8 posts tagged “kunm”

Readers of this blog surely know of my love for public radio.  I have been blessed to live in cities where the public radio is good.  Ann Arbor, MI featured WEMU from neighboring Ypsilanti, MI.  Boston of course featured NPR flagships WGBH and WBUR and here in ABQ I am fond of KUNM and KANW.  This morning while lucid sleeping/dreaming I was listening to KANW and a great program called "Justice Talking" which is according to NPR is an "award-winning radio that engages listeners in timely, refreshingly honest debates on the current legal battles that capture our nation's attention" ... I love this show.  Today's episode was EXTREMELY provocative it was titled "The Cuban Embargo - Should U.S. Policy Change?"  The show covers several topics that are very poignant in light of the future of Cuba given the current health situation of Fidel Castro. Two that struck me as very interesting were host Margot Adler talking with NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten about the Bacardi family (yes the Bacardi of rum fame) and its long and complex history with Cuba and the story of Lillian Holloway  from Philadelphia who is a fifth-year medical student at Doctor Salvador Allende hospital in Havana, Cuba. In September 2000, Fidel Castro announced the implementation of full scholarships for American students of little means to go to medical school in Cuba.  Very interesting.  If you are interested at all in Cuba then you must visit the website and listen to this show.  I was transfixed.  I have long had an interest in Cuba and hope to visit there in the very near future.

Surprise!  Surprise! ... another person I admire is a public radio personality ... Since moving to New Mexico and discovering the programming of KANW and KUNM I have enjoyed many programs that I was not aware of living in Boston and South Carolina.  A new favorite of mine is "Democracy Now!" hosted by Amy Goodman.  Goodman is amazing and the show "Democracy Now" is a great source of information in these disturbing times.

I was in a bit of a haze this morning while listening to NPR on KUNM but heard some talk about "commuting", "Scooter", "Bush" ... then I headed to the Flying Star on my morning walk and saw the headlines in the papers.  George W. Bush has gone too far.  I am scouring the Internet now for the outrage.  However what is sad is that probably nothing will come of this and the Bush administration continues to go unscathed and it's malfeasance continues.  What? ... are we going to have to wait 30 years for all of the information to come out about how Bush/Cheney/Rove et al screwed this country and profited for themselves?  I could have told you that back in 2000 when the bumbling idiot got "elected".

 

I have begun including a "People I Admire" component to this blog and so far I've given shout outs to Lawrence Lessig, Ruby Sinreich, and Maria Hinojosa.  I have to return to Hinjosa because I so enjoyed listening today to her great radio program "Latino USA", broadcast on KUNM on Mondays at 8:30 A.M. 

Today's show was compelling on two fronts for me.  There was a very provocative story about race relations in Austin, TX among Blacks and Mexican-Americans. For a podcast/audio clip of the story please click here.  Today on" Latino USA" I also enjoyed learning about a Cuban singer named Havana Carbo whose voice totally blew me away.  I look forward to hearing more of her music soon.

Thank you Maria Hinojosa for keeping me current with things Latino and in the Latin American world.  The show's web site is here. I also just learned that Hinojosa is also now hosting a television talk show on WGBH in Boston called "Maria Hinojosa: One on One".  I can't wait to see it.

 

After I posted my feelings concerning the "adaptation" of Dee Brown's  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for HBO Films, I received a rather "snarky" email from an anonymous reader of my blog who chose not to comment on the blog but rather email me directly.  He instructed me to not pass judgment on the HBO "adaptation" until I had seen it.  Fair enough and I realize that I should reserve final judgment until I have viewed the film.  However what I took umbrage with was the quote from Daniel Giat ("adapter"/writer) that the film had to have a white character as its protagonist to make it viewable for a white mainstream audience - "Everyone felt very strongly that we needed a white character or a part-white, part-Indian character to carry a contemporary white audience through this project."

In any event hopefully the film will lead people to their own conclusions and point them toward reading the book. As usual the HBO.com website does a great job supporting this original film and I point you to read an interview with the screenplay writer Daniel Giat at this link. 

Living in New Mexico has caused an awakening in me to discover and learn more about Native American culture.  There is a great program that is broadcast on KUNM in Albuquerque called "Native America Calling".  I try and listen to it as much as I can.  This week on Tuesday the subject matter of the show was the upcoming HBO "adpatation" of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Visit the "Native America Calling" website here.

 

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a huge fan of public radio.  I recently discovered an NPR show that has become a favorite of mine to listen to whether on NPR or downloading podcasts of recent episodes from the Internet.  This show is "Latino USA" hosted by Maria Hinojosa.  For a biography of Hinojosa click here.

I listen to Maria Hinojosa and "Latino USA" on KUNM in Albuquerque.  The show is broadcast here on Monday at 8:30 AM.  "Latino USA"  is a journal of news and culture reflecting concerns and issues related to Latinos in America as well as Latin American issues abroad.  Living here in New Mexico I have begun delving deeper into my interest in Latin American studies and it is my hope to continue to explore Latin American art, literature, music, and film in depth while I begin to bolster my study of the Spanish language.  Maria Hinojosa and "Latino USA" are a large help in assiting me to reach this goal.  Gracias! 

I have big a life long listener of public radio and can't see life without it.  As a child I remember my mother picking my sister and me up from school and listening to "All Things Considered" from NPR back in the late 1970s and early 1980s during our rides from school to home.  I was too young to appreciate what I was being exposed to then but in retrospect, a template was cast and I grew to appreciate this early influence.  When I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan I was blown away by WEMU, the jazz, blues, and news NPR affiliate broadcast from neighboring Ypsilanti, MI and the campus of Eastern Michigan University.  When living in Boston I was constantly tuned to WGBH and WBUR which are the be all and end all of public radio in my opinion.  Now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently without cable television or Internet access at home, I find myself constantly tuned to KUNM-FM.  KUNM is amazing in it's broad array of broadcasts related to local issues and affairs germane to Albuquerque and New Mexico in general.  Kudos to KUNM and keep up the good work.  As I continue to develop roots in this town of ABQ, I plan to become a more active supporter of KUNM.

I can't say enough about how much Nikki Giovanni has meant to me through her poetry and her life.  I was so amazed to be listening to the radio at about 3:00 AM last Saturday night/Sunday morning and the DJ on KUNM decided to just play the recent poem that Nikki Giovanni gave at Virginia Tech.  I'll let the clip from YouTube speak for itself and I'll be sure I'll have a post tomorrow about Nikki Giovanni.