Another Radio Lab gem! This hour-long piece does not show us the ABC's of the musical language, but takes us on a journey and opens the eyes of our ears. What is it that makes Chinese children 60% more successful in recognizing pitch compared to American children? Can verbal language, no matter how foreign to one another, have similar musical grammar to touch, soothe, and praise the minds of infants...and adults, years later? Why did Stravinksy's 'Rite of Spring' performances, separated by just a year, have two completely different effect on the audience?

Truth is, the exploration-which what this piece is really- of musical language posed is just the surface being scratched and played with. Would you believe it if you were told that all the beautiful and all the awful sounds you hear every second of your life is the result of information being tapped either in harmony or disharmony inside your ears? Ravi Shankar had once mentioned that he gets physically sick when he hears dissonance played without context. Yes, dissonance revealed in context is music too.

There is a revealing moment in the piece when Krulwich and Abumrad talk about the amazing ability of the ear - the brain- to tune itself, to be prepared to receive the same information with more acceptance over time. Abumrad mentions composers have created works that take dissonance even further. "Some people love that stuff," he says. The revealing moment. Why do some people love that stuff? Perhaps their ears are more accepting to that; perhaps it's a familiar voice - minus the words - they've grown up listening to. When the heavy metal band, Black Sabbath, was once asked to describe where their sound came from, they recalled the industrial area they'd grown up in and the sounds had simply become part of their musical language.

I'll spare you what may seem like a broken record, praising and admiring Radio Lab. This is a series you should never miss or never hesitate to share with others. You should have heard me say the last two sentences out loud. The intonation in that alone would have made you a believer. Oh, the way we marry our words with our personal music. Sometimes, they do behave so strangely.

Jazz musicians react to the sounds of Enceladus and create their own that would have made John Coltrane proud. Listen to 'Interstellar Space' with Rashied Ali and you'll see what I mean. Jazz and the solar system...I guess I finally see a similarity there...boundless space for discovery, yet everything held together by a strict structure, movement, and rhythm by the creator.

Rembrandt's work has no doubt influenced many artists over the four centuries since his time; his mastery at understanding and capturing light, shadow, and subject to tell stories has fascinated photographers and cinematographers even.
This piece tells us three ways his work is still having an effect. First, we listen to an artist, Klarenbeeek, who is devoted to studying the master's work by re-creating his paintings - in the way pupils would have during Rembrandt's time - but not by duplicating them. Sitting in the same room, using the same limited color palette, and even employing the eye to hand measurement technique that the master had himself. Perhaps it's a method best suited to understand technique and method than the product.

The remaining two sections take us to collectors and inheritors of Rembrandt's works. You'll find that owning a Rembrandt may have nothing to do with the admiration one may have for the artist, but everything to do with the prestige and reputation it brings. People will say anything to sell or buy a Rembrandt. When you can't afford a painting, just convince yourself, or others, that Rembrandt was a engraver and drawer than a painter.

Maybe he was, I don't know. But to hear some of them talk about what the pieces are worth, or will be, reminded me of the Beanie Baby craze a few years ago when parents 'invested' in them to fund their little Timmy's college tuition and how they'd buy tag protectors and glass cases, whereas, all little Timmy cared for was the bear.

Now if you switched little Timmy with Klarenbeek and the parents with the modern day collectors and buyers, you'll understand where I'm going with the analogy. Regardless, the unpleasant contrast is captured in the piece, intentionally or unintentionally, to prove there exists such.

The piece is basically a promo for Spike Lee's new HBO documentary. Regardless, it makes an important contribution to the film by giving the audience an understanding of its tone and voice. A four hour documentary may seem too long for some, and not long enough for others. What can you expect from a film that long? This radio piece certainly gives you glimpses of the issues that will be tackled in the film. It gives you a clear idea of what to expect and what not to expect.
As for myself, I will definitely be watching.

This piece sounds a lot like what the 'Blue Collar TV' guys would come up with. While it's meant to mock the whole 'For Dummies' series, I fear there might be such a book found on bookstore shelves. That is if people can afford a navigation system to find their way to the self help section.

