Which the past present you're following the ghost of lived in the past but you're following in the contemporary landscape. So that might sound like a new horror film but it's actually a very real very American documentary Wednesday July 18th You're listening to Q That was Eugene Jurek is the filmmaker behind the king and a documentary about Elvis Presley you won't see any security Elvis ghosts in it but you will see how the singer's own story kind of mirrors that at the United States will explain more Also you're going to hear some live music from Deseret DAs and Jackie But 1st Gus Van Sant the director fills us in on his latest film which started with an idea sparked by the late Robin Williams That's coming up on Q. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington and she Stevens some Democrats on Capitol Hill want to meet with the u.s. Interpreter who was in the room when presidents Trump and Putin met earlier this week in Helsinki N.P.R.'s Michele Kelemen has the story Trump and Putin met for 2 hours without any aides in the Kremlin hasn't spoken about agreements that were made behind closed doors some senators now want to hear from the State Department interpreter who was in the room State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert says there's no precedent for that I can tell you there's no formal request to have the interpreter appear before any congressional committees at this point overall as a general matter you know we always seek to work with Congress now where it is also downplaying suggestions that there were a any agreements reached in Helsinki she says there were modest proposals to set up u.s. Russia working groups Michele Kelemen n.p.r. News the State Department President Trump is calling on Turkey's leader to free an American pastor who's serving 35 years in prison for terrorism spying and other charges he denies 50. Andrew Bronson a North Carolina was arrested and jailed in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt calls that to discourage that Bronson has been detained for so long the president's remarks were posted on Twitter the White House has announced Steve Downing ham as its nominee to become the next u.s. Census Bureau director as N.P.R.'s Hansi Lo Wang reports Dillingham is expected to oversee the upcoming 2020 census it's confirmed Stephen Dillingham has not worked for the u.s. Census Bureau before but he has led other federal statistical agencies including the Bureau of Justice statistics and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics he has a Ph d. In political science according to the University of South Carolina's website if confirmed Dillingham would head the Federal government's largest statistical agency while it prepares for the upcoming 2020 census agency has not had permanent leadership since last July when former director John Thompson left after announcing earlier than expected retirement Dillingham would inherit multiple lawsuits facing the Census Bureau they are mainly over the commerce secretary says recent addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census critics of the question worry that it will discourage non-citizens from participating and harmed the accuracy of the head count on the long n.p.r. News Washington California Supreme Court says a proposal to divide the state into 3 parts may not appear on the November ballot supporters say California's size income disparities and geographic diversity make it impossible to govern k.q.e.d. Scott Shafer reports that opponents say there are significant questions about whether the proposal is valid critics argue that because Proposition 9 was a major revision of the California Constitution it required approval of 2 thirds of the state legislature not just signatures from voters now the court didn't rule on the merits of that argument but they did pull it from the November ballot so the issue can be fully considered Scott Shafer in San Francisco this is n.p.r. News. 12 soccer players in coach rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand have spent their 1st night at home in weeks the 13 made their 1st public appearances Wednesday after being discharged from a hospital in Chiang Rai and a national television broadcast members of the group recounted their ordeal and pay tribute to the former Navy Seal who died trying to help save them the group and their relatives gathered Thursday for a Buddhist ceremony that's meant to protect them from danger that are an actor Gary Beach has died in Palm Springs California he was 70 years old beach appeared in a list of television and stage roles for over 3 decades as Jeff Lunden reports he may be best known for his performances on Broadway Gary Beach was very much a Broadway Baby the Virginia born actor appeared in featured and lead roles in musicals as diverse as any limb is a Rob Doonesbury and full but he made his mark originating 2 parts on Broadway Lumiere the talking singing candlestick and beauty and the Beast and Roger debris the outrageous director and Mel Brooks the producers. Of the stage keep it keep it but I. Would be true on the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical he said I am the happiest boy in the 5th grade he survived by his husband Jeffrey Barnett for n.p.r. News I'm Jeff Lunden in New York on Asian stock market shares are mixed on global trade concerns lower in Shanghai I'm sure