Sponsor
Support Weekend America with your Amazon.com purchases
Search Amazon.com:
Keywords:
  • News/Talk
  • Music
  • Entertainment
Weekend America home page
Weekend America Primary Navigation
Weekend America Primary Navigation
Play Consumed
Get Involved

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?

Section Bottom
Browse
Section Bottom
Browse
Broadcast Information for August 14, 2004

When politics and sport meet
Getty Images
Enlarge
The 20th Century Olympic Movement
The Los Angeles bureau chief for the San Francisco Chronicle, Jim Sterngold, speaks with Barbara Bogaev on the historical intersections between the Olympic Games and politics. Nowadays, all political protests are banned. But this is in stark contrast to the original Olympic movement, meant to promote peace through politics -- the games were just a sidebar or means towards that end by liberal aristocrats.

Online resources:
The Olympics official website
"International Olympics Committee Presidents"
"Olympism"
"The Nazi Olympics 1936"
Civil Disobedience - Olympics 1968
Munich Massacre - Olympics 1972


Photo courtesy
High Country News
 Poking around the Olympics
We catch up with Adam Burke, our correspondent in Athens, Greece, about the latest news at the 2004 Olympic Games, and the experience of a stranger in a Greek land.
Music Bridge: Folk Dance Suite - Tsifteteli
Artist: Nikos Mamangakis
CD: Guitar Recital (For Elena Papandreou) (Naxos)
Car Racing School
People say, if you can find one thing in life you are truly passionate about -- your bliss, Joseph Campbell called it -- then you're lucky. When that happens, who you really are comes out of your essence. You shut out society's prejudice -- all that becomes irrelevant. We want you to meet one girl whose passion led her to auto racing. Correspondent Ian Chillag brings us the story of Stephanie Hartfield, a young girl who has a passion for fast cars. Hartfield is attending the Urban Youth Racing School, outside of Philadelphia.

Online resources:
The Urban Youth Racing School
NASCAR
"Fast cars could be tuned by evolution"
"Follow Your Bliss" - Joseph Campbell

Music Bridge: Lux
Artist: Kiln
CD: Sunbox (Ghostly International)
Skerker the Soothsayer of Weekend Weather...
Ben Skerker's unusual survey of events, celebrations, unplanned gatherings and -- of course -- his prognostications on weekend weather.

Reports:
Part 1
Part 2


Installation artwork
Barcelona, Spain
Enlarge
Naked Installation
Artist Spencer Tunick's work combines sculpture and performance and installations. His installations often include nude volunteers, of which he takes a photo. Back in June, a Tunick 'event' in Cleveland attracted 2,754 people, making it the largest crowd North America has ever assembled for one of Tunick's nude installations. In this segment, we overhear one of the gathering groups of volunteers.

Online resources:
Spencer Tunick's homepage
I-20 Gallery's website
Sign up to pose nude in Buffalo
"Spencer Tunick - The Naked Truth"

Music Bridge: I Could Have Killed Him in The Sauna
Artist: Jagga Jazzist
CD: The Stix (Ninja Tune)
Campaign Leftovers
Both President Bush and presidential hopeful John Kerry were in Southern California this week. Host Bill Radke hit the streets to get a sense of the impact of their presence in the Southland. What's happening in the middle? Something about cheese....

Online resources:
John Kerry/John Edwards campaign headquarters
George Bush/Dick Cheney campaign headquarters

Music Bridge: Verfremdungseffekt
Artist: Dymaxion
CD: 7 Inch Compilation (Polygram Int'l)
Aired from "Dymaxion x 4 + 3=38:33" (Roomtone)

Jamie Cullum
Pop-jazz star
Gallery
Live Event: Jazz Festival in Newport
It's the 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, one of the oldest and biggest music festivals in America. Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong -- so many legends -- made history there.

One of the faces and voices eagerly awaited by American jazz fans is the British pianist/singer/songwriter Jamie Cullum. His CD "Twentysomething" is the fastest-selling jazz debut in UK history. It arrived in the US this spring to chart success and critical acclaim. Jamie Cullum joins us from backstage at the festival, in Newport, Rhode Island.

