Thursday, I had an hour-long conversation with singer, songwriter, and author Janis Ian – and it was recorded for TV, connected with this weekend’s Rutgers University Writers’ Conference in New Brunswick. It was fun, and you can see it here…
The Rutgers-New Brunswick Writers’ Conference is June 3-4. Author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane gives the keynote address, and teaches a seminar. Janis Ian gives a Friday night concert, and also teaches seminars. And I teach a few seminars, too, on Saturday. Full details can be found at the Rutgers university website.
Meanwhile, my conversation with Janis Ian, conducted an hour or so after we met for the first time, can be viewed at the Rutgers iTV site on Vimeo. My TV connection with her is long-standing: She was a guest on the very first edition of NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 1975, singing “At Seventeen,” introduced by guest host George Carlin. Billy Preston was on that first show, too, along with Andy Kaufman, the Muppets, a film by Albert Brooks, and the then-unknown Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
Come to the Friday concert, or the weekend seminars, if you can. But watch this interview – Janis Ian, either way, will be as much fun to hear as she was to talk to...
Just excuse the fact, please, that in this interview, I look disturbingly like Jiminy Glick. That settles it. My diet's on...