18 posts tagged “npr”

I was born in 1966 and grew up in the 1970s and the 1980s.  I was very fortunate to have very refined parents with a love for life and knowledge.  In the mornings when my family would wake up to prepare themselves for work and my sister and me for school, my father and mother would both have public radio playing.  My father's radio was in the bedroom and the public radio broadcast would come on to awake him by alarm.  My mother would already be in the kitchen with the radio turned down a bit so as not to awake my father, my sister, and me while she prepared breakfast but I would be listening in my bed to the radio from the kitchen from the moment my mother woke up at about 6:00 AM to start the day.

When my mother would pick my sister and me up from school, NPR would be playing in the car.  The "All Things Considered" music was beginning its inculcation in my brain then back in the 70s and 80s.  I don't remember much about the details of NPR and public radio programming in those days but I do remember it being very interesting and radically different from the fodder of the commercial airwaves.  I was a critical thinker even then.

I still listen to public radio today but I must admit that NPR is really starting to become trite, hackneyed, and a parody of itself.  I still give mad props to WGBH and WBUR in Boston for holding things down while I lived there and God knows WEMU in Yspilanti with its jazz, blues and news programming made Ann Arbor, Michigan one of my favorite places to live.  Nonetheless, while I admire the work of KUNM and KANW here in Albuquerque, it seems as if both stations are stuck in the mainstream of NPR offerings. I wake up to Morning Edition which is a fairly good source of the morning news but when I evenutally log on to the New York Times and BBC web sites after arriving at work, I find that "Morning Edition" has done nothing more than rehash the headline stories.  I  do like to catch podcasts of "All Things Considered" and will always find time to listen to "Fresh Air" with Terri Gross and "Latino USA" with Maria Hinojosa but on the weekends I lay in bed half awake and half sleep, wondering if there's more to NPR programming than "Car Talk",  "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me",  "Whad' Ya Know?" with Michael Feldman, or "Prairie Home Companion".  All of these shows are pretty good in and of themselves but after years of listening to public radio, isn't there something more? I must admit I still have a very weak spot for Ira Glass and "This American Life", nonetheless I need more ...

I was very happy to reconnect with my college classmate Maxie Jackson who works for WNYC,  a few weeks ago, and he recently informed of some exciting news in the public radio arena.  PRI (Public Radio International) is going straight at NPR's Morning Edition with a show that does seem to offer something more.  It's called The Takeaway.  I'll be listening and will report back after a few weeks. 

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.

 

My mother just got back from an extended vacation in Europe in which she went to France and Italy.  I've been following France a bit in the news these days as the NPR correspondent in Paris, Eleanor Beardsley is from my hometown of Columbia, South Carolina and she is also a graduate of my high school alma mater, W.J. Keenan High School. I knew Beardsley's brother but not Eleanor as she was a few classes ahead of me.  It's great to hear her dispatches from Paris and other parts of Europe. Despite her obvious cosmopolitian and continental flavor that comes with living in Paris, Beardsley's southern accent can still be heard when she reports on NPR.  I love hearing her say the name of the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

I've got my eye on Sarkozy.  Despite some early misgivings about his election, I think he might be just what France needs right now and he might become a great global statesman for western Europe.  We'll see Monsieur Sarkozy, we'll see ...

 

If you've read some of the most recent posts on this blog, you'll know that I love the NPR show "Latino USA" and its host Maria Hinojosa.  I recently wrote to Maria and the show's staff about how much I appreciate their work.  Here is the response I got ... Thanks to all at "Latino USA" for being personable and responding.  The world of the Internet is a wondrous thing.  As I was having a rather bad today, it was very nice to receive this email ...

"Hi James,

Maria wanted me to forward this message to you...thanks!

Mincho Jacob
Deputy Producer
Latino USA on NPR
Ph:  512-471-6178
Fax: 512-471-6873

I recently blogged about my appreciation for the poetry of Natasha Trethewey and how proud and excited I am for her to have won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize.  Today I was very intrigued and moved by an unusually poignant interview with Trethewey on the NPR program "Fresh Air" with Terri Gross.  I highly recommend everyone to hear this wonderful experience.  Click here for the interview.

 

Ah ...  the former mayor of New York and "hero" of September 11 looks like he wants to try and cash in on the "Bubba" vote in the South of the United States.  Kudos to NPR for information about the GOP's "frontrunner" and his recent Southern tour.

You are smart to play on the politics of fear, terror, and race, Mr. Giuliani.  However let me suggest to you that the good old boys and girls in the South will see through your ploys and will eventually see you for what you are.  Give it up Rudy.  You will not be president of the United States.

Xenophobia, racism ... I was deeply disturbed by this piece I heard on NPR shortly before leaving the house this morning.  Looks like if you want to make some money, experience living in an Asian culture, and teach English without much qualification then the opportunities abound in Korea right now ... however the people of South Korea seem to prefer only a certain type of English speaker ... listen and learn ...

 

Do you know where the Cape Verde islands are?  Not many people do has been my experience.  Forturnately I learned of these islands off the coast of West Africa when I learned African geograpy during my freshman year at Morehouse College.  I gained further knowledge of Cape Verde while living in Boston which is home to many Cape Verde migrants.

Even here in ABQ I have met a young man named Enrique from Connecticut who has Cape Verde roots. He's become a pretty good friend.  I have long been a fan of perhaps the most famous Cape Verdean, Cesaria Evora, whose morna music fills my iTunes database. Today I was pleased to learn of Sara Tavares on NPR. Click on the link and learn of the music and life story of Sara Tavares.  Rest assured I will acquire some music by this young woman as soon as money and time permits.  Her voice is golden ...

There was also a very good story of recent activity in Cape Verde in the New York Times. Click here.

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".

Readers of this blog know that I served in the Peace Corps in Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo).  After hearing about the Failed States Index today on NPR, I had to really think again about this beloved but troubled land that occupies the heart of Africa.  I wonder if I'll live long enough to see this country/region ever survive it's long troubles and become the prosperous and promising area that it has BEYOND the potential to become.  Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is VERY important to the rest of this world and extremely important to me.