For the spring 2023 production, California Lutheran University’s Dance and Theater Department performed “Almost, Maine,” a play originally written by John Cariani. The production depicted several modern-day stories, portraying themes of love, tragedy and comedy. “Different stories of romance and connection, but told very, very literally. If someone falls in love they fall,” cast member.
So revered in the UK that he made the top 50 in a BBC poll of ‘Greatest Britons of all time,’ John Peel (1939-2004) shaped popular culture in ways that Americans may never know or understand. As a pirate radio deejay, a band manager, promoter and cheerleader, print journalist, BBC radio presenter, arranger of recording sessions, record label owner and all-around presence, Peel held the door for the progressive and idiosyncratic to enter rock & roll, be it psychedelia, garage rock, punk, prog rock, folk-rock, industrial, and post-rock. Richie Unterberger dug deep into the archives and talked to people who knew him to produce this captivating portrait of John Peel.