Thursday, January 25, 12 noon WPKN 89.5 FM http://www.wpkn.org

Host: Duo Dickinson

Why do we care about “Style”?

Architects judge, ridicule, laud and qualify on the basis of words like “Modernist”, “Vernacular”, “Classical” or “Traditional”. Real Estate brokers rigorously name their listings as “Contemporary”, “Colonial”, or “Modern”. All of us buy a Chevy, or a Ford or want things to be “Green” or “Luxury” or…what? Why do we trust “Style”? Why do so many design professionals engage in “Style” Shaming – dismissing the legitimacy of any given design based solely on the most superficial aspects of it’s “Style”.

Houses have had over 95% of their designs untouched by anything other than “Style”: Architects design less than 5% of all American homes: most are built with stock plans bought by a builder or development company or homeowner, all of these stock designs are defined by “Style”. An avowed “Style” equates to a price point for sale, resale or estimating value.

But homes are, inevitably, the most valuable thing we own, or the most expensive thing we pay for every month: If we are unsure of “what” our house is, we are threatened by our ignorance. More than ever before, we define ourselves by naming class, race, gender, politics, sex, and so it’s time to ask: Why “Style”? HOME PAGE has collected a group of humans whose knowledge and experience in home naming and design definition is extraordinary.

Joining us in studio is a Leader of a Full Service Real Estate Team, the Whiteman Team, at Raveis Reality: Realtor Leigh Whiteman, https://www.raveis.com/teammember/LeighWhiteman/3273 Leigh is a “Luxury Properties Specialist” and went to school at Mount Holyoke College and Sarah Lawrence College She is on the Middlesex Shoreline Association of Realtors, Connecticut Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing Specialist and Guild Designations Top Producer consistently in top 1% of area agents, and the Top Producing Team on Shoreline . Married to artist Jefri Ruchti – they have 2 children, 2 grandchildren and she is the Co-founder of Momomo Dance Company performing in New York City & Westchester County and has been an Assistant Professor of Dance – Elizabeth Seton College

Joining us via phone is Pat Pinnell: architect, author, teacher, master planner and aesthetician http://www.newurbanguild.com/about-us/members/pinnell-patrick.html . Pat has his office in Hartford, and formerly headed Yale’s graduate research program in Environmental Design, and taught design studio and architectural theory classes He has taught and lectured at many American architectural schools and organizations as well as in Europe and Japan. He writes commentary on development issues periodically for the Hartford Courant. His book on the architecture and historic planning of the Yale University is extraordinary. Pat lives in a two century old house in the historic Connecticut River town of Higganum with his wife, architectural historian Kathleen Curran.

Joining us also is Mariane Custato https://www.mariannecusato.com/about2 who is a professor at Notre Dame University and was recently selected by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the Top Women in Real Estate, and is the author of two books: The Just Right Home: Buying, Renting, Moving…or Just Dreaming–Find Your Perfect Match! with Daniel DiClerico (April 2013, Workman Publishing) and Get Your House Right, Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid, Cusato’s 308 s.f. Katrina Cottage design won the Smithsonian Institute’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s 2006 “People’s Design Award.” She has been ranked the No. 4 most influential person in the home building industry by Builder Magazine and in 2012, was voted one of the 30 Most Influential Women in the Housing Economy by HousingWire Magazine.

This month Live Culture offers an in studio conversation with British Artist Abigail Reynolds who is currently in the USA to launch her new publication Lost Libraries published by Hatje Cantz. Abigail, who Live Culture listeners will remember from Episode 18: The Mother's Bones, about her film project in a Cornwall Quarry, recently won the prestigious BMW Art Journey, a prize which sent her on a trip through China, Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkey, Italy, and Egypt following the Silk Road in search of destroyed libraries. She traveled for five months, visiting libraries that were lost due to political conflict or natural disasters. This book presents the photographs and recollections of her experiences.

About the BMW Art Journey:

Two artists are awarded the prize each year: one from Art Basel in Hong Kong and one Art Basel in Miami Beach. An independent panel of judges shortlists three artists from each fair, who are then tasked with crafting an itinerary for their proposed journey. Reynolds was unanimously selected from the 2016 Hong Kong shortlist, for a project she titled “The Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the Silk Road.”

Reynolds is best known for her collages, which splice together archival images in geometric, three-dimensional patterns. She is particularly interested in the passage of time, scouring old bookstores and flea markets for encyclopedias or guidebooks that offer decades-old views of a given landscape. She also incorporates images of what she terms “communal structures”—protest marches, highways, colleges.

