The Life & Crimes of Anna May Wong on Madam Miaow, Resonance FM, 5pm today

Later today on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge, Resonance 104.4FM, listen to "The Life and Crimes of Anna May Wong", the story of Hollywood's first Chinese screen legend. 5-6pm. Presented by Anna Chen from her one-woman show, Anna May Wong Must Die!

With Charles Shaar Murray.

Listen afterwards here or even better, as it's radio, LIVE via the Resonance FM widget in the right sidebar.

Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues Parts 1 & 2 on Madam Miaow at Resonance 104.4FM NOW ONLINE

We did it! The fabulous launch of the second season of Madam Miaow on Resonance 104.4FM (now named Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge) kicked off with parts 1 and 2 of Charles Shaar Murray's fabulous Guide to the Blues with guitarist and songwriter Stephen Dale Petit adding his expertise and good taste.

You can now hear the entire set of Madam Miaow on Resonance 104.4FM. Or … How to listen to Resonance FM.

Now online, Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues Part 1 and Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues Part 2.

Six more programmes in the series coming up, all with my lovely assistant in spangles, latex and leather, Charles Shaar Murray:

18th March 2014 — ANNA MAY WONG
Anna Chen

25th March 2014 — CHINESE ARTS
Guests: Daniel York, Jingan Young, Wondermare

1st April 2014 — THE BLOSSOMING OF ALTERNATIVE THEATRE IN THE POST-WAR YEARS
Guests: Dr Susan Croft, Neil Hornick

8th April 2014 — SLAM AND PERFORMANCE POETRY IN THE UK
Guests: John Paul O'Neill, John Crow

15 April 2014 — MUSIC CONCRETE
Guests: John Bowers

22nd April 2014 — WOMEN OF THE BLUES
Guests: Charles Shaar Murray and Stephen Dale Petit. (Also hoping to have either Bex Marshall or Sarah Gillespie depending on availability.)

Listen to Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues Pt 1 launch Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge season 2 on Resonance 104.4FM

Listen to Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues Part 1 on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge, Resonance 104.4FM, last night. With special guest Stephen Dale Petit.

Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues Pt 1 on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge, Resonance FM

I'm back with a bang! To be precise, a new eight-week radio series of Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge on Resonance 104.4FM on Tuesdays 5-6pm starting this week, 4th March.

To kick off, Charles Shaar Murray gives us his Guide to the Blues, Parts 1 and 2, Ancient and Modern: the 1920s to the early 1960s when the Blues was almost entirely African-American, and the mid-1960s to the present when the white kids got it and joined in (Part 2 follows on Tuesday 11th March).

In brief, pre- and post- Stones.

With guest Stephen Dale Petit. There will be a listen-again opportunity to hear it after broadcast on Soundcloud which I'll post here.

The new radio series of Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge kicks off on Resonance 104.4FM with CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY'S Guide to the Blues tomorrow (Tuesday) 5-6pm. Listen to previous programmes on Soundcloud. Or LISTEN LIVE here.

Charles Shaar Murray on Resonance FM discussion on the state of music criticism

A most enjoyable evening was had on Monday night with the Resonance FM crew for a fundraiser in support of London's best arts radio station. The Slaughtered Lamb, which is much how freelance writers often think of themselves nowadays, was the Clerkenwell venue.

Neil Denny from Resonance FM's Little Atoms series chaired a panel discussion on music criticism with Jude Rogers, David Stubbs, Andrew Mueller and Charles Shaar Murray.

For anyone who'd like to know more about the nuts and bolts as well as the soaring imaginative heights of great journalism, CSM's next fabulous Hothouse Project writing course — Journalism as Craft and Art — begins 20th February in leafy West Hampstead.

Jude Rogers, David Stubbs, chair Neil Denny, Andrew Mueller and
Charles Shaar Murray at the Resonance FM discussion.

