television credits include “White Collar” and “Law and Order: SVU.”
In between these two tales, Simon Rich re-imagines the “Occupy” movement as a love triangle. A frustrated activist channels his problems with the “fat cats” of Wall Street into an equal frustration with the unattainable girl he’s had a crush on since their first day of college. Rich was a staff writer for “Saturday Night Live,” and his books include Elliot Allagash, What in God's Name, and Last Girlfriend on Earth, which features “Occupy Jen’s Street.” The reader is comedian Wyatt Cenac, formerly of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
Coaching a “Swim Team” is a cure for a broken heart in Miranda July’s story, read by guest host Parker Posey. July is a writer, filmmaker and performance artist whose books include No One Belongs Here More than You, Corpse Tale, and It Chooses You.
Finally, man is confounded by a confident woman in Aimee Bender’s “The Meeting,” read by Kate Burton at the Boston University Theatre in Boston, presented by the Huntington Theatre Company and Jonathan Reinis Productions. Bender is the author of the books The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of My Own, WillfulCreatures, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake among other works.
Reader Kate Burton’s many credits include her critically acclaimed performance in Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” and roles in the television series “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Grimm,” and “Scandal.” She is a frequent performer at the Williamstown Theater Festival.
“Starting from Happy,” by Patricia Marx performed by Kirsten Vangsness
“Occupy Jen Street,” by Simon Rich, performed by Wyatt Cenac
“Audio Tour,” by Patricia Marx performed by Anna Chlumsky
“The Swim Team,” by Miranda July, performed by Parker Posey
“The Meeting,” by Aimee Bender, performed by Kate Burton
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
(This is a repeat broadcast)
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
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Starting from Happy
This reading by Kirsten Vangsness of Patricia Marx’s “Starting from Happy” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Romantic Calamities,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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99% Rejected
This reading by Wyatt Cenac of Simon Rich’s “Occupy Jen Street,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Romantic Calamities,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Workouts for a Broken Heart
This reading by Parker Posey of Miranda July’s story “The Swim Team” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Romantic Calamities,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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She's not the One/She's the One
This reading by Kate Burton of Aimee Bender’s story “The Meeting” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Romantic Calamities,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Selected Shorts: Wish Fulfillment
Guest host Parker Posey introduces four stories about needs, yearnings and flights of fancy.
Two stories by Etgar Keret show the comic side of children’s fantasies. Parker Posey, who also hosts, reads “Glittery Eyes,” in which an entitled child yearns for the one thing she can’t have, and Willem Dafoe reads “What Animal Are You?”, whose exasperated narrator—a celebrated author whose home is invaded by a public television crew—may or may not be a Keret stand-in. He gently subverts media conventions and delights in the way children can upset the status quo.
Both stories came from an hilarious evening at Symphony Space in which Keret, visiting from his home in Tel Aviv, shared the stage with Russian-born writer Gary Shteyngart.
Shteyngart is the bestselling author of the novels The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story, and the memoir Little Failure. In “Sixty-Nine Cents,” first published in The New Yorker, he recalls a youthful passion for McDonald’s and how it symbolized becoming an American. He and SHORTS’ literary commentator Hannah Tinti chatted about the story and his memoir in the segment below, and “Sixty-Nine Cents” is performed by independent filmmaker Alex Karpovsky, who also has a featured role on “Girls.”
Our final story is by sly fantasist Steven Millhauser, who imagines what a typical boring summer would be like with “Flying Carpets.” Everyone in the young hero’s sleepy suburban backwater has one. Where you go is up to you. Billy Campbell is the reader, from the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Campbell’s television credits include “Once and Again,” “Crime Story,” “The 4400,” and “Tales of the City.” Films include “The Rocketeer,” “Bram Stoker's Dracula,” and “Enough.”
“Glittery Eyes,” by Etgar Keret, performed by Parker Posey
“Sixty-Nine Cents,” by Gary Shteyngart, performed by Alex Karpovsky
“What Animal Are You?” By Etgar Keret, performed by Willem Dafoe
“Flying Carpets,” by Steven Millhauser, performed by Billy Campbell
(This is a repeat broadcast)
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
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Glittery Eyes
This reading by Parker Posey of Etgar Keret’s “Glittery Eyes” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Wish Fulfillment,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Gary Shteyngart Talks with Hannah Tinti
Gary Shteyngart spoke with SHORTS literary commentator Hannah Tinti about how food helped link him to America, about his writing, and the making of his memoir Little Failure, for the SELECTED SHORTS program “Wish Fulfillment,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Flying Carpets
This reading by Billy Campbell of Steven Millhauser’s “Flying Carpets” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Wish Fulfillment,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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What Animal Are You?
