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AUGUST 1, 2004: Reporting from Iraq
The United Nations was formed nearly 60 years ago. It's survived the cold war and dozens of hot wars, but is it still relevant today? David Brancaccio hosts "Under Fire."
JULY 25, 2004: Reporting from Iraq
Deborah Amos covers Iraq for National Public Radio. She also works as a correspondent for ABC News. Midmorning recently took a look at how she is covering Iraq, perhaps the biggest ongoing story for more than a year.
JULY 18, 2004: Mandela: An Audio History
A decade ago, Nelson Mandela became president in South Africa's first multi-racial democratic election. Mandela's journey from freedom fighter to president capped a dramatic 50-year struggle against white rule and the institution of apartheid. Using rare sound recordings, interviews with Nelson Mandela and those who fought with him and against him, producers Joe Richman and Sue Johnson of Radio Diaries present "Mandela: An Audio History."
JULY 11, 2004: A Literary View of the Upper Mississippi
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Award-winning writer and self-described river rat Patricia Hampl takes a bluesy, meditative passage through the poetic history of the heartland flyover. She shares stories and observations about the Mississippi river, its history, and its cultures, combining her own experiences with writings by other authors, including the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis. Pianist Dan Chouinard underscores the spoken-word presentation, creating a melodic dynamic.
JULY 4, 2004: The Capitol Steps Fourth of July Special
MPR presents comedy and political satire from the Capitol Steps, a troupe of current and former Congressional staffers who take a humorous look at serious issues.
JUNE 27, 2004: Intelligence Failures from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 and Iraq
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The United States' intelligence agencies have come under sharp criticism lately for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks and apparently overstating the threat Iraq posed. But this is hardly the first time that U.S. intelligence agencies have been charged with dropping the ball. In this documentary from PRI's America Abroad series, Garrick Utley reports on failures of American intelligence from World War II to the present day.
JUNE 13, 2004: Quirks and Quarks
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Join host Bob McDonald to learn the latest in science, technology, medicine, and the environment, covering the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom, and everything in between. This is a science program from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that we're trying it out. Tell us what you think.
JUNE 6, 2004: Quirks and Quarks
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Join host Bob McDonald to learn the latest in science, technology, medicine, and the environment, covering the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom, and everything in between. This is a science program from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that we're trying it out. Tell us what you think.
MAY 30, 2004: American Mavericks—"Between Rock and a Hard Place"
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The prejudice against rock music among composers began to fade in the late 1970s. Soon art rock groups started to be taken seriously as experimental music. Today we have operas with backbeats, symphonies for electric guitars, and pop songs made with electronic sampling of "serious" music. Are audiences ready for pop music that isn't just three minutes long?
MAY 23, 2004: American Mavericks—"Is It Music If Nobody Hears It?"
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What happens when you create a new music—and there's no audience for it? Accessibility was a 1980s buzzword, and a deeply American concept, since we have uniquely had the task of building up a musical culture in a self-conscious age. But does music gain quality from striving for accessibility? Does it gain audience members?
MAY 16, 2004: American Mavericks—"From Moog to Mark II to MIDI to Max"
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When commercial recording tape became available in 1947, America got in on the ground floor of a musical technology. Electronics were the perfect musical medium for the eccentric composer who wanted to be free from ingratiating oneself with chamber music groups and orchestra conductors. Every new technology that came along seemed to bring an entire new musical movement in its wake.
MAY 9, 2004: American Mavericks—"What's So Great About the Orchestra?"
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Keeping the orchestra alive has always been a troublesome enterprise. Today orchestras fold every month. Many American composers have written for orchestra, but fewer and fewer these days, and in particular, those who consider themselves mavericks, often avoid the genre altogether. Still, the return of tonality led to a stylistic pluralism and a new romanticism.
MAY 2, 2004: American Mavericks—"The Do-It-Yourself Composer"
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Ignored by the concert music establishment, many maverick composers have taken matters into their own hands, refusing to be dependent on institutions. Inspired by composers like Conlon Nancarrow, who wrote all his music for player piano, and Partch, who built his own instruments and trained his own ensemble, a legion of self-sufficient composers arises in the 1960s.
APRIL 25, 2004: American Mavericks—"To Repeat or Not to Repeat, That Is the Question"
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The tremendous influx of European refugee musicians during World War II gave American music an increasingly European cast. Once again, American composers had to break away, and to do so now required bold strokes. Although partly inspired by "creative misreading" of Eastern philosophies, the resulting movement, Minimalism, was a uniquely American product.
