562 posts tagged with npr.
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"Music and humor are for the healing of the nations"
This post started as a single video of veteran musicmaker Leonard Solomon performing Skrillex's "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" on a homemade "Squijeeblion."
That led to discovering his YouTube channel @Bellowphone, full of similarly whimsical covers on a collection of bespoke instruments hand-built in his Wimmelbildian workshop, from the Emphatic Chromatic Callioforte to the Oomphalapompatronium to the original Majestic Bellowphone.
Searching for more videos led to his performance in the Lonesome Pine One-Man Band Extravaganza special from 1991, where he co-starred with whizbang vaudevillians like Hokum W. Jeebs and Professor Gizmo.
But what was Lonesome Pine? Just an extraordinary, award-winning concert series by the Kentucky Center for the Arts that ran for 16 years on public radio and television -- an "all things considered" showcase for "new artists, underappreciated veterans and those with unique new voices" featuring such luminaries as Buddy Guy, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang, Koko Taylor, and hundreds more. You can get a broad overview of this televisual marvel from this excellent half-hour retrospective, see a supercut of director Clark Santee's favorite moments, browse the program directory from the Smithsonian exhibit, or watch select shows in their entirety: Lonesome Pine Blues - All-star Bluegrass Band - Nashville All-stars - Bass Instincts - Zydeco Rockers - Walter "Wolfman" Washington - Mark O'Connor - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Sam Bush & John Cowan - Maura O'Connell - Nanci Griffith - A Musical Visit from Africa [more inside]
NPR Is a Mess. But “Wokeness” Isn’t the Problem.
NPR, the great bastion of old-school audio journalism, is a mess. But as someone who loves NPR, built my career there, and once aspired to stay forever, I say with sadness that it has been for a long time.Alicia Montgomery talks about the history of NPR and how things came here, especially regarding her former NPR colleague Uri Berliner's commentary blaming 'wokeness' and Democratic partisanship for the apparent loss of confidence in the once-unimpeachable institution and similar conversations around this issue.
And that story is that NPR has been both a beacon of thoughtful, engaging, and fair journalism for decades, and a rickety organizational shit show for almost as long. If former CEO John Lansing—the big bad of Uri’s piece—failed to fix it, or somehow made it worse, that’s a failure he shared with almost every NPR leader before him. But if, as Uri charges (albeit in a negative way), Lansing genuinely managed to break the network loose from the grasp of self-righteous white liberal identity politics, even in an imperfect way, that would surprise the hell out of me. Especially given the well-reported exodus of top journalists of color, and the loss of a diverse group of journalists during last year’s podcast layoffs.
How A Sleepy Pennsylvania Town Grew Into America's Mushroom Capital
The beds are covered with a mass of pure white, like bubbling foam: thousands of white button mushrooms. These are the mushrooms — along with other strains of this same species, the brown and portobello mushrooms — that account for the vast majority of all mushrooms that Americans eat.
Sex, aggression, and humour: responses to unicycling
After retiring from a busy university ... I was able follow some of my more extreme inclinations... when choosing a grandson’s gift that I got seriously lost in contemplation of a gleaming chrome unicycle. My wife said “buy the bloody” thing, which I did on the whim of the moment. After months of practice at home ... and finally town roads. I couldn’t avoid being noticed; in turn, I couldn’t avoid observing the form that notice took. Because at the time there were no other unicyclists in the area, such sightings would have been exceptional, yet I soon found that the responses to them were stereotyped and predictable. I realised that this indicated an underlying biological phenomenon and set about its study. Sam Shuster from BMJ. 2007 Dec 22; 335(7633): 1320–1322. [more inside]
Space Alien Ponies
It only costs $1,000 to get your name on the presidential primary ballot in New Hampshire, a far lower barrier to entry in other states. So, there's no shortage of lesser-known candidates.
