The Rundown for Tuesday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Camera by Meena Ramamurthy

Zena Barakat

4:44 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

A Ghost Bike Flies Its Colors

Filed under: City Living, Personal/Private

The "ghost bike" at 36th Street and Sixth Avenue in New York City.

You never really get used to seeing them, or at least I don't: ghost bikes, junkers painted white and chained to a street sign or bridge railing. They record the spots where cyclists have been killed by cars. Two of them mark a popular car-free bike path in Manhattan -- a reminder that there may be safest and safer, but there's no such thing as perfectly safe.

I've been wondering for a while now whether the ghost bike above commemorates David Smith. He was killed in December 2007, at the age of 65, while riding the same bike lane I take to work. The white cycle sits on the northwest corner of 36th Street and Sixth Avenue. It catches my eye in the last three minutes of my ride.

Smith was knocked out of the lane when a passenger in an illegally parked truck opened the door. A second truck hit him. I remember reading that his partner of 36 years was a man. I remember thinking, Hit the door. Fall toward the curb. Stay out of traffic.

As if, in the moment, a cyclist really has much choice about what happens.

This morning, I zipped up a very quiet Sixth Avenue -- it's amazing what 5:30 a.m. does to traffic -- dodging takeout containers and bottles left over from the city's Gay Pride celebration. And there was the ghost bike, newly decorated with flowers and a rainbow flag. Happy Pride, David Smith. Wish you were here.

Laura Conaway

2:23 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post

The Saga of Florent Takes an Unexpected Turn

Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette

Click to view.

Zena Barakat/NPR

 

A month ago, we profiled the closing of the famous New York restaurant Florent. Owner Florent Morellet was forced to close his namesake diner due to a skyrocketing rent price. Last week, there was a new plot twist in the Florent soap opera. The landlord, Joanne Lucas, will re-open the restaurant tomorrow under the name of the diner that existed before Florent opened his place in 1985: R & L Restaurant.

The original R & L was opened by Lucas' father in 1955. She told The New York Times she didn't have the heart to close the restaurant that had been in her family for years. The restaurant's look and food will remain basically the same, as Florent's chef is staying on board.

Last night, longtime friends of the restaurant convened for the final hours for what they know as Florent. Neighborhood regulars and former and current staff reunited for champagne and cake. Letters from the prophetic menu boards were packaged in tiny gift boxes as party favors.

Continue reading "The Saga of Florent Takes an Unexpected Turn" »

Zena Barakat

12:01 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under:

An Australian man put his life up for auction on eBay, but his worldy possessions didn't bring in as much cash as he had hoped.

It's the BPP's Most.

Accidental fungus leads to promising cancer drug / Wal-Mart Plans New Logo to Update Image / Military joins Pride parade / Decoding body language

Meena Ramamurthy

11:08 AM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Open Thread: Obama Poster Likened to Hitler's

Filed under: Election 2008, Sound Off

Click to play.

Alex Pardee

 

On today's show, Steve Seidman, chair of the strategic communication department at Ithaca College, talked about the iconography of Democrat Barack Obama.

Seidman says some of the campaign's posters remind him of images from history. He argues the "Dream" poster, which shows Obama with a halo, might offend some religious people. But it was this bit that got our Twitter crowd going:

"He's gazing into the distance, almost like a visionary. This is a common approach I've noticed in my research. I would say that I've seen Nixon posters, Carter posters, George Bush -- the second Bush -- posters, even Adolf Hitler. Posters in his election campaigns in Germany have shown him gazing into the distance."

Judge for yourself: Google Images for "Hitler election posters"

Laura Conaway

7:49 AM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Scientists Mark Anniversary of Asteroid Blast

Filed under: Links From the Show

The centennial anniversary of an asteroid blast that occurred near Lake Baikal over Siberia serves as a reminder that the earth is vulnerable to meteors and other rocks from space.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

'Into the Wild' pilgrimages increase in Alaska / New York City keeps the cannoli but drops the trans fats / Devo sues McDonald's over Happy Meal toy

Laura Silver

5:31 AM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Man Auctions Life, Ends Up Disappointed

Filed under: Links From the Show

An Australian man put his life up for auction on eBay, but his worldy possessions didn't bring in as much cash as he had hoped.

It's the BPP's Most.

Accidental fungus leads to promising cancer drug / Wal-Mart Plans New Logo to Update Image / Military joins Pride parade / Decoding body language

Laura Silver

5:31 AM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Farewell to Rachel Martin

Filed under: Inside The BPP, Video

For this edition of the "BPP Picture Show," our weekly behind-the-scenes feature, we say farewell to our host Rachel Martin. Rachel leaves us to join ABC News as a DC-based weekend correspondent. We'll miss you, Rachel. All our love, and best of luck.

Zena Barakat

9:57 AM ET | 06-28-2008 | permalink | comments (27) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Monday

Filed under:

Meena Ramamurthy

2:49 PM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Top 5: Call It A Ritual?

Filed under: Music

Everyone needs more music, right? How about five songs in less than a minute each?

No big philosophy here. Just tracks I've been playing enough to screw up the perfect distribution of randomness on my iTunes shuffle setting. I'm going to try to post five songs every week, so if anyone out there has some secret awesomeness tucked away, drop a note in the comments below.

Continue reading "Top 5: Call It A Ritual?" »

Jacob Ganz

2:33 PM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under:

Vintners in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France are up in arms over the declining price of wine. Seven thousand of them took to the streets in protest.

It's the BPP's Most.

Hybrids great on gasoline savings but not expense, study finds/ N.Y. millionaire gets 11 years in prison for enslaving workers/ Goldy to Victoria's Secret: Take off/At the top of Google trends: Bleach portal/ French winemakers on rampage/ An art star creates a splash in New York

Meena Ramamurthy

1:17 PM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Rachel Martin Exits, Adds Pictures

Filed under: Luncheonette

I remember watching this video for the first time, back in December. Rachel Martin and Win Rosenfeld went to Washington, D.C., to make a video report about Goodwill reinventing itself as hip place to buy clothes.

I thought, hey, Rachel Martin looks just like a TV news reporter. And now she's going to be one. Today was her last day as a show host. Rachel's moving on to ABC News. We'll miss her a ton, but it's only natural. Watch the clip and you'll see what I mean.

Laura Conaway

1:15 PM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (27) | e-mail post

Where Do You Stand on the Court's Gun Decision?

Filed under: Sound Off

Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns is unconstitutional. Today the nation's best-known liberal and conservative editorial pages weighed in. After the jump, read what they said and tell us what you think...

Continue reading "Where Do You Stand on the Court's Gun Decision?" »

Dan Pashman

11:07 AM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Synchronized Shelving: Battle of the Librarians

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Book cart drill teams let loose at last year's library conference.

On the show today, Julius C. Jefferson of the Library of Congress talked about the need for more African-American male librarians. He's in Anaheim, Calif., for the 2008 American Library Association Conference, where he'll convene a panel called "An Endangered Species: The Black Male Librarian." Other sessions will look at reaching out to teens, creating new uses for library spaces and evaluating cataloging systems ("Dewey or Don't We"). But one conference highlight mentioned by numerous librarians, including our own Kee Malesky, is the Book Cart Drill Team.

Jefferson has never participated in the event, but this year a colleague signed him up as a joke. He says the floor show is a hoot, but not necessarily a way to lure young black men to the profession.

Laura Silver

8:41 AM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

'The Real World' Is Coming -- What Should We Do?

Filed under: City Living

Next month the New York City borough of Brooklyn officially jumps the shark. The Real World: Brooklyn begins filming.

As you may know, a fair number of BPP staffers live in Brooklyn, including Ian Chillag and me (although not together). And as luck would have it, the seven degenerates headed our way will be living literally a few blocks down the road (0.6 miles from Ian and one mile from me).

Now I enjoy eating disorders, casual sex, abs, and low-grade alcoholism as much as the next public radio listener. But I'm not exactly psyched about the arrival of "The Real World: Brooklyn."

However, like it or not, it's coming. So I figure, we might as well make the best of it. But how? I want to find some way for Ian and me to cover our new neighbors' high jinks for the BPP, preferably without having to stay up past 10 pm.

Any ideas?

Dan Pashman

8:05 AM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (17) | e-mail post

Linkfest: French Winemakers Uncork Rage

Filed under: Links From the Show

Vintners in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France are up in arms over the declining price of wine. Seven thousand of them took to the streets in protest.

It's the BPP's Most.

Hybrids great on gasoline savings but not expense, study finds/ N.Y. millionaire gets 11 years in prison for enslaving workers/ Goldy to Victoria's Secret: Take off/At the top of Google trends: Bleach portal/ French winemakers on rampage/ An art star creates a splash in New York

Laura Silver

4:48 AM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Beer Maker Pulls Alcoholic Energy Drinks

Filed under: Links From the Show

Following an investigation by attorneys general in 11 states, Anheuser-Bush will take the caffeine out of alcoholic energy drinks. The number one brewery in the United States says the drinks had less caffeine than a Starbucks coffee.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Japan wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo tests eye, touch controls for consumer electronics /
Crocodile welcomed into Australian pub by drinkers / Kudryavtseva Turns Sharapova Into Fashion Victim at Wimbledon

Laura Silver

4:47 AM ET | 06-27-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

The Rundown: Now With SOUND!

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Camera by Meena Ramamurthy

Win Rosenfeld

6:08 PM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Giant Squid! Giant Squid!

Filed under: News

Researchers have found the carcass of what they're pretty sure is a giant squid floating in Monterey Bay off the California coast.

The carcass is in rough shape -- researchers were alerted to it by the sight of a flock of gulls feeding on it. They're still excited, because giant squid carcasses are rare, and each one offers a chance to learn more about the biology of the mysterious deep-water invertebrate.

This squid, they estimate, was probably about 25 feet long. There are pictures of it on the San Jose Mercury News website.

They're not 100 percent sure it's an architeuthis, but they think they'll know later today after a necropsy.

So while it's not as cool as that time Japanese scientists photographed a live giant squid for the first time ever, it's good news for the squid watchers.

Tricia McKinney

1:35 PM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Forever Everglades?

Filed under: Slideshow

Click to watch

Laura Silver/NPR

 

As much as I love the outdoors, I never thought much about the Everglades. I thought of South Florida as a haven for retirees, strip malls, backyard canals and little else. But last spring, I visited the national park as part of an environmental fellowship for journalists. I experienced my first cypress dome and saw tropical flowers growing from trees.

It's a miracle there's any of it left. Maps of the Everglades past, present and future water flow shows the creep of suburban development and the retreat of the endless "river of grass." After a deadly hurricane in 1926, farmers and builders began calling for control of the entire Everglades water system. The Army Corps of Engineers worked to tame Mother Nature, documenting some of its efforts in a 1950s promo film, Waters of Destiny.

This week, U.S. Sugar announced its plan to sell 175,000 acres to the state of Florida. "We're embarking on perhaps the largest restoration project on the planet," ecologist Nick Aumen told us today. "It's an opportunity to reclaim agricultural land that was once Everglades."

