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Story category: entertainment
Filmmaker Shares Memories of “A Christmas Story” Director
Story air date: Friday, December 10, 2010
Filmmaker Deren Abram reflects on his years working on films with the late Bob Clark, director of “A Christmas Story” and “Porky’s.” Abram’s documentary “ClarkWorld” includes remembrances from stars like Jon Voight and Kim Cattrall, who credits Clark with launching her career. Abram spoke with Illinois Public Media’s Jeff Bossert.
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entertainmentA Look Back at Farm Aid
Story air date: Monday, September 20, 2010
Twenty five years ago this week, the Champaign area was all about Farm Aid. The 12-hour event in Champaign, Illinois featured more than 40 acts, including organizers Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young. It drew in more than $9 million dollars to help the nation’s struggling farmers. But beyond raising money, Illinois Public Media's Sean Powers reports that the concert helped shed light on the challenges facing farmers in the 1980s.
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WILL's "Growing Aware" Preview of Farm Aid from 1985 :
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WILL-AM Farm Aid Special from 1986:
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architecture • arts and culture • music • community life • entertainmentNew Minor League Franchise Fills Supporting Roles
Story air date: Thursday, May 20, 2010
While minor league baseball works to develop stars of the future… it also strives to create a family atmosphere. The tickets are far cheaper than the cost of a big league game, and teams rely on various promotions, mascots, and a team of on-field enthusiasts to complete that minor league experience.
Central Illinois’ newest franchise recently held a casting call to fill some of those roles. Illinois Public Media’s Jeff Bossert talked with some of the hopefuls:
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arts and culture • entertainment • sports"Extreme Makeover" and the Good and Bad of Reality TV
Story air date: Friday, October 23, 2009
Sunday night, America will see the fantasy that Philo residents Nathan and Jenny Montgomery and their family have been living since last August. The ABC reality show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” destroyed the family’s dilapidated home and built them a new one, filled with new furnishings. Nathan Montgomery’s creation of the Salt and Light food bank helped get them selected.
“Extreme Makeover” belongs to a TV genre that’s often pummeled by critics for hype, over-commercialization and lowest-common-denominator values. But University of Illinois media observer James Hay says reality TV has real roots. He tells AM 580’s Tom Rogers the shows grew out of an ethic that took hold as the century changed and Americans chose a conservative government.
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arts and culture • community life • entertainment • mediaThe Movies and Science
Story air date: Friday, May 29, 2009
Researchers have found an opportunity for public education in a Hollywood blockbuster. “The DaVinci Code” offered a rich backdrop of religious history in laying out its plot. And in its sequel “Angels and Demons,” author Dan Brown injects physics – the Vatican is threatened by a bomb planted by the shadowy organization the Illuminati. Its explosive charge is based on antimatter stolen from CERN, the Swiss particle physics laboratory that produces antimatter in its Large Hadron Collider. Physicists want to step in with some caveats. University of Illinois professor Kevin Pitts says CERN, the collider and antimatter are very real, but he tells AM 580's Tom Rogers that antimatter’s potential is just starting to be realized.
