Episode #1140
Reggie Watts & Woody Guthrie
Friday, October 01, 2010
Studio 360's series American Icons continues with a look at Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." Kurt Andersen speaks with Pete Seeger and others about how the song found its place in American culture. Later in the hour, Kurt talks with sci-fi writer William Gibson, who chose not to set his new book Zero History in the future — the here-and-now is freakish enough. And we'll hear from the multi-lingual, musically-gifted comedian Reggie Watts.
Woody Guthrie in 1943.
(Photograph by Lester Balog, Courtesy of The Woody Guthrie Archives. Used by permission.)
Comic Chameleon: Reggie Watts
The comedian Reggie Watts doesn't tell jokes: he's a pianist who can mimic any musical genre and a multilingual savant who's a genius with accents. Watts performs live in our studio and shows Kurt how he uses improvisation to make every show unique.
Reggie Watts performs live in ...
American Icons: This Land Is Your Land
All of America sings it at school and summer camp; Bruce Springsteen sang it at President Obama’s inauguration. Yet Woody Guthrie’s song was once called anti-American, even Communist.
William Gibson: The Future Is Now
In William Gibson's first novel, 1984's Neuromancer, he coined the term "cyber-space" and introduced us to the concept of a computer-generated reality that became the movie "The Matrix." Now Gibson is back with another sci-fi tale set in the future — except ...
Aha Moment: Cary Grant in “Holiday”
Carolita Johnson, a New Yorker cartoonist, was a teenager when she heard Cary Grant exclaim that the world was full of possibilities. "Holiday" set Carolita on a free-spirited, 13-year journey that changed her life.
Weigh in: Has a work of art changed your life?
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