Laura Silver

1:33 PM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Open Thread: On the 'Juno' Effect

Filed under: Luncheonette, Sound Off

On our show today, journalism professor Jane Brown took on the "Juno Effect" -- the idea that movies about unexpected pregnancy may encourage very young women to become mothers.

Brown says the research she has done indicates that the Juno effect is quite real. "In the context of parents still not comfortable talking with their children about sex, with schools talking only about abstinence until marriage and with religion saying it's still a sin, the media have become very powerful sex educators," she argues.

Me, I learned everything I wanted to know from The Breakfast Club. Or maybe Hotel New Hampshire. The question is whether I learned everything I needed.

Laura Conaway

12:16 PM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | comments (20) | e-mail post

The Most, 06.26.08

Filed under: Links From the Show

Win Rosenfeld

11:11 AM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

The Quavers Perform at the BPP

Filed under: Music, Video

The Brooklyn-based band The Quavers use all sorts of gadgets to create their self-described "porch techno" music. Here's their performance of "Green Plastic Soldiers."

Zena Barakat

10:03 AM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Linkfest: NBC Settles 'Predator' Case

Filed under: Links From the Show

NBC Universal has reached a deal with a woman claimed Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator drove her brother to suicide. Patricia Conradt had sought $105 million, alleging the show "steamrolled" authorities to arrest her brother. Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Settlement in N.Y. lawsuit over NBC's Predator/ Mayor fuming over Tariq Aziz cigar case probe/ Germany's late goal beats Turkey in Euro 2008/ Boy tackled by Colorado mayor gets restraining order

Laura Silver

4:36 AM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: An 80-Story Spinning Skyscraper

Filed under: Links From the Show

Here in New York, we've got a revolving restaurant on top of a Midtown hotel. But in Dubai, they're planning a building whose levels will spin independently -- all 80 of them.

It's the BPP's Most.

Dubai plans "moving" skyscraper/ Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?/ Some potters secede from annual festival in North Carolina/ Wolves seem torn between selecting Mayo or Love/ In energy-stingy Japan, an extravagant indulgence: posh privies/ Study: Teachers not being taught math properly

Laura Silver

4:35 AM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

I Know Who's Not My City

Filed under: City Living

Today Mike Pesca talked to Professor Richard Florida about his new book, "Who's Your City?" The basic premise of the book is that whatever choice you made to live where you live probably affected your fate more than any other decision you have ever made.

This being 2008, there's a nifty lil' website to go with the book, and it includes some fun interactives, like a "place finder" a quiz that helps you figure out where you should be living.

I took it and found out that I should NOT be living where I live. I'm going to take it again and see if I can do better, because I don't want to move!

Who's YOUR city?

Tricia McKinney

3:16 PM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

The BPP's Twin Radio Show

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Today during The Most I reported that astronomers are close to discovering Earth's twin. As the article explains, "Momentum is building: Just last week, astronomers announced they had discovered three super-Earths -- worlds more massive than ours but small enough to most likely be rocky -- orbiting a single star."

The truth is, astronomers are pretty far behind. I actually found Earth's twin a few weeks ago. It just took a little snooping around with my telescope. Anyway, I looked into it further and found that on Earth's twin, there's a Bryant Park Project twin. That's right, a show just like ours, but on this other planet. I hooked up a satellite in my apartment in Brooklyn and recorded some of it. Check it out:

I don't know about you, but I can't tell the difference. (Kudos to Matt Martinez for turning this bit up to 11.)

Dan Pashman

3:01 PM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Thursday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Camera by Meena Ramamurthy

Zena Barakat

2:36 PM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

I Just 'Can't Get You Outta My Head'

Filed under: Luncheonette

Yesterday I was singing this song all day -- thanks to Ian (it's his ringtone.) Today I thought I had finally escaped it, but in a moment of weakness, I started singing it again. So instead of ignoring it, I've decided to relish it and fully rock out at my desk with this live performance from the Swedish rock band Europe.

Enjoy!

Caitlin Kenney

12:48 PM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Should Raw Milk Be More Accessible?

Filed under: Video

Watch this video and tell us what you think. (After that check out more of our raw milk story.)

Dan Pashman

9:14 AM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (37) | e-mail post

Storm Trooper Pride

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Gay Empire Attack!, artist Suckadelic

Christie's Images Ltd. 2008

 

Not everything on the block at Christie's Pop Culture auction has stood the test of time.

The artist Suckadelic created "Gay Empire Attack!" in 2007. But just because this Storm-Trooper art is recent, doesn't mean it's devoid of nostalgia or -- craftsmanship.

"These aren't painted, these are hand cast," said Simeon Lipman, the head of pop culture at Christie's. "This guy actually hand-makes all these figures."

In addition to this work, Suckadelic has a few other lots in the auction:

Graff-At, 2002, a Star Wars vehicle customized by professional graffiti artists, with tags in the Aurebesh language, a fictional letter system created for in-world use for the six Star Wars films. The largest tag on the side of the souped-up Graff-at--"Rebel."

Darth Blowout, 2005, a circus punk doll holding a light saber

Crucifett, 2003, an action figure assemblage which shows Boba Fett cruxified on the wings of an X-Wing fighter

Laura Silver

8:34 AM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Pop Culture, Get Your Pop Culture

Filed under: Slideshow

Click to play.

Caitlin Kenney, NPR

 

Want to buy a Tony Soprano tracksuit or a check signed by Marilyn Monroe? Pop culture goes on the auction block today at Christie's in New York. On the show today, we talked to Christie's resident pop culture expert, Simeon Lipman, about where this memorabilia comes from and what it's worth.

Caitlin Kenney

7:51 AM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Bridesmaid Spot Up for Auction

Filed under: Links From the Show

A Virginia bride wants the wedding of her dreams, but doesn't have the funds... so she started an auction on eBay. The winner will get to be a bridesmaid at her wedding next April.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

World has at least 10 million millionaires / Kids protest gas prices after losing cable TV / How to manage an office of 20 somethings / How to Manage 20-Somethings, from Gawker

Laura Silver

7:19 AM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

LInkfest: Earth May Have a Twin

Filed under: Links From the Show

Got doppleganger? Planet hunters predict that Earth has a twin planet somewhere in the Milky Way.

It's the BPP's Most.

Angry brides left without dresses / Mobile phone battery dead? Try dancing / Shaquille O'Neal is asked to return special deputy badges / Researchers hit a homer with 'The Odyssey'

Laura Silver

7:17 AM ET | 06-25-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Wednesday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Camera by Meena Ramamurthy

Zena Barakat

2:56 PM ET | 06-24-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Mermaids on Parade

Filed under: Luncheonette

Mermaids and a merman at Coney Island.

Josh Rogosin

 

NPR New York audio engineer Josh Rogosin shares some photographs...

This past Saturday I spent the day in the sun at one of my favorite places on earth -- Coney Island, Brooklyn. I usually don't need any excuse to ride the infamous Cyclone Roller Coaster but this time I happened to have one -- the 25th annual Mermaid Parade.

Continue reading "Mermaids on Parade" »

Caitlin Kenney

11:38 AM ET | 06-24-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

The Most : 06.24.08

Filed under: Links From the Show

A former office manager and Oregon hotel night clerk penned a tale of redemption. Now, William P.Young's "The Shack" has topped best-seller lists.

It's the BPP's Most.

Pentagon nominates first woman four-star general / Stranded hiker uses sports bra to attract rescuers / Boy George denied visa for outstanding legal issues / Remembering George Carlin

Win Rosenfeld

10:36 AM ET | 06-24-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Top Three Japanese Game Shows

Filed under: Video

Today on the show we talked to Gavin Purcell , the blogger behind TV in Japan, about the magic of Japanese game shows. This week ABC premieres its new show "I Survived A Japanese Game Show." Purcell gave us some good insight on what makes these shows so fun to watch, and why they might not translate perfectly to mainstream American audiences.

Of course, Japanese game shows have been bringing joy to YouTubers for years. Frankly it's a wonder it took a major American network this long to start ripping them off. Here's my personal top three. I don't even know what most of them are called, but they're awesome. Vote for which one you like best, and submit your own for consideration...

NUMBER THREE

Continue reading "Top Three Japanese Game Shows" »

Dan Pashman

9:01 AM ET | 06-24-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Taiwan Relaxes Limits on Chinese Actors

Filed under: Links From the Show

Taiwan's official broadcasting regulations prevent actors from mainland China from performing in live theater on the self-ruled island. but those rules may be changing.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Lego secret vault contains all sets in history / Irishman clinches world barista title / Naked Cowboy lawsuit vs M&Ms maker to go forward / No emphysema for Winehouse, spokeswoman says

Laura Silver

4:55 AM ET | 06-24-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Christian Novel Tops Bestseller Lists

Filed under: Links From the Show

A former office manager and Oregon hotel night clerk penned a tale of redemption. Now, William P.Young's "The Shack" has topped best-seller lists.

It's the BPP's Most.

Pentagon nominates first woman four-star general / Stranded hiker uses sports bra to attract rescuers / Boy George denied visa for outstanding legal issues / Remembering George Carlin

Laura Silver

4:54 AM ET | 06-24-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

81 Days and Counting

Filed under: Stuff We Love

The Coen brothers were in the air at the BPP offices today. When I got here this morning, Dan and Tricia were in some sort of heated discussion over The Big Lebowski, and then while I was eating my lunch I noticed this:

It's the preview for the next flick by the Coens. It's called Burn After Reading. It seems to be about spies. Its cast includes everyone awesome who ever signed up to be an actor. Rachel Martin says it's going to make her head explode all over some theater come September 12.

Be honest now. Could anything in the world make this trailer better?

Jacob Ganz

3:54 PM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Tuesday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

--Camera by Meena Ramamurthy

Zena Barakat

3:22 PM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

From the Studio: Pop Collage, pre-Girl Talk

Filed under: Music

We had Matthew Perpetua on the show today to help us out with an assisted listen to the new Girl Talk record, Feed The Animals, which cycles through close to 300 samples in its 53 minutes. It's a ride through the last 40 years of pop history, though one that - as Matthew pointed out - seems very of this particular moment.

But Girl Talk is hardly the first artist to use pop music as fodder for collage. As soon as we started playing clips from Feed The Animals in the studio, our engineer Manoli Wetherell turned around and said, "Hey, this sounds like Steinski!"

Whoski?

Manoli has the answer:

When Jacob came into the control room with clips for the interview on the new Girl Talk album, I couldn't believe how very very much like Steinski the whole thing felt. So much that one of the clips sounded like pure Steinski to me, like it was just lifted straight out of one of his mixes, Jazz.

In case you don't know, Steinski and his mixing partner Double Dee have been around since the early 80s. In 1983 they won the Tommy Boy Records contest to re-mix "Play that Beat, Mr. DJ".

