James Howard Kunstler in Rochester

Author and noted social critic James Howard Kunstler will be in Rochester tomorrow evening to introduce a staged reading of his three-act play 'Big Slide' that he wrote while recovering from hip replacement surgery. He will also remain on hand for discussion I'm assuming at the conclusion.

While I consider the Duany-Suburban Nation book and the Jacobs-Death and Life of Great American Cities to be something akin to urbanist bibles, my favorite work on the topic is Kunstler's Home From Nowhere. An acerbic criticism of the result of 60 years of misguided American urban development (or lack thereof), this work is at the same time humorous and tragic, but offers more solutions than its predecessor, The Geography of Nowhere.

Jim has gone on to pen non-fiction in the realm of resource scarcity and its implications in addition to new works of fiction depicting life organized more simply and more locally. He and Duncan Crary of Troy, NY also produce a weekly podcast that get Jim back into a urban treatment frame of mind while sprinkling in harsh criticism of the suburban arrangement and energy issues.

In addition to the live action tomorrow, L. David Wheeler of the Canandaigua Daily Messenger published Wednesday a short interview he conducted with Mr. Kunstler, a 1971 SUNY-Brockport drama major (the image is what he may have looked like around these parts!).

Also, and this is very short notice, a taped interview will air on WXXI's 1370 Connection at 1PM. The broadcast can be heard on good ol' fashioned AM Radio at 1370 kiloHertz (that's a technical term) as well as streamed live on WXXI.org.