The Story of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez

NPR featured an unforgettable story back in 2005

Commentator Steve Lopez has been writing for newspapers for three decades, but one story he wrote about this past year has moved him in a way no other story has. It's the story of Nathaniel Ayers: He was once a student at Juilliard and now lives on the streets of Los Angeles.

There's also an interview with Steve Lopez from Fresh Air.

I remembered both the commentary and the interview immediately when I saw the trailer for this movie last week:

http://www.soloistmovie.com/

If the movie "The Soloist", starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr, is remotely as compelling as the reporting from Lopez, then this movie is going to be a heart-tugger, tear-jerker wonderful experience. I say I don't want to see it, simply because I am a wimpy cry-baby and I know I'll go through tissues A LA "The Notebook" or "Cold Mountain" but, yeah, I'm going to see it anyway. It looks really good.

Robert Reich Is My Economist Crush

So, the other day I was on All Things Considered asking about the stimulus package. But you know what? I forgot to blog about the other time I was on the radio, on On Point, two weeks before that. Why am I such a NPR groupie? I dunno. Just am.

If you open this link for the WBUR OnPoint media player and drag the bar to 16:10 minutes left, you'll hear me talking to Robert Reich

Anyway, here's why I love Bob Reich:

Robert Reich and Conan OBrien as Buddy Cops

On the Radio

Listen to this appropriately titled song by Regina Spektor, while reading this post...

All things Considered, NPR's evening radio news program, asked listeners to email their questions about the stimulus bill. I sent mine in and they liked it. So they called me and asked me to record it and then aired and answered it today on the program. Exciting, no? Maybe only if you're a news junkie like me. Anyway, here's the link.

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=100885556&m=100885535

Englighten yourself by listening to the whole thing or skip to the good part -- me reading my question over the air, at minute 8:33.

There's 30 seconds of my 15 minutes...

Thanks to Adam Davidson for giving a clear and concise answer. I'm gonna go see if he is on Facebook and friend him if he is! Ha!

Link Post - Frank Schaeffer "Crazy for God"

Sorry to do a lazy post, but I've been busy with grad school work so all I can say is: listen to this interview with Frank Schaeffer, son of evangelical preacher Francis Schaeffer. Once again Terry Gross does one of those enrapturing interviews that gets to everyone, including the interviewed, who is very emotional at the end. It was one of those hours (well, 40 minutes) that I know I'll be able to remember almost every bit of years from now, because it was so moving.

Songs that Don't Go Away

I went to a super neat-o seminar today on writing about rock/ writing and rock music, etc. We covered all the genres of writing, too. Seminar leaders Debra Marquart and Elizabeth Searle covered Fiction (Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera), personal essays (of Mickey Hart) and poems (about Charles Mingus). One of the many aspects touched upon was catchy songs that get stuck in your head and won't go away.

My current repeated song is:


"God's Comic" by Elvis Costello; it just won't get out of my head.

Anyway, how and what and why songs get stuck in your head was a topic on the NPR show "Radiolab" from WNYC. I heard this show when it first aired, and it's FASCINATING. They even talk to the Schoolhouse Rock guy.

Happy Listening.

On Not Listening to the News

While doing school-y things from 830 AM to 11 PM every day, it's hard to get my regular doses of NPR in.

This is a good and bad thing. It's good because I don't have to hear about the bullshisse stories, like Jesse Jackson made crude comments about Obama. Or Hilary, Caroline and Barack are having secret meetings. However, I also don't hear about things like nuclear brinkmanship in Iran and how it makes oil jump in price, yet again. Obviously I know of these stories, but that's because they were on my AP news feed on my email account. But who knows what Morning Edition is covering that would be of interest to me that doesn't show up on these news feeds of mine?

Overall, I'd say I don't like missing out on this information. Not at this time at least. I am a person engaged in the world and I prefer knowing about all the nuances, rather than tuning out. Maybe someday if I decide to become one of the off-the-grid people, I'll be happy to tune out. But for now, I feel intellectually naked without my All Things Considered.

Tax Season and Robert Reich

One of the blogs I have on my RSS feed is Robert Reich's blog. Sometimes it's a little over my financial head, sometimes it's right on the level. And sometimes it's right on the level and far too important not too pass along:

Time to Pay Your Taxes, Support Wall Street, and Take a Licking
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/04/time-to-pay-your-taxes-support-wall.html


Robert Reich was secretary of labor in the first Clinton administration. He also makes appearances on Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, as well as regular commentary on Marketplace, public radio's business program.

Repost : A Prairie Home Companion Snobbery

A Prairie Home Companion: It’s My Show

6/14/06

So, my anti-NPR, pro-Country Music little sister came home for dinner the other night and declared she wanted to see "that new Lindsey Lohan movie with all the actors in it."

Hmph.

I was livid.

"You mean 'A Prairie Home Companion'?" I asked.

"Yeah, that one."

"Do you even know what Prairie Home Companion IS?"

"A movie."

"No. It's not a 'movie.' It's a SHOW on NPR. And you can't just go see the movie because Lindsey Lohan's in it. You don't even know. I know. I have been listening to Prairie Home for years. YEARS. And you just decide you're going to see the movie. Whatever. What-ever. You can't just go see my show without knowing what it is. You can't. That's just, just wrong. Oh God. This means little teeny-boppers all over are going to be seeing my show. This is so wrong. Whatever. What-ever."

My mother cocked her head to the side and looked at me funny. "Are you serious?"

I took a few breaths and thought about it.

"Yes."

Later that night, we heard David Edelstein on Fresh Air (an NPR program, obviously) review of PHC The Movie. He called PHC elistism masked as folksie humor.

Ding ding ding!!! You win a prize for unveiling my truth.

At least I admit my problem.

Old Post: Target Marketing and the NRA

Juxtaposition in my wallet

from Dec 2006

After I heard this story (summary below) on Marketplace back in October, I thought I'd do something to confuse everyone.

From the Marketplace website: "In all likelihood, a campaign office somewhere has an electronic file with your personal voting and spending habits as political consultants take a page from the marketing pros' handbook. Scott Tong looks at how they get all that info." Click here for the link to the story, where you can hear or read the full report. The gist is that company marketers and political marketers track all your buying trends and target you for various things, like coupons and mayoral campaigns.

So, what did I do to battle this uninvited tracking? I signed up for information and joined an organization that, according to past tracking, you would never ever think I would solicit.

Before I heard this story, my purchasing trends showed I was the classic middle class liberal: poetry book purchases on-line, coffee shop purchases daily (local and Starbucks), registered Democrat and volunteer, card-carrying member of the ACLU, blah blah blah.

How did I combat my pigeon hole? Simple.

I joined the NRA. Now, if I am accidentally killed by a gun accident, my assigned benefactor receives $10,000. This is a free benefit for all members.

I also got two bumper stickers, which will look perfect next to the one that says either "Hilary!" or "Barack!", depending on who wins the primary.

The NRA wanted me to fill out a survey about why I joined, but I looked it over and "to confuse marketing trend trackers" isn't an option, so I don't know if I'll bother.

So yeah, I pledged $10 to the NRA and now have a membership card, which is placed right next to my ACLU card for the perfect juxtaposition in my wallet.