July 11, 2008
A Blues Family, Kicking Out Homemade Jamz : NPR Music
Of course NPR discovers the most interesting talent out there. Here is The Homemade Jamz Blue Band, a family of young blues musicians that will knock your socks off. Check out the shiny guitars – made form mufflers, no less. Click the link to hear the interview and a great song. I don’t want to tell you too much more because you should check out the story for yourself.
Tags: music, blues, npr, podcat
June 23, 2008
How to Keep Your Feet Happy : NPR
It’s been quite a while since I last blogged. Work and spring hit me hard. I’ll try to be better in the upcoming weeks.
While listening to my usual NPR podcast, this broadcast really hit home. Or rather, my feet. I have Plantar Fasciitis.
“Wearing an open-backed shoe, when the heel lifts off the ground, there’s a lot of tension that develops in the plantar fascia, and it increases the angle that the whole foot makes with the ground, and toes bend up further and that just stretches the plantar fascia more.”
I usually wear very sensible shoes (walking or cross-trainers) but I’ve been trying to girly-up my wardrobe this winter and added some slides with 2″ heels. I loved the extra height and not having to hem certain pants. Then came the heel pain in the morning. It was mild in the beginning and got worse as time went on. I tried adding heel cushions to my shoes which were OK but didn’t really solve the problem. I did a little research on heel pain and discovered plantar fasciitis and recognized the symptoms immediately. I’ve been doing exercises regularly and have had some real relief but it’s never gone completely.
This podcast explained alot about the footwear choices that can make a huge difference. My new slides and the springtime flip flops were part of the problem. I really hate dropping the new kicks and I don’t want to wear grandma shoes forever so a happy median must exist somewhere. The exercises from this report are much better than the ones from other sources on the net.
I really should take up foot yoga.
Tags: feet, health, plantar fasciitis, shoes, pain, fashion
May 27, 2008
Mel Brooks Blazes Wacky Trail : NPR
Yeah – Another great NPR podcast. This one is an interview with one of the funniest people on the planet — Mel Brooks. The link has a tiny amount of text but listen to the 13-minute podcast audio – it’s well worth your time.
I would like to comment on the passing of Sydney Pollack, too. What a great director and actor! He was only 73 – the same age as my dad when he died in 1999. NPR has a 2005 interview with him for the release of his film The Interpreter. Here is the link.
Tags: MelBrooks, Sydney Pollack, comedy, NPR, podcast, interview, film, obit, death, funny
April 28, 2008
Judi Dench, Living Quietly in ‘Cranford’ : NPR
Another great NPR podcast – this one is an interview with Judi Dench one of the finest actresses alive. I particularly loved her in Mrs. Brown, A Room with a View and in two BBC comedies A Fine Romance (with her husband Michael Williams) and As Time Goes By.
Masterpiece Theatre will be broadcasting the dramatization of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford next Sunday and she plays Matty Jenkyns. I’ve been waiting very patiently for this production. I’m in the middle of reading the book and it’s delightful. The link has an excerpt from Cranford.
Gaskell was a fascinating author, probably best known in this country for North and South and Wives and Daughters and both were beautifully dramatized by the BBC.
Tags: JudiDench, BBC, Gaskell, TV, interview, NPR, podcast, drama, film
April 21, 2008
High-Fidelity Memories on Record Store Day : NPR Music
Sometimes I think I’m the only person with vinyl records anymore. Yes, I know that’s not true but it feels like it is.
Even rarer than vinyl is the independent record store. I know of one here in DC although I suspect there could be a few others. When I was in high school, I bought most of my records from the local Ben Franklin down the street. It had a limited selection and occasionally I would find something really good like George Carlin’s Class Clown album.
Now I’m a bargain hunter and get things from Amazon.com or download from iTunes. It’s not the same as browsing through the local store (we have a great local chain called Olsen’s) but at least digital downloads don’t involve packaging and shipping costs.
I also buy from eBay which is almost like an independent store since you can get hard to find CDs, cassettes and vinyl LPs. You can get alot of used stuff that is still in good condition, too. I hate to see music thrown out. It just breaks my heart – like seeing someone’s photographs in a trash bin.
Tags: music, vinyl, records, independent stores
March 10, 2008
NPR: Pretty, Plastic Barbie: Forever What We Make Her
Barbie is turning 49 this year and so am I. Too frightening — really. She still looks better in a swimsuit than I ever did in my lifetime. NPR has a great podcast and accompanying article. Here are some interesting excerpts:
The first version was based on a German doll named Bild Lilli. She, in turn, had been inspired by a cartoon character with a fondness for sugar-daddies.
