FRESH AIR
Husband-and-wife team Win Butler and Regine Chassagne lead the band Arcade Fire [PICTURED], an art-rock outfit that hails
from Montreal. The seven-member band, which deploys everything from piano, sax and violin to dobro, harpsichord and hurdy-gurdy, has two albums to its credit: Neon Bible and 2004’s Funeral.
PLUS, Steven Bach‘s biography Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl examines the filmmaker who celebrated the Nazi ideal and created the Third Reich’s iconic images in Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. Bach details Riefenstahl’s ruthless, opportunistic ambition, analyzes her “self-righteous entitlement,” and explores her relationships with Hitler, Goebbels and Albert Speer. What emerges is a compulsively readable and scrupulously crafted work.
RADIO TIMES
Hour 1
PA Casino update. This month, the state’s 5th casino is scheduled to open southwest of Pittsburgh. It was only three years ago that the state legislature approved legalized gambling. On today’s show we’ll first hear from MATTHEW TEAGUE, a writer for Philadelphia Magazine about how lawmakers introduced and approved gambling on a Fourth of July weekend in 2004 while the public was attending picnics and fireworks. Then ANDREW CONTE, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, tells us about the new Meadows casino opening this month, and CHRIS BRENNAN, a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News on when, as promised, gambling revenues will result in property tax relief.
Hour 2
The average American wedding costs $28,000 not including the cost of the honeymoon or engagement ring. The $161 billion wedding industry has given rise to what has been called the “Bridezilla” culture with young women becoming all consumed with the pressure of planning the perfect event. We talk with writer REBECCA MEAD whose new book, One Perfect Day, explores why weddings have become outrageously expensive and out-of-control.
THE WORLD CAFE
Andrew Bird
World Cafe host David Dye welcomes singer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird. His latest album, Armchair Apocrypha, employs a more guitar-based sound, while maintaining the integrity of his lightly orchestral early material. The new tune, “Heretics” has become a Cafe favorite.