Good Times
If you haven't already seen the Nile Rodgers & CHIC: Tiny Desk Concert, it's well worth half an hour of your time! [SLYT]
"Operation Attack"
NPR and the Climate Information Center report on how, in the '60s, gas utilities and the American Gas Association started using public relations firm Hill and Knowlton and industry-funded scientists to sway public opinion. [more inside]
Softball. Hard feet.
The decision to play in embroidered dresses stemmed from a desire to pay homage to their Maya culture as well as to demonstrate that women can be both feminine and strong. Las Amazonas reinforce their bravery by playing shoeless...
Weird podcasts are the best.
Sleep With Me has put me to sleep for 10 years and 1200 episodes, entertaining me and helping me feel better about the brain bots that keep my mind busy at night. Northwoods Baseball announces games for a made-up league in northern Michigan. Everything Is Alive is back for another season, this time exclusively interviewing animals. And EIA's sister-show In The Scenes Behind Plain Sight rewatches a fictional show about a nudist colony, as an homage to rewatch podcasts (and it drives my husband up the walls).
Build a castle from scratch...
Deep in a forest of France's Burgundy region, a group of enthusiasts is building a medieval castle the old-fashioned way — that is, with tools and methods from the late 13th century
Oh joy (scratch, scratch)
Poison ivy is poised to be one of the big winners in this global, human-caused phenomenon. Scientists expect the dreaded three-leafed vine will take full advantage of warmer temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow faster and bigger — and become even more toxic...
안녕하세요 to Tiny Desk Korea
NPR, in association with LG U+ and Something Special, has launched Tiny Desk Korea. First up is 김창완 밴드 (KIM CHANG WAN BAND). More about the project here, and more about artists to come here.
Terry Gross is a national treasure
Oh hey, it's Monday morning, time for that most relaxing of musical treats, the NPR Tiny Desk Concert! Today's artist: GWAR.
"WTF is a Tiny Desk and no!"
April 7th: Big Miggedy Miggedy (@thelovemyke) tweets at NPR and Juvenile asking for a Tiny Desk concert. April 11th: Juvenile refuses, then reconsiders. April 12th, they lock it in. And now, we have it. Juvenile's Tiny Desk Concert, with many special guests whom I won't spoil for those who don't know yet, but suffice to say that NOLA is well-represented. (cw: Juvenile lyrics)
For Black drivers, a cop's first 45 words are a portent
When a police officer stops a Black driver, the first 45 words said by that officer hold important clues about how their encounter is likely to go. [more inside]
Albuquerque should be ranked higher
Edgy or insensitive? The Paralympics TikTok account sparks a debate
How to geolocate the photo of a spy plane flying over China spy balloon
Indigo Girls Tiny Desk concert
The Indigo Girls, almost preternaturally suited to the medium, perform a Tiny Desk Concert. [more inside]
Why make yourself uncomfortable when you can be in a comfortable place?
NPR is not our friend. Let’s take a closer look at why this is. “… like much other media, NPR has become a partisan news service with a sterile, professional tone that belies an underlying allegiance to a very narrow range of political viewpoints that are largely inoffensive to those in power. Today, NPR is a product stuffed with advertisements. It receives relatively little in government funding and is mostly paid for by corporations and a small percentage of its listeners who come from a very specific demographic: white, well-educated liberals.“
Si preguntan quién soy...
Tiny Desk (Home) Concert: Trueno A four song set (with bonus freestyle) from Buenos Aires hip hop artist Trueno for NPR's Tiny Desk series.
"Only $2,000 over. In normal times, that would be a rip-off."
Quidditch rebrands as quadball and further distances itself from JKR
Fans of quidditch are now fans of quadball, the new name for the real-life sport that was first inspired by the Harry Potter book series.
U.S. Quidditch and Major League Quidditch announced the name change on Tuesday as well as their own rebranding as U.S. Quadball and Major League Quadball. The groups announced their intention to find a new name for the sport in December, citing what they called anti-trans positions of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
The rage, the swing, the beauty and the confusion
Charles Mingus would have been 100 today. “Mingus contained multitudes, but his native language was protest.” “What I’m trying to play is very difficult, because I’m trying to play the truth of what I am,” Mingus said. “The reason why it’s difficult — it’s not difficult to play the mechanics of it — it’s because I’m changing all the time.” “Genius and madman, visionary composer and canny showman, sensitive artist and tempestuous bully, crusader for justice and two-fisted tyrant—each of these depictions is rooted in fact while obscuring a more nuanced reality.”