“They basically copied the face,” Blitman explains. “So it’s very hard. I mean, this is not the face of a 17-year-old. This is the face of a 40-year-old woman who’s seen a lot of action.”
—————
Orenstein thinks the fact that Barbie is stubbornly amorphous may explain one of the more common activities that children engage in with Barbie: torturing her.
Orenstein says a friend told her about a child who lined her Barbies up in the driveway, then had her mother drive over them.
I don’t remember torturing Barbie but I did stuff one of her dresses to make her look pregnant.
My first Barbie wasn’t a Barbie at all but her best friend Midge (she had red hair). My older sister got the blond Barbie. I was jealous even though Midge looked friendlier. I remember having a Twist-n-Turn Barbie with bendable legs – that’s the one that got pregnant.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: Barbie, icon, toy, doll, Mattel, childhood, collectables, NPG, podcast
March 4, 2008
NPR: Artists Lament Polaroid’s Latest Development
Chuck Close is an American painter who derives his works from photographs. He creates towering — sometimes 10-foot-tall — portraits. Some of those are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Close says he has Polaroids of every painting he has done.
“It’s very discouraging,” Close says.
He says he has probably 2,000 Polaroids.
“I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.”
I blogged about the demise of the Polaroid camera a few weeks ago. I had forgotten about Chuck Close and his love affair with Polaroid. There are so many artists like him, too. I hope that some company (like Fujifilm) will take up the film production end so that the existing cameras (like my slide printer) can still be used.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: camera, technology, Polaroid, rt, culture, photography, NPR, podcast
January 7, 2008
NPR : Bugs Bunny: The Trickster, American Style
Bugs Bunny derived pleasure from driving people crazy. And that, Sutherland concludes, may be why he lasts. He doesn’t seem like a character of the ’40s, but rather a character of today. His wisecracking, gender-bending, anti-authority antics broke ground long before punk rock, or David Bowie, or Jerry Seinfeld. He’s impossible to pin down in any specific sense.
Sutherland believes the only way to truly describe Bugs Bunny is to simply show one of the cartoons, point at the rascally rabbit and say, “Him, in toto, not in parts. From high opera to bullfights, Shakespeare to Brooklyn, from man to woman … he is all of those, and none.”
Bugs is the best!
Click on the link to read the hold article and hear the podcast – complete with audio. There is also a link to a bit of video called “Long Haired Hare” (1949) when Bugs impersonates Leopold Stokowski.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: humor, funny, Bugs Bunny, cartoon, culture, NPR, podcast
December 3, 2007
NPR : Eco-Friendly Product Claims Often Misleading
Another NPR gem. Look at the logos above. The one of the left has no meaning since CFC’s have been banned since the 1970s so everything is CFC free. However, the logos on the right have real value.
America’s store shelves are filled with products claiming to be good for the environment. Everything from shampoos and cleaning agents to granola bars claim to be “natural” and “earth friendly.” But some environmentalists think you’re being “greenwashed.”
One of them is Scot Case, with the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice.
The firm says it found 1,018 products that made environmental claims, ranging from toothpaste to office paper, on retail shelves of six big-box retailers.
“When we dug a little deeper, we were actually shocked to discover that all but one were committing what we’re now calling one of the Six Sins of Greenwashing,” Case tells Steve Inskeep. The one product was paper napkins, but Case says the firm decided not to name specific products.
Check out the podcast and the article has links to TerraChoice, Ecologo.org, Green Seal and many other helpful articles including the “The Six Sins of Greenwashing”.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: green, marketing, TerraChoice, NPR, podcast, greenwashing, consumer, environment
November 20, 2007
NPR : How Chocolate Can Save the Planet
Sounds so ideal – grow cacao and save the planet. Well, not quite but there is a group trying to save the Brazilian rain forest using selective tree removal and then planting cacao trees in their place. The product yield isn’t as high as traditional farming but the benefits (less disease, fewer insects, less invasive farming) can give the farmers a premium price for their crop since it’s more environmentally-friendly.
Check out the podcast or read the linked article. There are more pictures and links to other related sites.
Also, keep eating chocolate so we can make this happen.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: chocolate, NPR, environment, rain-forest, podcast, Brazil, farming
Musings from Sumigirl 