So, from all of the mixes submitted the judges must have been a bit surprised that the winners were two white guys, one in his late twenties and the other in his early thirties, older than the average hip-hop listener. That mix, Lesson One -- The Payoff Mix, and the ones that followed were very influential. I like the way they build and grow as they are tell a musical story. The clips Steinski uses are from all over -- old TV spots, hip hop, jazz, Mario Savio, blues, gospel, Fiorello La Guardia, old vinyl from I don't know when or where. I love listening to Steinski, I always hear something new. I love his mix "Jazz", it always puts me in a good mood. Or at least a better mood! It can be a bit of a hunt to find his stuff but well well worth it!

Steinski has a webpage -- www.Steinski.com where you can download some of his old shows on WFMU.

Thanks, Manoli. And yes, like Girl Talk's music, Steinski's is based largely around un-cleared samples from copyrighted material. So it's technically illegal to sell. But here's a sample from Lesson 3 (The History Of Hip-Hop) to start off your hunt.

Jacob Ganz

3:14 PM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Listener Challenge: Name the sample

Filed under: Luncheonette, Music

Artist Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk)

Andrew Strasser

 

Today on the show, we did an assisted listen to Girl Talk aka Gregg Gillis's latest album, Feed the Animals. Gillis is a mashup artist who samples just about everything you could imagine.

So here's our challenge to you BPP listeners: name as many samples as you can in this song, "Like This."

Cheaters as always can go to Wikipedia.

Caitlin Kenney

2:07 PM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

Slave records, political posters and a lock of hair from 1801 were discovered in the attic of a Maryland plantation, where a family kept military documents alongside laundry bills.

It's the BPP's Most.

A life saver called "plumpynut" / Edith Macefield, 1921-2008: Ballard woman held her ground as change closed in around her / Male blackbirds intent on protecting turf / Tiny Shetland Island declares independence

--Video edited by Meena Ramamurthy

Zena Barakat

12:20 PM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post

The Flavor is Gone

Filed under: City Living

Out of our mouths and into our hearts.

Jordan/Flickr

The Gum Tree is no more. For decades, Philadelphians took the chewed gum from their mouths and affixed it to a tree outside the cheesesteak joint Ishkabibble's. Why? No one knows, and it doesn't matter. What matters is that the gross and beloved monument is now gone, the victim of renovations to its South Street home.

The tragedy got us thinking: what other unlikely landmarks are out there? These are monuments that weren't meant to be monuments, but somehow everyone in a community came to know and love them. Do you have one in your neighborhood? Let us know.

Ian Chillag

8:59 AM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post

All Access: Anthony Karen's Insider Images

Filed under: Video

From body-writhing voodoo rituals in Haiti, to white-robed Ku Klux Klan initiations deep in the backwoods of the South-- photographer Anthony Karen has been able to get access to some of the most notorious and mysterious sub-cultures in the world.

Win Rosenfeld

8:34 AM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (28) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Amy Winehouse Has Emphysema

Filed under: Links From the Show

Doctors say the 24-year-old British pop star has 70-percent lung capacity. Her father says he hopes she'll make it to the Glastonbury Festival next week.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Candace Parker has second dunk in WNBA history / Ted Nugent sells game trophies as he plans another move / Berlusconi wants communion ban lifted / Amy Winehouse has emphysema

Laura Silver

7:28 AM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Maryland Pack Rats Find Slave Documents

Filed under: Links From the Show

Slave records, political posters and a lock of hair from 1801 were discovered in the attic of a Maryland plantation, where a family kept military documents alongside laundry bills.

It's the BPP's Most.

A life saver called "plumpynut" / Edith Macefield, 1921-2008: Ballard woman held her ground as change closed in around her / Male blackbirds intent on protecting turf / Tiny Shetland Island declares independence

Laura Silver

7:28 AM ET | 06-23-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Anthony Karen: No Judgment, Just Journalism

Filed under: Media

It took me about a month to gain the trust of photographer Anthony Karen. Ironic, considering he's usually the one trying to ease people into talking to him. I saw a photo essay on Mother Jones of his photos of a woman who makes the hoods and robes for her local KKK, the images part of a series Anthony's done on the Klan. I thought he'd be a great guest for the BPP, offering a rare peek behind those hoods and inside the closed rituals of this notorious group.

But Anthony wasn't so eager to get more media coverage. That slideshow opened him up to a whole slew of criticism and nasty comments- claims that he, too, is a racist or that he's some kind of Klan sympathizer. He says excerpts of his interview with Mother Jones for that slideshow were taken out of context, making it sound like he'd either bought into Klan ideology or was naive to their history. Neither is the case.

Continue reading "Anthony Karen: No Judgment, Just Journalism" »

Angela Ellis

5:43 PM ET | 06-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

The White-Collar Perp Walk

Filed under: Video

This week, hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin became the first Wall Street executives to get caught up in the government's crackdown of the subprime mortgage crisis.

The FBI suggests this is just the beginning of these kinds of arrests. It is investigating 19 major companies for wrongdoing related to the subprime mortgage crisis. So the question is: are we are returning to the era of the high-ranking executive perp walk?

NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports.

Zena Barakat

7:14 PM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Monday's Rundown

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

4:18 PM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

BPP Picture Show: Don't Pop Fido

Filed under: Inside The BPP

On this edition of the BPPPS: Balloon twisters Naomi Greenfield and Sara Taksler teach us how to caninopomoprhize rubber and air.

Here's how you make a balloon dog:

Win Rosenfeld

3:35 PM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

More Than Little Dogs: The Amazing World of Balloon Twisting

Filed under: Luncheonette, Stuff We Love

Click to play.

Caitlin Kenney, NPR

 

Today on the show, we talked to Naomi Greenfield and Sara Taksler, about their film "Twisted: A Balloonamentary." While they were here, they were kind enough to twist some dogs and an NPR logo for us -- simple stuff for them, compared to their other work. The sculptures they feature in the movie are mind-blowing so I put together a gallery to give you a little taste.

Caitlin Kenney

1:33 PM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

The Secrets of Baconhenge

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

Carol Squires

 

Thousands of people are headed to Stonehenge today to celebrate the summer solstice, but if you can't make it all the way to England, you can always celebrate at home with your own personal "Baconhenge."

Carin Huber, an editor and project designer for the online magazine AntiCraft, created "Baconhenge" out of French toast sticks and bacon assembled with bamboo skewers. We talked to her about the sculpture on the show today and she offered to share her recipe with us. It's posted after the jump.

Continue reading "The Secrets of Baconhenge" »

Caitlin Kenney

9:30 AM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Post Office Steps: One Artist's Studio

Filed under: City Living

"Painting the town green."

Laura Silver

 

I have a soft spot for New York's main post office -- it's open 24/7 and has a modest (and free) postal museum in its corridors. I've made more than a dozen last-minute runs to get things postmarked before midnight, and waiting in a Beaux-Arts building always seemed like a reward.

Now that plans are underway to convert the building into a train station, I've already started mourning the end of late-night pilgrimages to the McKim, Mead and White mecca.

But, when I walked by the building the other day, I was reassured about the public use of this space. Monique Fagan Smith had turned the post office steps into an open-air art studio. She was painting on a six-foot-tall canvas that looked like linoleum or the flip side of billboard ad.

Fagan Smith had a single can of paint: green. And one brush. Lots of people were sitting on the steps across from Penn Station, but no one paid attention to Fagan Smith's painting.

Continue reading "Post Office Steps: One Artist's Studio " »

Laura Silver

8:41 AM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Scientists See Signs of Ice on Mars

Filed under: Links From the Show

What happens when bright clumps go missing on Mars? NASA scientists say it's a sign of ice on the red planet.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Report: Science teacher mixed religion, class / The song they didn't write? Coldplay are accused of plagiarism by American band

Laura Silver

4:50 AM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Teens Made Pact to Get Pregnant

Filed under: Links From the Show

A group of teenage girls in Gloucester, Mass., made a pact to get pregnant and raise their children together, according to a Time magazine story that came out yesterday.

It's the BPP's Most.

Middle schools tone down graduation ceremonies / Jersey bees are back / Swearing chef prompts tighter #*@%& rules / Perfecting the Art of Frugal Living in NYC

Laura Silver

4:50 AM ET | 06-20-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Rundown: Friday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

5:47 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

VIDEO: Vocab Smackdown

Filed under: Inside The BPP

Maybe you heard the good folks from Chelsea Mind Games proctoring the vocabulary smackdown between Mike and Trish on the BPP today. Maybe you even played along at home. It was a fun listen no doubt -- but we love watching our colleagues squirm:

Win Rosenfeld

5:30 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Thursday's Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

Win Rosenfeld

4:59 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Remembering Tony Schwartz

Filed under: Media

All the coverage of Tim Russert's death overshadowed another death in the world of media and politics last weekend.

Tony Schwartz, media consultant, adman, sound designer, and teacher, died on Sunday at the age of 84. Among other things, many other things, he made the now famous LBJ "Daisy" television ad which is widely recognized as TV's first political attack ad. Because of it, he's often considered to be the founder of the modern era of negative campaigning. Yet, though there were obituaries that outlined some of the highlights of Schwartz's wide-ranging and idiosyncratic career, there was little discussion of the impact of this singular and eccentric man in the very media environment he had helped to create.

I never had the privilege of knowing Tim Russert, though I always enjoyed watching him. But I did have the good fortune to have known Tony Schwartz a little bit.

Continue reading "Remembering Tony Schwartz" »

Paul Hechinger

3:06 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Open Thread: Let's Talk About This "Offline"

Filed under: Sound Off

Today on the show, we talked about the most annoying office jargon. The BBC just published their list "50 Office-Speak Phrases You Love to Hate," and "going forward," "loop back," "I've got you in my radar" and "product evanglist" all made the list.

My personal favorite is "Lets talk about this offline." What does this mean? Are the rest of our conversations "online?" I've noticed that people tend to say this in meetings when they want to discuss something in a smaller group at a later date, but I highly doubt they mean a conversation over the internet.

Caitlin Kenney

2:24 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post

Drawing Pictures

Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette

A photograph by NPR New York audio engineer Josh Rogosin published in Time Out.

Josh Rogosin

 

An illustration of Josh's photo by Sam Ferri.

Time Out

When I read that Time Out was soliciting readers to send in photos, from around town, to illustrate -- I couldn't resist submitting this picture. It was taken across the street from the MOMA in Midtown. The subject had no idea I was taking his picture, but I knew it'd be worth a thousand words. I love it when a still image can tell a story.

--Josh Rogosin

Caitlin Kenney

12:24 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Brain Fun: Vocabulary Competition

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Quizmasters Jennifer Dziura and Jonathan Lill were on the show today to give us a taste of a vocabulary tournament they host for adults in New York City. The tournament is part of an event called Chelsea Mind Games.

Mike Pesca and I, "Jeopardy!" veterans both, were the contestants. We played four rounds and enjoyed the thrill of victory (synonyms: conquest, achievement, ascendancy, mastery, success, supremacy) and the agony of defeat (synonyms: drubbing, rout, vanquishment, overthrow, debacle, downfall, labefaction) endured. You can listen to the outcome here . And why not play along at home? Answers appear after the jump.