George Orwell on the final Madam Miaow Resonance 104.4FM tonight at 5.30pm

MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE 8/8
News, music and poetry
RESONANCE 104.4FM
Presented by Anna Chen
5.30-6.30pm Tuesday 3rd December 2013
LISTEN LIVE: http://resonancefm.com/listen
OR CATCH UP ONLINE: https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/sets/madam-miaow-says
(To listen to Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge series on Resonance FM for WINDOWS, download VLC media player)

GEORGE ORWELL: A LITERARY REVOLUTIONARY?
Guests: Professor John Newsinger and Paul Anderson. With Charles Shaar Murray.

The final programme in this year's series of Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge asks if George Orwell was as much of a right-wing anti-socialist as is claimed. Think you know the answer? You may be surprised.

Far from being turned off the necessity for revolution, John Newsinger makes the case in his book, Orwell's Politics, that Orwell remained truer to his progressive politics than the Stalinists who viciously denounced him.

In the year that the vast scale of covert government surveillance has been revealed, sales of Orwell's 1984 have shot up 7000 per cent. His X-ray vision is proving even more relevant in these turbulent times than we imagined, so it's vital to understand what it was he was saying.

Also in the studio, helping untangle the myth from the man, is author Paul Anderson, former editor of Tribune and deputy editor of the New Statesman — both publications for whom Orwell wrote — and who edited the book Orwell in Tribune.

With great themed music and lively discussion.

We're back next year. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful festive season.

George Orwell: a literary revolutionary? — 5.30pm Tuesday 3rd December
Listen live
or afterwards
listen online

Previously …
https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/sets/madam-miaow-says



How the CIA funded the Halas Batchelor animated cartoon film of Animal Farm.

John Sinclair and modern heroes on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge Resonance FM, 5.30pm today

John Lennon sings "John Sinclair"

MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE 7/8
News, music and poetry
RESONANCE 104.4FM
Presented by Anna Chen
5.30-6.30pm Tuesday 26th November 2013
http://resonancefm.com/listen
https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/sets/madam-miaow-says
(To listen to Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge series on Resonance FM for WINDOWS, download VLC media player)

BREAKING A BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL: MODERN HEROES
Guests: John Sinclair and Oliver Shykles. With Charles Shaar Murray.

What happens when the state gets nasty? A new breed of modern hero is emerging, casting light on what our "democratic" governments get up to: Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, David Miranda.

John Sinclair, now a grand old man of the counterculture, was an early victim of the US government and who subsequently became a cause célèbre. He was a militantly politicised hippy, the manager of the MC5 and a founder of the White Panther Party.

In 1969, he felt the full spite of the state when he was sentenced to 10 years for supplying 2 joints to an undercover narc. Only widespread protest — including John Lennon writing and recording a song, "John Sinclair" — got him an early release.

John Sinclair is in the studio today alongside Oliver Shykles from Queer Friends of Chelsea Manning, who'll be talking about Manning, Edward Snowden and why we should be wary of governments siezing extra powers.

With tips from Oliver Shykles on how to stay private.

Breaking a butterfly on a wheel — 5.30pm TUESDAY 26TH NOVEMBER
Listen live
or afterwards
listen online

Previously …
https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/sets/madam-miaow-says

Paul Robeson on Resonance FM 5.30 Tues, Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge

MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE 6/8
News, music and poetry
RESONANCE 104.4FM
Presented by Anna Chen
5.30-6.30pm Tuesday 19th November
http://resonancefm.com/listen
https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/sets/madam-miaow-says

PAUL ROBESON, MEET ANNA MAY WONG
Guests: Tayo Aluko and Dr Diana Yeh. With Charles Shaar Murray.

In this Tuesday's Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge on Resonance FM, the world's first internationally renowned African American singing star Paul Robeson and the Hollywood screen legend Anna May Wong chat about their lives and why they are now cultural icons. Well, they would if they were still alive.

However, we do have Tayo Aluko whose award-winning show, Call Mr Robeson, has played around the world. And Anna Chen — who introduced new audiences to the Chinese American film star in her 2009 BBC Radio 4 profile, A Celestial Star in Piccadilly, and has performed her solo show Anna May Wong Must Die! — talks about Anna May Wong who became chums with Robeson when they met in Europe.