n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Home Advisor matching homeowners with home improvement professionals for a variety of home projects from minor repairs to major remodels homeowners can read reviews of local pros and book appointments online at Home Advisor dot com. Capitalism continues to. Movement. Going to see Radio one Sirius x.m. 169 n.p.r. I Public Radio International. It's our Gus Van Sant is one of those movie directors who's kind of hard to pin down if you've seen good will hunting or milk those are his big award winning film starring big Hollywood actors but that's not all he's known for Gus Van Sant has also made a lot of experimental less mainstream movies like My Own Private Idaho elephant or last days and his latest film that kind of fits somewhere in between a blockbuster and a cult favorite it's called Don't worry he won't get far on foot and it follows the story of a real life cartoonist named John Callahan played by Joaquin Phoenix you're drawn into this difficult chapter of his life where John is recovering from alcoholism while discovering his talents as a cartoonist right after a car accident leaves him paralyzed for life as you're about to hear the role of John Callahan was actually supposed to be played by the late Robin Williams But as it turns out Robin still ended up playing a big part in getting this film off the ground here is Gus Van Sant I think his wife Marcia who was the co-producer of their company so it was sometime after good wanting that Marcia's that they had bought a book by John Callahan which I knew about and they wanted to make a script and develop it into a movie for Robin to star and and then via me to be the director who would. Maybe shepherd the script through its creation and then also direct the film so I was surprised that he. Had bought this book that it was about a local Portland or but I also knew that John was pretty well known nationally and some in some ways internationally as a cartoonist So it's sort of the make sense I really. Oh he probably Robyn probably you know read the weekly cartoon in his local weekly paper and that was he was a fan so I accepted the job did you have a sense of other than being interested in the cartoons that he would have seen why Robin Williams was was drawn in a personal way to John Callahan story. He did say or it was explained to me at one point that Christopher Reeve was a close friend of his and Christopher Reeve was a quadriplegic and it was a way for him to maybe play a character that was in honor of Christopher Reeve and. Also that it was about a cartoonist and as a punster and a comic which all kind of like made sense to Robin So you knowing John Callahan personally which you did a little bit before he died in 2010 what was he like as a person. John Callan was very dry of super funny he liked to tell very long stories about his life about things that happened to him during the day about people he liked to listen to kind of very extreme often right wing. Radio programs he especially like sister Paula who was a transgender event Jellicoe preacher in Washington state in the United States and. He was a large guy he had brought red hair and was also searching for always searching for puns or like jokes that he could sort of use in his comics Yeah those are being incredibly funny and sometimes provocative comics I guess that he was known for John Callan became quadriplegic after he was injured in a car crash his friend Dexter who's played in your film by Jack Black was driving drunk and in the film a lot of the stories is watching John struggle with getting getting sober and finding his talents as an artist as a cartoonist What did you want to explore there I think one of the the central parts of John's life story was that he he was a big. Drinker by the time he was $21.00 he was like a full on alcoholic he he considered himself a for an alcoholic and he had a car a debilitating car crash at $21.00 and he continued drinking not really realizing that maybe his problem was drinking and not really that the results of the car crash in his quadriplegia. And it was then that he kind of worked too to become sober and as a result he started doing something else he started to make cartoons at 1st to make . To make a girl in his college art class laugh but eventually it was like to make as many people as possible off any speak aim obsessed with cartooning and that became his vocation so essential story was always. The result of becoming sober he became a cartoonist I want to play a clip from the film this is walking Phoenix as cartoonist John Callahan and this takes place during and Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I started drinking when I was 13. I stole a bottle of gin from my aunt. And. I liked it. A lot. And I never struck. So guess how did John's realization they he had a problem with alcohol changed the way that he saw himself. It was just a realization that oh I see it's like this is so bad that my whole life is centered around alcohol. So that was a big change but I think is is kind of relationship to himself was was not changed exactly I think that he he had to space in his coming into sobriety he had to kind of face you know larger life questions like what was what was causing him to drink you know like some of it was. Having been raised as an orphan by a family that weren't his blood family he had been put up for adoption