Randy Cohen

Good one! But no, it is not possible that Trump is thinking of the Iliad. Even your "vague memory" is generous. (Alas.)

Good one! But no, it is not possible that True is thinking of The Iliad.

“I met Gide and Hemmingway and Ravel. I even shook hands with Camille Saint-Saëns,” says Aaron Copland (as played by Michael Boriskin). The best bar ever? No, the home of his composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger, Listen: personplacething.org

Was he Leonard Bernstein’s lover? Aaron Copland (as played by Michael Boriskin) is vague about it. A conversation from beyond the grave. Listen: personplacething.org

Architect Charles Renfro distinguishes “queer” from “gay.” The former “has nothing to do with sexuality; it has to do with openness and invention—inventing yourself.” Listen: personplacething.org

Architecture changes but does it progress? Architect Charles Renfro says, “We can talk about the word ‘progress,’ which I hate; I disdain the word. I don’t really believe there’s such a thing.” He does not refer to medical science. I hope. Listen: personplacething.org

Architect Charles Renfro describes Berlin’s Berghaim nightclub. “The music is so loud that you become disoriented, but in a great great great great way.” The best sort of disorientation. Listen: personplacething.org

“You should always do something that you could get hurt doing,” says architect Charles Renfro. Not suicidal but alive, able to move through the world without being told how. Listen: personplacething.org

Richard Nelson directed several of his plays translated into languages he does not speak—French, Ukrainian. How did he know what was going on? “You could just feel whether you’re being truthful or not.” Listen: personplacething.org

“When I’m lost as a writer, a playwright, director, and often as a person, says Richard Nelson, “I turn to two writers most often. One is Anton Chekov, and the other is Harley Granville Barker.” Who? Exactly! Listen: personplacething.org

“A play is many perspectives at once,” says writer Richard Nelson. “If you’ve got ten actors on stage, you’ve got ten points of view on stage.” And a surprisingly big budget. Listen: personplacething.org

LaFrae Sci @frae-frae111.bsky.social, head of @WillieMaeRockCamp.bsky.social is wary of calling Robert Johnson a “genius.” “That moniker can undermine or dehumanize the work he put into his craft.” Listen: personplacething.org

LaFrae Sci @frae-frae111.bsky.social, head of @WillieMaeRockCamp.bsky.social notes that their namesake, Willie Mae Thornton, “was not anybody’s idea of a lead singer, visually.” But that voice! Listen: personplacething.org

LaFrae Sci @frae-frae111.bsky.social of @WillieMaeRockCamp.bsky.social teaches girls blues and STEM. “I told them Bessie Smith was more famous than Beyonce in her day, and they asked me how did she get famous without the internet?” Kids! Listen: personplacething.org

Journalist Ali Velishi @velshi.com of @ms.now says, “Once you say thank you to a guest, they must go away, and you go to the next segment.” He means on the air, not when you host a dinner party. Listen: personplacething.org

Journalist Ali Velishi @velshi.com of @ms.now recalls, “There’s a photograph of my grandfather on Gandhi’s shoulders.” His grandfather was only seven, but still. Listen: personplacething.org

Journalist Ali Velishi @velshi.com of @ms.now notes, “Telling people they get the government they asked for is fine until it starts to affect the rest of us.” There’s always a catch. Listen: personplacething.org

The former head of NYC’s Economic Development Corp., @AndrewKimball.bsky.social, says his organization “thinks in decades, not four-year cycles.” I’m impressed by any agency that thinks at all. Listen: personplacething.org

Former head of NYC’s Economic Development Corp. @AndrewKimball.bsky.social named “our number one crisis as a country and city.” I went for the cheap Trump joke; he meant climate change. Similar, actually. Listen: personplacething.org

The former head of NYC’s Economic Development Corp. @AndrewKimball.bsky.social quotes his friend and mentor Dan Doctoroff: “We need to radically collaborate.” The Zen of urban planning. Listen: personplacething.org

When composer Carlos Simon met his hero Qunicy Jones, he hoped for brilliant musical insights. “The first thing he asked me, ‘Hey, man, what’s your sign?’” Listen: personplacething.org

By age ten, composer Carlos Simon was playing the organ in his father’s church. “The Black church is essentially a conservatory for musicians.” Listen: personplacething.org

Looking forward to our conversation and his playing, a better arrangement than the other way around. Do join us.

Adrian Untermyer notes that, in addition to ordinary citizens, retail tycoons F. W. Woolworth and J.C. Penney are buried in Woodlawn cemetery, “the magnates together with their customers.” The democracy of death. Listen: personplacething.org

Adrian Untermyer likes the public performances at Woodlawn Cemetery—dance, music—as long as they’re adjacent to but not directly on top of a grave. Superstition? Respect. Listen: personplacething.org

Robert Moses, who ravaged the Bronx, is buried there, in Woodlawn Cemetery. Adrian Untermyer says, “Right by the off-ramp to the Major Degan expressway. He gets exhaust and beeps.” Poetic justice among the dead. Listen: personplacething.org

Lower cost copies of Jane Austen that pr0liferated in America in the 1850s are rarer today than pricey editions, say Janine Barchas and Mary Crawford, “The cheaper the book, the lower the survival rate.” Listen: personplacething.org

In the 1890s, Lever Soap gave away its edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. “It demonstrates how popular she was if you’re giving her away and trying to ride the coat tails of her brand,” say Janine Barchas and Mary Craawford. Listen: personplacething.org

Paola Antonelli, Curator of Architecture and Design at @MoMA.bsky.social, declares, “Not all design is commercial, and not all art is non-commercial.” Well, sure, if you’re gong to be nuanced and perceptive. Listen: personplacething.org

Paola Antonelli of @MoMA.bsky.social observes, “It’s a little bit Milanese to be envious; New Yorkers are not like that.” She is, of course, from Milan. And quite wrong. But in such a kindly way. Listen: personplacething.org