Imagine The Sex Pistols playing with a brass section from Mexico. Now imagine The Sex Pistols playing with a brass section from Mexico rocking it out in Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. La Plebe is, however, less rebellion and more fusion...of cultures, music, and people. The band grew out of a mix of worlds that is part youth movement and part globalization. The band's tours are more like exchange programs that allows them to teach their mix culture and learn from others.
The band is another proof that education needn't be framed within textbooks, needn't be in English, and doesn't require a desk. A concert stage will do just fine.

Short glimpse of a man who primarily thought of himself as a songwriter. Excerpts of an interview, that took place some 27 years ago, are placed throughout the piece, sometimes next to famous Nilsson songs. Whereas singers and songwriters spend an awful lot of time showering with stage lights, flash bulbs, and celluloid, Nilsson has never given a concert. Why? His answer is so simple that you'd think he's crazy. Maybe he is crazy...but in a Werner Herzog way.

We all know the brutal beating our environment gets each day, from us and from our confused nature. If the planet was a person and limped and coughed and ached from sickness, and if a visit to the doctor revealed that the person's days were numbered, it would be a cause for concern.
Sadly, most of us keep on ignoring the fact that with each day's passing, we are crippling our planet. The countdown has started already. This heatwave, that hurricane, and those floods are just symptoms. Happily, yet, we find that a few good citizens are not wasting time talking about it.
I'm sure what's written above have been conveyed to you in many permutations and combinations, but I was happy to learn from this piece that New York City, being 4 to 5 degrees warmer than its surrounding boroughs, employ a strict Green Roof rule, and that its Mayor has written a bill to support it. This piece reveals, besides the obvious benefits of having a Green Roof, the pursuance of people in making sure the planet doesn't die young. It may sound like I'm exaggerating the seriousness of the demise of our planet a bit prematurely. I see your point. You and I won't have to witness it. Maybe not our kids, even. But what after that?

This piece, I must clarify, is not about the end of it all. Its about making a difference, one Green Roof at a time.

My review about this piece will be biased. And from this word on it promises to be. Ask me if I care. Lost my dad when I was 13. It happened in a hospital bed, with my little sister, my mom, my brother, my grandmother watching as he slowly faded away. He was 46. I guess some of us grieve in increments the remaining days of our lives from losing someone. Why else would a song have such a strong impact 17 years later?

This song did tear me apart and it's as simple and raw as that. Why it makes some of us who relate to it so devastated, I can't explain. It does and the songwriter captures the emotion with perfect marriage of words and music.

There. That's the most I've opened up in public and the most I am willing to. But...this piece was meant to come my way and this review wasn't destined to leave me any other way. Now, I'd very much like to be selfish and believe that I own this unique emotion and I'd very much like to say, "You'll never know what a loss feels like." But I'm proven wrong every second.

The piece is able to convey in less than 5 minutes that the love of soccer for this community goes beyond simply playing the game. For them, it's creating a home away from home and rejuvenating the mind and body after extreme hardship during the week. The league brings together people from far away cities and towns with soccer as their common language and culture.

The Smith program, in short, helps bring science on a more hands-on basis for high school girls. The summer program, made possible by Smith College, gives these young, would-be scientists a chance to get a taste of life in a field that has been discouraging to women, last thing we expect coming from the scientific community.
Opinions vary about the presence of discrimination in the scientific community, but the piece nicely balances opinion and information.

There's a line, I learned of from this piece, that's often said by the Chicanos, "We didn't cross the borders, the borders crossed us." It's a statement heavily drenched in sadness and frustration. That statement is a historical fact. It begs the question, have Mexicans been crossing borders to find a better life, or have they always been 'crossing' to find their way back home?
That 'philosophical' introduction was necessary to help you understand this piece, or, rather, a collage of pieces. In two sections, the piece, in the first half, is the witnessing of a physical journey people take to cross borders, risking their own lives and their loved ones. Scott Carrier wants to find out what they come from to understand why they take on 115 degrees of heat and days of walking while not knowing if they'll even make it to the other side alive. We find out that guards on the Mexican side of the border assist people to cross over. The law does not prohibit people from migrating, it only prohibits the 'coyotes.' People on both sides have their say about it and it seems the reality of border crossing is similar to accepting the sun coming out in the South. You complain about the heat, but you deal with it because it gives light.
The second part is a series of poetic works read by the authors that delve into the spiritual aspect of border crossing, death, the future, and the separation of families, identities, land, and structure of the new generation. Heartbreak and loss coming from the physical and spiritual journey are the building blocks that only seem to pile up into a larger wall. The works by the authors is a lament.
In summary, the piece gives you reality, but does not leave you with facts and figures. That would be a blindfolded vision. There's a living, breathing, growing soul behind each number that tallies up in your daily papers as stats.
Now, if you'd really, really like to understand why thousands say goodbye each day, not knowing if it'll be forever, this piece is a great start.

