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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 42

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

O’Dark 30 is KUT's wildly quixotic adventure through the world of independent radio production. Every Sunday at midnight on KUT 90.5 Austin we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production.

Episode 42 includes The Singing Sanitation Worker...Meal Ticket: My Lunch with Marlon Brando...A Shortcut Back to 9/11...From Super Heroes to Star Wars: A Collectible Obsession...State of the ReUnion: New Orleans-The Big Easy...Dime Stories: "What I Don't Tell Him" read by author Victoria Melekian...Stories of Love and Marriage at the Towers...It's OK to Employ Esoteric Linguistic Constructs...Urban Homesteaders...Hell Bent...Cell Phone Santa...Christmas in New York, 2001, Ground Zero...A Pirate Looks at Forty...How The Ducks Got Their Fine Feathers Hide full description

O’Dark 30 is KUT's wildly quixotic adventure through the world of independent radio production. Every Sunday at midnight on KUT 90.5 Austin we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production. Episode 42 includes The Singing Sanitation Worker...Meal Ticket: My Lunch with Marlon Brando...A Shortcut Back to 9/11...From Super Heroes to Star Wars: A Collectible Obsession...State of the ReUnion: New Orleans-The Big Easy...Dime Stories: "What I Don't Tell Him" read by author Victoria Melekian...Stories of Love and Marriage at the Towers...It's OK to Employ Esoteric Linguistic Constructs...Urban Homesteaders...Hell Bent...Cell Phone... Show full description

Singing Sanitation Worker

From WFUV | Part of the On the Night Shift series | 04:51

On this Labor Day, WFUV catches up with New York City's night shift workers. In this segment, a sanitation worker sings his way through a very late -- or early -- shift.

Default-piece-image-1 Intro: While some people wake up to the sounds of an alarm clock or a rooster's cock-a-doodle-doo, some New Yorkers are awoken by the sounds of a singing sanitation worker. Andrew Macchio belts out show tunes and other songs while picking up the early morning trash. Tag: This "On the Night Shift" segment was produced by WFUV News.

Meal Ticket: My Lunch with Marlon Brando

From Eric Winick | 10:00

A young doctor questioning his choices. A cinema icon. The conversation changed them both.

Brando9_small
When a young doctor questioning his choice of profession has a chance encounter with cinema icon Marlon Brando, the ensuing conversation proves surprisingly profound -- not just for the doctor, but for Brando himself.  

Story by Wayne Peter Liebman, from the files of Yarn AudioWorks

Wayne Liebman is a physician, poet and playwright.  To read more about his work, click here.

A Shortcut Back to 9/11

From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 29:17

Sounds and Emotions of 9/11

9-11_small With sounds from the street, the eyewitnesses and the air, A Shortcut Back to 9/11 features material that gathers up actualities from that election morning and mixes in the first music that I was able to play-- days after the event. Featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama, John Cale, Crowded House and others, "9/11-- Remix also contains 2001 year-end commentary from various eyewitnesses...who wondered about the future--

From Super Heroes to Star Wars: A Collectible Obsession

From Andrew Hiller | Part of the Andrew Hiller's News Features series | 06:34

A Hungarian Princess Leia, a six foot long Millenium Falcon, and over 13,000 other Star Wars toys live in Stephen Atkinson's home turned Museum. Some revel in Pop Culture. Others seem to live it. Andrew Hiller visits three venues that explore and revel everything from Yoda and Mad Magazine to decoder rings to 19th century wind-ups. Included is a 6:34 feature and a shorter 2 minute news breakout.

Attkinson_s_star_toy_museum_small

It's a romp through the past and a nostalgic trip down memory lane.  For others, it's just junk cluttering up a room or attic, but the modern myth of man doesn't belong to Gods, but heroes.  From Superman to Batman, Harry Potter to Yoda there is something within us that resonates with these characters who do the impossible.  And for many, these favorite characters are all but impossible to leave behind.  Andrew Hiller takes us to three venues that embrace collectables and revel in the stuff of yore whether it's a Roy Roger's cap gun, the first issue of Action Comics, or a barrel filled with thousands of plastic R2D2's. 

New Orleans, LA: The Big Easy

From Al Letson | Part of the State of the Re:Union: Season One series | 53:53

The city of New Orleans is as proud of its traditions as it is steeped in them. But since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the city and its residents have been thrust into new relationships with those very traditions they hold so dear. State of the Re:Union visits the Big Easy and explore how the city is negotiating that tension between the old and the new — from race relations to po boys to combating crime — five years after the storm.

