Conversations on The Road

As Good Friday comes to an end, Holi Festival in India is only beginning.  The festival is a true celebration of life which lasts about a week.  Throughout the country and around the world, Indian families and friends congregate to dance, sing, and pray together.  

During the celebration, participants often paint their faces and bodies with shades of the Holi colors. 

Within the last decade, mass production of the paint colors has become prevalent, which consequently has spawned health issues for those who have used the cheaper and more readily available paint colors. 

In response, a new movement has begun to promote safe festival materials provided by local farmers producing paint colors made with natural ingredients as once was the only way the paint was produced.  This is an example of the Indian people going back to their roots, literally, as they return to the methods practiced for centuries by their people, recognizing the credibility of the age old saying, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’ 

Here to talk about it with Jeremiah Tittle in this “International Conversation” is Manisha Gutman who coordinates the Safe Festivals campaign with www.Kalpavriksh.com and www.e-coexist.com

 

 India Intl Festival [19:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The winters in The Soo are known to be harsh (Sault Ste. Marie on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at the border with Canada). Annually on or near the first day of Spring, folks at Lake Superior University celebrate the end of a long winter with the reading of poetry and a burning of a snowman in effigy. John Shibley from the University tells us more.
For a slideshow on this year’s Snowman Burning, see:
 http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=1465

 

 Snowman Burning [13:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The spiedie (IPA: /spɪdɪ/) is a dish local to Greater Binghamton in the Southern Tier of New York State, and somewhat more broadly known and enjoyed throughout Central New York state.

A Spiedie consists of cubes of chicken and pork, but it may also be made from lamb, veal, venison or beef. The meat cubes are marinated overnight or longer (sometimes for as long as two weeks under a controlled environment) in a special spiedie marinade, then grilled carefully on spits over a charcoal pit. The freshly prepared cubes are served on soft Italian bread or a submarine roll, wood skewer and all, then drizzled with fresh marinade.

We learn more about the food and its role in regional culture from Sam Lupo of Lupo’s restaurant, an area institution (They ship a mean spiede sauce too).

 For Lupo’s: http://www.spiedies.com/

For the Spiede Fest: http://www.spiediefest.com/main.aspx

 

 Spieide [14:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From our archives, we bring you a “Beer America” feature about the “Beerdrinker of the Year” as awarded by the Wynkoop Brewery in Denver.

Do you have what it takes to be a Beerdrinker of the Year ? Listen in and find out for yourself. 

 

 Standard Podcast [10:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lost in the presidential primary news on March 4 (Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island primaries) was that it was not only primary day in Vermont, but Town Meeting Day there too.

We speak with University of Vermont Professor Frank Bryan. He is the leading authority of the Town Meeting as a Vermont institution, and he shares with us a rundown about this tradition and what was on the mind of  Vermonters this year.

 

 Vermont Town Meeting 2008 [20:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

French is spoken officially in 33 countries and is the only language other than English to be taught in every country in the world. There are an estimated 175 million Francophones and 100 million “occasional” speakers of French, plus around 100 million French students. An official language in dozens of international organizations, French remains to this day one of the world’s most important and influential languages.

 The Story of French, by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow, is a definitive analysis of French as it is spoken around the world.

An important part of that story is set in North America (more than you might think -and it’s not just in Quebec).

We speak with Jean-Benoît Nadeau about the story of french - a story set in various parts of the continent. Yes, it’s about language, but it’s also about much more.

The Story of French, Vintage CANADA, 2007  – http://www.nadeaubarlow.com/books/view/9/37
 

 

 The Story of French [27:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We talk with Dr. Christopher Steiner, a professor of art history and museum studies at Connecticut College about the Nut Musuem, its late curator and the present day nut collection.

It was Dr. Steiner, who in 2002 rescued the collection, and who is dedicated to preserving, interpreting and communicating the legacy of Elizabeth Tashjian.  

Tashjian, who debated whether she was a nut culturist or a nut artist, but was, as the New York Times wrote ”indisputably, well, nuts enough about nuts to win fame (but not fortune) as matriarch of the Nut Museum in Old Lyme, Conn.”. She  died last year at age 94.

According to an obituary in the Times, Ms. Tashjian hated being called “the Nut Lady” and died without fulfilling her dream of opening a nut theme park certain to surpass Disneyland. (Her reasoning: Squirrels are cuter than a certain mouse.). She is best known to many as an entertaining and eccentric television gurst with Carson, Letterman and Leno, etc.

We get a handle on her and the nut collection here. 

 

 Nut Lady [11:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download