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The Next Big Thing

Sunday, July 21, 2002
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    Music, Make-Believe Movies and Made-Up Stories

    Voices from the slave gallery of a New York City church, music and memories from the vast collection of an 86-year-old ethnomusicologist, make-believe movies, and made-up stories...by you, our listeners.

Beach Poetry

For poetry devotees who also happen to be dedicated to sunbathing and body surfing, Poet Laureate Billy Collins makes some summer reading recommendations.

Oouwwch

Hair on the chest, but not on the back...so this is what women want? Boston radio producer Jon Marston tries his best to accommodate, with the help of Barbara Segal of Total Skin Care.

The Point

In an age when hotels are named things like “W,” and the people who help you with your bags are called anything but “porters,” filmmaker Barbara Heller examines the cultural underpinnings of a more long-standing luxury hotel convention: the toilet paper point.

¡Attencion! ¡Attencion!

New York City’s Mexican immigrant population is growing, and with it, the need for mariachi musicians. Ramon Ponce, Jr., to the rescue. This week, he opened the Mariachi Academy of New York. Next Big Thing producer Amanda Aronczyk meets the Academy’s first students. For more information, contact the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

Acetate Disks and a Mule

Ethnomusicologist and radio broadcaster Henrietta Yurchenco has spent many of her 86 years traveling the world, recording music in remote places, and bringing it to the airwaves along with the work of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and other legendary musicians. Yurchenco shares with host Dean Olsher her stories, her records and a few tunes on the piano.

My Own Private Hollywood

When Hollywood blockbusters fail to satisfy, we’re forced to turn to inner-entertainment. As Next Big Thing contributor Henry Alford discovers, New Yorkers’ fantasy lives are alive and well.

Five Sounds in Search of an Author

Next Big Thing contest judge Jesse Green returns to judge this month's entries.

Voice Travel

The cramped, over-heated upper reaches of St. Augustine’s Church on the Lower East Side were once officially designated the “slave gallery.” Accompanied by the church’s Deacon Edgar Hopper, Steve Zeitlin, director of City Lore, visits the gallery in search of echoes of its former congregants.