ROUND ONE

You get 3 difficult words. You get one point for using each word correctly and you can get up to two possible additional points for style. One sentence containing all 3 words, if you can.

1.) mendacious, oligarchy and palliative.

2.) panache, expeditious and yeomanly

ROUND TWO

In the following list of four words, three are eponyms or toponyms, and one is a fake. Identify the fake one to win one point. If you need to know what an eponym is, look it up!

1.) All of these are ice skating jumps: which one is not an eponym?
Triple Lutz
Cherry Flip
Triple Axel
Salchow

2.) These are all types of musical instrument. Which is not an eponym?
Saxophone
Sarousaphone
Flugelhorn
Theremin

Continue reading "Brain Fun: Vocabulary Competition" »

Tricia McKinney

9:17 AM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Open Thread: Tim Russert's Death and the Media

Filed under: Sound Off, TV

Today on the show, we talked to Slate's Jack Shafer about the coverage of Tim Russert's death. Shafer criticized the media response in a recent Slate piece, "The Canonization of Saint Russert."

"I wonder whether the media grievers gave a moment of thought to how this Russert torrent they produced played with viewers and readers. Did the grievers really think Russert was so important, so vital to the nation's course, and such an elevated human being that he deserved hour upon hour of tribute? I wonder whether any of the responsible journalists paused to think, Hey, this is really weird. We're using our unchecked editorial power to soak the nation with our tears about our friend, and that's unseemly! On days like this, I, too, hate the press."

UPDATE: NBC News President Steve Capus talks to TVNewser about the criticism of NBC's coverage.

"I think it's been appropriate, balanced, loving. With all due respect, nobody can expect NBC to be objective. Tim had a remarkable, unique place in America. I can't think of anyone in our industry who would generate those type of intense feelings."

Caitlin Kenney

7:35 AM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (71) | e-mail post

Linkfest: China Retools Names of Traditional Dishes

Filed under: Links From the Show

China is revamping the names of traditional dishes in preparation for an influx of English-speaking visitors. Goodbye "husband-and-wife's lung slice," hello "beef and ox tripe in chili sauce."

It's the BPP's Ramble

How much do you make? It'd be no secret in Scandinavia / 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate / Seinfeld lawyers see humor, not defamation

Laura Silver

7:21 AM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Another Foot Found on Vancouver Island

Filed under: Links From the Show

Vancouver Island is a hot bed for human feet. A sixth disembodied foot turned up on the east coast of the island yesterday.

It's the BPP's Most.

Swiss TV in German anthem blunder / Firefox 3 Vulnerability Found / Firefox 3 browser is nifty and packed with handy features / Pigs swam through floodwaters, shot on levee / 'Rembrandt Laughing' is self-portrait / E-Mail, the Workplace and the Electronic Paper Trail

Laura Silver

7:20 AM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

G. Love Spreads the, uh, Love

Filed under: Music, Video

G. Love stopped by the BPP studios to play "Peace, Love and Happiness" off his new album, Superhero Brother.

Zena Barakat

5:40 PM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Rundown: Thursday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

4:24 PM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Let's Talk Baby

Filed under: Maternity Leave

"You talkin' to me?"

 

During our Father's Day BBQ, I asked the parents of two baby boys: "Where do you stand on baby talk?" "Hate it," the father said, while Mom admitted to speaking in a high voice and making funny faces.

I agree with the dad, but I find myself behaving like the mom. Technically she and I engage in something called parentese, which is apparently good for your kid. The baby talk I was referring to sounds like what I encountered recently at a baby stuff store. Adults were speaking to their "soooper sweetums" and asking does "baybee-waybee, wanna binky-winky?" I thought to myself 'aren't you making your kids, stoopid-woopid or at least laying the groundwork for a mean speech impediment?' I mean, Buddy Hinton was right.

Baby talk between adults is really revolting, but what about between parent and child? Do you think it's normal behavior or a really ridiculous learned practice?

-- Alison Stewart

Caitlin Kenney

3:09 PM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | comments (22) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

It's the BPP's Most.

Sign of road rage may be on bumper / See a huge moon illusion / Lack of vitamin D rampant in infants, teens / Airlines are charging for the wrong bags

Zena Barakat

1:46 PM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Do You Have A Secret?

Filed under: Luncheonette, Stuff We Love

An anoynmous postcard sent to PostSecret.

A Lifetime of Secrets/William Morrow

 

Today on the show, we talked to Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret. Warren's been collecting anonymous secrets on homemade postcards since 2004. Since then, he has turned these confessions into a traveling exhibition, a website, and several books.

If you want to send Frank your secret, mail a 4-by-6-inch postcard to:

PostSecret
13345 Cooper Ridge Rd
Germantown, MD 20874-3454

Caitlin Kenney

11:52 AM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Robot Girlfriend to Debut in Japan

Filed under: Links From the Show

A Japanese company plans to debut its 15-inch battery-operated she-robot in September. The "Eternal Maiden Actualization" will be marketed to a target audience of lonely men.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Joan Rivers kicked off live TV show / Man gets Air Force leave extended for White Castle / Police say snake eyed as weapon

Laura Silver

6:14 AM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Woman Sues Victoria's Secret Over Thong

Filed under: Links From the Show

A Los Angeles woman is suing underwear manufacturer Victoria's Secret because of an injury she incurred while putting on a "low-rise v-string." According to the complaint, a decorative metal piece on the thong became dislodged and hit her in the eye.

It's the BPP's Most.

Sign of road rage may be on bumper / See a huge moon illusion / Lack of vitamin D rampant in infants, teens / Airlines are charging for the wrong bags

Laura Silver

6:12 AM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Wednesday's Rundown

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Zena Barakat

2:38 PM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Open Thread: Associated Press v. Bloggers

Filed under: Luncheonette

The blogosphere is abuzz today with news that the Associated Press wants to define how much of its content bloggers and Web sites can use.

The New York Times is reporting that it all started last week when the A.P. sent a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it remove items that contained A.P. quotes. Word got out and a backlash ensued on the web. On Saturday, the company's vice president and strategy director, Jim Kennedy, told the Times the letter was "heavy-handed" and that the A.P. would rethink its policies toward bloggers.

Kennedy says the company plans to meet with representatives of the Media Bloggers Association in hopes of creating some new guidelines, but for now they have not withdrawn their request for the Drudge Retort remove the items.

"Cutting and pasting a lot of content into a blog is not what we want to see," Kennedy said. "It is more consistent with the spirit of the Internet to link to content so people can read the whole thing in context."

Caitlin Kenney

2:04 PM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

It's the BPP Most.

Scientists reverse vasectomy on endangered horse / Google trends: Javon Walker / Fifth foot found on B.C.'s south coast / Chimps use hugs and kisses to calm each other after fights / McCain's voting record: Bush comparison accurate?

Zena Barakat

12:32 PM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Live Long and Prosper, Til Death Do You Part

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Bob Lee and wife make it so.

 

When they get married in September, Mr. Sulu George Takei and Brad Altman are going to have wedding guests Trekkies can only dream of: Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and Leonard Nimoy--Chekov, Uhura, and Spock respectively--are all going to be there. With some help from Bob Lee, who married his wife Starfleet style, I thought I'd send Takei and Altman some advice for the ultimate Star Trek wedding. Do you have any more advice for the happy couple?

Ian Chillag

9:23 AM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

What's the Best "I'll Fly Away" Ever?

Filed under: Music

Today I made a contribution to the continuing BPP series, "Best Song in the World Today," with the classic spiritual "I'll Fly Away." The choice was inspired by the jarring experience of going from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas last weekend.

My wife and I went from a place created entirely by nature over several hundred million years to a place created entirely by humans in a geological instant, and it was quite a shock to the system. (The experience came complete with a guy in a "Buttweiser" T-shirt that proclamed him the "King of Rears.") Hear about the whole epic debacle here.

"I'll Fly Away" was originally written by Albert Brumley in 1929, and since then it's become one of the most covered songs of all time. It's been performed by everyone from Andy Griffith to Kanye West. Working on this segment actually got me thinking: What's the best version of "I'll Fly Away" ever?

Continue reading "What's the Best "I'll Fly Away" Ever?" »

Dan Pashman

8:39 AM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Elian Gonzalez Joins Young Communist Union

Filed under: Links From the Show

Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a international custody struggle in 2000, has reportedly joined the country's Young Communist Union. The Cuban Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde quotes Elian Gonzalez as saying "Fidel and Raul can count on us. We won't let them down."

It's the BPP Most.

Scientists reverse vasectomy on endangered horse / Google trends: Javon Walker / Fifth foot found on B.C.'s south coast / Chimps use hugs and kisses to calm each other after fights / McCain's voting record: Bush comparison accurate?

Caitlin Kenney

6:37 AM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Romanian Village Elects Dead Mayor

Filed under: Links From the Show

The residents of a Romanian village voted in a dead man as their mayor Sunday, choosing him over his living opponent. The candidate died of liver disease shortly after voting began -- but still won by a margin of 23 votes.

It's the BPP Ramble.

Copper wire theft causes power outages in Pico Rivera / Leona Helmsley's pup loses $10m of trust fund / Orphan chicks taught to sing with CD of the dawn chorus

Caitlin Kenney

6:19 AM ET | 06-17-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

The Amazing Anya Ulinich

Filed under: Book Club

Marx, Bird, Monster

Anya Ulinich

 

OK, so not only does Anya Ulinich -- our latest BPP Book Club author -- amaze us because she wrote her fabulous novel, Petropolis, in her second language (her first is Russian). She also amazes us because fiction is her second art form. Her first? Painting. When she moved to Brooklyn, apartment living made things a little cramped for that medium, and so she began to write.

The result puts her in the tradition of Slavs who use the English language well enough to put native speakers to shame. Other examples? Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Conrad (born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski).

Check out more of Ulinich's paintings.

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

4:46 PM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Video: Mason Jennings Rocks

Filed under: Music, Video

Mason Jennings performed songs from his new album In the Ever at the BPP studios. Here's a video of his hilarious song: "Your New Man." Watch until the end, when he tells the stories behind his tattoos.

Zena Barakat

4:46 PM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Rundown for Tuesday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

2:34 PM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Tiger Woods, Lunch Date

Filed under: Luncheonette

Don't know what you're doing this lunchtime, but we're watching Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate in the U.S. Open playoff.

Bonus: @jongordonlive Tweets play.

Laura Conaway

1:35 PM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Allegory for an Industry, or Just a DUI Souvenir?

Filed under: City Living

Maybe NOW It'll Give Change

Bill Chappell/NPR

 

I was walking home the other night and saw this freshly crumpled newspaper box at an intersection in Washington, D.C.
Wish I could have seen this happen -- the damage implies a state of control/uncontrol that intrigues me. It's really what I'd expect to see if you could cram a newspaper box into a huge microwave -- and the box was made of plastic, I guess. It's like it just swooned.
Anyway, if you're someone who can't get enough of Newspaper Industry Dying stories, please just pretend I included that angle here, along with a pithy comparison of this stricken box and a budget crunch.
Bonus: You can even throw in me equating this hit to a denial-of-service Web attack, if you want to use metaphor to tap into the old "The more things change..." angle. But we needn't trouble ourselves with such things.

