Five stories that have North Texas talking: PBS icons chopped and remade, a new energy doc and more.
Julia Child was something of a revolutionary, as a chef and as a human. Author Bob Spitz explained her influence on Think in September in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday. (Child herself was on KERA's Glen Mitchell Show in 2000.) However of a renegade Ms. Child proved to be, this particularly autotuned homage via PBS Digital Studios’ Icons Remixed series is like a souffle of contradictions. It’s hard to believe this woman would ever “auto” anything.
The latest subject of the series feels more natural, especially for us children of the ‘80s: It’s a bright, synthy map to Reading Rainbow by John Boswell (MelodySheep). It sounds exactly like floating away via the magic power of books with LeVar Burton after Sesame Street. NPR's Linda Holmes mentionedthe new video for Morning Edition.
(There was a band called Reading Rainbow, until it changed its name to Bleeding Rainbow in 2011, citing fear of a cease and desist letter from PBS and, also, “Carrie Brownstein [Portlandia, Sleater-Kinney] didn’t like it.” This tragedy aside, their song “Wasting Time” is really worth a minute.)
- This just in: The United States federal government needs more money. Where can they get it? By taxing the value of health insurance provided to employees! Because, as of now, the U.S. skips the most revenue by not doing so. One economist from MIT says the fed storehouse would gain something like $250 billion if we treated health insurance like wages. Face palm. [Julie Rovner, NPR]
- The energy discussion has become so politicized, it’s easy to forget that the continued existence of our species depends on conservation. Not to mention how fascinating geology and natural power can be. That’s why Harry Lynch madeSwitch, a documentary about how our energy economy is moving from coal and oil to new technologies. He’s on ‘Think’ today at noon, as the film screens at the Magnolia in Dallas tonight. See the trailer below.
- OK, Dallas, with your Margaret Hunt Hill Instagramming and your special fold-out bridge-worship newspaper sections. It’s time for Fort Worth to get a new bridge, too. The West Seventh Street Bridge is just beginning. Concrete for the eighth arch is slated to be poured today. [Gordon Dickson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
- Is Dallas City Council member Dwaine Caraway bluffing, or does his recent ambiguous announcement mean he plans to run for mayor? At what might be considered a rally on Monday, Caraway admitted he’s “considered running for governor” but “that’s not good enough.” [Dallas Observer’s Unfair Park]