Sotru_profile-pic_01_small State of the Re:Union
New Orleans: The Big Easy
 
Host: Al Letson
Producer: Tina Antolini 

DESCRIPTION: The city of New Orleans is as proud of its traditions as it is steeped in them. But since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the city and its residents have been thrust into new relationships with those very traditions they hold so dear. State of the Re:Union visits the Big Easy and explore how the city is negotiating that tension between the old and the new — from race relations to po boys to combating crime — five years after the storm.
 
BILLBOARD (:59)
Incue: From PRX and WJCT
Outcue: But first, this news.

NEWS HOLE: 1:00- 6:00
 
Segment A (12:29)
Incue: From WJCT in Jacksonville, Florida
Outcue: That's ahead on State of the Re:Union
 
A: SILENCE IS VIOLENCE: New Orleans was a dangerous place before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. Afterwards, crime spiked— but the storm seems to have changed many NOLA resident’s tolerance for the ongoing violence in their city.  When crime forced its way into the lives of some New Orleans residents in late 2006, they didn’t just mourn their losses. They took action. In this segment, we hear the story of how one bookish ethnomusicologist became the leader of an ongoing fight to stop the violence in New Orleans streets, inspiring thousands of people to march to city hall, and launching an effort to teach teenagers art as an alternative to violent expression.

 
SEGMENT B (18:59)
Incue: You're listening to State of the Re:Union
Outcue: PRX-dot-ORG
 
A. CULTIVATING A NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT: For a long time before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans had been suffering from brain drain. It’s the old story: talented young people graduated from high school, went away to college and never came back. It was a new story, post-Katrina. The Hurricane brought an influx of young, idealistic people—both home grown and from far flung parts of the country-- who were drawn to the city to help with the rebuilding. And many of them are sticking around, making the transition from work with non-profits into starting their own businesses….

B. A CITY OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS: For all the excitement about newcomers to the city, the post-Katrina repopulation has inspired anxiety as well: what will their presence mean for a city that historically is majority African American? Not only are there new white hipsters, but New Orleans has seen a massive influx of Latino immigrants in search of day labor jobs, helping to rebuild the city… and that’s inspired tension over jobs with some other ethnic communities. In this piece, host Al Letson explores the complex racial dynamics of the city’s repopulation, and visits one group that’s trying to seize on this as an opportunity to overcome barriers.
 
C. TAKING A NEIGHBORHOOD BACK BY STORY: If you wander around New Orleans rough Central City neighborhood, you’ll see signs that say “hear my I-Witness” story, and then a phone number. Pull out your phone, call the number, and you’ll hear a local resident tell the story of that particular spot , a story that maybe no one else in the world knows, from a jazz funeral that the Free Southern Theater held for itself in 1980, to what happened at this house, during Hurricane Katrina. The idea is that retelling these stories helps form the neighborhood’s collective memory, and will bring new people into the fold.
 

SEGMENT C (18:59)
Incue: You're listening to State of the Re:Union
Outcue: to bring them back together. (music tail)
 
A. INDIAN MUSIC:  We begin  this segment’s exploration of New Orleans culture with a brief sound portrait from the Mardi Gras Indians’ annual Super Sunday tradition, introducing us to the Indians and their chants…
 
B. SISSY BOUNCE: Go to a club on a Friday night in New Orleans, and if you hear hip hop, you’ll more likely than not also be hearing Bounce. It’s a super local NOLA style of hip hop, driven by call-and-response repetitive lyrics and a distinctive skittering rhythm that sounds pure New Orleans.  It’s wildly popular in the city, and, thanks to a brand new album from the NOLA-based jam band Galactic, it may soon be making its mark across the country. But outside of its musical innovations, there’s another thing that makes some Bounce distinctive: some of its biggest stars are gay. And out. Very out. So-called “Sissy rappers” are among the hottest Bounce artists, folks like Big Freedia, Sissy Nobby, and Katey Red, a gay, transvestite from the Uptown projects. Open homosexuality and cross-dressing does have a strong history in New Orleans. Drag costume balls have been happening in the city since as early as the 40s. Now, Sissy Rappers pack the clubs.

C. SAVING THE PO BOY: In a city that loves—loves—food,  po boy sandwiches are arguably the culinary icon of the city. The sandwich is as diverse as New Orleans, a culinary crossroads, from the French bread to the fillings ranging from roast beef to fried oysters to southern ham. But Hurricane Katrina introduced a new chapter in the sandwich’s history. Already fighting fast food chains for customers, some mom & pop po boy shops in heavily flooded neighborhoods have had a hard time rebuilding. Because of Katrina closings, traditional bakeries like the father-son run Gendusa Bakery lost a huge portion of their customer base. But the hurricane also inspired the po boy’s champions: a festival and a Po Boy Preservation Society have been established in Katrina’s wake, aimed at educating young New Orleanians about the city’s signature sandwich, to make sure both it—and the families who sell it—survive.