With Dr Diana Yeh talking about some of the forgotten pioneering Black and Asian stars of the stage in the early 20th century, and Charles Shaar Murray.

As a famed singer and actor persecuted for his radical politics and civil-rights campaigning, Paul Robeson has the dimensions of an American tragic hero. ... Tayo Aluko does a fine job in evoking his dynamic presence and in reminding us of the inhospitable attitude to dissent in the land of the free. Michael Billington, Guardian

PAUL ROBESON, MEET ANNA MAY WONG — 5.30pm TUESDAY 19TH NOVEMBER

Listen live

or afterwards

listen online

Previously On Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge …
https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/sets/madam-miaow-says



(To listen to Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge series on Resonance FM for WINDOWS, download VLC media player)

Why we need to look at the Super Rich: BBC's Britain on the Fiddle is a disgrace

LISTEN TO MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE "THE SUPER RICH" ON RESONANCE FM

You'd suspect all that talk about the BBC being left-biased is a crock designed to take our eyes off what the corporation is doing in service to the Tory mindset.

Their new series, "Britain on the Fiddle", sticks it to the poor again. Their blurb implies that we lose £20bn per year to benefit cheats. (It's actually £1bn while £16bn goes unclaimed.)

It's a national disgrace - £20 billion stolen from the state in 2012 by fraudsters. Richard Bilton goes on the front line with investigators chasing a woman who won £95,000 in a game show but did not stop claiming benefits.

The disgrace is that this is more smoke and mirrors taking our eye off who's wreaking havoc with the economy. Only this month, the Royal Mail was sold to private interests at a loss of an estimated £1.6 BILLION while the banks advising the government received not only a £17mn fee, but sold the shares they bought at the knock-down price for a profit of £29mn.

Vodaphone, Boots, Amazon, Ideos, Starbucks all escape paying proper tax while people already on the breadline are charged more than £60 per moth for a measly extra bedroom. Building more homes might be a more civilised solution to the housing crisis.

And pressure on companies to pay a living wage to their workers would do wonders to get people off the dole ... if only the government, whose job it is to create jobs, would do their job instead of blaming desperate people for not finding jobs that don't exist because the government isn't doing its job. Big jobs all round.

Join me for Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge this Tuesday 5th November when Aditya Chakrabortty and Kate Belgrave will be looking at the Super Rich. With Charles Shaar Murray.

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge
The Super-rich
Resonance FM
5.30-6.30pm, Tuesday 5th November 2013
Listen live
or
listen afterwards online.

Above: Tax the Rich: an animated fairy tale narrated by Ed Asner, produced by the California Teachers Association and recommeded by the Ripped Off Britons blog.

Aditya Chakrabortty's Guardian article on how champagne-swilling councils are selling off our housing to developers.

John Kampfner on the history of the super rich.

Let's look at the super-rich for a change: Resonance FM 5th November

Have you noticed how the media's gone all quiet about the excesses of the rich? A few mentions of Gilded Age profligacy but none of the relentless day-in-day-out yammering on about what a drain on resources they are in the same way as they do with the rest of us.

For once, let's not "look over there" at the poor, the elderly, and the disbled as the cause of the recession the way the Tory-led government and their media keep insisting.

On Tuesday 5th November (heh!) Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge looks at the superrich and asks: what are they for? What state benefits are they getting and what's happening with their taxes?

With Aditya Chakrabortty and Charles Shaar Murray. [Edit: plus journalist Kate Belgrave.]

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge
The Super-rich
Resonance FM
5.30-6.30pm, Tuesday 5th November 2013
Available to listen afterwards online.

Above: Tax the Rich: an animated fairy tale narrated by Ed Asner, produced by the California Teachers Association and recommeded by the Ripped Off Britons blog.

Cultural Revolution: this week’s Madam Miaow’s Culture Lounge on Resonance FM

Cultural Revolution — 29th October 2013.

An anarchist, a Trotskyist and a communist walk into a studio ... Find out what happens next by listening to Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge at 5.30pm on Resonance FM.

