Broadcasters and podcasters only may download and reproduce the following broadcast-quality, uncompressed audio clips for reporting and review. These recordings were made during a Jan. 9, 2010 staged reading of James Howard Kunstler's "Big Slide" and talk by the author at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center in Rochester, N.Y. The entire staged reading was released on the author's podcast, The KunstlerCast, on Jan. 29 & Feb. 4, 2010.
For a full press release and contact information, click here.
Author and social commentator James Howard Kunstler is using live theater, podcasting and a self-published "e-book" to distribute his new three-act play, titled "Big Slide."
The story centers on a large family seeking refuge in the Adirondack Mountains as the country is collapsing into turmoil after an apparent coup in the White House.
(Actor reading part of) DANIEL: James Bardett was a weak man with a flair for political show biz. And we don't know whether he was knocked off or not. Really. (Emphatically) We don't know. We do know he ran the economy into the ground because he couldn't face the truth—and the truth is, you can't get something for nothing.
"Big Slide" was first performed before a live audience as a "staged reading" on Jan. 9 in Rochester, N.Y. and is available for listening through the author's weekly podcast.
JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER: It's a work of the imagination. It happens to be circumstantially about the times we're living in or the times we may be moving into.
Kunstler's nonfiction books include "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Long Emergency." His most recent novel, "World Made By Hand," takes place in a post-petroleum American future.
"Big Slide" is available for purchase as an e-book at the author's website: Kunstler.com.
SHORT CLIPS: 9 - 19 SECONDS
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DANIEL: James Bardett was a weak man with a flair for political show biz. And we don't know whether he was knocked off or not. Really. (Emphatically) We don't know. We do know he ran the economy into the ground because he couldn't face the truth—and the truth is, you can't get something for nothing. |
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NINA: Are you a vegetarian? RAVEN: Vegan, actually. ABBY: Oh dear. . . . RAVEN: If it comes from an animal, we don't eat it. ETTA: Not even eggs? RAVEN: Oh, God, no. ANDREW: Sounds rather. . . stringent. DANIEL: We'll see how long your little food neurosis lasts up here. |
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JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER: It's a work of the imagination. It happens to be circumstantially about the times we're living in or the times we may be moving into. |
LONGER CLIPS: 30 - 40 SECONDS
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JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER: I'm really not trying to, like, put a message across to inform everybody. It is after all... it's a work of the imagination. It happens to be circumstantially about the times we're living in or the times we may be moving into. And it's very dramatic material. We're in a nation that's kind of going through a slow-motion train wreck. Obviously our situation is not as grave as the compressed events that are portrayed in this play, that happen very suddenly and quickly. |
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JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER: The situation in regional theater is now that nobody wants to do a play with more than two characters-- optimally, one character so that every play ends up being somebody impersonating Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson and that's all you get are little biographical, you know, "A Night With Emily Dickenson." Nobody wants to do anything except that. And it's unfortunate, you know, we need -- this was designed to be a classic three act play with a lot of people in it. |
.mp3 Preview: Right-click to download BigSlide1.2.wav
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DANIEL: James Bardett was a weak man with a flair for political show biz. And we don't know whether he was knocked off or not. Really. (Emphatically) We don't know. We do know he ran the economy into the ground because he couldn't face the truth—and the truth is, you can't get something for nothing. Americans didn't want to hear that, so he didn't tell them. He wanted to be Santa Claus. They wanted to keep buying things they couldn't afford, rolling over hallucinated home equity into loans they were unworthy to receive, leading lives of never-ending leisure and uninterrupted pleasure. |
LONG CLIPS: 45 - 197 SECONDS
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ABBY: Come and get it everyone. ETTA: Smells divine! BARRY: Looks scrumptious. ANDREW: Darling, you’ve done it again. DANIEL: What is it? NINA: I call it Big Slide cassoulet. MARY: Oh, baked beans a la Francaise. ABBY: It's so much more than that. Why that's like calling croque monsieur a grilled cheese sandwich. DANIEL: But that's exactly what it is. RAVEN: Is there meat in it? DANIEL: The croque monsieur? Ham, generally. It's a grilled ham and cheese sandwich— RAVEN: No, in this cassoulet? NINA: I suppose you could say so. MARY: Look, either there is or there isn't. NINA: There's some Vienna sausages and Spam. . . and, oh, some hard salami for flavoring. RAVEN: Eeeyyyuuu. BARRY: You could pick around those things. RAVEN: You're kidding? NINA: Are you a vegetarian? RAVEN: Vegan, actually. ABBY: Oh dear. . . . RAVEN: If it comes from an animal, we don't eat it. ETTA: Not even eggs? RAVEN: Oh, God, no. ANDREW: Sounds rather. . . stringent. DANIEL: We'll see how long your little food neurosis lasts up here. ETTA: Do you have to be so harsh? DANIEL: Wait until she discovers how harsh things could get. BARRY: What’s the other dish? ABBY: It’s a lovely three-bean salad. ANDREW: There’s a definite theme here, babe. NINA: It tastes much better than it looks, I promise. |
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DANIEL: They're delusional. This is the biggest thing that's happened in our lifetimes. Bigger than the JFK assassination and Vietnam combined. Historians will look back at it as the start of a second Civil War. I say, let all the crazies slug it out until they exhaust themselves. Meanwhile, the military command will have to deal with the Islamic states and China without civilian oversight. ANDREW: It's not the American way— DANIEL: It's the way it is. They're capable men. I knew General Mathers in Belgium, when he was attached to NATO. He's clear-eyed, hard-headed, and he's as good an American as ever came out of West Point. And he may be the kind of leader this country needs at a time like this. ANDREW: But still, it's just not in our tradition, knocking off a president and seizing power. DANIEL: James Bardett was a weak man with a flair for political show biz. And we don't know whether he was knocked off or not. Really. (Emphatically) We don't know. We do know he ran the economy into the ground because he couldn't face the truth—and the truth is, you can't get something for nothing. Americans didn't want to hear that, so he didn't tell them. He wanted to be Santa Claus. They wanted to keep buying things they couldn't afford, rolling over hallucinated home equity into loans they were unworthy to receive, leading lives of never-ending leisure and uninterrupted pleasure. We wanted everyplace to be Las Vegas, an endless chain of tourism and hamburgers. We became a nation of fat-assed slobs that produced nothing of value and expected Christmas every morning, and finally reality up and bit our fat asses. And we're bleeding. Oooh are we bleeding. There's something called the Law of Perverse Outcomes. Ever hear of it? ANDREW: Lay it on me. DANIEL: It says, people don't get what they expect, but they get what they deserve. ANDREW: I don't know that the people of West LA deserved what they got. DANIEL: Oh, them more than anybody. Our gods got blown up, our tinhorn silver screen and boob-tube gods and their slutty goddess consorts. We're all better off without them, except maybe the supermarket tabloids. ANDREW: No more movies, for a while anyway. DANIEL: Good riddance. We can put on plays or puppet shows for each other. You know what galls me most? ANDREW: That they didn't blow up all of LA. DANIEL: That all my life we've been tyrannized by lumpenprole moron culture. I despise their Kmarts and their ridiculous TV shows and their squalid fried food restaurants and their obnoxious jet skis— ANDREW: Personal watercraft— DANIEL: Oh yeah, excuse me, personal watercraft. They love that pseudo military jargon. It makes them feel so competent, so potent, when in fact they're like helpless little children. Think they could get their dinner out of a forest, ha! ANDREW: They love guns. DANIEL: They have ridiculous power fantasies based on Bruce Willis movies. That's where it begins and ends. |