Arts & Culture
Coverage of the Arts by Weekend America.
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Your Take on the New American Car
The CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and GM are driving back to Detroit this weekend after asking Congress a second time for billions of dollars to avoid bankruptcy. We still don't know if Congress will say yes. In the meantime, you sent us your best ideas about how to make American cars inspiring and awesome again. Here are some of our favorites.
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Letters: Survivors of Suicide, Axl Rose, and a Post-Election Mixtape
Quite a few listeners have had strong emotional reactions, both happy and sad, to certain parts of the show recently. In fact, there may have been some crying and laughing. We hear your responses to our segments on survivors of suicide, Axl Rose's editor and our post-election mixtape.
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Bringing Poetry Home
Home is a subject poets have been scribbling about in stanzas since the days of Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey." This year, some poets put their own spin on the topic at City of Asylum Pittsburgh's annual jazz and poetry reading. Two of those poets come from very different places: Liberian-born Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, and native South Carolinian Terrance Hayes.
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Every Bunk Tells a Story
Sometimes the most unlikely places feel like home. There's not much that's warm and cheery about the troopships that took young soldiers to war in Vietnam in the late 1960s. The ships were hot, sweaty and packed with up to 5000 men at once. But some soldiers saw these troopships as a last secure refuge before the uncertainties of war.
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Letters: Prop 8, Post Election Mixtape and Pilgrim Hats
We open the Weekend America mailbag and hear your responses to recent stories, including a California church-goer who voted for, not against, Proposition 8; a post-election mixtape of listeners' favorite voting season songs; and, in preparation for Thanksgiving, one explanation for what those buckles were doing on the Pilgrims' hats.
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Head Like a Kite
This weekend, Dave Einmo's band Head Like a Kite is playing at Neumos in Seattle. For the last few years, Dave has been rummaging his parent's home videos and sampling the sounds for his music. The movies play as the band performs. Producer Angela Kim spoke to Einmo about how his collection of home movies have inspired him and his shows.
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Garageland: 150 Miles Per Hour
We've been doing a series of stories called "Garageland" about the things Americans like to do in their garages. Garages are places where we tinker, dream and create. Today's story is about a guy who does all that, plus he goes 150 miles per hour. Weekend America's Sasha Aslanian explains.
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Axl's Editor
This is a huge weekend if you're a fan of Guns N' Roses. The new album, "Chinese Democracy," is being released after 16 years. Lead singer Axl Rose, the only original member remaining, has been writing, tweaking, and fussing with this record since before the first Clinton administration. In other words, he's been editing. As any writer knows, it's the editing process that can really slow things down.
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JFK World
Forty-five years ago this weekend, President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie landed at Love Field Airport, got into the presidential limousine, and emerged onto the streets of Dallas. We all know what happened minutes later. It's been nearly half a century, but the world's interest in the JFK assassination has hardly waned. But there's one place where its resonance is oddly muffled: Dallas.
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Human Disco Ball
Jessie Sorrentos shimmies into two reflective scraps of fabric: a pair of itty-bitty sparkly briefs and a reflective tube top that looks like it was made for a Cabbage Patch Kid. And while she is smearing silver paint and glitter across her abdomen and up her arms, she explains how she got here. To be more specific, how it came to be that for a living, she is a Human Disco Ball.
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Auto Industry Woes, Lieberman, and Social Networking Savvy
Our panel of non-experts weigh in on this week's news events in a parlor game to gauge what kind of week America had. Joining us on this week's panel are Jay Smooth, a video blogger for the hip hop blog "ill doctrine" and Sara Smith, associate editor of Wonkette.com.
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The Legend of Beatle Bob
This weekend music fans in St. Louis will have a variety of concert options to choose from. Odds are, Beatle Bob will be at one of the shows going on. If you're not from St. Louis, you probably don't know Beatle Bob. If you are from St. Louis, and you still don't know him, it probably means you're not getting out much. Beatle Bob, also known as Bob Matonis, has been to a concert every night for the last 11 years.
