He's a New KPCC Member; Dinner Party Download: Where Anatomy meets Astronomy; Date Shake Quest: Part 1; Gary Owens Tells All; Date Shake Quest: Part 2; Caspian Rain; Date Shake Quest: Part 3; She Drew the Line; Racy Dates?; A Music Odyssey; Gary Owens' Secret Power
He's a New KPCC Member
Are you? It's thanks to member contributions that we're able to broadcast to new corners of Southern California, like the Coachella Valley (featured on today's show). Whether you listen on KPCC, KUOR, or KPCV, your support not makes our coverage possible...it makes it BETTER. Click here to contribute. Thanks so much.
Dinner Party Download: Where Anatomy meets Astronomy
On this full-length episode: Rocker Benjy Ferree's ode to Peter Pan...We discover the planet that dares not speak its name...and Rico sharpens his conversation skills with Brooklyn's new king of cutlery.
For the uninitiated: Dinner Party Download is a fast and funny 12-minute "cheat sheet" of news and culture designed to give you enough conversational firepower to dazzle friends and family at this weekend's dinner party. You're always invited.
Date Shake Quest: Part 1
Fast-Food Dude Jeff Girod travels to three of the best places for date shakes in the Coachella Valley. First up: Hadley Fruit Orchards.
Gary Owens Tells All
Meet radio legend Gary Owens. As a disc jockey, he was Number One in every market he worked. He also held together Laugh-In, and was the voice of Roger Ramjet and Powdered Toast Man.
Date Shake Quest: Part 2
And the winner of the Coachella Valley Date Shake-off: Shields Date Gardens! How can you argue with a 40-foot-tall knight, anyway?
Caspian Rain
As part of Off-Ramp's ongoing series on writers, we feature Gina Nahai. Her latest novel is called Caspian Rain and it's told from the point-of-view of Yas, a 12-year-old Jewish girl living in Iran in the 1970s.
Date Shake Quest: Part 3
Jeff Girod digs the dates at Oasis Date Farms, but suggests continuing the tour if you're looking for the date shake to end all date shakes.
She Drew the Line
Today, we take the painted lines that divide traffic on two-lane roads for granted. But Coachella Valley historian Patricia Laflin says Indio woman Dr. June Robertson McCarroll is responsible for striping our roads.
Racy Dates?
Mr. Shields created the first version of this show (and this title) way back in the 1950s. Don't worry, it doesn't get too explicit.
WHEN did Alex North find out Kubrick didn't use his score for '2001?'
American Cinematheque programmer Grant Moninger says, "If you haven't seen '2001' in 70mm, you have not seen the film." His colleague Gwen Deglise says they get so many requests to screen Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi masterpiece, they have to run it at least once a year.
Put the two together, and you have the Cinematheque's 5-year exclusive deal with Warner Bros. to show a brand new 70mm print of "2001: A Space Odyssey." They're planning two extended showings every year, the first of which runs Dec. 9 - 27 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Now, when you go, you probably won't be surprised by the music in the movie. "Also Spake Zarathustra," the "Blue Danube," the etherial Ligeti choral pieces. But one person who was surprised was composer Alex North, whom Kubrick commissioned to score the movie! He didn't find our Kubrick dumped his music until he went to a preview.
Listen to the audio to hear Craig Curtis tell you the whole story.
Gary Owens' Secret Power
Superman has x-ray vision, Wonder Woman her lasso, and radio legend Gary Owens has his voice.