and never met is his birth mother when it comes to casting a film there's been a lot of talk these days about casting people who are of the experience or the background that they're representing on screen that you chose to have Joaquin Phoenix play the role of John Callahan who was in a wheelchair for part of his life I wanted to ask you to tell me about making that choice but I'm also thinking about what you said earlier about Robin Williams original intention to pay tribute to Christopher Reeve I guess with this story so did you even think twice I guess about casting Joaquin Phoenix in in the role of someone who is quadriplegic. I didn't mostly because I mean there I didn't know very many people who could as an actor like portray a story like this even in there are you know even in the acting community much less like widening it out into like the disabled community or the quadriplegic community . And I I never I never thought in those terms I mean we knew that we were going to ask somebody for help in that area of like understanding the difficulties of a quadriplegics life and John was you know our sort of source of information in the beginning but you know it didn't I mean it didn't occur. To me because I just was in the you know the Hollywood bubble where cinema still asks us to. Cast people that we know again and again as movie stars I guess I'm not sure it something that developed in cinema long time ago and and still the you know me as a cinema goer when I think of film I really think Ok who's in it you know and Jeff Bridges and like well I like that guy you know it's like that kind of Hollywood thing which I'm all for deconstructing and getting rid of and I think you know sometimes that does happen like an elephant or even Good Will Hunting Matt and then we're just newcomers and and one of the reasons that I got to do it I think was nobody else would you know they were afraid of somebody that didn't didn't have a profile playing their characters and I'm not sure we didn't really start out there it would have been interesting though to to try and cast everyone I'm always interested in casting everyone as their real identity it's it's amazing when you do that but it just wasn't a project that. I guess because it started with Robin Williams We never really left that kind of idea what it what did John tell you when you would talk about it about what he wanted a film based on his life to look like. He pretty much was almost you know falling out of his chair with excitement that Robin Williams was going to portray him in a movie about his life he thought that was the greatest thing that could ever happen. And that's pretty much all I ever the vibe I always got from him was just that he didn't really care what we did he just wanted Robin on the screen portraying him as as soon as we could do it wow. And he was the one that was the most. Point out one things you know kind of never happened we started the project 97 you know years of like we did a 2nd draft in 2002 and years started to go by which I was sort of I was used to it but I don't think John was used to it and eventually around 2006 he said are well we're going to be dead by the time this film is made and he died in 2010 and then Robyn Williams died in 2014 and you've gone on and made it so while I didn't I didn't die I was what I meant when I left. Well what can you tell me a little bit about that I guess because while I was watching the film and knowing that you knowing that Robin Williams had the idea and was supposed to play John Callahan he had passed and and knowing that John had as well to me to me I I couldn't help but think about their presence in in your film so tell me I guess what it was like for you because these are people that you knew and cared about who are no longer with us and you're carrying out this this vision Well it was still I mean I said it was still very clear in my had. John's life and all that was it was that he was gone it was that Robin was gone as well you know I just felt were living in their place it wasn't like a dark cloud over the project for me so Robin Robin Williams was was originally supposed to play the role of John Callahan that the idea for this project started with him. And I can't help but think about his own struggles with depression and in the past with alcohol addiction but then I'm also thinking about that in the context of some of your work and some of your artistic associations your film last days was loosely based on the life of Kurt Cobain. As well and there's that there's an element I guess of artistic magic on one hand and self destructive ness on the other hand to some of the artists who seem to be important to you is that fair to say. Yeah version Yeah I don't know I think that the origins of my filmmaking were some extending a little bit from I guess living in Hollywood and living close to Hollywood Boulevard and observing you know the intense desperation and outsiderness of the denizens of Hollywood Boulevard in the seventy's. And then even reading things like John Rice she's book City of night which described kind of some of the things that were going on in Hollywood Boulevard and I you know was I was interested in making something about just I guess the the desperation of people living on the streets in Hollywood Boulevard and that's kind of where it started I guess that project became my own private eye later