Almost half the eligible voters in this country don’t bother to vote. But some people are passionate about politics. They pass out pamphlets, work the phones, write letters to the editor. We wondered why, when so many people couldn’t care less about politics, these people care so much. So we went down to the party headquarters and asked them. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Barrett Golding, “Political People” (7:20 mp3):
Original song written for this story by Greg Keeler.
It’s another presidential election year; the American people are deeply divided and deeply entrenched in another unpopular war. The topic is not 2008, but 1968. If 1967 was the Summer of Love, maybe 1968 was the Summer of Hate.
We hear Dale Minor report from the battleground during the “Tet Offensive;” part of from Pacifica Radio Archive 1968 Revolution Rewind.
We go live to the “Chicago 1968″ DNC demonstrations, mixed by Barrett Golding. (Voices: Martin Luther King, Jr, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, journalist, police, and demonstrators at Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convention. Music: “Ballad of the Green Beret” by Sgt. Barry Sadler, “For What It’s Worth” original by Buffalo Springfield and cover by The Staple Singers.)
In 1992 producer Barrett Golding found remnants of Jefferson’s theories and Toqueville’s writings still very much in play, as he followed Montana’s two incumbents US Representatives, one Democrat, one Republican. Due to re-apportionment, they were vying for the state’s one remaining Congressional seat, on a yearlong statewide game of political musical chairs. (Image to the right: Presidential Electoral Vote map, 1968-2004- animated, see full-size here.)
HV014- Fans and Bands Hearing Voices from NPR®:
014 Fans and Bands— Groupies, Gravediggers & Rock n’ Roll Singers
Host— Ian Svenonius of Weird War
Airdates— 6/4/2008 - 6/11/2008
Features a tribute to Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008)…
Host Ian Svenonius, of the band Weird War, introduces “The Groupies,” an album of 1969 interviews by producer Alan Lorber (Iris Music Group, Alan Lorber Orchestra).
We visit with the pilgrims at Pere LaChaise cemetery, come to see “Jim Morrison’s Grave” (a sound-portrait by Mark Neumann of Documentary Works and Barrett Golding).
The ethanol-injected Noise comes burning down the NPR airways today on Day to Day. Joe Skyward and myself capture the sounds of engines, drivers, and fans at this year’s Long Beach Grand Prix, an ocean-side street race with top pro race-car drivers from around the globe. One-hundred-and-eighty thousand aficionados around a two mile course of Fast & Loud in downtown LB — 186mph avg and 200+ on the straightaways.
Here’s the long version, “Long Beach Grand Prix 2008″ (6:16 mp3):
And we attend the daily “Last Post” ceremony by Belgian veterans honoring the WWI British soldiers who died defending a small town in western Belgium (produced by Marjorie Van Halteren).