This week, Anna Chen looks at what happens to culture during a time of revolution. What are the ideals? What goes right and what goes wrong? With Ian Bone, Cliff Cocker, Mike Pearn, Elizabeth Lawrence and Charles Shaar Murray.

Anna's BBC Radio 4 programme, Madam Mao's Golden Oldies, in which she explores the Chinese Cultural Revolution and Jiang Qing's model operas, is available to listen on iPlayer until Saturday 2nd November 2013.

On Friday 1st November, Anna is interviewed on Overwhelming China, BBC Radio 4 at 11am. Presented by Philip Dodd.

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge
Cultural Revolution
Resonance FM
5.30pm, Tuesday 29th October

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge on the Counterculture Tuesday 5.30pm and Monday's Orwell Prize 2014 launch

The Counterculture — 22nd October 2013

First, a quick plug for tomorrow when I'm on the Orwell Prize 2014 launch panel at the Frontline Club talking about the Internet and the Modern Self with Helen Goodman MP, Professor Suzanne Franks (City University London, Author of ‘Women and Journalism Challenge series: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism‘), Dr. Aaron Balick (Author of ‘The Psychodynamics of Social Networking: Connected-up Instantaneous Culture and the Self’) and Orwell Prize director Jean Seaton.

This Tuesday, the second programme in my new Resonance FM radio series looks at the counterculture: what is it, where did it go and can we have it back, please?

My guests this week:

Legendary award-winning author and journalist Charles Shaar Murray, who brought the counterculture into the mainstream when he got his foot in the door at the New Musical Express in the early 1970s.

Clare Palmer who's the current editor of the Internatonal Times — or IT — a legendary publication that began in the 1960s as a proper inky.

And Phoenix Rainbow, who was one of the Occupy crew who took on the developers intent on destroying the Friern Barnet Library — the only public space in the area — has won it a valuable respite for a couple of years as a venue for cultural learning and expression for the community.

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge on Resonance 104.4FM every Tuesday at 5.30-6.30pm.
Listen to Madam Miaow Says on air and on the internet at Resonance 104.4FM Tuesdays at 5.30-6.30pm.
Available to listen online here

Listen to the launch show, "Oh Other: Where Art Thou?", first broadcast live Tuesday 15th October 2013.



Also ... BBC Radio 4 repeats my programme — Madam Mao's Golden Oldies — Saturday 26th October at 3.30pm. And I'm interviewed for "Overwhelming China" on R4 Friday 1st November at 11am.

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge launches on Resonance FM Tuesday 5.30pm

Tomorrow's (tonight, Tuesday) exciting launch programme of my new Resonance FM radio series is a yellow peril fest of all things colonialist.

"Oh Other where art thou?" features my guest Daniel York talking about the momentous WTF! moment when east Asians around the world realised that only a miserly three out of 17 characters in the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Chinese Hamlet", The Orphan of Zhao, had been cast with east Asian actors. What's ours is ours and what's yours is ours. (The RSC was invited to take part but has been unable to participate.)

Actress Siu-see Hung tells us about the day she and her friends saw a Yale graduate show called Beijing Cake at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, only to be drowned in a sea of yellowface. Never mind, the venue manager assured her yellowface is okay and besides, blackface is making a comeback in the US.

Dr Diana Yeh — expert on the history of British Chinese artists — gives us a historical context and explains colonial discourses on Chinese and East Asians and wider political picture.

Independent Economics Editor Ben Chu has just written a fab book demolishing the myths about people like me called Chinese Whispers: why everything you've heard about China is wrong. He'll be telling us why.

With music from Daniel York's band Wondermare (Melody Brown and C Amanda Maude), muscial accompaniment from Charles Shaar Murray and poetry from yours truly.

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge on Resonance 104.4FM commences Tuesday 15th October at 5.30pm for an hour with "Oh Other: Where Art Thou?".
Listen to Madam Miaow Says on air and on the internet at Resonance 104.4FM Tuesdays at 5.30-6.30pm from 15th October.
Available to listen online here

Resonance FM Lucky Cat: Madam Miaow on the radio

Zoe Baxter, Merlene Emerson, MM

Zoe Baxter, MM, Jasper Sharp

Had a great time last hosting the weekly Lucky Cat hour at Resonance 104.4FM last night thanks to my guests Merlene Emerson and Jasper Sharp, and Zoe Baxter who invited me along and drove the desk.

