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Survival Kit Archive


November 2003

Al Franken

Sunday, November 30, 2003

Al Franken strikes me as something of a split personality; there is the incisive political satirist, author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiotand Other Observations and Why Not Me: The Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency, writer and performer on 15 seasons of Saturday night Live, star of the sitcom Lateline, commentator for Comedy Central’selection coverage and guest on Politically Incorrect. But there is also the softer, touchy-feely side: his alter-ego Stuart Smalley, unlicensed therapist, author of I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough and Doggone It, People Like Me and, of course, Dr. Al Franken and his book Oh, The Things I Know! : A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness. Let’s see if he’s packed politics or advice in his Survival Kit.


Ken Burns

Friday, November 21, 2003

Ken Burns is no stranger to the idea of enforced isolation. He spent five and a half years working on his epic documentary "The Civil War," longer than the war itself, and for much of that time he was holed up in a tiny apartment away from his family. He has celebrated all things American in his series on Baseball and Jazz, and in his shorter films "The Brooklyn Bridge," "The Statue of Liberty," "Mark Twain," "Huey Long," and others. He’s even retraced the steps of Lewis and Clark and documented the first cross-country car trip in "Horatio’s Journey." Let’s find out what he would do with an unbroken stretch in a remote place, and what he’d put in his cultural Survival Kit.


Sarah Vowell

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Sarah Vowell seems like a perfect candidate for a retreat in the woods; she grew up in Montana and Oklahoma, she is part Cherokee, and she’s the daughter of a gunsmith. But she has spent her adult years in cities like San Francisco and Chicago, and she currently lives in New York City. She is a contributing editor for public radio’s This American Life, and the author of the books Radio On, Take the Cannoli, and The Partly Cloudy Patriot. Let’s see what she’s got in her cultural survival kit for a trip back to the wilderness.


Don Novello

Sunday, November 09, 2003

You may know him as Father Guido Sarducci, the chain smoking Vatican gossip columnist and rock critic who cracked up viewers on Saturday Night Live, or maybe as Lazlo Toth, concerned American, who has corresponded with world leaders and published their replies in a series of hilarious books (the latest is From Bush to Bush:The Lazlo Toth Letters). But the man behind these two outrageous characters is actually comedian Don Novello. Maybe we can find out who he really is when we take a look at his survival kit.


Barry Levison

Sunday, November 02, 2003

Barry Levinson’s most personal films - Diner, Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights - have been love songs to his hometown of Baltimore, nostalgic looks at a way of life long gone. And although he has gone on to write, direct, and produce more than five dozen films, including Rain Man, The Natural, Good Morning Vietnam, Bugsy and Wag the Dog, he keeps returning to his native city, with the acclaimed TV series Homicide: Life on the Street and recently, a novel, Sixty-Six. I wonder if he’d like to spend his retreat in a cabin in the Maryland woods within hiking distance of Baltimore. Maybe we’ll find out when we see what he’s got in his Survival kit.