Cooking without a kitchen. Texas band “Brave Combo” demonstrates how they concoct their unique Tex-Mex-Polka-Punk brand of rock and roll. Television producer John Markus on the art of barbeque. Also, writer and performer Deb Margolin on the layered language of our daily lives.
Classical pianist Anne-Marie McDermott has spent the past year living and breathing the music of Prokofiev, while for five years writer Joshua Shenk has immersed himself in evidence of Lincoln’s melancholy. Composer Robert Kapilow is struggling to absorb Native American ways of thinking about music into a commissioned piece on the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition. These artists, and others, all try to inhabit another mind.
We examine the state of things. The state of civility in New York City. A heroin user’s (and her brother’s) state of mind. And the state of grace that continues to prevail in Central Park, as it celebrates its 150th birthday. Also, Jonathan Katz shares some little-known melodies from his days as leader of the group “Katz and Jammers.”
Next Big Thing host Dean Olsher weaves together a tale of many voices and one big pool. Which pool? A giant WPA-era pool in north Brooklyn. Everyone in the neighborhood, it seems, has a story to tell about the major public work that, for better and for worse, was built in their backyard – from Loretta Nunziata, who used to perform water ballet in the pool to Phyllis Yampolsky, who has made enemies on the pool’s behalf. The McCarren Park Pool hour was produced by Amanda Aronczyk and Emily Botein.
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