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9/23: Staff Picks
Sarah Jane Rothenfluch (Executive Producer): I bought a new T.V. this week — a perfect excuse to finally watch the Ken Burn's series The National Parks: America's Best Idea on Netflix. The mountain ranges and ancient trees just look so much more glorious now! Of course if I waited until this weekend I could see it on OPB. Yet more reason to question my future with Netflix...
Allison Frost (Senior Producer): For me, this week was all about planning my trip this weekend to New Orleans. I'm going for a national journalism conference and a reunion of folks who attended an amazing German exchange program called RIAS. Did I mention, I'll be in New Orleans?!
John Rosman (New Media Intern): One of my favorite comics came to a halt a few years ago. The then 25-year old author bowed quietly into retirement, and surprisingly, life moved on. I could relate the experience to a junky running dry, but I think of it more as losing a close friend. With a mix of nostalgia and boredom, I returned to the Perry Bible Fellowship this weekend, and in a cry of joy, I found a new comic! Although published a few months ago, I still felt an invisible high five from old Perry.
Dave Blanchard (Producer): Wiretap is a CBC show hosted by This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein, and it doesn't sound like anything else on public radio. The bulk of the show is made up of conversations Jonathan has with real, semi-real, and surreal characters in his real and fake lives (separated by an unclear line). I've been podcasting it since I came to Portland, and I'm realizing just how brilliant it is. This week's episode — The God Whistle — is a good one to start on. The interview with "Margaret Atwood #35" in it is pure genius.
Kayla Anchell (Intern): Since the weather is about to drop about 20 degrees soon, I'm definitely going to be spending the majority of my weekend outside. I'm planning on going to one of my favorite spots, Blue Lake State Park. I have an old one speed cruiser bike, and there's nothing better than riding around the bike trails there on a sunny day.
Alex Johnson (Associate Producer): My eyes usually stay dry during even the most moving films. But at the end of Senna, a documentary about a Formula 1 racing driver, I teared up. The driver was Ayrton Senna, and he was revered as a national hero in his home country of Brazil. He died in a crash in 1994 and millions turned out in the street to mourn his passing. One of the mourners, a woman with teary eyes, said "We Brazilians need food, education, health care and a little joy. Now that joy has been removed." I still can't get those words out of my head.
