BEING COOL

Program 02-07-14-B

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To The Best of Our Knowledge
from Wisconsin Public Radio

You know who they are – the cool kids – those above-it-all taste-makers whose fashion and entertainment choices predict what everyone else will be wearing and doing next year. What's their secret. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge exploring cool. A frustrated surfer remembers riding swimming pools on his skateboard. And the dark side of cool– when the need to stand out leads to murder.

SEGMENT 1:

Stacey Peralta was one of the original Z-boys who transformed the sport of skateboarding. He's also directed the documentary film "Dogtown and Z Boys." Peralta tells Steve Paulson that the Z boys were all wild surfers from a rough neighborhood in west Los Angeles. They invented vertical skateboarding when a drought made it possible for them to skate in people's swimming pools.

 

SEGMENT 2:

Adam Mansbach is a white boy from an affluent Boston suburb who's devoted himself to hip hop culture. He tells Steve Paulson why and how he fits into the overwhelmingly Afro-centric hip hop scene. Mansbach is the author of a books of poems, "Genius B-Boys: Cynics Getting Weeded in the Garden of Delights."

 

SEGMENT 3:

Anne Strainchamps talks with two authors: Rosalind Wiseman, who wrote "Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and other Realities of Adolescence," and Rachael Simmons, who wrote "Odd Girls Out: the Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls." They say that girls' popularity with other girls is influenced by the politics of the social pecking order and that the effects of being ostracized can be devastating. Also, Ron Powers is the author of "Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore: Childhood and Murder in the Heart of America." He tells Jim Fleming that today's teens may turn to violence to express their individuality since all the traditional means for signaling coolness have been co-opted by corporate consumer culture.

 

Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 02-07-14-B.

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Books:

• Adam Mansbach, Shackling Water: a novel (Doubleday)
• Adam Mansbach, genius b-boy cynics getting weeded in the garden of delight (subway elevated)
• Ron Powers, Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore: childhood and murder in the heart of America (St. Martin's Press)
• Rachel Simmons, Odd Girl Out: the Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls (Harcourt)
• Rosalind Wiseman, Queen Bees & Wannabes (Crown Books)
• FILM: "Dogtown & Zboys" director Stacey Peralta. Sony Pictures Classics

Music:

• The Sentinals "Exotic" Surf Monsters. Del Fi Records
• Le Tigre "Hot Topic" and "Slideshow at Free University" Le Tigre. Mr. Lady Records.
• DEVO "Through Being Cool" DEVO's Greatest Hits. Warner Bros.
• KRS-ONE "Nute" Strickly for Da Breakdancers & Emceez. X-Ray Records.
• Chuck E. Wiess "Extremely Cool" Extremely Cool. RYKO.

Distribution dates:

week of 08/24/2003 - hour 1 week of 07/14/2002 - hour 2

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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