upset in Portland Oregon but there was also. Melon or Che was another separate story about somebody who. Worked on Skid Row in Portland Oregon. In a grocery store. So after that I guess I worked my way out of the street stories but I guess I was once I'd done one I think I was I was inspired to do more so you've made some some really commercially successful Hollywood films like Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester. But you've also said before that those films were kind of an experiment for you to see if you could make something more mainstream and conventional you've gone really far on the on the other on the other end of the spectrum I guess if you see it that way with on guard films like elephant where does your new film Don't worry he won't get far on foot sic for you it's more like somewhere in between. All of all of them kind of mixed together it seems like it's it's like a street story from Portland Oregon it's also you know a very uplifting story concerning somebody's learning something about themselves like and Good Will Hunting it's sometimes in any Like Even Cowgirls Get the Blues but it's a sort of like a new creation you said that you and John Callahan had sort of parallel careers in the 1980 s. And by the end of the decade you had both become nationally recognizable but you clearly had really different paths is there anything that you learned about your own creative path through the act of telling John story in this film I think in the in the world of storytelling and filmmaking there's a lot of artifice that goes into it so even the things that you might learn are the things that you're concerned about it's more about. Timing and trickery and sleight of hand and tall tales and it's not really about Revelations within yourself I mean 1st it is a bit like Eventually it comes down to the nuts and bolts and then even watching it after the fact it's still I get it and I don't I don't usually I don't watch it but no I mean you watch it when you watch the 1st print and then you know that's pretty much it you know you know at least I don't like keep watching it wow why I think because you're you know like you're you've seen it like a 100 times by then so you're tired of it. Like if I show up to a place where they're actually showing something like Good Will Hunting as. A screening and they have you talk sometimes you come a little early in your and watching part of it so in that case I'll see part of a movie but I usually don't watch them. And we only have caught by surprise due to poor timing Ok well I really enjoyed watching your movie and I want to thank you so much after taking the time to talk about it today thank you thank you director Gus Van Sant new film is called Don't worry he won't get far on foot. And linger You're listening to q. And a. I'm Libby Danke men consumer genetic testing services like Ancestry d.n.a. Help people find relatives and trace their ethnic roots but sometimes that d.n.a. Test can give you more than he bargained for some people are unearthing family secrets long lost relatives who are the product of infidelity for example or maybe a biological parent who is different than the one that they grew up where when a d.n.a. Test leads to an identity crisis that's next time on our talk weekdays tendon Nunan k.p.c. See what good I am a mom that's me Bruce live on stage with unheard l.a. The live storytelling series for k.p.c. See in person if being sober meant no more random sex with strangers what the hell was I supposed to do with my free time we're back and take her away to Monterey Park a Mondeo and long beach this summer and fall each show with a distinct lineup of storytellers the next show is July 21st r.s.v.p. K p c c dot org slash unheard l.a. . On c.b.c. Radio one Sirius x.m. 169 and for p.r.i. Public Radio International. In for Time's our own name. That is the king that's all this president with a bit of blue suede shoes the 1st song you hear on his 1st studio album came out in 1956 a time of great change in the United States the population was exploding there was this real sense of growth and there was a feeling like the country was on the brink of something big and then along came Elvis to this day really personifies America for a lot of people he came from very little he worked really really hard and in 1956 he was about to become one of the most famous people in the world but as you might know after his meteoric rise came his tragic fall you see all of that unfold in a new documentary called The King which traces Elvis Presley's life and death and uses it as a metaphor for the American dream. Wrote directed and produced this film and as you're about to hear the metaphor he uses Well it's actually more relevant and complicated for. Elvis Presley means a lot of different things to a lot of different people when you were growing up what did Elvis mean to you when I was in love with Elvis growing up I mean they're even high school yearbook pictures of these somewhere that I'll never show anybody of me trying to dress like Elvis some to my hair like him and sort of embarrassing things like that but it came out of a deep love. Of not just Elvis but of a certain nostalgia feeling that I had for what seemed maybe a more inspired time than the seventies and in Reagan eighty's that I was coming of age in there's some flaws in that but I didn't know about the flaws at the