KCRW's The Urban Man Podcasts

PodcastDirectory / Variety / Public Radio
PodcastDirectory / Regions / NA / USA

Every week, The Urban Man sets out to fathom Los Angeles: its mystery, its poetry, and its beautiful conundrums. Along the way, he often gets personally involved with his subject and fraternizes with the natives. Primary Format : Public Radio Language : English Also Listed as: City : Santa Monica State/Province : CA Country : USA Region : NA User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of KCRW's The Urban Man Podcasts Methings.com listings of KCRW's The Urban Man Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

Not the Messiah Like millions around the world, I was a tad disappointed on Inauguration Day. It was that downbeat speech, the man's refusal to assume the mantle of Messiah, or even flat-outpromise me a better world. I had anticipated the announcement of a newera or at least a fiery dawn. I had expected a Google-Earth zoom out toglobal truths... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reasonableness It’s the night before the inauguration, and like many Americans, the Urban Man has gone to dwell briefly in the 18th century. You remember the 18th Century: enlightenment, rationality, the belief in progress and common purpose—all things lately out of fashion. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Getting Real Last week, the Urban Man attempted to spend a whole day gettingreal. No kidding: I tried to devote a full 24 hours to looking lifeboldly in the eye. I meant to stop dodging issues, deluding myself, orignoring bills stuffed in drawers. I intended not to duck hard facts,even if they hit me square on the forehead... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Necessary Bureaucracy Tonight I want to tell you about the kiss of a beautiful woman. It was,I assure you, exquisite. But first we have a little bureaucracy tocomplete... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Necessary Bureaucracy Tonight I want to tell you about the kiss of a beautiful woman. It was,I assure you, exquisite. But first we have a little bureaucracy tocomplete... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009: Not as Bad as You Think Once again, it’s time to announce my highly-anticipated predictions for the coming year. Once again, the Urban Man has been chatting up leading psychics and diligently caucusing with unnamed sources... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009: Not as Bad as You Think Once again, it’s time to announce my highly-anticipated predictions for the coming year. Once again, the Urban Man has been chatting up leading psychics and diligently caucusing with unnamed sources... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Watch for the Urban Man Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Watch for the Urban Man Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Warming Up 4th and Main Again the other night, the Urban Man headed out to help warm updowntown L.A. Like many downtowns around the country, ours is a big,cold place after dark– so as usual, it required some thousands of Angelenos to get it done... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Warming Up 4th and Main Again the other night, the Urban Man headed out to help warm updowntown L.A. Like many downtowns around the country, ours is a big,cold place after dark– so as usual, it required some thousands of Angelenos to get it done... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Warming Up L.A. Live Once I heard Kevin Starr, the great California historian, say a remarkable thing about L.A. He said, "Now that we've poured all this concrete, we have to learn to love concrete." And I remember thinking, "Yes! What a noble request to make of the human spirit. After all, here in L.A. someone is always building something large and cold and ugly. And surely, it's our job to go out and warm these structures up, not just with our bodies and our cash, but our affections." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Warming Up L.A. Live Once I heard Kevin Starr, the great California historian, say a remarkable thing about L.A. He said, "Now that we've poured all this concrete, we have to learn to love concrete." And I remember thinking, "Yes! What a noble request to make of the human spirit. After all, here in L.A. someone is always building something large and cold and ugly. And surely, it's our job to go out and warm these structures up, not just with our bodies and our cash, but our affections." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Tree of Numbers Recently, while working his day job, the Urban Man almost set off yetanother global financial crisis. Really. All because of cell H33 onpage 5 of a spreadsheet I was constructing... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Tree of Numbers Recently, while working his day job, the Urban Man almost set off yetanother global financial crisis. Really. All because of cell H33 onpage 5 of a spreadsheet I was constructing... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Out Looking for the Spark Last week I got a little depressed. Yes, it happens even to the mostdedicated Angeleno. Maybe it was a post-election depression or maybe itwas part of the upcoming global depression…in any case, I needed to access The Spark of Life... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Out Looking for the Spark Last week I got a little depressed. Yes, it happens even to the mostdedicated Angeleno. Maybe it was a post-election depression or maybe itwas part of the upcoming global depression…in any case, I needed to access The Spark of Life... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Last View of Atlantis Wasn't it a shame that just before Athens fell, nobody snapped any pictures…or okay, made a few sketches? I mean, wouldn't it be great to see how the Acropolis actually looked? The Roman Colosseum? The Colossus of Rhodes?... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The New World Just after the election, I read a quote from a woman in France whosaid, "I think America is re-becoming a new world." All week long thatphrase rang musically in the ear of the Urban Man as he went lookingfor the new world right here in L.A.... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Standing at the Edge, Part II I don't know about you, but tonight the Urban Man feels ten monthspregnant. I'm lying here with a strangely distended belly, waitinghelplessly for the birth of a new world... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Standing at the Edge I don't know about you, but even though the world is coming to an end,I haven't yet noticed any despair on the streets. The people I run intoseem curiously upbeat, in fact unusually free with their smiles. Newvitality has entered social gatherings. A strange optimism. Maybethat's because every time one world ends, another begins, and whoknows—the next world might be better... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mastering 'It' Mastering 'It' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Evading Mere Logic Here in L.A., we're good at evading logic. Usually this only requires high production values and snappy dialog. I mean, if the explosions are big enough, the audience will forget that the car ran out of gas before the last commercial break. Give the hero a black leather trench coat, and no one will realize that he could have, you know, gone to the police three scenes back. And yes, if the lyrics of her song are well-phrased, no one will notice that the heroine has no way of actually suppor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An Unwelcome Revelation Every now and then the truth leaks out. You know, the way the universe is really organized. Maybe you knew it all along, or maybe you suspected it long ago. Still, when you accidentally hear the inner ticking of the gears or glimpse the secret action of the levers, the mind does tend to reel... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Serengeti of Expectations This Thursday is Valentine's Day, but because my mate believes that romance should be spontaneous, we have made no reservations. With reservations, she says, come expectations. With expectations, comes disappointment. Love, claims the Mate of the Urban Man, requires sudden adventure and hot, sweet surprise. So again this year, we'll simply head into the glittery night, and see what turns up... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Real Thing Every day it may get harder to separate the real from the dramatic, the genuine from the theatrical, the costumes and lights from the heartfelt McCoy. But even here in L.A., we crave authenticity. We don't want knock-offs, we want Diors; not just directors, but auteurs; not mere relationships, but sometimes, by G-d, marriage... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Old Friend Marcus Martialis Like many Americans, the Urban Man often worries about Rome. Not the modern Rome, but the ancient Rome---as in, "Will America suffer a similar fate. Will our empire fall to barbarians or zealots." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Little Paper Masks All last week, the Urban Man was having his hardwood floors refinished; so today, my listeners have every right to expect some amusing tales. You know: The dust. The fumes. The language barrier with the workers. And yes, I've already milked the topic in social settings. For example, I have some great shtick about the arguments with my wife... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Traces Left Behind Here in the city, we'd all like to leave behind some permanent mark. You know: A famous name. A thriving institution. A really excellent kitchen remodel... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pleasure Before we get started today, I'd like to announce a change in the format of this commentary. The Urban Man has decided to give up worrying about the soul of L.A. and become a luxury lifestyle reporter. From now on, you'll hear me speak brightly from inside gated estates. You'll hear me report on the handbags of elegant women. Sometimes I'll rhapsodize about the curves on the rear ends of fine automobiles or speculate on the meaning of the double G in the Gucci logo... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fireworks for the Nation-State Fireworks for the Nation-State Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Masters of the Unnecessary, Part II A couple weeks ago, the Urban Man joined thousands of his fellow Angelenos on the Culver City Art Walk. No kidding, thousands. They came four-abreast, 20- and 30-something, in carefully-chosen clothes. At the peak, we were jostling each other off the sidewalks of Washington Boulevard... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Those Annoying Paradigm Shifts The other day I went hunting for paradigm shifts, you know: basic changes in the human landscape. Naturally, I followed the geeks. You see, geeks invent things: steam engines, television sets, nuclear fission, MP3 players, online dating. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Those Annoying Paradigm Shifts The other day I went hunting for paradigm shifts, you know: basic changes in the human landscape. Naturally, I followed the geeks. You see, geeks invent things: steam engines, television sets, nuclear fission, MP3 players, online dating. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mood of Mother Nature, Part II Now, you may wonder why I even care about the weather when I work in a sealed high rise. Why I worry about drought when some guys in orange overalls pipe my water in from ...somewhere. Don't I have automatic sprinklers for my lawn. And of course you're right. I can't explain my interest exactly. Probably some nostalgic fixation... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mood of Mother Nature, Part II Now, you may wonder why I even care about the weather when I work in a sealed high rise. Why I worry about drought when some guys in orange overalls pipe my water in from ...somewhere. Don't I have automatic sprinklers for my lawn. And of course you're right. I can't explain my interest exactly. Probably some nostalgic fixation... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mood of Mother Nature, Part I Like most Angelenos, I worry that Mother Nature doesn't actually love L.A. That despite the illusion of paradise, she would have preferred we build our megacity somewhere else. She always provides too little or too much water. And of course, she sends the occasional quake, as if she wanted to chase us away... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Blackberry Event Horizon The ancient prophets described life as a movement from birth toward salvation. Einstein spoke of the space/time continuum. But the Urban Man rarely experiences time as a curvature of space or a journey toward heaven. No, like most, I usually see it as a To-Do list--a series of uncompleted tasks... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Out-of-Town Romance It's almost Valentine's Day, and once again Angelenos will set out toconjure sparks of romance in the metropolis. We'll make reservations,drive the hills--but as usual, it won't be easy... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website