Bill Chappell

12:38 PM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

It's the BPP's Most.

Emergency alert is a false alarm ... / 100 Orlando cabbies plan protest over alleged mistreatment / Parking meter income takes hit / 'Knight Rider' Car On eBay / Help! Family Spam Is Crushing My Inbox!

Win Rosenfeld

11:38 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Open Thread: Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

Filed under: Sound Off

Writer Nicholas Carr stopped by the BPP to discuss his provocatively-titled Atlantic Monthly article "Is Google Making Us Stoopid?"

In case you're wondering, Carr says that it's the nature and structure of the whole Internet, not just Google that he's talking about.

Carr says the Internet has shortened our attention spans. The Internet, he says, encourages us to click and skim, rather than to read and think. He also says the Internet actually makes it harder for us to read longer books and articles. Has that been your experience?

Paul Hechinger

11:20 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (24) | e-mail post

The Art of Reinvention

Filed under: City Living

I've got some modern art I'll sell you...

Bill Chappell/NPR

 

The way cities reshape themselves amazes me -- especially when you get a look at the tools they use to do it. Get a load of this thing: It's huge, it's heavy, and for good measure it has blades.

This thing might look reasonable at first glance. But notice the cars in the background, and you'll get a sense of the scale. It's like 10 feet tall. I have no idea, or at least very little, of what this thing's for. But I'm certain it gets the job done.

It actually reminded me of a Richard Serra piece, built as it is to dwarf human scale and expectations -- especially in a small Washington, D.C., neighborhood that is being rebuilt to accommodate its new baseball park.

Bill Chappell

10:59 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Esteban Navarro Welcomes You to Spain

Filed under: The Best Song In The World Today

Esteban Navarro knows what it means to love a country.

 

A taste of "Yo Soy Español"

I'm off to Spain today, with my whole family. It's a somewhat regular trip for us, now that my in-laws have moved to Sevilla. We fly in and out through Madrid -- an underrated European city, if you ask me -- and leave plenty of time for bouncing through its museums and neighborhoods.

The last time we got there, we dragged ourselves into the first restaurant that looked all right. In the plaza outside, people in full costume were re-enacting the Inquisition or something. Our son, Nathaniel, was five and scared by it all. The Casa Alberto opened its arms, receiving us with sardines and olives and red wine you could use to patch a shoe.

It turns out Casa Alberto is about as Spanish as you can get. Cervantes lived upstairs while he wrote Don Quixote. And on that particular night, in strolled a musician named Esteban Navarro, who played a song called "Yo Soy Español." I'm not. We're not. But we bought his CD. Think of us tomorrow, midday Stateside. Gods willing, we'll be sliding into the corner table at Casa Alberto and hoping Esteban Navarro comes strumming around.

Bonus: The story of Casa Alberto, as translated by Babel Fish

Laura Conaway

9:05 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Your Ad is My Command

Filed under: Media

I take my dishes to the Whirlpool Power Scour.

Photo by Nora Gully

A couple weeks back I was drinking a beer, and on the label it said: "Come visit our brewery between 12 and 5 on Saturday." Seemed like a fun idea so I said to my girlfriend Nora, "Let's go visit the brewery between 12 and 5 on Saturday." As I said it, I thought, "What if I did everything advertising told me to do? What would my life be like?"

I spent a week trying to answer that question. There were explicit commands, like Register to Win a Free Cruise on Holland America Cruise Lines, but I was more interested in the vague directives -- the "Just Do It" types. Enjoy the Ride, said Avis. Eat it with Pride, said the wrapper of my Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich. Some things just didn't make sense. Don't Leave Your Butt Behind, an ad for a medical procedure told me.

I knew that we're constantly bombarded with advertising messages. Paying attention to them, I realized just how much I usually ignore. The level of noise I tune out every day is astonishing. Look at Life in a New Way, Life Cereal told me, and I guess I am.

Continue reading "Your Ad is My Command" »

Ian Chillag

7:39 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Open Thread: Barack Obama Talks Dads

Filed under: Election 2008, Sound Off

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama spoke at a Chicago church this Father's Day, calling on fathers to realize that "responsibility does not end at conception."

"Any fool can have a child, that doesn't make you a father, it's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father," said Obama. The issue has particular significance for the candidate whose own father left when he was two, and Obama says it is something the African-American community can't afford to ignore.

On the show today, Politico editor John Harris talked about the politics of Barack Obama's Father's Day sermon.

"This is something the most effective African-American politicians have done," said Harris. White audiences "don't want a sort of radical African American politician they want somebody who they believe shares essential middle class values."

Caitlin Kenney

7:19 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (21) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Welcome to the Hotel Alcatraz?

Filed under: Links From the Show

Off the coast of San Francisco, the National Park Service may add overnight accommodations to Alcatraz Island, the site of one of the world's most notorious prisons.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Voter turnout for tiny North Dakota town: Zero / Anoka teen pulls off a stunner / Text messaging adds new wrinkle to license plate letter combinations / The Top 100 Rated Vanity License Plates

Laura Silver

6:13 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: 'Prophylactic prophet' penalized

Filed under: Links From the Show

An Italian prankster could be put in prison for repeatedly popping up behind television reporters, while holding condoms. Italy's Supreme Court has upheld a three-month suspended sentence on Gabriele Paolini.

It's the BPP's Most.

Emergency alert is a false alarm ... / 100 Orlando cabbies plan protest over alleged mistreatment / Parking meter income takes hit / 'Knight Rider' Car On eBay / Help! Family Spam Is Crushing My Inbox!

Laura Silver

6:10 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

BPP Picture Show: Autographed Axe

Filed under: Video

NPR New York audio engineer Josh Rogosin can be heard plucking his travel guitar from time to time when the bureau is otherwise silent. A few years back, it occurred to him that he could amass some pretty impressive autographs by keeping it in the office for visiting musicians to sign. It is truly something to behold.

So, go ahead...behold it:

Win Rosenfeld

5:00 PM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Video: The World's Highest BMX Jump

Filed under: Video

Watch the interview of BMX rider Kevin Robinson with Mike Pesca, and see the big record-breaking jump. You can also read the first-hand account by BPP's Paul Hechinger.

Zena Barakat

4:51 PM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Rundown for Monday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

4:36 PM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

NBC's Tim Russert Dead at 58

Filed under: Media

Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," died today of a heart attack. He was 58.

Russert has been the host of NBC's popular Sunday morning political talk show since 1991.

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of Nightly News, came on the air this afternoon to make the announcement. Brokaw called Russert "one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time." "The news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice," said Brokaw.

Continue reading "NBC's Tim Russert Dead at 58" »

Caitlin Kenney

3:41 PM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

It's the BPP's Most.

You hear the latest rumor on Obama? / Perez Hilton: Turning a blog into an empire / Alex Kozinski suspends L.A. obscenity trial after conceding his website had sexual images / McCain's last standing rival drops White House bid

Zena Barakat

2:00 PM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

The Big Jump

Filed under: City Living, Stuff We Love

BMX cyclist Kevin Robinson over New York's Central park, June 12.

Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles

 

After hearing our BPP segment on BMX cyclist Kevin Robinson yesterday, I decided that I had to take my eight-year-old son Fred last night. Fred and I have gone to other BMX events, most notably the King of New York competition in the Bronx two years ago, but we didn't really know Robinson, or K-Rob, as his fans refer to him. We just knew that we wanted to see him on that enormous U-shaped ramp making BMX history.

Continue reading "The Big Jump" »

Paul Hechinger

11:40 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Perfect Friday Music? That is the Ques-tee-un.

Filed under: Music

Sometimes I forget that music existed between 1987 and 1991, and then Ian walks out of the meeting singing "Mercedes Boy" and I'm all like "mer-mer-mer-mercedes" for the rest of the day. It's like a wormhole.

This song comes up in the BPP office more than you might expect. A couple of weeks ago, when Adam Drucker was in the studio to talk about his new CD with the band Subtle, somebody else started talking about "Mercedes Boy," and Adam challenged us to come up with the name of Pebbles other big hit. I drew a blank until today.

Oh oh o-woo-oh. I'm totally going to have a three song dance party this afternoon with this, Two of Hearts, and Head to Toe.

Jacob Ganz

11:09 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Open Thread: Afraid of Friday the 13th?

Filed under: Sound Off

iStockphoto.com

On today's show, we heard from folklorist and psychologist Donald Dossey. Dossey says an estimated 17 million to 21 million Americans have some form of fear of Friday the 13th.

Now, me, personally, I'm about to go get on my bike and ride to Brooklyn. And I have to admit, I'll be thinking about Friday the 13th. Dossey says he tells his patients to relax about it -- advice that works to a point. "You've got to be careful trying to use logic, because logic does not work by the very nature of a phobia," he says. "A phobia is an illogical fear."

Laura Conaway

10:39 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post

The Integrated Prom: A Mississippi Editor Responds

Filed under: Sound Off

Mississippi's Charleston High School held its first interracial prom in April.

Catherine Farquharson

 

Jackson Free Press editor Donna Ladd talks about you.

This year, for the first time, the high school in Charleston, Miss., held an integrated prom -- ending a system of parallel parties for black and white students. After we covered the story this week, a whole lot of people wrote in to say they were just plain shocked that any kind of segregation could still exist in this country.

Um, private golf courses, anyone? Suburban high schools -- and inner city ones? Your church?

Since I first learned about the integrated prom through a report in the Jackson Free Press, I called the editor for her reaction. Donna Ladd is a longtime friend and hero of mine. More than once, she and her staff have tracked down a suspect in a decades-old race murder. She runs an integrated paper with an integrated audience. In my book, Donna Ladd has earned the right to talk about this, and what she says is that we need to see what's happening right in our neighborhoods.

Laura Conaway

8:40 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (21) | e-mail post

It's Friday. It's the Thirteenth. Is that Good or Bad?

Filed under: Luncheonette

Be very afraid. Or not.

On the show today, behavioral scientist and phobia expert Donald Dossey talked about the history and origins of Friday the 13th. He coined the word for the fear of the day, paraskevidekatriaphobia (say that 13 times fast) not to be confused with triskaidekaphobia, plain old fear of the number 13. The Triskaidekaphobia Illuminatus Society, founded in 1984, disbanded before its thirteenth anniversary.

But not everyone sees 13 as unlucky. When NPR's Margot Adler heard the interview with Dossey at the New York Bureau she begged to differ. "Doesn't he know 13 is the luckiest number?" she said, citing thirteen lunar months as a symbol of good fortune. She's not alone.

The New York Post reports that figure skater Dorothy Hamill has a special connection to the day. And yours truly, who once sported a haircut named for the ice skating champ, played as number 13 on the high school varsity soccer field. Our team was called the Red Devils (really). I still have the white satin jacket with red trim, but it's too warm to wear it today.

