People & Life
People & Life on Weekend America
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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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A Sweet Potato Mystery
As Thanksgiving approaches, we approach a mystery of the produce aisle. The truth is, most of us have never seen a yam. The yams in the market are actually sweet potatoes, but a different kind of sweet potato than the vegetable next to it labeled a sweet potato. It's kind of confusing. Weekend America's Ochen Kaylan helps us sort it out.
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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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Survivors of Suicide
Today is the 10th Annual National Survivors of Suicide Day. For survivors, getting over the grief, anger and the lingering questions left after a suicide can be difficult. Doug Merrill has lived through the suicide of eight people - most of them teens - in the bedroom community of Bowling Green, Ohio, just south of Toledo. Weekend America's Desiree Cooper went to hear his story of survival.
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Conversations with America: Treasure Williams
We're continuing our series "Conversations with America" with a look at transition - a time of both uncertainty and anticipation. Treasure Williams is a poet and performer based in Memphis. She also teaches at Rust College, an historically black liberal arts college in Holly Springs, Miss. For her, the implications of Barack Obama's election are just starting to sink in.
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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.
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So Long, Phoenix
We let go of a little part of our civilization this week. The Phoenix Mars Lander--the thing that found water on our neighboring red planet-- stopped sending messages back to Earth. In technical terms, it died. Producer Ochen Kaylan had a rough time with Phoenix's death this week, so he decided to write it a letter.
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Rock Steady Boxing
This weekend, there's some heavy action at the Rock Steady Gym in Indianapolis. A lot of folks are punching bags and flinging left jabs and right hooks. The difference is that folks in these weekend classes have Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder that about 1.5 million people in the U.S. Reporter Colleen Iudice recently met the founder of Rock Steady and tells us his story.
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Fan Free Agent
Weekend America host John Moe has always been a fan of the Seattle Supersonics basketball team. But this year, his team moved away and changed their name. So now John is a free agent. Free to sign as a fan with any team in the league. One of the worst things about the Supersonics' demise was that thousands of Sonics fans were completely powerless in the transaction. But maybe, just maybe, this fan can empower himself and turn the tables on the NBA.
