89.9 FM KCRW and www.KCRW.com News Release

KCRW PREPARES A THANKSGIVING FEAST FOR MYSTERY FANS:
MEAN STREETS USA: A COLLECTION OF SHORT CRIME FICTION

Thursday, November 24
from 1 pm - 5 pm
Friday, November 25
from Noon to 5 pm

The complete CD set is available as a Premium with subscription to KCRW at the $100 level.
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and get your copy!

On Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25, public radio station KCRW (89.9 FM-Santa Monica and KCRW.com) debuts its newest original production, Mean Streets USA: A Collection of Short Crime Fiction.

Robert Egan directs, and with longtime musical collaborator, Karl Lundeberg, establishes a moody noir tone, in a moral universe where black and white are not always what they seem.

The 9-hour series, recorded and produced at KCRW, features detective stories by contemporary and classic mystery writers, including Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly, interpreted by Stacy Keach, Sharon Lawrence, Meschach Taylor, Brian Cox, Tony Plana and others.

Asked why detective mysteries, and why now, Egan explains: ìMost of the detectives in these stories have a kind of profound and complex appreciation of the existential nature of the world they live in. There are people doing profoundly disturbing things, and sometimes, as in the world we live in, there aren't clear moral answers to that darkness. I think itís important, at this particular juncture in American history, that we remind ourselves thereís a diversity of moral perspectives. Thereís morality on the landscape, but the journey to find it is a complicated and difficult one.î

Egan established his stage credentials primarily at the Mark Taper Forum over a 25-year career, running more than 350 stage plays. He worked with the actors in intense rehearsals before they recorded their solo-voice renditions of the stories.

"The stories have a kind of rapturous darkness to them, youíre sort of inside the head of the detective narrator. We would read the story, talk about the story, about the intimacy, about the style, and then talk about each character and the best way to achieve each character. The actors have to embrace the drama of the story using only the gestural and emotional life of their voice. They literally have to do it all vocally, and be fearless about being intimate and in your head."

Composer Karl Lundeberg, a theatre and ballet composer who also recorded albums with his own group, Full Circle on Columbia Records, has collaborated with Egan for about 15 years. For this series, heís created an atmospheric soundtrack with individual themes that weave in and out of each story.

"Music casts a spell. It can elevate a scene, or suspend time, or signal that youíve gone to another place. Everything is highly stylized. Sometimes I play against the story, for example with a classical instrumentation like cellos, violin and flute, or a jazzy feel with trumpet, bass and piano, or a jazzy feel with a rock element. In one piece, with clarinet and piano as the main instruments, I tried for a 1940s feel but skewed the harmonies slightly, in a sort of cubist way."

After it airs, the series will be available as a gift with membership, in an attractively packaged CD series.

MEAN STREETS USA is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The stories will be broadcast as follows:

Thursday, Nov. 24
1 to 5pm

Friday, Nov. 25
Noon to 5 pm

(*) NOT included in the CD series at this time.

For Immediate Release: November 18, 2005
Contact: Sarah Spitz (310) 314-4627