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How did your life collide with the headlines in 2007?
Iraq, the subprime crisis, Facebook, immigration, oil prices - 2007 had no shortage of hefty headlines. We'd like to hear about how these and other major news events of the past year affected you. Where did your life collide with the news in 2007?

What's your holiday performance story?
The office talent show, the neighborhood caroling posse, the school pageant ... At holiday time we often sing, dance, and dress as shepherds. Did you bloom in the warmth of your audience's adulation, or freeze up like the snowman you'd rather be building? Did your holiday performance change your life or that of someone close to you?

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Broadcast Date: June 12, 2004
Music Bridge: Start From Scratch
Artist: Galactic
CD: Crazyhorse Mongoose (Capricorn)

Ready Made for the Environment
Ready Made
Ready Made Magazine is the do-it-yourself guide for the MacGyver in all of us. Our intrepid web master Josh Berman takes us through an eco-friendly project.

Online resources:
"Ready Made" magazine is for "people who like to make stuff"
How-to instructions - build your own Ready-Made detergent bottle lamp

Music Bridge: Aqui Como Alla
Artist: Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos
CD: The Prosthetic Cubans (Atlantic)
Sustainable Design: An Interview with William McDonough
Barbara and Rebecca talk with architect Bill McDonough. In the 1980s, McDonough designed the first green office building for the Environmental Defense Fund in New York. Last month he finished his redesign of the River Rough car factory for Ford, a hundred acre industrial plant in Dearborn, Michigan which now has the world's largest living roof.

Online resources:
"Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" is available at the Public Radio BookSource. Your purchase helps support Weekend America.
"Ford overhauls historic factory to be green"
William McDonough's homepage

Music Bridge: Stomping at the Savoy
Artist: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
CD: The Complete Capitol Trios (Blue Note)

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Movie Review: Stepford Wives
The critics are turning up their noses at the film but, as Patrick Hirsch found out this week, audiences are seeing the film very differently.

Online resources:
Rotten Tomatoes reviews of "The Stepford Wives"
"The Stepford Wives" movie website

The Editing and Movie-Making Process: Interview with John Ridley
So can a film be saved in the editing process? Rebecca speaks with screenwriter John Ridley who gives us the inside scoop on what really happens during film making in Hollywood.

Online resources:
The Internet Movie Database entry on John Ridley
Listen to the extended interview with movie editors Richard Chew (won the Oscar in 1978 for "Star Wars") and Alan Heim (won the Oscar in 1979 for "All That Jazz")

Skerker the Soothsayer of Weekend Weather...
Ben Skerker's unusual survey of events, celebrations, unplanned gatherings and -- of course -- his prognostications on weekend weather.

Listening Post: Healthcare, Drugs Across the Border
This week in our listening post segment Stephanie Curtis of MPR tells us about the collision of healthcare and drugs from Across the Border.

Online resource:
"Hatch wins a round in fight against pharmaceutical companies"

Music Bridge: Afrique
Artist: Cuica
CD: City to City (Ubiquity)
Whip Worm Cocktail
Barbara and Rebecca look at some surprising research on new ways to treat inflammatory bowel diseases, like colitis and Crohn's disease, that includes patients swallowing pig whipworm eggs.

Online resources:
BioMonde Medical Technologies
Microscopy gallery of whipworm eggs

Palm Springs Extravaganza
Weekends are full of color and excitement for many living and visiting Palm Springs. Correspondent Marty Goldenssohn was mesmerized when he visited the desert setting by a three-hour razzle-dazzle song and dance extravaganza performed in the Plaza Theatre. What he found was a celebration of music from the 30's and 40's with a little twist - can you say how old is too old for a high kick!

Online resources:
Palm Springs Follies Web site

AIDS Ride Diary
The 7 day 585 mile bicycle journey down the coast of California known as AIDS/Lifecycle 3 comes to an end today in Los Angeles. More than 1200 riders made the trek raising millions of dollars to fight AIDS. Throughout the week, Weekend America spoke with one of the rider to hear his reflections. Here's an entry in his audio diary from Wednesday, June 9.


Ray Hearne/Keystone
Getty Images
Gallery
Tribute to Ray Charles
American music legend Ray Charles died on Thursday at the age of 73. Charles career defied genre, lending his soulful, bluesy voice to jazz, pop, country and R&B. Weekend America looks at his musical legacy.

Online resources:
Genius Sings the Blues - "I Believe To My Soul"
The Complete Country & Western Recordings 1959-1986 - "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Mr. Charles' Blues"
The Birth of Soul - "Hallelujah I Love Her So", "Greenbacks" and "What I'd Say, Parts 1&2"

Civic Engagement
It's a bit disheartening to review voter turnout from the past twenty years, barely half of the registered voters turn up to vote even for the big races, like President of the United States. Our election guy Richard Paul ponders the question: "Was there ever a time when Americans were more politically engaged?"

