ARTSEDGE: The Kitchen Sink

People write songs about a lot of things, mostly things that mean a lot to us. We write songs about desire, songs about loneliness, about heartbreak, love, and for some reason, we also write lots and lots of songs about cars.

Today if you want to talk about a tragedy, there are plenty of ways to do it. But in the past, one way people would pass along news was through songs.

Over the years, they’ve been some of the most popular songs in the country. They are TV Theme songs, something as old as TV.

The Baylor University’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project has a massive collection of phonograph records made by African Americans in the '40s, '50s and '60s. The curator, Dr. Robert Darden, found that on the flip side of many of these 45 RPM records, there are Civil Rights songs that no one has ever heard.

The lynching of black men in the American South was an all-too-familiar occurrence in the 1930s, even though it rarely made news. So when Billie Holiday had a hit record with the song Strange Fruit, it brought attention to this important issue in unusual ways.

On Sunday, April 9th, 1939, a huge, mixed race crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to witness an extraordinary event. At a time when African-Americans were not allowed vote, go to school or use the same toilet as white people, black contralto Marian Anderson stood in front of 75,000 people and sang classical music – a sign of Civil Rights victories to come.

A step-by-step guide for turning you and your friends into the living dead. All you need is some cheap black and white makeup from your local drugstore. (Brains are optional.)

Make scary-real innards through the magic of kitchen chemistry. This tutorial shows you how to make ballistics gel (for organs).

Make scary-real innards through the magic of kitchen chemistry. This tutorial shows you how to make ballistics gel (for organs).

This special effect is easy to create with makeup and scar wax. And the gashes look so real, your friends will want to drag you to the emergency room.