This reading by Willem Dafoe of Etgar Keret’s “What Animal Are You?” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Wish Fulfillment,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Sixty-Nine Cent Hamburger
This reading by Alex Karpovsky of Gary Shteyngart’s “Sixty-Nine Cents” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Wish Fulfillment,” hosted by Parker Posey.
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Selected Shorts: Readers, Writers, and Dreamers
On this show we look, comically and seriously, at readers and writers, with guest host John Lithgow.
Most Americans are familiar with “Mr Ed” the talking horse from the popular 1960s sitcom. But Ed actually got his start in stories by the American author Walter R. Brooks, who also wrote the “Freddy the Pig” stories.
The Mr. Ed stories were first published in the 1930s and 1940s, and poke fun at suburban life. The sage and salty horse is owned by long-suffering Wilbur Pope. In “Ed Has His Mind Improved,” Wilbur teaches his horse to read, but Ed’s taste in literature proves to be embarrassingly low, with hilarious consequences. The reader is Broadway star Tony Roberts.
The late Ray Bradbury is best known for his fantasy work, such as the novels Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. But “Exchange” is a gentle, realistic tale of a late-night encounter between an overworked librarian and a lonely soldier, savoring, almost viscerally, his first contact with books in many years. The reader is SHORTS regular Rochelle Oliver.
The program concludes with a vivid short by that writer’s writer, Jorge Luis Borges. “Dream Tigers” expresses the struggle to realize imaginative visions—in this case, the form of a tiger. The reader is SHORTS’ late host and founder, Isaiah Sheffer.
“Ed Has His Mind Improved,” by Walter R. Brooks, performed by Tony Roberts
“Exchange,” by Ray Bradbury, performed by Rochelle Oliver
“Dreamtigers,” by Jorge Luis Borges, performed by Isaiah Sheffer.
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
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A Talking Horse, Of Course
This reading by Tony Roberts of Walter R. Brooks’ “Ed Has His Mind Improved,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Readers, Writers, and Dreamers,” hosted by John Lithgow.
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Dreaming of Dreamtigers
This reading by Isaiah Sheffer of Jorge Luis Borges’ “Dreamtigers” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Readers, Writers, and Dreamers,” hosted by John Lithgow.
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The Soldier and the Librarian
This reading Rochelle Oliver of Ray Bradbury’s “Exchange” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Readers, Writers, and Dreamers,” hosted by John Lithgow.
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Selected Shorts: Out of the Kitchen with Lucky Peach
Guest host Hope Davis introduces writings from the quarterly food journal Lucky Peach, founded by celebrity chef David Chang, owner of Momofuku, and writer Peter Meehan. We learn about Chinese drinking games from bar-hopper extraordinaire Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking with Men: A Memoir. Her piece “Gaming at Winnie’s" is read by Gaby Hoffmann. Next, Lucky Peach co-founder Peter Meehan recalls a dubious part of his own culinary past—a weird hybrid recipe called “Crab Rangoon.” He’s the reader, too. Seville orange marmalade isn’t for the faint-hearted, warns chef Kevin West, in a little essay read by Gaby Hoffman. If you’re willing to try your hand, West recommends 5 lbs Seville oranges, 3½ quarts water, and 5 lbs organic sugar, and a large 10-quart preserving pan. Chef Jase Grimm has different challenges—he’s the program’s “South Pole Cook,” in a piece read by David Cross. (“I can’t wait until I go out there in the middle of winter and there’s like Aurora Australis out there as I’m pulling six-year-old frozen zucchini out of a box.”)
And since this is a fiction series, there’s also a great short story: Nelly Riefler’s “Supreme Cloud Ear,” a noir-ish tale in which a treasured mushroom is as hotly pursued as the Maltese Falcon. Sarah Steele performs the story.
Comedian and podcaster Marc Maron is good at getting other people to open up, but here he does a little confiding of his own about how his bought-on-the-street cast-iron cooking pot becomes the obsessive center of his universe during trying times. David Cross performs Maron’s “Pan-American.”
And for what in that great food town New Orleans is known as lagniappe (a little something extra), we sat Peter Meehan and Rosie Schaap down in our studios to hear more of the back story behind “Gaming at Winnie’s.”
- “Gaming at Winnie’s” by Rosie Schaap; performed by Gaby Hoffmann
- “Crab Rangoon,” by Peter Meehan, read by Meehan
- “Seville Orange Marmalade” by Kevin West; performed by Gaby Hoffmann
- “The South Pole Cook” by Jase Grimm; performed by David Cross
- “Supreme Cloud Ear” by Nelly Riefler; performed by Sarah Steele
- “Pan-American” by Marc Maron; performed by David Cross
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
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