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The Next Big Thing
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The Ringling Brothers Circus
From Darkness into Light
We meet two nuns who have chosen the traveling circus as their ministry, and a woman who has made human hair the object of her life’s work. Also, archival sounds from Coney Island and from Alan Lomax’s unfinished Global Jukebox project. And stories from families who have chosen to bury their own dead.
Joining the Flock
When the Ringling Brothers Circus comes to town, it’s usually accompanied by Sister Dorothy and Sister Bernard, Roman Catholic nuns of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Amanda Aronczyk joins them backstage, where they pull back the curtain on the hidden workings of the Greatest Show on Earth.
» Click here for a large picture of the Ringling Brothers Circus
Words to Remember
All kinds of statements have been attributed to P.T. Barnum, maker of great spectacles. Here, we stick to what we know he said – or think we know, in this early Edison recording from London.
Greetings from Coney Island
In the late 1950s, the Riverside label released an album that used the sounds of Coney Island to showcase the wonders of new stereophonic technology. According to The Next Big Thing’s Julie Subrin, half a century later, the record offers us a different kind of wonder.
Final Resting Place
The idea of the funeral home is a relatively new one. Back in the 19th century, people buried their own dead. In her documentary film, Elizabeth Westrate follows several families who are now reviving that practice. Here are some of their stories. The film, A Family Undertaking, premiered on the PBS program POV last August. Produced by Emily Botein.
» Information on A Family Undertaking
For resources on home funerals
» Ask an expert
» Crossings
Photo right by Andrew Kist
A sad postscript:
We learned from filmmaker Beth Westrate that Keith Carr (pictured right), who is featured in A Family Undertaking, died this week, in a very remote area of South Dakota called the Slim Buttes. Evidently he had been searching for a new route on which to move his heavy machinery. The car he was in could not handle the terrain and it became stuck about eight miles off the highway. Unfortunately, he was not in good enough health to make it very far. He was found dead a few miles from his car, presumably from hypothermia. A small private ceremony will take place this weekend, and he will be buried on his family’s farm.
The Importance of Hair
Leila Cohoon knows about hair. She’s been in the hairdressing business for more than 50 years, founded the College of Cosmetology in Independence, Missouri, and created what she believes to be the world’s only hair art museum. She and Dean talk about the history hair can tell. Produced by Julie Subrin.
» More about Leila’s Hair Museum
Photo right: Leila Cohoon with one of her museum’s hair wreaths
Global Jukebox
Before ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax died in 2002, he began an enormous undertaking: the creation of a computer program that could analyze songs in the way that one might analyze a DNA sample – identifying the many individual threads that come together to form the song we hear. While that project remains uncompleted, host Dean Olsher asks what we could learn about ourselves, and about music, by breaking songs down in this way. Produced by Jamie York.
» More information on Alan Lomax
Photo right: Library of Congress
Along the Border
» Click for a larger picture of the border
Into the Picture
A painting hangs on a wall in the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Four people stand in front of it - three poets and a painter. What do they see? That depends on which one you ask. Produced by Pejk Malinovski.
» Visit the museum website to see the painting for yourself
Sounds of Spring
Eavesdropping on spring - at a general store in Bynum, North Carolina; in Greenwood Park in Seattle; and at the Artisan’s Market in Ann Arbor. Recorded by Nayiri Bardakjian, Keith Weston, and Robert Millis. Produced by Amanda Aronczyk.
» For more photos, click here
Photo right by Amy White