time so my 1st love of Elvis is He's the embodiment of that which one feels so strongly about the American dream the opportunity the chances for an everyday person to rise when did you become aware of some of the flaws I guess that you're mentioning with Albus being a representative of the American dream it came in parallel with my own developing sense of the shortcomings of the American dream itself I come from a Holocaust refugees and refugees from Russia under the Tsars so we had all come to this country I'm I'm I'm born here but my my parents and grandparents are all refugees and they came here because of the American dream and so that's beautiful but then they also came here and as sensitive people could see very quickly that it wasn't an American dream for everybody you know it was really for white men only and only a certain range of white men not even ourselves as immigrants and so there was a certain need to understand right away and it was taught to my brothers and myself that our lives would only make sense if we were champions for the voiceless if we understood that this still was a work in progress here so my whole grown up life has been devoted to that and Elvis Presley and all of what he symbolizes sort of crossed wires with that and in a sense over the years Wow that's deep stuff so can can you spell out I guess the theory that you use in your film to address some of what you're talking about giving voice to the voiceless and exploring the American dream is for as it pertains to Elvis Presley Well it begins really with just understanding Elvis isn't contradiction I mean sure he is an embodiment of the American dream he comes out of nowhere and he will rise and rise and ultimately become what the king but that's a contradiction because the whole point. Of the American dream is that we broke off from King we broke off from the king of England swearing no more kings and queens and I'm not just being cute with the language the idea that a country boy should become a king means that a country boy is really just striving to get ahead until he can leave that stuff behind him but we're supposed to love all that stuff of the people by the people for the people town meeting barn raising its people cheek by jowl together in a struggle to make the world better that's what made this country special for the world that's what made us most beautiful and enduring and so to imagine that Elvis Presley should rise and become a king This is in many ways poetically why the film is structured the way that it is as you may know we drove his Presently 1963 Rolls Royce across America and that car was chosen not by accident it isn't sweetness tell Jack old Detroit car that we would drive down memory lane this is a car built for a king and in the end a very last unbroken King who has lost his way from the country boy days and he's entered something far more complex and contradictory right huge office Rolls Royce across the country where we sort of see this collective in the film there's just such a wide array of how people view what the American Dream is very surprised by by how wide ranging that ruling can be for people well you know what we chose to do with the car was to take it on a road trip that would follow in a poetic way Elvis his own life path so we began in Tupelo Mississippi where he's born in the sticks of Mississippi and then He then travels as we did to Memphis Tennessee where he will become Elvis he will launch on the scene and blow people away for what he's bringing to the table and then he'll go to Nashville where he'll start to become a more national phenomenon but it'll kind of come at a cost a cost of some other often to city and then he'll go to New York where that just gets even bigger and his signal has been doubt to the. Mike Myers is in the film and he talks about in the way in which Elvis Presley at that point kind of brands American ness for the world he sort of begins to tell the American narrative to millions and millions across the globe beamed out and then almost imperial way and then of course we travel to Hollywood where Elvis has the sort of beginnings of his unwinding an unraveling and then it all sort of goes really south in Vegas so the car goes all the way across the country and what we wanted to do in each place where Elvis had rested his head was to talk to people today so this isn't just a trip down memory lane this is a journey in which the past haunts the present you're following a ghost who lived in the past but you're following him through contemporary landscapes with everyday people suffering so tremendously under the contradictions and frailties and challenges of modern American life. In the film we see a number of people talk about one of the topics that comes up a lot when you talk about Elvis is music which is the appropriation of African-American culture and music and one of the people who speaks on that topic in your film The King is Chuck d. Rapper who famously called Elvis a straight up racist in the 1990 Public Enemy song Fight the power and he said the lyrics Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant blank to me what did you think when you 1st heard that lyric 21 years old when Public Enemy put out that song and that wasn't the 1st time that I had understood a more complex narrative to Elvis Presley in a more complex narrative to America Chuck d. Really at that moment however