Online resources:
The Newport Jazz Festival
The Festival's 50th Anniversary photo gallery
Jamie Cullum's homepage
Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz"

Featured in Hour Two

Julia Child
1912-2004
Getty Images
Julia Child
Listen to Russ Morash, a former producer of Julia Child's programs, reminisce about the famed chef who passed away this week.

Online resource:
Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian
The electronic Gourmet's Guide praises Julia Child (1996)
Julia Child: Lessons with Master Chefs

Music Bridge: Unosietecero
Artist: Flanger
CD: Outer Space/Inner Space (Ninja Tune)
Listening Post: Greek radio stations
This week's Listening Post digs up a pair of Greek American radio announcers to see what their programs have been saying about the Olympics. Bill Radke speaks with Elena Marouleti and Athanasia Koutsopanagos about what the Greek-American community thinks about the games.

Online resources:
Aktina-FM, Elena Marouleti's station
Hellenic Radio, Athanasia Koutsopanagos's station

Music Bridge: Veselka's Diner
Artist: Doctor Rockit
CD: Unnecessary History of Doctor Rockit (Accidental)

Mario Tama/Getty Images
 Voter Registration
Are the politicians fighting to get you to the polls, or trying to keep you away? Encouraging or discouraging people to vote? Barbara Bogaev speaks with Dan Schnur, a Republican political consultant, and Dick Batchelor, a former Democratic state representative in Florida, about the push from the right and the left to register voters.

Online resources:
Dan Schnur
Dick Batchelor
DNC - Register to Vote
GOP - Register to Vote

Music Bridge: Marriage of Days
Artist: Eyvid Kang
CD: Virginal Co Ordinates (Ipecac)
Live Event: Jazz Festival in Newport
It's the 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, one of the oldest and biggest music festivals in America. Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong -- so many legends -- made history there.

In this hour, we speak to jazz extraordinaire pianist Marian McPartland, who played at the second Newport Jazz Festival in 1955 and has been there many times over the years. McPartland is the host of public radio's "Piano Jazz". She joins us from backstage at the festival.

Online resources:
The Newport Jazz Festival
The Festival's 50th Anniversary photo gallery
Jamie Cullum's homepage
Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz"


"Loaded Dice"
by Jim Swain
 "Loaded Dice" in Vegas
Casinos lose almost 200 million a year -- to cheaters. Bilking the system, in Sin City, is a twisted kind of vice. Barbara Bogaev speaks with author Jim Swain about his new novel about cheating in Las Vegas called "Loaded Dice"... and about the strange mix of Vegas and terrorists.

Online resources:
"In Vegas, fear and insecurity cloud denials of terror threat"
"Memos: Vegas officials failed to act on terror tapes"
Jim Swain's homepage
"Loaded Dice" is available at the Public Radio BookSourceTM. Your purchase helps support this program.

Music Bridge: When We Go
Artist: Ginger Baker Trio
CD: Going Back Home (Atlantic)
Greek Music Picks
National anthem. Check. Michael Bolton. Check. But what about the songs you won't hear at the Olympic Games this year? Well, Mexico has its mariachi sound and Paris has that famed accordion sound. Musician George Sempepos of "The Byzantones" says we should expect lots of clichéd Greek music during the Olympics -- the kind of tunes you'd hear in a Greek restaurant played by a Bouzuki (boozooki). George says there's great Greek music you won't hear in the next few weeks.

Artist homepages:
Kristi Stassinopoulou
Mode Plagal
Markos Vamvakaris

Section Bottom
As Mentioned on Weekend America
For the August 14, 2004 broadcast:

audio iconListen to Hour 1
audio iconListen to Hour 2
podcast iconPodcast / Download
cassette iconOrder a cassette
programs tools
Section Bottom
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.
Section Bottom

Weekend Weather

From the July 5 broadcast

As Mentioned on Weekend America
Newsletter
Sign Up for the Weekend America Weekly Newsletter


Find out what's on the upcoming show, listen to the most popular previous segments, and be the first to participate stories about our listeners.

» Subscribe to the Newsletter

Section Bottom
Send Us Your Stories
This week: Have you exper-
ienced any strange seasonal changes: springtime plants sprouting; squirrels sunbathing?
Let us know...
Section Bottom