Village Interviews: Izzy Young

Dear Friends :

Happy 2008, we hope.

The following can be viewed on any high-speed computer anywhere in the world or on TV in Manhattan:

This Wednesday, January 2nd at 7:30 PM, I am re-airing a half-hour program combining two interviews I did with Izzy Young in 1994 and 1999. Izzy, who used to be known as "The Mayor of Greenwich Village", founded and ran the Folklore Center from the 1950s to the 1970s, first on MacDougal Street and then on 6th Avenue. The center was a combination music shop , performance space and mecca for everyone involved in the so-called folk-music scene of that era. Izzy is well known as the man who organized Dylan's first official concert in NY and conducted the first interview with Dylan back in 1961. In this program (which is one of my all-time favorites), Izzy walks the streets of the West Village, drops in at Matt Umanov's Guitar store to pick up some mysterious money and winds up on MacDougal St., where he coincidentally runs into characters he hasn't seen in decades as if they had been waiting all these years for his return- in January! Along the way, he discusses his childhood in an immigrant and pro-union household in the 1930s, comments on how the Village and Manhattan have deteriorated culturally and then discusses the things that originally brought him to the Village in the late 40s and 50s, including the semi-infamous Joe Gould, whose notebooks Izzy acquired, decades before the movie about him.

For those of you who knew my father, you will catch some glimpses of him (as he was able to accompany us at a time when he could still walk easily) and hear his voice and infectious good-natured laugh in this installment.

If you are in Manhattan and have access to Time Warner, you can see it this Wednesday January 2nd, at7:30 PM (EST-that's NYC Eastern Standard Time) on channel 67. On the RCN system, that should be channel 85.

If you are outside of Manhattan, anywhere in the world, and you have a good high-speed connection on your computer, you can go to mmn dot org and click on channel 67 to see it at the same time.

Sometimes MNN does screw up broadcasts, but usually they air things without too many problems.....

Best,
Jason Howard