Music Bridge: Miss You
Artist: To Rococo Rot
CD: Hotel Morgen (Domino)

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Sylvia the Registrar - 45,500 and Still Going
Are YOU registered to vote? If so, do you vote? In every election? We talked to someone who answers yes to all those questions and then some. Sylvia Levin has voted in a lot of elections. How many she won't say. Not only does she vote, she registers people ... voluntarily.

Online resource:
"Registering Voters Since 1973"

Music Bridge: Cinnabar
Artist: Tipsy
CD: Trip Tease (Asphodel)
Commemorating Ronald Reagan Around the Country
Our station partners from across the country sent us a sampling of audio from their call-in talk shows. We hear what some of their listeners had to say about the former President.


Ronald Reagan
1911 - 2004
 Ronald Reagan Movies
Before he was a politician, Ronald Reagan was a successful actor. He made a total of 55 films. Rebecca speaks with Charlie Tabesh, the head of programming at "Turner Classic Movies" about some of his films.


Brac, Croatia
Gallery
International Travel with Don George
It's not too late to plan a summer trip. Barbara speaks with Don George, global travel editor for the Lonely Planet guides, has some tips for less considered destinations.

Online resource:
Lonely Planet
Mark Chumley, Photographer

Music Bridge: Yatai Bayashi
Artist: Taikoza
CD: Beginnings

Exterior, NRDC
Gallery
Green Building Tour
Architect Elizabeth Moule takes us on a tour of the greenest building in America, the Natural Resources Defense Council's offices in Santa Monica, California. The building combines cutting-edge technologies and materials with energy-efficient architecture to create a showcase for green building design.

Online resources:
"Redford to Open New NRDC 'Green Building'"
Moule & Polyzoides Web site

Music Bridge: Plastic Energy Man
Artist: Papa M
CD: Live From a Shark Cage (Drag City)
Commentary: Paonia, Colorado
You don't need to hire an eco-architect to build a green structure. In western Colorado, it's common to see mesas dotted with strange looking peach colored huts--made by regular folks who pride themselves on heading "back to the land." Writer Lisa Jones helped some of these do-it your self-ers from off-site. As far off-site as she could get.

Music Bridge: Three Stages of A Band
Artist: P.G. Six
CD: The Well of Memory (Amish)

Chicago's City Farm
Gallery
Chicago's City Farm
It's urban sustainability on the move. Katia Dunn reports on a farmer in Chicago who plants gardens on vacant lots, and when the city wants to develop the lots, he simply picks up the gardens and moves them.

Online resources:
"Urban Farms: Oasis in the Inner City"
"A Garden Flourishes Amid Chicago's Projects"
Mobile Organics - A Project Within The Projects

Music Bridge: Stay out of Trouble
Artist: Kings of Convenience
CD: Riot on an Empty Street (Atralwerks)

Yes Guitarist
Steve Howe
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Contributor Hank Rosenfeld goes to Yes concert, interviews band members
The rock band "Yes" is celebrating 35 years together with a new tour in Europe and the US. Our friend Hank Rosenfeld's adolescence comes roaring back, to the tune of Roundabout.

Online resources:
The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Edition, including "Long Distance Runaround", "All Good People" and "Yours is No Disgrace"
Listen: Steve Howe talks about his life
Listen: Steve Howe talks about progressive rock
Listen: Steve Howe on guitars
Listen: Steve Howe on life in England
Listen: Steve Howe on Yes' longevity and drugs
Yes' official website

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As Mentioned on Weekend America
For the June 12, 2004 broadcast:

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audio iconListen to Hour 2
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As Mentioned on Weekend America
... on our December 15 broadcast:

» Weekend America
iPodEnhanced Podcast: Skip back and forth through stories, see images on iTunes and on your iPod, all with better sound quality.
» The Huckabee Mystique: See video of Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris.
» Another Great Moment in Small Talk: Read how Charlie Schroeder became an unpopular "tool" because of Borat.
» Listener Letters: Renewable Christmas Trees: Read listeners' alternate endings to "Puff the Magic Dragon."
» Sign Up for the Weekend America weekly newsletter: Find out what's on the upcoming show, and listen to the most popular previous segments.
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Weekend Weather

From the July 5 broadcast

As Mentioned on Weekend America
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This week: Have you exper-
ienced any strange seasonal changes: springtime plants sprouting; squirrels sunbathing?
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