On her New York visit Abigail will be participating in A Night of Philosophy & Ideas at the Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday January 27th. This is part of a 12-hour marathon, of 20 minute lectures happening from 7pm to 7am.

As an accompaniment to our discussion this month's show features a selection of book and library themed music clips from James Horner ( for the film The Name of the Rose), Brian Anderson, Yellow Ostrich and My Morning Jacket. join us to find out more about this incredible adventure, the book, and the artworks that have resulted from the journey!

• Paul O'Brien: Oxfam Reports the World's Top 1% Captured 82% of Global Wealth Created in 2017

• Robin Blakeman: Planned Appalachian Petrochemical Storage Hub Threatens to Create a New 'Cancer Alley'

• Greg Palast: Disbanded Trump 'Voter Fraud' Commission Moves to Department of Homeland Security

Visit http://BTLonline.org for more information, related links, transcripts and in-depth interviews

At first blush, bitcoin appeared to be something for gamblers, says Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the most well-known and respected technologists in bitcoin and author of Mastering Bitcoin and The Internet of Money.

But half way through reading the original bitcoin white paper, he realized the technology is “something very special, very unique, very innovative.” That was in 2012, and now Antonopoulos spends full time educating a wide range of audiences on the subject.

In an interview that was broadcast on WPKN radio (Bridgeport, CT) January 23, show host Jim Motavalli and Alice Horrigan ask Antonopoulos if a payment system with no central authority in charge is perhaps a scary proposition.

“Not really. There are many decentralized things we use on a daily basis,” he responds. “ If you ask, ‘Who owns the internet?’ Well, no one owns the internet…and that’s the beauty of it.” Growing up in Greece, Antonopoulous experienced the ”failings of central authority” repeatedly. “And that kind of informs my attitude.”

Kaufman runs Old School Music in Westport, a music events production company, and performs on bass in his band Old School Revue. He comes from a musical family, including a mother who weaned him on a mix of bluesy jazz, boogie-woogie, gospel, pop and swing as a child growing up in the 1950s. As a teen, he was listening to doo-wop, soul and rhythm and blues. His grandfather, Mel B. Kaufman, was a prolific ragtime composer, whose works were still heard on films and cartoons into the 1950s, years after his death in 1932.

Through that connection, Kaufman met John Hasse, the curator of American music at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. They got to talking, specifically about the era of Memphis sound. It was a dot on a timeline of American music history that was missing at the museum. Hasse discovered that Kaufman had some connections in that world and asked if he might help.

Kaufman said yes to the volunteer gig. It was up to him to identify, locate and contact artists, as well as secure artifacts for donations. He knew his first stop had to be Blues Brothers band member and Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Cropper, who he had gotten to know through a mutual friend. One of the world’s top guitarists, Cropper, 75, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., was at Stax from the start as a session guitarist and original member of the MGs.

Kaufman says Cropper, who played on such hits as Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” (he’s called out by name on the original song), started as a guitar player and eventually became a writer, engineer, producer and songwriter, having his hands on nearly every record at Stax from 1961 to 1970. “He lent an important creative role that went above and beyond his guitar playing,” Kaufmann says.

Dr. Gene Cayer, chiropractor and holistic health practitioner, discusses his approach to health and healing.

Panel: Bill Duesing, Guy Beardsley and Richard Hill.

Host Garnett Ankle speaks live on the telephone with Professor Frantz Leconte, French Area Coordinator, Department of Foreign Languages, CUNY University, Kingsborough Campus, New York. Topic: Race Relations In The United States Since January 20, 2017.

On this edition of What A Story, your host Ina Chadwick presents readings of three short plays by emerging playwright ALAN YASHIN ... the readings feature actors Allan Zeller, Kimberly Squires, Duncan Christy and Ina Chadwick.

• Shiu-Ming Cheer: Government Shutdown Ends Without Legalizing 'Dreamers'

• Robert Borosage: Resistance Movement Targets 2018 Elections to Defeat GOP-Trump Agenda

• Keith Ellison: DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison Advocates Reform and Grassroots Engagement

#GovShutdown #DACA #Resistance #MidtermElections #Elections2018

Visit BTLonline.org for more information, transcripts, related links and In-depth interviews

Michelle Morgan speaks with Erin Williamson, the U.S. Survivor Care Program Director at Love146. Love146 is an international anti-trafficking agency that provides direct services to victims of human trafficking in the Philippians, the United Kingdom and here.

https://love146.org/