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of The Dirty Computer
Let's get intersectional with the reviews of Janelle Monáe's new book of afrofuturist queer short stories, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of The Dirty Computer. NPR is pretty down the middle (as expected) [article with listen link]. But a work like this, we also have the lens of Ebony, which looks at race and afrofuturism and hope. D.C.'s Metro Weekly has a rainbow prism that brings forward LGBTQ+ themes. And WaPo headlines a half-hour interview with the author herself leading with Race, but there's more going on there.. Also, an article with highlights and transcripts of that interview. If you hurry, you might see her book tour. [more inside]
Rethinking our relationship with the language
Rough Translation podcast (& transcripts!) "Wouldn't it be easier to teach Americans when they enter global business meetings to check their idioms at the door?" from April 21, 2021 episode on "bad English". "Without any official permission from McDonald's, this former restaurant [in Marseilles France] has been occupied and repurposed as a food pantry and community hub during the pandemic" from April 7, 2021 episode. The Ukrainian and Russian languages are the focus of the most recent episode (March 2, 2022).
the solace of sound
Arooj Aftab, who recently became the first Pakistani woman to be nominated for a Grammy, did a stunningly lovely and tranquil NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert in convent in Brooklyn late last year, singing in Urdu with a chamber ensemble that includes Celtic harpist Maeve Gilchrist, classical guitarist Gyan Riley, violinist Darian Donovan Thomas, and bassist/synth player Shahzad Ismaily. [more inside]
Meta couldn't save Face(book)
Facebook just had its worst day ever on Wall Street (NPR). Mark Zuckerberg lost $31 billion (CNN). The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours (Twitter).
Audie Cornish speaks upon her exit
All Thing Considered host Audie Cornish is departing. She shares, apparently reluctantly, on twitter: "It seems my assumption that I would have a quiet transition was naïve. So I will attempt to provide whatever insight I can… using language the internet understands lol 🧵#NPR". Threadreader version.
Lil Nas X is the boundary-smashing pop revolutionary of 2021
Lil Nas X is the boundary-smashing pop revolutionary of 2021 [NPR medium read] "Nas' creative output is fully on trend with today's renaissance in Black LGBT+ pop culture that includes everything from ball culture TV series Pose, risqué HBO teen melodrama Euphoria and the irreverent, sexually-frank, Black gay Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop."
"Young Americans are sounding the alarm."
According to the most recent Harvard Youth Poll (NPR, Politico, The Harvard Crimson), 52% of 18-29 year-olds in the U.S. believe that the country's democracy is either "in trouble" or "a failed democracy."
Sometimes you just need to look at some photos of animals
NPR has announced their annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Do we anthropomorphize, or are animals just as human as we are? Or are we just as animal as other animals?
The titles of the photos are just as entertaining as the photos themselves.
Do we anthropomorphize, or are animals just as human as we are? Or are we just as animal as other animals?
The titles of the photos are just as entertaining as the photos themselves.
NPR books editor Petra Mayer has died
NPR Books editor Petra Mayer died suddenly Saturday of a presumed pulmonary embolism.
Mayer was a proud nerd and was a driving force behind the NPR Books concierge (A Mefi fave) and this past summer's special series Summer SciFi & Fantasy Best of the Decade Poll (which also popped up on the Blue.) [more inside]
Lorde's Third Album
First came the single Solar Power. Next came Stoned At The Nail Salon. Then the full album, Solar Power [43m, track time jumps in the description]. This NYT profile Lorde’s Work Here Is Done. Now, She Vibes. [Archive link] was pretty interesting. NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour discussion Lorde's 'Solar Power' Is A Whole Mood [23m listen, transcript plus audio link] was insightful about the album.