Laura Silver

7:39 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Silver Fillings May Lack Silver Lining

Filed under: Links From the Show

The Food and Drug Administration warns that silver dental fillings, which contain mercury, may pose a health risk for pregnant women and young children. But the findings are not yet conclusive. The agency is still conducting studies.

It's the BPP's Most.

You hear the latest rumor on Obama? / Perez Hilton: Turning a blog into an empire / Alex Kozinski suspends L.A. obscenity trial after conceding his website had sexual images / McCain's last standing rival drops White House bid

Laura Silver

6:21 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Lost Gnomes -- And Thief -- Found

Filed under: Links From the Show

French police announced the arrest of a 53-year-old man in connection with the theft of 170 garden gnomes. They were all displayed in his modest front yard.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

You're Too Hot for This Job / That 'new shower curtain smell' gives off toxic chemicals, study finds / Japanese gangster offered $1 million for visa that would allow liver transplant at UCLA, sources say

Laura Silver

6:20 AM ET | 06-13-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Video: Alanis Uncut

Filed under: Video

Maybe you caught Rachel's interview with the forty-times platinum recording artist on the show this morning and felt like you just didn't get enough. Here's the (practically) uncut version for the Alanis hardcores:

Win Rosenfeld

5:40 PM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

The Rundown for Friday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Zena Barakat

4:38 PM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

Win Rosenfeld

2:52 PM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

A Head of Lettuce Grows In Brooklyn

Filed under: City Living

Homegrown.

A few months ago, a gardener named David Amman told me, "If you're not growing anything, you're not assisting."

That made me rethink the long-dormant windowboxes in my fifth-floor walk-up. I bought starter plants -- $2 to $3 apiece -- including romaine and red leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes, a few kinds herbs and okra. (Yes, I really do I like it.)

The okra died a quick death (I'm trying a new batch) but the tomato plants are thriving. My real pride and joy, though, is the lettuce. It's doubled in size and is almost as wide as the container it's in.

One problem: I'd never seen it grow before and wasn't sure how to harvest it. I have to open the window to water my micro crops, and the lettuce leaves were in danger of getting mangled, so I started plucking off a leaf or two at a time.

It's tasty, fresh, highly fuel-efficient and right outside my kitchen window.

Laura Silver

1:41 PM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Anti-Smear Tactics 2.0

Filed under: Election 2008

Time magazine reports today that the Barack Obama campaign has come up with a new approach to dealing with Internet rumor-mongering: to take the rumors head on. The campaign today unveiled a website called "Fight the Smears."

The first few entries on the website take on some familiar rumors, like the one that Obama is a Muslim and the one that he doesn't put his hand on his heart or refuses to recite the pledge of allegiance. In each entry, his campaign presents evidence that it says refutes the rumor.

Snopes has looked into some of the same rumors.

We'll see if the site helps to douse some of the rumors or if it just fans the flames.

Tricia McKinney

1:35 PM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Kevin Robinson, BMX God

Filed under: Luncheonette

Later today in Central Park, Kevin Robinson will attempt a BMX record by jumping 50 feet at 50 miles an hour or something. I seriously do not fully understand it yet, despite his answering all questions

In the video above, Robinson pulls off a trick he invented, the double flair. As you can see from the poster's note, it's not clear whether actually did the trick he meant to do. My question, though, has to do with Robinson's reaction. Check out the hullaboo when he lands it. If you're about to risk life, limb and cervical column, shouldn't you have a fairly good idea you can do the stunt? Just asking.

Bonus: Live coverage of Robinson's jump tonight.

Laura Conaway

1:04 PM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Alanis Morissette Plays the BPP

Filed under: Video

Alanis Morissette dropped by the BPP yesterday to chat about her latest album, Flavors of Entanglement. She calls the new record her most mature yet, and on it, she explores themes both personal and political. Morissette incorporates new electronic elements and collaborations that manage to really push the envelope creatively all while staying true to the voice behind Jagged Little Pill.

Here's "Incomplete":

Bonus: Check out "Underneath" after the jump.

Continue reading "Alanis Morissette Plays the BPP" »

Win Rosenfeld

8:24 AM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Cycling Activists Take to the L.A. Freeways

Filed under: Video

On the show today, we heard from the Crimanimalz -- a group of L.A. bike riders who've begun monthly rides on the interstates around Santa Monica. Their motto: If you rode a bike, you'd be home by now.

The Crimanimalz got their start over the fall, when they decided to create an alternative to the Critical Mass rides in Santa Monica. They tried a few kinds of pedestrian or bike theater, but nothing has caught the attention of the community -- and law enforcement -- like riding down the freeway. They've now ridden twice, in April with a dozen or so people and again in May with double that.

For the record, the California Highway Patrol says riding a bike on the freeway is dangerous and illegal. It comes with the risk of death and a ticket north of $100.

Bonus: Crimanimalz blog a night ride.

Laura Conaway

7:44 AM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (23) | e-mail post

Linkfest: 'Unicorn' Deer Rears Its Horn

Filed under: Links From the Show

Officials at a nature preserve in Italy say a deer with a single horn in the center of his head was born with a genetic flaw. Or maybe it's a modern-day clue into the myth of the unicorn.

It's the BPP's Most.

Food gardens a growing trend / Naked pilot, flight attendant face fines over Pa. woods romp / Loch Ness monster quest nears end / Marine expelled over YouTube puppy video

Laura Silver

7:44 AM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Beluga of a Baby

Filed under: Links From the Show

Vancouver is home to a newborn four-and-a-half-foot whale who's continuing a proud lineage. His mom, Qila, was the first beluga conceived and born in a Canadian aquarium.

It's the BPP's Ramble

Study: Marijuana potency increases in 2007 / World's 'oldest Christian church' discovered in Jordan / Google's Brin signs up to be space tourist /
.

Laura Silver

6:07 AM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Rundown

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

11:10 PM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

FEMA Gave Away Supplies Meant for Katrina Victims

Filed under: News

CNN reports that FEMA gave away $85 million in household goods were intended for people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. I was amazed to see how much it cost to keep the stuff around:

James McIntyre, FEMA's acting press secretary, told CNN that FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material and that another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so "we needed to vacate them."

"Upon review of our assets and our need to continue to store them, we determined that they were excess to FEMA's needs; therefore, they are being excessed from FEMA's inventory," McIntyre wrote in an e-mail.

And then, of course, there's the whole idea of something being "excessed." A charity group in New Orleans says it has been pleading with FEMA for the same supplies it turned loose.

Full read: FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims.

Laura Conaway

2:28 PM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

On Thursday's BPP: Alanis Morissette

Filed under: Luncheonette

Ms. Morissette and friends are hanging in the studio now, talking about a new record and maybe fixing to play some songs. Gods willing, we'll have it all for you on the show tomorrow.

Laura Conaway

2:01 PM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

Win Rosenfeld

1:33 PM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Next Up for the Book Club: 'Petropolis'

Filed under: Book Club

Jump in: We're reading Petropolis.

I first heard of Anya Ulinich when I saw her read at a literary conference last winter, as one of the National Book Foundation's "Five Under 35." What I heard there--part of an unpublished short story--made me want much, much more.

Fortunately, as I discovered, Ulinich's debut novel, Petropolis, is every bit as funny, smart, moving and surprising as the story she read from that day. In the novel, Ulinich, who emigrated from Russia to America with her family when she was 17, tells the story of another immigrant -- Sasha Goldberg. Sasha is part-black and part-Jewish, a misfit in the industrial Siberian town where she grows up, Asbestos 2, and equally a misfit in the US, where she comes as a mail-order bride.

But I don't want to give away too much. Get the book. It's out in paperback and Kindle. I can't wait to read it with you.

Bonus:
An autobiographical essay by Ulinich from the New York Times.
Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

12:34 PM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (17) | e-mail post

Is It Still All About the White Men?

Filed under: Media

David Broder, a "dean of American commentary."

Alex Wong/Getty Images

"Pundits talked a lot about gender and racial progress during the campaign, of course, but the elite opinion media continues to employ, groom and promote a commentators corps that is disproportionately white and male."

That's Nation correspondent Ari Melber blogging about what he calls "White Male Pundit Power." Melber came into the studio this morning to talk about the lack of women and minority commentators on the Sunday morning talk shows and in the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

Ari: The political commentariat lags behind the political community, lags behind the United States.

Mike Pesca: Why do you think that is?

Ari: Number one, people book the same old faces, especially on television; you have this idea that David Broder and David Gergen are the deans of political commentary. And with all due respect to their experience, they are at a very advanced stage in their career, they have been doing this for 40 years, if you go back to them, then that's a very closed circuit. And if you are leaning on people who succeeded 40 years ago, then yeah, you are going to have an overwhelmingly white male set of folks because you are going back to a different time in history. It's a sort of casual grandfather clause.

Number two, and this is something people don't like to talk about, there is ideological discrimination. And that is why, I point out in this Urban League study, there were only two black women besides Condi Rice who were ever on the Sunday shows over an 18-month period. It's not only because they are African-Americans and they are women but also because the majority of those commentators are liberal and liberals get far less opportunities on the Sunday shows.

Listen to Mike and Ari get into it here and join the discussion in the comments below.

Lauren Spohrer

9:25 AM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Integrated Prom Dances Past Black and White

Filed under: Slideshow

Mississippi's Charleston High School held its first interracial prom in April.

Catherine Farquharson

 

This year, for the first time, the high school in Charleston, Miss., held an integrated prom -- ending a system of parallel parties for black and white students. The change came after local luminary Morgan Freeman renewed his longstanding offer to pay for the dance if everyone could go.

Student Chasidy Buckley talked to us on the show today about the big night.

A special thanks to photographer Catherine Farquharson and filmmaker Paul Saltzman for sharing these images from the upcoming documentary Prom Night in Mississippi, and to BPP producer Angela Ellis.

Bonus:
A rapper's report from the prom.
A Mississippi editor says people shouldn't be so surprised.

Laura Conaway

7:36 AM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (92) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Strawberry Shortcake Ripens With Age

Filed under: Links From the Show

The pink-clad 1980s cartoon star is ditching her bloomers and lettering her hair grow long. American Greeting's Strawberry Shortcake isn't the only fictional character to get a facelift.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Coach lines install anti-hijacker tech / Sudoku-playing jurors make judge stop drug trial / Play nicely: safety for children and crabs / How much sleep do you really need?

Laura Silver

6:19 AM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Grand Old Party Pooper

Filed under: Links From the Show

There's another elephant in the room. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is planning to stage a rally in Minneapolis on September 2, the same day the GOP convention will take place in nearby St. Paul.

It's the BPP's Most.

Who's getting the big speaker's fees? / Used-car dealer's luck runs out at church fest / Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution / Avoid these tomatoes / FDA update on salmonellosis outbreak in certain types of tomatoes

Laura Silver

6:19 AM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Wednesday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

5:00 PM ET | 06-10-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

How airports profit from your wait / Pranksters ordered to apologize online / Retailers giving vinyl records another spin / Warren G. Harding on Google trends

Win Rosenfeld

2:31 PM ET | 06-10-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Wacky Packs Are Back

Filed under: Links From the Show, Luncheonette, Stuff We Love

Click to play.