for so many millions of people he kind of breaks out and speaks about the elephant in the room and the elephant in the room as Chuck appears in. Film explained so magnificently is not simplistic Chuck d. Was in no way then and in no way now saying that a person like Elvis Presley is a white person should not play black music in fact he believes that anyone who would say that is a racist themselves they're basically saying that the racists shouldn't mix in music or anything else Chuck d. Believes as I believe that culture is culture and that the beauty of culture is to share it and that if we all ate each other's food and played each other's music and shared in each other's culture more often we would probably go to war less and live a more sustainable human family so what I think happened in that time when in 1900 Chuck d. Pens that it's really a statement of outrage about the fact of black everything by american everything I mean American industry and their record business is just one of them American industries have been stealing from black people they have been since we originally stole black people themselves we've always considered black people to have lesser rights of personhood and ultimately lesser rights of property and so the theft of black music by the white music industry and the elevation of people like Elvis Presley while other people Chuck Berry b.b. King and others don't get the same true king status that is a an a completely deep and understandable and very present complaint that African-Americans feel about all walks of American life and Chuck d. In many ways he sort of says the previously unspoken in fact the power and we're still living with it today and I knew you know there's many celebrities in the film Alec Baldwin and Abel Harris Ethan Hawke Rosanne Cash. Mike Myers a lot of people but I knew that you could not make a film about Elvis Presley in the modern era without hearing from Chuck d. What I didn't know is that Chuck d. Would so massively change the film and become such a a real force of nature in the films thinking he's an international treasure and you're listening to Q I'm Talia slender and for Tom Power I'm speaking with filmmaker. About his new documentary The king which draws a connection between Elvis Presley's rise and fall and the State of the American dream so I understand that halfway through the production process for this film Donald Trump was elected president and that after seeing some of the public reaction to trans presidency you thought that the premise for your film was perhaps a bit naive in your words how so well what I think happened was that we were making a film long before this and I don't use the current president's name because I think it's toxic and it's almost a form of branding whether you like it or not and I don't want to do any branding for them but they're there they are and this group got cut into power and before they got into power I was making a film about the problems of America and those problems were such that this was even possible a healthy democracy a democracy even remotely in touch with itself and with 1st principles and with what our national priorities should be would never have put a rip Aisha's sexist chauvinist to can perhaps worse human being into the office that my child is supposed to look up to as a paragon of virtue so you already know that this is a deeply warped moment and in comes the moment and on election night many people called me like we all called each other sort of like when people called each other after $911.00 where an international incident occurred and it had huge implications for the future and people were all crying on each other's shoulder and when people called me from both parties they all told me how terrible this was and what a horrible future it would be and right they were but right before they hung up they would all say the same thing but by the way it's going to be great for your movie guy and I felt much. Ok this is like I'm some sort of ambulance chasing lawyer who goes out onto the interstate after a crash and starts you know collecting potential clients that that wasn't the idea that when the world gets worse my stock prices post go. But I did understand what they meant I was making a film that without any question why he seemed he who shall remain nameless seem to have walked in and become the living embodiment of everything that destroyed Elvis Presley and he is the living embodiment of everything that could destroy this country however much a work in progress this country is however flawed it was before he enters the scene He's the embodiment of everything worst about it with none of the good so I was there really struggling with how to process the moment but I can very proudly say that we weren't done with the film of another 8 or 9 months of editing was still in store for us and as those months unfolded the world came to my rescue in many ways and while we are facing some extraordinarily dark forces right now in the rise of fascism around the world and especially the concentration of fascist tendencies within this administration and those in Congress I think we're seeing an equal and opposite and magnificent set of reactions that have produced the 1st social movements of meaning in my lifetime so all of that is pretty extraordinary and worth talking about with greater optimism than I could possibly have had