N. H. I.

Gorlick, who lives on West Rock Avenue in Westville, was the host everyone chatted with before seeing films at the old York Square Cinemas. He left the theater shortly before its downfall (and several years before the building was renovated to become a T-shirt emporium). Since 1999 he has been the proprietor of Madison Art Cinemas, a popular moviehouse that has outlasted both chain and independent competition. In the latest edition of Castaway, the Independent's occasional podcast series, Gorlick dishes about his past in the cinema business, the rise and fall of York Square, the founding of his business in Madison, the future of the business, and why it's important to serve coffee in the lobby. "People lament the depersonalization of their daily lives," he says. "People will pay more, travel a further distance, and even bypass other venues, for that experience. "My dog was at the theater." Click on the play arrow to hear the interview. Comment below.

Here, then, for the first time, is the original editor's cut. Coming next month in Castaway #9, an interview with Madison Art Cinemas owner and former York Square manager Arnold Gorlick, in which he talks about his life in film...

So says Elizabeth Wurtzel, speaking about her abandoned fantasy of solving all the problems in the Middle East. What's more, Hillary Clinton is "an evil genius" and a "feminist subversive." The author of the mega-best-seller Prozac Nation (as well as Bitch and More, Now, Again) is about to graduate from Yale Law School. She has been a New Haven resident for the past four years, a fact that The New York Times just picked up on recently. (Read its article here). Castaway, New Haven Independent's podcast interview series, caught up with her in her downtown apartment, where she lives with her pooch Augusta and a whole mess of books and CDs. Among the topics discussed: Hillary or Obama? Whither feminism? Why law school? Will she write more memoirs? And what are her plans for the future? Click on the play arrow to listen.

In this sixth episode of Castaway, Day sits down with Mark Oppenheimer and sound engineer (and committed recreational wine drinker) Lee Faulkner to talk about wines, wine snobbery, and how even the greatest wine experts' noses can occasionally fail them. Click on the play arrow for Episode #6 at right.

Peggy Flood, whom Castaway spoke with when she was teaching in New Haven over the summer, is a leading voice actor, dubbing in lines that lead actresses flub or that the microphones didn't catch on the last take. Flood performs roles herself for screen and stage, but she has developed a specialty in voice acting, and she is a master of "walla," the background chatter that makes scenes seem real. (It's called "walla" because it can be created by lots of actors murmuring "walla walla walla walla..."). She also does numerous accents, including a fabulous 911 operator from Brooklyn that we got to hear when we interviewed her on West Rock Avenue. Click the "play" button to hear our interview with Peggy Flood; click here for an archive of other podcasts; and go to iTunes to have Castaway automatically delivered to your computer.

Mighty Purple is coming out with a new album soon. But when Jonny Rodgers, Lee Faulkner, and I sat down in his Westville artist's loft, we mostly heard about the directions his solo music has taken in the past couple years. He's given up the rock-star lifestyle; he even went through a year of enforced quiet time (he explains in the podcast). He's married now, to the photographer Desirea Rodgers. Click on the button at the right to hear the podcast. The new tunes sound like nothing else I've heard recently, though Bjork came to mind. He recorded them at Firehouse 12, the hot club/bar/music space downtown. On the podcast it's just Rodgers and his violinist, but it's enough to whet one's appetite for the album, which he's still mixing in the studio. We talked God, family, Hamden High -- the usual. Check out three previous episodes of Castaway here.

The proper term is "figures." So says lucky in this week's installment of "Castaway," the Independent's original podcast series. The interview isn't with Luckow alone. She brings along her figure, Juanito, a smooth Latin lover who got once got Sandra -- herself half-Mexican -- of racism. Juanito and Sandra both answer questions, Oppenheimer tries to figure it all out; click on the play arrow to give it a listen. Afterward, check out the previous Scientology installment of Castaway here and the interview with Pulitzer Prize winner and New Haven resident Debby Applegate here.

In the second edition of "Castaway," the New Haven Independent's podcast series, I along with sound guru Lee Faulkner interview Applegate, who shares her thoughts on history, New Haven, the publishing business -- and her own rocky road through a Ph.D. program. For Applegate, it all turned out okay. Her book won rave reviews across the country and has taught thousands of readers about Beecher, who was much more than the brother of the man who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Beecher was also, perhaps, the first American celebrity. Preaching at his church in Brooklyn -- what we today would call a "megachurch" -- Beecher grew famous as a man of the cloth, an opponent of slavery, and a womanizer. Click here to listen to the interview. Click here to listen to Episode One of "Castaway," a talk with the president of the Church of Scientology. Click here to read a related article in The New York Times Magazine.)

The article is about Milton Katselas, an acting coach in Los Angeles who is also a devoted Scientologist. Listen to the podcast now—read the article this weekend. Scientology has been called a cult, a sect, a destroyer of families. It has been parodied on South Park, and it had to fight a lengthy legal battle with the IRS to gain tax-exempt status. It has also been hailed by celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley as the religion that changed their lives. I sat down with John Carmichael, a thoughtful, middle-aged Cornell alumnus who heads the Church of Scientology’s branch in Times Square, and he did his best — what Scientology’s opponents would call his biased, self-serving best — to help me separate fact from fiction. I found the discussion illuminating, a focused look at a Scientologist who is not a celebrity and clearly not a cultist either. And you can subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode!