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Programming!
THE DESERT
| Program 05-01-23-A | 
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There's something about the desert. Its uncompromising climate makes it a place of thirst and death. But it's also site of myths and vision quests. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge we'll explore the passion and power of the desert. We'll celebrate the desert's poets. And commemorate some of it's victims. Also, why do 40,000 people gather every in the desert to burn a forty foot wooden man? It's Burning Man Festival.
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SEGMENT 1:
Steve Paulson presents a profile of Edward Abbey, whose book "Desert Solitaire" changed the way people thought about the desert. Abbey inspired many of today's environmental activists. We hear excerpts from Abbey's work and his admirers. Also, Brian Doherty is the author of "This Is Burning Man." He tells Anne Strainchamps about this annual free-form arts festival in the Nevada desert.
SEGMENT 2:
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Luis Albert Urrea is the author of "The Devil's Highway." He tells Jim Fleming about the business of smuggling illegal aliens across the Arizona desert and the tremendous mortality rate of this dangerous passage. Urrea gives some graphic details of the horrors border agents have found. The content is powerful and disturbing.
SEGMENT 3:
Gram Rabbit is a rock band whose members live in the Joshua Tree Desert. Their CD is called "Music to Start a Cult to." Band members Jesika von Rabbit and Todd Rutherford talk with Anne Strainchamps about the desert and their music, and we hear several examples. Also, Terry Tempest Williams reads from her book, "Red," and talks about the desert with Steve Paulson.
Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 05-010-23-A.
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Books:
- Edward Abbey, Desert
Solitaire (Ballantine Books)
- Brian Doherty, This is
Burning Man (Little Brown)
- Jack Loeffler, Adventures
with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey (University of New Mexico Press)
- Luis Alberto Urrea, The
Devil's Highway: A True Story (Little Brown)
- Terry Tempest Williams, Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert (Vintage)
Links:
- For Gram Rabbit:
http://www.gramrabbit.com
or
http://www.stinkyrecords.com/stinky_artists/gram_rabbit.html -
For more on the Burning Man festival:
http://www.burningman.com
http://www.thisisburningman.com
Music:
- In the Edward Abbey piece: Beethoven's
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Opus 68 "Pastorale"
w/ The Cleveland Orchestra- Christoph von Dohnanyi, condcutor (Telarc CD-80145) - Our interview with Gram Rabbit contains various cuts from their CD "Music to Start a Cult To."
- Dead Can Dance's "Dedicace Outo," "Song of the Stars," and "Niehika" off of their Spiritchaser CD on 4AD Records.
- King Crimson's "The Sheltering Sky"off of their Discipline CD on Warner Brother Records.
Distribution dates:
| week of 01/23/2005
- hour 1 week of 01/23/2005 - hour 1 |
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