April 2000

Home and Away by Scott Simon -- Robert talks with colleague Scott Simon about his latest book Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan (Hyperion). Scott Simon, who is also host of Weekend Edition Saturday, talks about his memoir on his love of sports, which began with a childhood infatuation with the Chicago White Sox. He also relates how his life as a fan and enthusiasm for sports has helped him in his travels throughout the United States, much of the world, and in covering 7 wars. (8:00)

Timecode -- Critic Bob Mondello reviews Timecode, a new movie that splits the screen to tell four stories simultaneously. All four were shot in single, unedited, 90-minute takes with actors who had to improvise as they went along. Sounds like chaos? Bob Mondello loved it. The movie is the latest offering from British director Mike Figgis, who made Leaving Las Vegas. (4:00)

Podger -- Music critic Tom Manoff has been listening to a new recording of Bach's music performed by English violinist Rachel Podger. She performs using a Baroque violin with strings made from gut. This allows listeners to hear Back performed as Bach himself would have heard his music. The CD is called Sonatas & Partitas Vol. 1, from Channel Classics, CCS 12198. (7:30)

Bobos -- Robert Siegel speaks with David Brooks, senior editor for the Weekly Standard and an ATC commentator. He's written a new book, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There (Simon & Shuster/May 2000). Brookes coined the term "bobo," which he says is a way to describe America's new elite, who are both "bohemian and bourgeois - a kind of cross between a 1960's rebel and a 1980's corporate climber. Brookes says bobos come from the rich intellectual class and are supplanting the WASP establishment. (7:30)

Synthetic Music Pioneers -- The first all-synth ensemble, the band pioneered synthesizer and electronic music in the 1960's, and influenced more well known bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. Mother Mallard's leader, David Borden, worked closely with synthesizer inventor Robert Moog. Tony Sarabia reports on the band and the state of their music today. Mother Mallard has just performed at the Smithsonian's The Keyboard Meets Technology series. (7:30)

Mr. Handman -- Robert talks with Bruce Gaston, aka "Mr. Handman." Mr Gaston is a manualist -- he plays music using only his hands. He talks about his art and demonstrates by playing a few tunes. His CD is called Mr. Handman: Amazing Feats on Musical Hands. (5:00)

Jin Jin -- Music critic Charles de Ledesma reviews a new CD release by Hawaiian guitar virtuoso Bob Brozman and Okinawan vocalist and musician Takashi Hirayasu. The disc is called Jin Jin meaning "firefly." It draws on traditional Okinawan children's songs and nursery rhymes, joining them with blues and Hawaiian influences. (4:00)

Ordinary Resurrections - Children in the Years of Hope -- Noah talks with Jonathan Kozol about his new book Ordinary Resurrections - Children in the Years of Hope. In the late 1960's Kozol wrote about teaching fourth grade in Boston. Death at an Early Age has now sold two million copies and is still widely read by beginning teachers. His later books have been about educational inequalities in the South Bronx, and the new one is simply about his conversations with the children he's come to know. He describes Pinapple, a charming eight-year-old, and other youngsters, and their curiosity about the outside world, "white and safe." Kozol says the children have taught him to pray again. (12:00)

MotherKind -- Commentator Alan Cheuse reviews MotherKind, by Jayne Anne Phillips. It's the story of a young woman trying to understand what the term "home" really means, in a world where she must care for her newborn, a husband, his children, and her terminally ill mother. (2:30)

Ancient Voices -- Banning Eyre reviews Ancient Voices, the debut CD of the talented 20-something Chiwoniso. Chiwoniso is the daughter a Zimbabwean musician who taught for decades at the University of Washington. She spent her first fifteen years in the Pacific Northwest, then went back to Zimbabwe to get involved in the music scene there. She now has a growing international audience, in Africa, Europe and the USA. (4:30)

66 Laps -- Commentator Alan Cheuse reviews 66 Laps, a first novel by Southern California filmwriter Leslie Lehr Spirson, which won the 1998 Pirate's Alley William Faulkner Award.

Outro Lado -- Music reviewer Charles de Ledesma reviews the CD Outro Lado by the band Zuco 103. They are a trio from Amsterdam, headed by a Brazilian musician named Lillian Viera. She and her band incorporate the traditional musical forms of Brazil - bossa nova and samba - with electronica, funk and jazz. They are at the forefront of a musical movement in Europe called "NU Brazilian", which features this hybrid sound of European dance music and Brazilian rhythms. (4:30)

Saturn's Child -- Noah talks with piano player Frank Kimbrough and vibraphonist Joe Locke about a recording they've released called Saturn's Child. It's the kind of recording both of them have always wanted to make, a moody, and reflective set of tunes, just the 2 instruments, done live in the studio. http://www.omnitone.com

Papas Fritas -- David Greenberger reviews the latest CD from the band Papas Fritas. It's called Buildings and Grounds. The band formed in the early 90s when they were undergrads at Tufts University in Boston. They share a love of pop music from the sixties and seventies, which informs their breezy, peppy, happy sound. (4:15)

Origin of Slang -- Paul Dickson is author of Slang: The Authoritative Topic-By-Topic Dictionary of American Lingoes from All Walks of Life. Dickson talks about the origin of the slang phrase "dog and pony show." He said the first reference is from inspection of the troops, called a "dog show." Dickson's book was published by Pocket Books in February 1999.

William Harrison -- Alan Cheuse reviews The Blood Latitudes by novelist William Harrison. Harrison once again sets his story in Africa, this time in the war zone of Rwanda.

Hoochie Coochie -- When it came out as a single in 1954, the Muddy Waters song hovered near the top of the R & B charts for 13 weeks. Over the course of his long career, Waters re-interpreted the song numerous times, each one capturing the changes in the blues. Hoochie Coochie is one of the NPR 100. NPR's David Welna reports. (9:30)

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