Name: The Egg Wars by The Kitchen Sisters in Interesting
Duration: 6 min 59 s
Description: You've heard of the San Francisco gold rush. But that rush spurred another, lesser-known event: the egg rush. The legions of miners who swept into the region in the 1850s hoping to strike gold all had to be fed. And they needed protein to stay strong. But when food shortages hit, wily entrepreneurs looked for eggs in an unlikely source: the Farallon Islands.

Interesting

[APWW #678] [Originally aired 2013]
The legendary Cuban pianist / bandleader / composer Ramón "Bebo" Valdés used to say, el día que me muera, no quiero lloradera. Que toquen una rumba, que tomen ron y coman chocolate, y que toquen mi música más bailable. The day I die, I don’t want weeping. Have a rumba, drink rum and eat chocolate, and play my most danceable music. 

Bebo passed on March 22, 2013 at the age of 94, and to honor his memory in high spirits, Afropop Worldwide producer Ned Sublette travels to the Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival for an exclusive presentation: highlights from the historic Rumba Para Bebo – part concert, part memorial, part Cuban jazz jam, part rumba, and part Kongo ceremony. 

The show features Bebo's son and former pupil, the reigning grandmaster Cuban pianist / bandleader / composer Jesús "Chucho" Valdés and the Afro Cuban Messengers, and with special guests Jerry González, Omar Sosa and Malongo, Mayra Caridad Valdés, Lázara Cachao, Javier Massó “Caramelo,” Javier Colina, Mauricio Vallina, Paloma Manfugás, Eladio Reinón, David Pastor, and more! 

Rumba Para Bebo

Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Narayan Khandekar explains that the rich kermes red pigment was created by grinding up the dried bodies of insects that lived on the kermes oak tree.

Kermes is for crimson

Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Narayan Khandekar discusses the use of cadmium yellow by the Impressionists.

Cadmium yellow

Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Narayan Khandekar explains how artists often took risks to create their works, using poisonous pigments like emerald green to get the color just right.

Green poison

Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Narayan Khandekar explains how the creation of a synthetic substance, which was chemically identical to the pigment produced from the semiprecious stone lapis lazuli, opened up a new world of blue hues to artists.

Synthetic blue

Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Narayan Khandekar explains the aquatic origins of Tyrian purple.

A priceless purple

You've heard of the San Francisco gold rush. But that rush spurred another, lesser-known event: the egg rush. The legions of miners who swept into the region in the 1850s hoping to strike gold all had to be fed. And they needed protein to stay strong. But when food shortages hit, wily entrepreneurs looked for eggs in an unlikely source: the Farallon Islands.

The Egg Wars

Competing with all the lights and noise - it takes a brave person to busk on Freemont street, Las Vegas -  but armed with just an acoustic guitar and his lungs, Mark Drama is determined to be heard. In this piece Marc talks about his journey through life thus far, his passion for music and performing and a recent chance encounter with comedian Russell Brand.

Busking In Vegas: The Journey Of Marc Drama

Eyewitness

Sistah Boom is a women’s samba marching band that has been showing up in the streets at San Francisco Bay Area demonstrations for close to 40 years – bringing power, energy, and spirit.

Sistah Boom: Forty Years in the Streets

The Kitchen Sisters, Peabody Award winning radio producers Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva, chronicle the hidden parts of history, the traditions and rituals people carry with them from one country to another, across one generation to the next. Stories of sonic pioneers, local kitchen visionaries, neighborhood heros, groundbreaking girls and path-finding women—people with a mission, a purpose, a story to tell. 

Our productions include the duPont-Columbia Award winning NPR series Hidden Kitchens, the Peabody Award winning NPR series Lost & Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project, The Hidden World of Girls, and The Making Of... {What people make in the Bay Area and why}, along with hundreds of other stories for public media.

Building Community through Story Telling


The Egg Wars

The Kitchen Sisters

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