Pix above of us celebrating our triumph, dwahlinks, in the local bar afterwards. Hmm, I need to work up a good moody face. Hey, what's that glow out the top of my head?

Resonance FM Lucky Cat: Madam Miaow on the radio

Zoe Baxter, Merlene Emerson, MM

Zoe Baxter, MM, Jasper Sharp

Had a great time last hosting the weekly Lucky Cat hour at Resonance 104.4FM last night thanks to my guests Merlene Emerson and Jasper Sharp, and Zoe Baxter who invited me along and drove the desk.

Pix above of us celebrating our triumph, dwahlinks, in the local bar afterwards. Hmm, I need to work up a good moody face. Hey, what's that glow out the top of my head?

Lucky Cat: Madam Miaow on Resonance 104.4FM Tonight

Madam Miaow, AKA Anna Chen, takes over the Lucky Cat hour on London radio station Resonance FM at 9pm tonight Tuesday 10th February, bringing cultural and political chat into your home. Not that my usual sophistimicated readers require my witteration to refundicate their erudition on home turf. Would I even think that?

I’ll be talking about a range of topics from Anna May Wong — including material I didn’t have time to cover in my recent Radio 4 profile of the Hollywood legend — to the 5th anniversary of the Morecambe Bay disaster when 23 Chinese cocklepickers died in icy waters off the north east coast of England.

What happened to the surviving families? How does the status of the unauthorised workers contribute to their vulnerability, and what can the government do to ensure there are no more tragedies like Morecambe Bay waiting to happen? How does the slogan, “British Jobs For British Workers” impact on these migrant workers?

My guests are Jasper Sharp — east Asian film expert — and Merlene Emerson who has helped raise funds for the victims' families and campaigns on migrants rights in the UK.

You can join in by phoning in: 0207 407 1210

Resonance 104.4 fm is the world’s first radio art station, established by London Musicians’ Collective. It provides a radical alternative to the universal formulae of mainstream broadcasting and does it brilliantly.

You can listen live to Resonance over the Internet worldwide in two formats: Real Audio and MP3 (at high quality for broadband and low quality for dial-up). Either click on the MP3 or Real Audio links on the website frontpage or click on the listen page for more information.

Thanks to Zoe Baxter who normally hosts Lucky Cat

Lucky Cat: Madam Miaow on Resonance 104.4FM Tonight

Madam Miaow, AKA Anna Chen, takes over the Lucky Cat hour on London radio station Resonance FM at 9pm tonight Tuesday 10th February, bringing cultural and political chat into your home. Not that my usual sophistimicated readers require my witteration to refundicate their erudition on home turf. Would I even think that?

I’ll be talking about a range of topics from Anna May Wong — including material I didn’t have time to cover in my recent Radio 4 profile of the Hollywood legend — to the 5th anniversary of the Morecambe Bay disaster when 23 Chinese cocklepickers died in icy waters off the north east coast of England.

What happened to the surviving families? How does the status of the unauthorised workers contribute to their vulnerability, and what can the government do to ensure there are no more tragedies like Morecambe Bay waiting to happen? How does the slogan, “British Jobs For British Workers” impact on these migrant workers?

My guests are Jasper Sharp — east Asian film expert — and Merlene Emerson who has helped raise funds for the victims' families and campaigns on migrants rights in the UK.

You can join in by phoning in: 0207 407 1210

Resonance 104.4 fm is the world’s first radio art station, established by London Musicians’ Collective. It provides a radical alternative to the universal formulae of mainstream broadcasting and does it brilliantly.

You can listen live to Resonance over the Internet worldwide in two formats: Real Audio and MP3 (at high quality for broadband and low quality for dial-up). Either click on the MP3 or Real Audio links on the website frontpage or click on the listen page for more information.

Thanks to Zoe Baxter who normally hosts Lucky Cat