Episode #1017

Hot Rods, Low Riders, Angels

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Jump-starting the American car. Kurt takes a tour through L.A.'s car culture, talking to hot rodders and low riders and emerging designers who just might be able to rescue the U.S. auto industry. A new play in Charlotte, NC looks back at a nasty culture war from 1996. And two cult favorites from Cleveland: horror movie host Ghoulardi and the rock band Pere Ubu.

Aptera, Car of the future! Invented by Steve Fambro (Aptera Motors/flickr)

Big Boy Drive-In

It's like an amazing ad hoc auto museum, with open hoods and idling engines. Every week hundreds of car nuts gather at this diner parking lot in Burbank, CA to show off their big, beautiful, all-American machines. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John.

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The Next Generation of Car Designers

At the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, instructors Tisha Johnson and Blair Taylor explain why car design has changed so little in the last 20 years. Kurt talks with students Ben Messmer and Lili ...

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Aptera, Car of the Future

"It does fly... right by a gas station." Kurt goes for a test drive with Steve Fambro, the inventor/engineer behind a 3-wheeled electric car that looks like George Jetson's space pod. Produced by Queena Kim.

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Aha Moment: Ghoulardi

Ghoulardi hosted late night broadcasts of old sci-fi and horror movies in Cleveland -- and he made a huge impression on 10-year-old David Thomas, who went on to found Cleveland's most notorious rock band, Pere Ubu. Produced by Adda Birnir.

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Watch Out for the Giant Donut

Urban historian Jim Heimann takes Kurt on a driving tour of some of L.A.'s most imaginative roadside architecture.

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Low Riders

At the Dub Magazine car show at the L.A. Convention Center, photographer Jae Bueno introduces us to the customizers behind tricked-out Cadillac Coupes and fancy pin-stripes. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John and Ave Carrillo.

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Hot Rod Chicks

Julie Fisher takes us for a spin in her 1959 Chevy El Camino and asks why all new cars are "boxes or bubbles." And Coco Shinomiya tells us her old car is way more reliable than her new one. Produced by

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Angels in North Carolina

The new play Southern Rapture takes place in 1996, when a local production of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" became a political hot potato and put artistic freedom and arts funding on the line. Mary C. Curtis looks back at the ruckus.

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