THE SUNSHINE HOTEL and CHARLIE'S STORY

Here are two fascinating pieces from aural documentarian David Isay. The New York Bowery, long a notorious skid row, is becoming "urban renewalized" and gentrified. Before the old Bowery completely disappears, Isay attempts to preserve some of its human interest on tape. So he gives tape recorders to two of its denizens and guides them into chronicling their milieu. One of them, desk clerk at a flop house, introduces us to some of his regulars. The other, a hopeless addict with AIDS, tries to interview his neighbors without success, but instead gives us a heartbreaking record of the only task he ever finished in life, this tape. The two amateur producers provide the authenticity, the heart of these essays, but it's Isay who has coaxed it out of them and added the sensitivity and artistic skill to make them sing so memorably. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 99]