APRIL 18, 2004: American Mavericks—"If Jackson Pollock Wrote Music"
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Contact with the abstract expressionist painters after World War II inspired many American composers to look for a new American language in chaos, complexity, and freedom. Some composers, like the "New York School," and the burgeoning Free Jazz movement, emphasized freedom, chance, and improvisation. For others, the emphasis was on structure and scientific models.
APRIL 11, 2004: American Mavericks—"West Meets East"
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Asian and African music offered many properties that threw the limitations of European music into sharp relief. African drumming revealed a rhythmic complexity far beyond simple meters. And Asian influences discredited European music's insistence on relentless forward motion and led the way toward minimalism.
APRIL 4, 2004: American Mavericks—"If You Build It, They Will Come"
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American composers have enjoyed using whatever materials they have at hand to make music, and America, as a highly industrial country, has plenty of trash to recycle into musical instruments. The effect of these inventions is to render the composers self-sufficient and free from institutions, establishing the maverick image.
MARCH 28, 2004: American Mavericks—"It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got that Swing"
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Separate as their audiences may seem, jazz and classical musicians have always kept an ear on each other and learned from each other. In the 1920s, jazz seemed like the necessary pedigree composers needed to make their music seem authentically American. For most of the 1980s, jazz and avant-garde music were nearly indistinguishable.
MARCH 21, 2004: American Mavericks—"Oh, to be popular"
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As the 1920s celebrated the birth of the machine age, American composers were surprised to find that Europe was looking to them as the key to the future of music. There was so much money floating around that commissions were numerous, and composers tried to outdo each other in modernist innovations. They were caught completely off guard by the Great Depression.
MARCH 14, 2004: American Mavericks—"What is American about American Music?"
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Late 19th century American composers labored under three contradictory pressures: to exhibit a high degree of European polish, 2. to be original, and 3. to create music that would be distinctly American. This debilitating trio of pressures created the fault lines along which American music is still divided today, with each composer deciding which mandate to follow most closely.
MARCH 7, 2004: American Mavericks—"The Meaning of 'Maverick'"
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What is music? What is noise? At the dawn of the 20th century composers on both the east and west coasts began challenging European musical traditions in a quest for new ways to express modern American life. Their iconoclastic efforts startled listeners and ignited new ways of thinking about sound and making music.
FEBRUARY 22, 2004: Talking Volumes: Neil Gaiman
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Katherine Lanpher hosts another edition of Talking Volumes with Neil Gaiman. He talks about Coraline, his spooky novel for young adults. (Originally broadcast on Midmorning, February 16, 2004.)
FEBRUARY 15, 2004: A Bad State of Mind
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From inside the Minnesota mental health system, Pete Feigal tells a story of lifelong depression, public neglect, and a painful private redemption. (Originally broadcast on Midmorning, February 11, 2004.)
FEBRUARY 8, 2004: Coleman McCarthy
Listen: Part 1 | Part 2
This week: a minority point of view on war and peace. At a time when Republicans and Democrats alike are stressing the need to track down Osama bin Laden, prosecute the war against Al-Qaeda, and beef up America's defenses against terrorists, Coleman McCarthy says Americans should forgive the men who attacked America on 9/11.
FEBRUARY 1, 2004: Third Coast International Audio Festival
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This week, it's radio that will stop you in your tracks. The annual Third Coast International Audio Festival celebrates the most distinctive and compelling stories from the past year. Hear the winners.
JANUARY 25, 2004: This American Life: "Recordings for Someone"
Listen at the This American Life site
Because Minnesota Public Radio's January 25 presentation of The Blogging of the President: 2004 pre-empts This American Life, we're moving it to the MPR Presents time slot this week. Every story in this week's show is made up of a recording one person made for someone else.
JANUARY 18, 2004: Paul O'Neill and Ron Suskind: The Price of Loyalty
Listen to the show on the Fresh Air Web site
Former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill and writer Ron Suskind made news this week with the new book The Price of Loyalty. In it, O'Neill asserts that Bush made plans to invade Iraq before 9/11, and he details his differences with Bush over tax cuts. An encore broadcast of Wednesday's Fresh Air.
JANUARY 11, 2004: "America and Iran: Cooperation or Conflict in the Post-Saddam Gulf"
Listen: Part 1 | Part 2
For the past 25 years, U.S. relations with Iran have ranged from "cold" to "overtly hostile." The trigger event was the seizing of 52 American hostages during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. But that episode was just one chapter in what has been the United States' long, complicated, controversial, and sometimes dangerous relationship with Iran. This special program focuses on that history, and what the future might hold.
JANUARY 4, 2004: Justice Talking: Exporting Democracy
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President Bush has said the goal of U.S. foreign policy is not only to transform Iraq into a stable democracy but to spread democracy throughout the Middle East and around the world. National Public Radio's Justice Talking series explores the concept of exporting democracy around the world. |