Tricia McKinney, NPR

 

When I was a kid I used to spend my allowance money on Wacky Packages. I forget how much they cost, but for the money you got a piece of cardboardy gum plus a few stickers with parodies of common grocery store products. Like "Jail-O" instead of Jell-O and "Minute Lice" instead of...do I really need to spell it out? I thought they were hilarious.

Now, there's a book celebrating the 35th anniversary of Wacky Packages. I saw the book on a colleague's desk and immediately scooped it up and called the publicist. Today we talked to Jay Lynch, an artist from the underground comix scene of the 1960s, about a job he did strictly for the money--writing gags and mockups for Wacky Packages.

I interviewed Lynch, and found him slightly bemused by the interest in Wacky Packs (that's what we called them in upstate New York). He told me about how he and Art Spiegelman tried to make the stickers as subversive as possible. I honestly am not sure if that is the secret to their appeal. I think we might be more shallow than that--or maybe it's just me. I think we just really, really like package design, especially in a shiny sticker form. The ultimate expression of a Wacky Pack sticker was putting it in just the right spot on a lunch box.

Here are a few examples. Enjoy!

Tricia McKinney

12:06 PM ET | 06-10-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Listener Challenge: Rice, Rice Baby

Filed under: Maternity Leave

We've talked some serious topics in the life of a new parent, from the question of vaccinations to problems with the health care system. Today, I want to talk about . . . rice.

During the bleary, weary first days of parenthood, our folder of takeout menus got a workout. But after multiple orders of Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indian food, we found ourselves with an unreasonable amount of rice -- pints and pints of rice.

With all the news of high food prices and food shortages, I can't bring myself to throw it out. So I've made rice salad, rice pudding, arroz con pollo. I plan to rustle up some paella later this week, but, frankly, I'm running out of options and will.

What the heck could we, should we do with all that rice? Creativity encouraged.

Alison Stewart

9:17 AM ET | 06-10-2008 | permalink | comments (28) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Antarctica Blanketed in Condoms

Filed under: Links From the Show

Nearly 16,500 condoms landed in Antarctica just in time for winter on the icy continent. The population of scientists and staff at McMurdo is whittled down to 125 people, all of whom will have access to free condoms.

It's the BPP's Most.

How airports profit from your wait / Pranksters ordered to apologize online / Retailers giving vinyl records another spin / Warren G. Harding on Google trends

Laura Silver

6:09 AM ET | 06-10-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Brooklyn Bar Fly Stuck in Bar

Filed under: Links From the Show

A guy walks into a bar. Right before closing time he walks into the bathroom. He tries to walk out of the bar in the wee hours and finds himself locked inside.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

"Brokeback Mountain" to be turned into an opera / Bumble-bee woman in shock birth / Onassis heir sells family jewels

Laura Silver

6:07 AM ET | 06-10-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

The Detroit Red Wings took the Stanley Cup. And they took it to a chili bar, where it suffered a slight dent, according to a National Hockey League spokeswoman. Defenseman Brett Lebda is rumored to have dropped the cup. He says it's just a rumor.

It's the BPP's Most.

Spain's lost treasure battle in U.S. court / Stranded divers chase off Komodo dragon on island / Earthquake swarm picks up again in northern Nevada

Zena Barakat

4:36 PM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

The Rundown for Tuesday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Zena Barakat

4:02 PM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Open Thread: $4 Gas = No Haagen-Dazs

Filed under: Luncheonette

Guy From 1981 Wonders What's Going On With Gas Prices

Yes, that's former Monkee Michael Nesmith, and he thinks there is something funny going on with gas prices...in 1981. (But it still kind of applies to today.)

Regardless of the ebb and flow of gas prices, the plain fact is that gas prices are high and they look like they're here to stay for a while. We're doing a segment tomorrow on gas hitting a national average of $4 a gallon and we're wondering: are you starting to make sacrifices to fill up the tank? If so, what's getting the ax? Let us know below.

Matt Martinez

2:00 PM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (25) | e-mail post

Neil Gaiman Takes Your Questions

Filed under: Book Club

Neil Gaiman

photocredit

On today's show, Neil Gaiman talks with Mike Pesca and a few BPP listeners about the appeal of trickster gods, writing a novel where the default skin color is black, and the triumph of smarts over strength.

Gaiman says he was taken with the clever Anansi of West African folklore, and used it as the springboard for his novel Anansi Boys. "You begin with the folk tale, and then you start thinking, 'What does that mean? What does that mean for the rest of the world?' " he says. "The thing that made me happy is that really represents the point where people stop trying to hit their way out of trouble and start trying to think their way out of trouble."

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

12:34 PM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Vending Machine in Need of a Caption

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Seen in Ithaca, N.Y.

 

I just keep thinking about how many things are alive inside this machine.

Ian Chillag

10:06 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post

The Inaugural Tour de Queens

Filed under: City Living

Yesterday, I biked the first-ever Tour de Queens.

It was a hot, humid tour of the northwestern corner of New York's biggest borough. A victory lap for city cycling and, on a personal note, a ride down memory lane.

When I was riding through Queens as a kid in the 1980s, there weren't bike paths. My favorite destination was the Unisphere, a 12-story sphere leftover from the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The pathways were cracked pavement strewn with broken glass. And it always seemed empty.

Yesterday, more than 500 cyclists pedaled past some of the monuments of my childhood -- we started at the giant globe and headed for the waterfront. We went under the Hell Gate Bridge, beneath the Triborough Bridge and over the 100-year-old Borden Avenue Bridge. And I discovered new spots, like the aptly named Rust Street in the industrial neighborhood of Maspeth.

The ride ended back at Unisphere. And for a moment, with sweaty riders of every ethnic background collapsed on the grass, it felt like the center of the world.

Laura Silver

9:14 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Just Do It.

Filed under: Personal/Private

Pride cometh before the heartburn.

On Friday's show, I announced my mission to do everything advertising and packaging tells me to do for one week. As long as no one gets hurt, and as long as it costs me less than $10 a day, I will do all that marketers command. The GF Nora and I took a road trip up to Ithaca, N.Y., this weekend, and we did enjoy the ride as Avis told us to do. We stopped at an Arby's, not something I would otherwise be proud of, but as soon as I unwrapped the medium roast beef, it became clear I had no choice.

Ian Chillag

9:06 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Scenes From An Iraqi Wedding

Filed under: Iraq

A wedding in the Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada.

Corey Flintoff, NPR

 

NPR reporter Corey Flintoff sends along this dispatch from Iraq:

Here's a sign that things might be looking up in Baghdad.

Last year, I did a story about how wedding photographers were hurting for business, because the security situation was so awful that young people either couldn't meet or didn't feel optimistic enough to commit to marriage.

The weddings that did take place were very private affairs because people didn't want to draw attention that could lead to a terrorist attack.

Last Friday, I was invited to an afternoon wedding party in the relatively safe and upscale neighborhood called Karrada. True, there was a bombing at a crowded restaurant there a couple of days before, but the situation was safe enough that I and some of NPR's Iraqi staff members were able to drive to the banquet hall without security guards.

Continue reading "Scenes From An Iraqi Wedding" »

Caitlin Kenney

8:54 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Hayden Performs at the BPP

Filed under: Music, Video

Toronto-based Hayden dropped by the BPP studios to play his beautiful, heartbreaking tunes. Here's Worthy of Your Esteem from his new album, In Field & Town.

Zena Barakat

8:22 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Open Thread: Seeing Sexism in the Clinton Loss

Filed under: Election 2008, Sound Off

Seen at Clinton's concession speech, 06.07.08

Getty Images

 

On this morning's show, Rebecca Traister of Salon took on the question of whether sexism played a role in Hillary Clinton's primary defeat.

For me, the question hasn't been so much whether sexism caused Clinton to lose the Democratic presidential nomination as whether it affected the discussion about her while she was running -- and especially as she lost. For Traister, that's a yes. "Clinton could have won, and we should still be talking about the sexism," she says.

So let's talk about it. You guys already helped us get started, with your take on our Clinton campaign obit.

Another NPR headline: Who Did This to Hillary?

Laura Conaway

7:18 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (24) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Monk Seal Gone

Filed under: Links From the Show

The last Caribbean monk seal was sighted 50 years ago near the Yucatan Peninsula. Last week the U.S. government declared the species extinct as a result of overhunting by another species: humans.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Light fantastic: pedestrians to generate power / Alabama sues drummer, saying he was overpaid / Russian circus legend Yuri Kuklachev files suit for copy of show

.

Laura Silver

6:18 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Stanley Cup Gets a Dent

Filed under: Links From the Show

The Detroit Red Wings took the Stanley Cup. And they took it to a chili bar, where it suffered a slight dent, according to a National Hockey League spokeswoman. Defenseman Brett Lebda is rumored to have dropped the cup. He says it's just a rumor.

It's the BPP's Most.

Spain's lost treasure battle in U.S. court / Stranded divers chase off Komodo dragon on island / Earthquake swarm picks up again in northern Nevada

Laura Silver

6:16 AM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

Egypt uncovers a 4,000-year-old "missing" pyramid / Sarkar Raj: Movie review / 'Daddy dolls' focus on military families

Win Rosenfeld

5:05 PM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

The Rundown for Monday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Zena Barakat

4:35 PM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

BPP Picture Show: Rap Battle

Filed under: Inside The BPP

Here's the thing about freestyle rapping: It's very difficult. That said, there are very few pleasures as potent as the one experienced when turning a well-crafted rhyme "off the dome." Sadly for me, it happens barely once or twice a year, and it's usually in front of my small group of just-barely-tolerant, but nonetheless seated on my couch, eating my Doritos, and thus completely captivated, friends. In those moments, my mouth is on autopilot and it can form rhymes like "One thing life taught me/ was to speak softly when/ havin' coffee with a Jabberwocky." OK -- that only happened once. Usually, it's more like: "What? What? I'm relevant, I like elephants, I eat halibut." You get the idea.

Anyway, a couple of Fridays ago, I was working in my office when (Producer) Ian (Chillag) popped his head in and asked me if we wanted to do a video on the rapper that was coming into the studio. Swamped but clearly momentarily deranged, I replied (half-jokingly) "No, but I'll battle that guy." Ian, being the broadcasting genius he is, replied: "Awesome. I'll set it up." In retrospect, what he probably meant was, "Awesome, You are a sucker."

What I didn't understand was that the guy I was to go lyrically toe-to-toe with was none other than the MC/artist/poet/social critic and all-around nice guy, Doseone aka Adam Drucker, from the group Subtle. Doseone is a very accomplished freestyler and a brilliant wordsmith who reportedly battled Eminem and won. Drucker put me in my place in a big way, and here's the proof:

Win Rosenfeld

4:03 PM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Doseone Rocks the BPP

Filed under: Music

When Adam Drucker -- aka "Doseone," the emcee for the band Subtle -- stopped by the BPP a couple of weeks ago, he ended up hijacking most of our day. Subtle has made a dense, intricate sci-fi themed trilogy of records featuring a character called Hour Hero Yes who's trying to escape from a world slightly removed from our own. Ambitious, yes. And easy to bury your head in; maybe not so easy to emerge from.