D. DEAR NEW ORLEANS: A “Dear New Orleans” letter from Carol Bebelle, founder of the Ashe Cultural Arts Center.
 
E. “KATRINA FATIGUE” MONOLOGUE/VOX: Al offers some reflections on the degree to which New Orleans is receding from the thoughts of the rest of the U.S., and how his time in the city has changed his perceptions of it. Intermixed with Al’s monologue are the perspectives of a range of New Orleans residents. 

PROGRAM OUT @ 59:00

New Orleans, LA: The Big Easy is available on PRX without charge to all public radio stations, and may be aired an unlimited number of times prior to January 31, 2017. The program may be streamed live on station websites but not archived. Excerpting is permitted for promotional purposes only.

State of the Re:Union is presented by WJCT and distributed by PRX.  Major funding for the State of the Re:Union comes from CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Delores Barr Weaver Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.

Thanks for your consideration of State of the Re:Union with Al Letson. 

 

"What I Don't Tell Him" read by author Victoria Melekian

From Amy Wallen | Part of the DimeStories series | 03:24

A woman is surviving a loss and encounters a stranger who senses her need.

What_i_don_t_tell_him_small When two strangers meet in a bar, and one of them is suffering a deep loss, the other tries to help.

Stories of Love and Marriage at the Towers

From The Kitchen Sisters | Part of the The Sonic Memorial Project: 5 Stories series | 12:56

Stories of love, marriage and memories at 1,377 feet.

Sonicwebcopy2_small Stories of romance and marriage 1,377 feet above sea level. One of the first calls to The Sonic Memorial Project came from Bob and Barbara Krutzel, who called to tell about their 1976 wedding at Windows on the World, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. They brought with them a hand-held tape recorder and still have a cassette of their wedding vows. This led Sonic Memorial producers to think about the thousands of others who fell in love, proposed, or were married at Windows on the World and on the observation deck of the World Trade Center over the years.

It's OK To Employ Esoteric Linguistic Constructs

From The humble Farmer | 01:34

Love your child by being deliberately obtuse.

Humbleoats_small Children imitate what they hear

Urban Homesteaders

From Karen Brown | 05:38

A young Massachusetts family lives off the land -- in the middle of a crime-ridden inner-city.

Default-piece-image-2 Kristin Brennan, Daniel Staub, and their two young children are attempting a homesteading experiment -- they live almost entirely off the food they produce themselves, they don't own a car, they hardly use any electricity, gas, etc. But what makes this lifestyle experiment different from, say, a rural homestead in Vermont, is that they live in a poor, inner-city neighborhood in Springfield, Massachusetts. They hope to show that living a simple, fossil-fuel-free life is possible even in a modern, urban setting.

Hell Bent

From Matthew Kordonowy | 11:09

Recycling + Electronics = Circuit Bent instruments

Default-piece-image-1 Circuit bending is a branch of electronic music that uses rewired kids toys and old instruments. Musicians find these props often in corners of forgotten times: garage sales, dumpsters, thrift stores... This documentary looks at the musicians and their bent instruments in Chicago, from a workshop at the Old Town School of Folk Music to a concert in a West side warehouse. As we increasingly view old electronic technology as trash, there is a movement to recycle these under-appreciated gadgets: Circuit Benders!

Cell Phone Santa

From Scott Gurian | 04:23

An act of Christmas charity goes horribly awry

Santacellphone_small Take Santa Claus.  Then ditch the red suit and the flying reindeer, and you've got a guy who's all about giving.  A few years ago, my dad, Randy Gurian, tried out the role, but he got more than he bargained for.

Christmas in New York, 2001, Ground Zero

From Jake Warga | 07:27

Christmas day at Ground Zero--Essay

Wtc_small I spent Christmas day 2001 at Ground Zero. Personal essay (will re-track if interested). Music Brian Eno. Text avbl. on request. "...The new motto of the city is: I LOVE NY?More Than Ever. I kept walking, searching for a place to lay my lily--not so it would be noticed, just not lost..." "...I walked to the water front in a daze. The Statue of Liberty lay the distance. Standing proud, looking outwards, still holding the torch of freedom. Yet it felt like she was looking over her shoulder towards the city, keeping a sad eye on it. It was sunny, but cold and the wind bit at me..."

A Pirate Looks At Forty

From Salt Institute for Documentary Studies | 08:28

A profile of a young fisherman in Maine.

Default-piece-image-1 Joshua Watkis is a fisherman. This is his story—his struggle for acceptance.