My Pick of the Week: Go figure, but I have to admit that the most fun I had on the radio this week was with John Nichols who is an absolute wizard as a pitching partner. He managed to build so much momentum during yesterday’s program that, after setting an arbitrary goal of 50 calls, actually generated 74! By the end of the hour, we had raised altogether over $4000 which I didn’t think was possible. So thank you so much, all of you, for making Thursday a banner pledge day for Here on Earth.
We have an indigenous theme going next week:
Monday: Columbus Day, not such a big deal here in the Midwest, but a huge deal in New York where I grew up among Italian-Americans. Since coming to Wisconsin I have become sensitized to the way Native Americans think about Columbus Day, much like a Jew who discovers the Palestinian word for “The Catastrophe.” So we’re going to focus the program around the theme of Indigenous Intelligence and talk with the director of the film Whaledreamers, about an Australian aboriginal tribe fighting for its right to existence.
Tuesday: Uwen Akpan is a Jesuit priest from Nigeria who won a prestigious award for his first collection of short stories, Say You’re One of Them, which he completed while working on his MFA in creative writing at the University of Michigan.
Wednesday: Mami Wata (pidgin English for Mother Water) A major exhibit celebrating African water spirits is opening soon at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, honoring the essential sacred nature of water. We’ll talk with UW-Madison Professor of African Art Henry Drewell, curator and sailor.
Thursday: The gifted modern nomad Stephanie Elizondo Griest (Where in the World is Stephanie?) stopped her wanderings long enough to write a probing memoir titled Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines. She’s coming to Wisconsin to take part in next week’s Book Festival and she joins live on the air today at 3:00.
Friday: We’re working on a program with Chris Fair, a political analyst and the author of the intriguing (cook?) book, Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations.
As Bugs Bunny says, That’s all, Folks!
Jean
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A brilliant show on Monday (12/13/08) which transformed any latent blues into the deep azure of unsequestered joy!
Your porgrams over the years have bestowed your listeners with many insights and I would like to reciprocate with the currency of prose:
Here’s looking at you? Never with the cool demeanor of a Bogart – I’ve long imagined what it would be like to truly see the eye of a storm, politician or friend. The opportunity presents itself though in rare sightings out in nature, in the bedroom and classroom. It has taken years of not so casual observation to become as invisible as the thing seen – not to possess, evaluate or dominate – but to co-exist in equanimity. Like the fearless hunter without his weapon or Hemingway without his gin. Seeing cougar, eagle, pike and bobcat in this manner trivializes encounters with deer and other people so adept at appearing bored with life. The real thing may appear for an instant in its nakedness. Yet it is as if the prospect of freedom for some has become an obsession or forgotten beyond grasp. A long gaze returned eliminates subject and object for a cherished instant that invites the musings of a poet or philosopher. Accepting the pain and responsibility inherent in the day to day fray with an eye for novelty opens a myriad of possibilities. - the photograph not taken, the sunrise unseen. Hearing an exuberant “hello” that takes you down the corridor of time replacing beach condo sharing with the exhilaration of immanent emancipation. The distinctive aroma of autumn aroused by noisy foot steps conjures memories that settle in the moment surrounded by a spectrum of colors and shapes. A chance encounter with another traveler content to dwell in the unseen gravity and invisible beauty of this great work invites us to fly in the face of all probability and become liberated from the chains of selfish tyranny. Ah, to swim with dolphins and perpetually hear the sound of spouting whales. Getting a glimpse of the inner eye where the music plays- following the light to where love truly lives.
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