Acrossthebridge

Across the Bridge, Nairobi, aug 29 2013

AMERICA, YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL

V1
My country 'tis of thee
I sing / when I sing of diversity
Your banner shines with every color star

I know someone's tryin' to make us hate
But we've come too far to take that bait
America you're beautiful just the way you are

CHORUS
We're gonna sing... out … we're gonna walk and talk and shout
Stand together, out of many, we are one 
We're gonna stay... proud... we're gonna say it right out loud
We are one we are one we will always be one

V2
'Cause this land is our land, see
So it's our job to ensure equality
Together, we the people, near or far

Keep on rowin' together in this same old boat
Stick together 'til we rock the next vote
America you're beautiful just the way you are

CHORUS
We're gonna sing... out … we're gonna walk and talk and shout
Stand together, out of many, we are one
We're gonna stay... proud... we're gonna say it right out loud
We are one we are one we will always be one

BRIDGE
If we stand together we will never fall
The door is open we don't need no wall 

CHORUS
We're gonna sing... out … we're gonna walk and talk and shout
Stand together, out of many, we are one
We're gonna stay... proud... we're gonna say it right out loud
We are one we are one we will always be one

We're gonna join... hands... we're gonna stand up for this land
Stand together, out of many, we are one
We're gonna shine... light... we're gonna stay and win this fight
We are one we are one America we are one

My country 'tis of thee
I sing when I sing of diversity

America You're Beautiful

If the Caribbean’s balmy turquoise charms are doubled by wintry weather at home, the argument could be made they’re halved in close succession to a steamy summer. Heat, humidity, mosquitos – been there, done that. Mexican tourism is down for the count anyway, and along the torrid coastline of the Riviera Maya in early October, it barely seems to have a pulse. But it turns out there’s more life on these deserted beaches than you might think – you just have to dig a little.

In off-season Caribbean, more turtles than tourists

Labor Day weekend is traditionally the end of the season for New England's summer drive-in movie theaters.  This year, it's also the end of an era.  Hollywood movie studios have announced they're going digital, and as of next year they will no longer distribute movies on 35 millimeter film.  If theaters want to stay open, they'll have to swap their old-fashioned film projection for computers, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars.  The Northfield Drive-In, on the state line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is one of those facing the future. Featured on NHPR's Word of Mouth and NPR StateImpact.

For small-town theaters, a digital fork in the road

Drive-in theaters draw summer crowds with Hollywood hits, and the promise of a nostalgic night out where little has changed in 50 years. But big changes are in store for small theaters across the country, as Hollywood goes digital.  Studios have announced they'll no longer distribute movies on 35 millimeter film, the standard since the 1930s, and theaters have to invest in new equipment to keep up.  The dawn of the digital era is the swan song for drive-in theaters' outmoded film projectors, and the projectionists who run them.

The drive-in goes digital

HOST INTRO: Space shuttle Endeavour took a final victory lap over California landmarks Friday, piggybacked on top of a NASA 747 on its way to retirement at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  Endeavour is the last of the four space shuttles to be relegated to a museum, and its final flight brought crowds of thousands out to streets, rooftops, and even freeways, looking to the sky for a glimpse of history.  Valerie Hamilton sends this audio postcard from Los Angeles international airport.

It's like a once in lifetime thing
It's a once in a lifetime thing
It's a once in a lifetime event

My name is Mia Duncans.

I've been here since 8 this morning, and it was getting pretty crowded then, and everything from here to the fence was taken up.  I don't know how many deep from here, about 40 or 50 deep.  

My name's Lauren Brize, and I'm sitting in a tree. 

There was a man on a ladder he said there were people stopped on the 105 freeway, stopping and walking across the freeway.
People are setting up lawn chairs on the overpass, people are stopping wherever they're at to just watch the space shuttle fly by.

My name's Steve Eno, I think it's a little bit of nostalgia, because everyone's sort of grown up with the space program, so I think everyone's excited but a little nostalgic and sad to see it all end.

Dave Montgomery, I'm an engineer.

I think it generated a lot of enthusiasm for the space program.  I think it's great for kids to see our technology on display, something dynamic, actually moving. It's better than reading a book. 
I'm glad to get here to at least see it moving.  It's the last time you'll see it moving before it goes to a static display at the museum.

(scanner noise)

I'm Steve Trelease, and I've got a little scanner here that's tuned in to the airport frequency, which has been very helpful because it given us identification of the various landmarks it's flying by, where it is.
(where is it?)
It's on final approach, it's got gear down.
There it is!

(cheering)
oh yeah!

Look at it.  It's actually moving between 200 and 250 miles an hour, but it looks like it's going really slow. 

You can make out the detail on the shuttle and the 747 and the two chase planes beside it.  The chase planes look like toys, beautiful.

What it means to me, it's a part of history, education, science, and the last time we'll ever see it in flight, you know? No more space shuttles going up in space.  So I think it's a historic moment, one we'll all remember forever.­
...ends


 

SS Endeavour LAX

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/10/24/in-sergio-romos-small-hometown-no-1-crop-is-pro-baseball-players/
Versions aired on KQED and PRI's The World.

California Border Town's Unlikely Harvest: Baseball Giants

http://www.theworld.org/2012/11/los-macuanos/
Aired on PRI's The World 12/2012

Mexico's dance floor politics

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201212141630/a
Aired on KQED's California Report 12/2012

Bohemian Venice becomes Silicon Beach

Words of wisdom from cowboy poet Dave Stamey, a great writer and a great interview

Itmatters

http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/families-divided-border-fence/
Aired on PRI's The World 5/2013

Divided by border, families meet through its fence

Journalist and broadcast producer based in Los Angeles.

Valerie Hamilton

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