Nortec Collective does reflect life lived at the border. The band is also a reflection, fusion, and mix of influences growing up during the 70s and 80's in Tiijuana and being exposed to cultures from both sides of the Mexican-American border. The band members talk about their roots, not in the cultural sense, but the musical fragments that beat, pump, and ooze with a calming rhythm. Think northern Mexico's various musical elements rerouted through electronic equipment, something they started doing in 1999. That is not to say the band doesn't have much to say with the fused style. There has to be a reason for musical evolution. In their song 'The Big Failire', the band members explain the feeling of 'nostalgia' and 'fading love' (paraphrasing here) despite the upbeat nature of the music. The voices they represent are not only human voices, but musical instruments as well.
The band recognizes how the world views Tijuana as an infested city, creeping with ugliness. It has its beauty too, and both sides reflect in their music. It's living in Tijuana in the 21st century. As it turns out, being a Tijuana native is, after all, a blessing. It's easier to get Visas to come to the States, not so for Mexicans from other parts of the country, and the border radios broadcast great music.
The piece provides a good history of the band and its musical style. For a new listener, it might not sound so foreign, after all. (S)he might sense a familiarity in those tunes.

When the piece was over, Sherman Alexie was no longer a Native American writer's name I had been familiar with. This piece, featuring one live appearance by the esteemed author, in Iowa, is enough to reveal and revel in the brilliance of a writer who happens to be Native American.

Alexie reads one story, Lawyer's League, from his 'Ten Little Indians,' a book he describes as a collection of stories about 'white collar Indians.' Most authors don't read their own material well, but, as evident here, no other can read Alexie better than Alexie. He writes the way he thinks and talks; a mile a second, an observation a minute, like a long distance runner who's also a great sprinter. Lawyer's League is so well presented in the piece that you could mistake it for a well executed improv where everything comes out exactly as un-planned and as easily as the next moment. Now, that's great writing.

The length of the piece may be of concern to listeners, but there's not a moment that drags. It goes by like 'that'. Yes...'that'. If you've never been to something that is a seminar, reading, and stand-up combined, this is it.

Taylor Mali had me at, "I think I could be a poet because I like to wear a lot of black." This opening line from McIver's piece will have you hooked or not, depending on who you are. It had me hooked. For those of you who know Mali may smile and say, yes this is so him. For someone like me, who has never heard of Mali, and who thinks sarcasm plus truth makes for great comedy makes for an audience who is educated by the sound of their own laughter, it is a breath of fresh air to hear someone tell the truth...in verses. Credit McIver for deciding to open the piece with that line. This choice alone deserves a 5 star rating. Allow me another analogy from another movie. Opening shot of biopic 'Chaplin.'

Let's step away from analogies and get to the heart of this piece. A teacher turned slam poet extraordinaire, Mali's contribution to the art form is unattainable. He is no stranger to controversy and to the world of slam. In 2000, Mali made his intentions known to create a 1000 teachers by the year 2006. How many would you say he has been able to? You'll have to listen to find out. You'll hear him recite three poems, each brilliantly composed and delivered; each making a point, making you recognize, realize, and react. There are a couple of swear words and the bleeps aren't quite able to hide them, but they are minor technical problems. You don't know Mali's poetry if you haven't heard him recite them himself. In essence, it's his interpretation of his own words that, if may I another, completes them.

Two pinkie's way up!!