People & Life
People & Life on Weekend America
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Army Ultimate Fighting
The Army says mixed martial arts fighting - a mix of boxing, judo, karate and wrestling - is tailor-made for combat. But mixed martial arts fighting is not just a training strategy. Since the sport is also wildly popular among 18- to 25-year-old guys, it's a useful tool for the Army to attract new recruits. This weekend, the Army's best fighters will compete for the title of All Army Combatives Champion.
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The Diplomat of Dobro
Around Nashville and pretty much everywhere else, Jerry Douglas's name is synonymous with the Dobro. It's an instrument with a distinctive look: An acoustic guitar with a shiny metal plate on the front, played face-up in your lap with a metal slide, like a steel guitar. Douglas took up the instrument in the early 1970s. He's to the Dobro what Hendrix was to the electric guitar and Tiger is to the seven-iron.
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Naming the Dead
From the sidewalks of St. Paul to the cobblestones of Philadelphia, Pa. Girard Avenue crosses the entire city east to west. And often it's a dividing line: Gentrifying Center City neighborhoods stop at Girard. Reporter Jonathan Menjivar was at 28th Street and Girard recently, where he found the sidewalk impossible to ignore.
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10-4, Good Buddy
On 10-4, we take a look at the all but forgotten home of the phrase "10-4": The CB radio. Before the internet, cell phones, texting and IM, it was a way to chat with strangers and strange truckers, to invent new names, to use coded slang, to do all the things we do on computers today. Weekend America host John Moe remembers the CB boom of the 1970s and wonders why we're so hooked on blathering to strangers.
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A Baseball Dilemma
Weekend America host John Moe wonders if he's committing baseball adultery by rooting for a new team now that his beloved Seattle Mariners are on a losing streak.
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Roky and the Elevators
This weekend Austin, Texas hosts the final mega-music festival of the summer season: Austin City Limits. But the most surprising appearance will be by one of Austin's own, Roky Erikson. Roky formed a band called the 13th Floor Elevators more than 40 years ago, but they got stuck on their way to the top. But like that other Rocky, there's always one more chance at a comeback.
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"Cool Water"
It's time to listen to your weekend soundtrack. The songs that bridge the gap from Friday to Monday. Our latest story comes from Sara Breeze in Bemidji, Minn. Her soundtrack is "Cool Water" by Joni Mitchell and Willie Nelson.
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21-Year-Old Jam
A jam session is open to anyone that walks in the door, and they provide musicians a chance to just let loose, without any pressure to satisfy an audience. One session in Minneapolis is old enough to drink this year. It's been going on every Friday night for 21 years. Reporter Sanden Totten takes us there.
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State of Suburbia
The state of today's suburbs has become far more complicated since Levittown first was founded. With concerns about energy, urban planning and infrastructure, contemporary suburbanites have a lot more on their minds than just buying a home. To find out where the suburbs stand today, we spoke with Dolores Hayden, a professor at Yale University who's written extensively about suburbia.
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Levittown Turns 50
On Sept. 28, 2008, the residents of Willingboro, N.J. are throwing a semi-formal banquet to celebrate the town's 50th anniversary. But you might know Willingboro by its original name: Levittown. The name isn't the only thing that's changed. What started in 1958 as an all-white town on the edge of the Philadelphia suburbs is now a diverse community of people from all over the world.
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A Joyful Noise
Reggie Prim spent his childhood being raised with the Black Hebrews in Israel. As a kid, he sang with the music group the Tonistics - a religious soul group modeled after the Jackson 5. The Tonistics' songs from the early 1970s have just been re-released. Reggie isn't exactly nostalgic for his childhood in Israel. But the re-release of the music from Dimona has brought back memories about his extraordinary journey from Israel back to the United States.
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Gated Into Foreclosure
The city of Las Vegas, Nev., has been hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis and recent economic turmoil. Property values have plummeted, and the area has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Things are especially dire in the newer parts of the city and freshly built subdivisions, like the gated community of San Niccolo.