Before the band recorded the third album in the trilogy, "ExitingARM," Drucker wrote a 20,000 word document he calls "The Ought Almanac of Amassed Fact Vol 1." It's sort of a guide to the adventures of Hour Hero Yes, and Drucker is in the process of turning that work into a Web-based graphic novel. While he was at the BPP, he was kind enough to record some of that work, and then gave us some of the original music that was fleshed out on "ExitingARM" to use as a backing track. You'll see the art from exitingarm.com in the video as well.

Drucker isn't shy about his ambitions -- he references sci-fi epics, Galway poetry, and real life-and-death encounters in the same breath -- but he's a joy to listen to. Always challenging, and always a pleasure. Plus, after he finished reading his poetry, he completely demolished BPP video producer Win Rosenfeld in a freestyle rap battle.

Jacob Ganz

1:30 PM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

'People Magazine' Confuses Somewhat Intelligent NPR Producer

Filed under: Media

Clay Aiken, future dad.

I try so hard not to be that squirrelly, little man who corrects pronunciation, or mocks bad writing just to feel superior. I hate that guy, but I have to be him right now -- this is just too ridiculous. People has a feature in their "Scoop" section on the announcement that Clay Aiken is about to become a father. (Yeah, didn't see that coming.) But that mind-boggling "scoop" is nowhere near as mind-boggling as the way the scoop itself was reported. This paragraph almost blew my face off:

A year and a half after telling People, "I want to be a father so badly," Clay Aiken, 29, is finally getting his wish. In August the former substitute teacher will welcome a child with music producer Jaymes Foster, 50 -- with whom he worked on Idol in 2003 -- through artificial insemination, a rep for her music producer brother David confirms. "They both want this in their lives right now," says Foster's friend, actor Eric Roberts. "They're perhaps not typical parents, but they have the best foundation -- a strong abiding friendship." Foster revealed the news to close friends at her birthday party in March. "She said, 'The one thing I haven't done is to be a parent,'" says Roberts's wife, Eliza, also a friend. "Clay's coming from the same place." Adds fellow Idol Season 2 alum Carmen Rasmusen of Aiken: "He has accomplished a lot in his career so it's a good time for him to be a dad."

What?!?! Who's a what what where what doing what with who and why!?!?!?! Is People trying to puzzle its readers? Do they want me NOT to learn things? Do they hate, hate, hate Strunk & White? I had to spend the better part of the 12 o'clock hour deciphering this beast of a paragraph. I've figured it out. I think. Maybe.

It's going to be hot this weekend. So I invite you to stay inside with the A/C cranked and rewrite this graph. I'll share my revision on Monday.

Matt Martinez

1:15 PM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post

Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)

Filed under: Luncheonette

Big Ideas (Don't get any) from 1030 on Vimeo.

Radiohead's "Nude" on old computer parts. The head-exploding wonderfulness starts around 1:09.

Ian Chillag

11:51 AM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Novelty Egg Hatches into Emu

Filed under: Links From the Show

A British chicken breeder brought home a few emu eggs from a vacation on the Isle of Wight. Fifty-two days later one of them hatched into an emu named Osborne.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Guinness: Japanese TV host is world's busiest / Proposed olympic chant: Add oil! / Principal has new job after 'Islam 101' controversy

Laura Silver

6:11 AM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Linkfest: Study Shows Humans Don't Like to Roam

Filed under: Links From the Show

According to new study using cell-phone tracking data from Europe, people are creatures of habit. Even on vacation.

It's the BPP's Most.

Egypt uncovers a 4,000-year-old "missing" pyramid / Sarkar Raj: Movie review / 'Daddy dolls' focus on military families

Laura Silver

6:07 AM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

t's the BPP's Most.

Fisher space pen on Google Trends /Missing Cape Cod lighthouse located in Calif. / The ubiquitous fist bump /
Michigan meteorite worth thousands

Win Rosenfeld

5:03 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Friday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

3:31 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

Are We Over the Tie?

Filed under: Sound Off

What does the future hold for the necktie?

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the trade group that represents American tie makers is shutting down after 60 years. The reason -- tie sales are dropping... big time.

Today on the show we spoke to Marty Staff, CEO of JA Apparel, which owns the Joseph Abboud label, about the future of the tie. Staff says the tie isn't going away, it's just changing.

"The necktie has morphed into something different where it becomes more of a fashion accessory, not unlike a scarf, or a pocket square or an iPod case, more than just a piece of silk or cotton tied tight around your neck," Staff says.

As for me, the only time I've ever worn a tie was during my brief stint waiting tables at the Cheesecake Factory, and boy did I hate it.

Caitlin Kenney

2:34 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (33) | e-mail post

Google Trends Mystery Solved!

Filed under: Inside The BPP

This morning on "the most" I talked about a google trends mystery: why was "Fisher Space Pen" in the top 10 on google trends? And why did searches spike at 8 p.m. ET? That usually means something was on T.V. It being insanely early here at BPP world headquarters (much too early to call the company) I had to rely on my wits and the internet for the answer. Nothing. I surmised that maybe there was a Space Pen on the primetime version of "The Price is Right" last night. Rachel watched it, but only the first 15 minutes (we BPPers have to go to bed early). Dan thought maybe they were on sale on QVC.

So at a reasonable hour today, I called the Fisher Space Pen people, and a spokesman named Timothy Lawson gave me the answer right away. The Space Pen was featured on a show called "Factory Made" on the Discovery Channel last night. So yes, it was a t.v.-related google trend. Mystery solved. To be honest, I feel a little let down. Not by the Space Pen itself. But, you know, the chase is all.

Tricia McKinney

1:52 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Woman Wins Horse Race

Filed under: Luncheonette

On our show yesterday, Liz Phair celebrated the 15th anniversary of her gender-kazam record Exile in Guyville. Today, Julie Krone marked the 15th anniversary of her win in the Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair. Krone came from so far back, the announcer didn't even mention her until nearly 1:30 has gone by.

Laura Conaway

1:40 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

"I'm an Uncreative Writer."

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Writer Kenneth Goldsmith says he's opposed to artistic choices.

 

Poet Kenneth Goldsmith doesn't actually write his books, it's more accurate to say that he types them.

He typed an entire issue of the New York Times into an 840-page book called Day. He recently completed a trilogy, The Weather, Traffic and Sports. They are transcriptions of a year of radio weather reports, a 24-hour traffic cycle and the radio broadcast of a Yankees game. Ums, uhs and ads included. If you think that sounds unreadable, you're right. Goldsmith himself says, "I don't read them. I get bored."

So why does he bother? Goldsmith told us, "The conversation around the work is always much more interesting than the work itself. So I let you off the hook. I say, you don't have to read these books. You can just think about them."

Once I saw Kenneth Goldsmith read with some other poets at a bar on E. 11th Street. The "poem" he read that night was a transcript of the Larry Craig police report, and it was awesome, not at all boring. I love work that screws with the idea that good writing must be comprehensible and promote understanding. I like to be made to pay a lot of attention.

More about Kenneth Goldsmith:
- This morning's BPP Interview.
- He's the founder of UbuWeb, a massive online archive of hard to find, avant-garde materials.
- He hosts a weekly radio show on WFMU.

Lauren Spohrer

12:17 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

The Day Florent's Hostess Met Her Match

Filed under: Video

Darinka Chase, the hostess with the amazing beehive hair.

Zena Barakat/NPR

 

Manhattan's meat-packing district used to be just that: A few blocks in New York City choked with butchers and wheezing freight trucks.

Today, however, the neighborhood is a well-known and trendy spot for some of New York City's fanciest shops and restaurants. (Think "Sex and the City," which some people blame for the neighborhood's demise.)

When I walked around the Meat Market on Sunday, I saw a sign bolted on a building for a long-departed tenant: "Lambs Unlimited." Underneath, people ate brunch on white table cloths to music set by a turntable DJ. On the next block, a Helmut Lang store. Around the corner, Restaurant Florent.

Founded in 1985, Florent is set to close on June 29. The landlord raised the monthly rent from $6,000 to $30,000, and owner Florent Morellet's counter-offer of $18,000 was not accepted.

Watch our video (it's also after the jump) about Morellet and the closing of this beloved downtown mecca.

And here's a story that's not in the video, about the only celebrity who ever flummoxed the hostess . . .

Continue reading "The Day Florent's Hostess Met Her Match" »

Zena Barakat

8:50 AM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Linkfest: The World's Largest Restaurant

Filed under: Links From the Show

A Syrian restaurant, Damascus Gate, has set a new record as the largest eatery on the planet. Diners at the 6,014-seat restaurant can choose from Chinese, Indian or Middle Eastern cuisine.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Venice bans water bottles / Woman wins funeral at baseball game / R. Kelly update: critic must testify

Laura Silver

6:15 AM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Man's Tumor Turns Out to Be a Towel

Filed under: Links From the Show

Surgeons at a Tokyo-area hospital were intent on removing a patient's abdominal tumor -- until they discovered it was a 25-year-old surgical towel.

It's the BPP's Most.

Fisher space pen on Google Trends /Missing Cape Cod lighthouse located in Calif. / The ubiquitous fist bump /
Michigan meteorite worth thousands

Laura Silver

6:14 AM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

The Rundown for Thursday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Win Rosenfeld

7:16 PM ET | 06- 4-2008 | permalink | e-mail post

A Guy in 'Guyville'

Filed under: Luncheonette, Music

Our treat for you today: a little more Liz Phair. She was on the show today to talk about her 1993 album Exile in Guyville and since the songs on that classic album have been stuck in our heads all day, we though we'd share.

Exile introduced me to two new worlds: indie rock and the Internet. Growing up, I listened mostly to whatever I could pick up on the radio, so when a friend (an older, cooler friend) handed me a tape of Exile (120-minute cassette, the full album dubbed onto each side), it was literally like nothing I'd ever heard.

The idea that there was music out there that the radio didn't play blew my mind a little.

And because there was no way to find out more about who she was (or what my friend meant when she called the album a song-by-song response to Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones) in Bellingham, Wash., I turned to the Internet. I learned how to search, chat, subscribe to mailing lists, all to find out more about Liz Phair.

Yeah, OK. I was obsessed. But you only get one first favorite record. Exile is mine, by a long shot.

After the jump, Liz Phair finally explains the whole "song by song response to Exile on Main Street" thing. If only I had heard this interview when I was sixteen.

Continue reading "A Guy in 'Guyville'" »

Jacob Ganz

2:08 PM ET | 06- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

R.I.P. Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign

Filed under: Election 2008

Editor's note: See the open thread on sexism and Hillary Clinton's defeat.

Today on the show we put together an audio obituary of Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, in which we recapped some of the more memorable moments from the last 16 months. Here it is, in case you missed it:

Dan Pashman

1:05 PM ET | 06- 4-2008 | permalink |