Urban Man (Commentary)
- Next available on KCRW 89.9 Santa Monica, CA in 2 days 3 hours 47 minutes
- Find another station or time for this program on one of 12 other stations & times
- Host: Marc Porter Zasada
- 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.
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- Genres: Commentary, Urban
- Location: Santa Monica, CA
- Language: English
Last updated 717 days ago
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Superior Gifting Moments, Part II
Tue, Dec 18
Over the millennia, humans have devised many methods of communication: Heiroglyphics. Smoke signals. Moveable type. But in our day, none have become so subtle or problematic as the holiday gift...
Superior Gifting Moments
Tue, Dec 11
Tomorrow, out across the city, loyal listeners will receive the Urban Man Signature Holiday Catalog for 2007. Like other catalogs, you can expect extremely long descriptions of superior gift objects. But your friends and loved ones expect more this year. In fact, 20% more...
Wisdom
Tue, Dec 4
Wisdom
Enough
Tue, Nov 20
It's almost Thanksgiving, and the Urban Man wants to make sure he has enough. Not just enough sweet potatoes and folding chairs, but enough of ---everything...
Clarity of Intention
Tue, Nov 13
Yesterday was Veteran---s day, and today---s the federal holiday. The Urban Man missed the parade, but I spent hours looking for a picture of my father, taken on an aircraft carrier in 1944.-- I tore apart closets and rummaged through boxes.
House of Cards
Tue, Nov 6
I don't know about you, but here in the modern world, the Urban Man often finds himself building a house of cards. You have to be fast, and you have to be agile if you want it to stand for long. Today I've got a whole deck to assemble, right in the middle of a shiny black conference table---that is to say, eight or ten folks from a potential partner company sit around watching me try to make a deal make sense...
Our Own Private Iowa
Tue, Oct 30
When a European arrives in L.A., he's often baffled. Where, he asks, is the Mediterranean city he expected. Here are the light and the palms, but no boulevards to stroll, few sidewalk caf--s to lounge, no great sun-drenched plazas to cross at mid-day...
The Dream of Open Space, Part II
Tue, Oct 23
A person should not look at old photos of the Los Angeles basin---not really old photos. I mean, once you could stand on Sunset and gaze down at a grassy plain cut by a shifting river, rolling hills, and vast groves of citrus. Me, I've been prepping for L.A.'s first open space summit, a public event coming up this Friday, October 26, so I had to look---and I admit the experience has brought on a foolish kind of nostalgia...
The Dream of Open Space, Part I
Tue, Oct 16
Last Thursday, caught in the L.A. evening commute, the Urban Man began to dream of open space. This can happen to even the most dedicated Angeleno. I mean, there you are, creeping happily in your sealed car past perfectly good Chevron stations and Del Tacos, when suddenly you get the urge to leap like an antelope across a green and windswept hill...
Traces Left Behind
Tue, Oct 2
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...
A New Lease on Life
Tue, Sep 25
A New Lease on Life
The Calm Above the Storm
Tue, Sep 18
This is Marc Porter Zasada with The Urban Man for KCRW. I don't know about you, but here in the land of perpetual self-invention, I'm always on the lookout for a new role model. Sometimes I crave the wiry self-possesion of a Clint Eastwood or the smug chin of some new streak of success. When I see a tough dealmeister wearing a Hawaiian shirt, I think: where can I get a Hawaiian shirt....
Nowhere
Tue, Aug 28
I figure a well-trained urban man can find poetry anywhere: down the smoggiest boulevard, along the aisles of a mega-store, or sitting in the orange booth of a fast food restaurant. With a slight attitude adjustment, I'm sure we can all become cheery Huell Howsers, finding gold in the dust of technical civilization, even as it clouds the better part of our lives...
The Light in August
Tue, Aug 21
The Light in August
Summer Sign-Up 2007
Tue, Aug 7
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Pleasure
Tue, Jul 31
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...
An Ugly New Word
Tue, Jul 24
Late the other night, while I was lost somewhere between Google News and the Huffington Post, or maybe while clicking from YouTube to some random blog, the Urban Man learned an ugly new word...
The Power of Intention
Tue, Jul 17
The Power of Intention
The Ragged Edge
Tue, Jul 10
It's high summer, and the Urban Man has gone to check on the ragged Western edge of American freedom. Meaning, of course, that I---m visiting L.A.'s Venice Beach.
Fireworks for the Nation-State
Tue, Jul 3
Like most in the modern world, the Urban Man often finds himself at the mercy of vast historic forces he barely understands. I mean, almost every week. Today, as I approach the 4th of July, I find myself worrying about the growing obsolescence of the nation-state. You remember the nation-state: fireworks, anthems, constitutions...
Masters of the Unnecessary, Part II
Tue, Jun 19
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...
Masters of the Unnecessary
Tue, Jun 12
Tonight the Urban Man finds himself discussing the future of the American workplace while standing deep in the gloom of the Edison bar...
Envy, Part 2
Tue, Jun 5
Everyone knows that people in L.A. spend too much time envying the wealth of others---the cars, the homes, the oversized handbags. But no one seems to do anything about it. Indeed, most media work hard to make people feel worse--you know, urging those who rent to envy those who own. Urging those who own to envy those who own in the hills...
The Elegance of the Futile
Tue, May 22
I don---t know about you, but here in L.A., I try hard to repress my inner Don Quixote...***Banner image by Octavio Ocampo***
Envy, Part I
Tue, May 15
Here in L.A., people often seek my envy. Neighbors add 30-foot Doric columns to their front porches and pass me in 30-foot Hummer limousines. Perfect strangers mention shoes they found in Italy, and drop the names of their landscape architects.
Inspiration
Tue, May 8
Here in L.A., most of us are not content to experience occasional moments of personal inspiration. No, we seek them out 24/7. We spend thousands on stirring seminars, awaken many inner children, study much Kabbala, quote The Secret at cocktail parties, and attend desert rock concerts...
The Joy of Poor Circulation
Tue, May 1
Like love, a neighborhood is a sweet but fragile thing. Like affection, a neighborhood is easily lost. On Monday you walked around the block for coffee and croissants, down where narrow streets filled pleasantly with a confusion of people and cars. There you idled in front of a flower shop and popped into a tiny market for apples, where you joked with the beautiful cashier...
Orcs in Distant Cubicles
Tue, Apr 24
Tonight, we find the Urban Man alone in his backyard office battling Orcs. Outside, high winds rattle the banana trees. In the house, my family sleeps all innocent and unknowing. No, I---m not playing a video game or watching a fantasy epic. I---m paying our medical bills and writing nasty letters to my insurance carrier...
An Alphabet of Freedom
Tue, Apr 17
The other night, right around 11, the Urban Man became frustrated with the discipline of his life: you know, tax returns, diet books, carefully-wrought conversations with significant others. So when the family finally fell asleep, I took my car and headed out to express my personal freedom.
Those Annoying Paradigm Shifts
Mon, Apr 9
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.
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