NPR's 50 best SF and Fantasy books of the decade
Let's find something new to read! NPR assembled a list of the best Science Fiction and Fantasy books of the last decade. See anything you like?
F* It, We'll Do It Live
Just before 8 AM Sunday, NPR's Scott Detrow tweeted, "Well, ten minutes to @NPRWeekend, just about none of the software we use to put on a show is working. We will be on the air either way, tune in on your local NPR member station!" Audio engineer and Technical Director Stu Rushfield broke down how they pivoted to produce the show live in a Twitter thread. [more inside]
A moment of reflection
It Wasn’t Just Another Nightclub "Five years ago, I went to cover the Pulse shooting—and found myself unexpectedly close to the story." Ari Shapiro writing in The Atlantic. Alternate link. [more inside]
Myth: Asian Americans are high earning and well educated
6 Charts That Dismantle The Trope Of Asian Americans As A Model Minority Characterizing Asian Americans as a model minority flattens the diverse experiences of Asian Americans into a singular, narrow narrative.
I chose you / You chose me
'Political Misdirection and Rebranding Exercises'
Top Republicans Want to Rebrand GOP as Party of Working Class (slNPR, includes link to six-page memo from Rep. Jim Banks* (R-IN)) [more inside]
"They asked for a tiny desk concert. They got a tiny desk concert."
Tiny Desk Meets SXSW: Clipping "Leave it to clipping. to innovate around the central notion of the Tiny Desk; to take the series' emphasis on close-up intimacy and transport it to new heights of, well, tininess. This is, after all, a band that contains multitudes. Producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes craft a bed of hip-hop, industrial music and noisy experimentalism, then set loose rapper Daveed Diggs, whose violent imagery summons '90s horrorcore and a thousand bloody movies." [more inside]
They're good Muppets, Brent
Could Trump Be The 1st U.S. President Charged With A Criminal Offense?
...but if Trump did commit crimes of some sort, even if they're kind of, you know, sort of ordinary business crimes, if he did, it's important that there not be a culture of impunity in this country, that there needs to be a message sent that there are consequences, no matter how rich and important you are, if you break the law, and that that message is more important almost than anything else when it comes to protecting democracy.Could Trump Be The 1st U.S. President Charged With A Criminal Offense? [more inside]
Maybe You Should Call Your Show Newsy Things Considered
Leo Shidla has a complaint. The 8 year-old NPR listener from Minneapolis recently pointed out a big problem with NPR's oldest news show, All Things Considered.
Removing Cops From Behavioral Crisis Calls
"It's glaringly obvious we need to change the model" In what will be among the largest and boldest urban police reform experiment in decades San Francisco is creating and preparing to deploy teams of professionals from the fire and health departments — not police — to respond to most calls for people in a psychiatric, behavioral or substance abuse crisis. [more inside]
maybe soon
I hope everybody's enjoying their apocalypse
For her latest Tiny Desk Concert, Phoebe Bridgers uses a green screen to sing the first 2-1/2 songs in a virtual Oval Office but at the apocalyptic end of "I Know The End", she gets help from a virtual crowd of fans for the chorus and that final primal scream.(SLYT)
soothing nature sounds
Listen to the dawn chorus in an old growth Bornean rain forest. Sit beside a river in a forest preserve at noon. Hear the sun going down in a logged and regrowing forest patch. Wake up in the middle of the night during a rainstorm in an old growth forest. [more inside]
Music For Right Now
Bob Boilen at NPR's All Songs Considered brings us Music For Right Now. "Over the past few weeks and in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of the Minneapolis police, black artists have released a multitude of music that is a must-listen. On this edition of All Songs Considered, we hear from five of them." [25 minutes NPR listen, also accompanying article with YouTube links to all five of the songs.]
A Not-At-All Exhaustive LGBTQIA+ Country Playlist
NPR Music brings us A Not-At-All Exhaustive LGBTQIA+ Country Playlist. You can stream the playlist at YouTube or Spotify. [more inside]