a year ago that's powerful stuff Eugene I want to close off by talking about the car that you mentioned earlier the the rules Royce built for a king the 1963. Vehicle that you parts as an Elvis is for the purpose of driving across the country visiting these people drawing out all these visions of the American dream I understand that it's now being used in a really interesting way so before I let you go which is tell me about that when we learned one day that all this is car was coming up for sale we had to ask the production whether we could change gears and go out on this huge limb and whether they would finance that and buy the car the agreement was that they would buy it if we sold it again at the end and luckily having wondered if we would ever sell it I also wondered if I wouldn't wrap it around a tree and ruin it we skate scot free and suddenly a month ago we had. Surely in a wonderful and very poetic way have sold the car and the buyers of the car are the seminal Native American nation of the state of Florida who have bought the failed I have to say the name Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City which like so much else about. Him was a total economic moral and other failure so on the site of that failure the seminal Native American nation has built the new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the car is the centerpiece of a new hard rock there which from a rock and roll standpoint is of course very poetic as we made the sale I said that I thought that we should make a charitable contribution as part of the sale of the car for the poetry of it because this isn't just a car sale this is a the sale of a piece of American socio cultural history and it bears a lot of significance and I asked that they make a contribution in Memphis Tennessee to the Stax music academy which is the epicenter of African-American music training today in the place that influenced office so deeply from the heart of the black community there and hard rock magnificently made a contribution of $25000.00 to Stax to continue the extraordinary work they're doing with young people so in a way after all the conversations about racial appropriation and Elvis who in many ways was very very supportive of the black community in some ways and fell short in other ways however the math of that breaks down in his honor we have now given a $25000.00 donation to continue as taxes work and the story continues at I want to thank you so much for your film The King and for talking me about it really appreciate it thanks for having me. As the writer director and producer of a king there's so much to chew on in that film to be able to stream the line when it demand this fall. This is me. As a Peace Corps volunteer it was about 1970 and b.c.c. Listener Bob Brando was in Liberia. And ended up design a building and then managing a broadcast radio station called the voice of. The idea of leisure. Make it is accessible to people as possible creased the flow of information and through that helped build a sense of community Bob and his wife Wendy are essentially doing the same thing now helping to build k.p.c. See good morning it. Was important to her personally and we could see that it was important to the community as well so Bob And Wendy joined k.p.c. Sees legacy society people who remember k.p.c. See in their wills I think it's really important to keep this well after I'm gone. Start your planning now at p.c.c. Dot org slash legacy. They are listening to q. On c.b.c. Radio one Sirius x.m. 169 and from p.r.i. Public Radio International and tell your slender again for Tom power so you might have gone through something like this before when life throws you an emotional curveball you go through something really tough even painful and then it's quickly followed up by something happy something that brings you a lot of joy it can be really confusing and something similar happened to Zack Ybor him a few years ago while she was working on her latest album called The Secret Life of planets her father passed away and then just 4 months later she gave birth to her son it was a lot to process making music while all this was happening it really helped her so ruthless challenging time and even inspired the sound of this record which Sakhi calls Saif ice soul you'll hear is Aqib Rahim fill in the story as she talks to Tom Power in just a minute but 1st here's some of the amazing music that came out of that difficult chapter this is Saqib Rahim recorded live in the Q studio with a song called cold feet. Go. Go. Go. Go. Boots thinking about taking the guts to just thinking about I want you to go back to give it back to go out you know just thinking about going to the bottom of the stage in about to. Be able. To. Get you to the to. The to the to the want it to be and that's our goal and. That would be the sole. Let. Me. That's Aqib Brown and her band with a song called Cold Feet who's the band the band is k.c. On cue on keys and and vocals and Alistair Johnson on beats and multi triggering and that. James Bailey on vocals and dance moves Jamal Jones aka lip Turner on vocals and dance moves Kenny Bout's Neil on bass and micro Korg Alister else with us also did the when we say what's coming up on the show I like panda we have a we have a lot of something something he may be playing a show every single day when I am going up on the program Yeah so it's nice to see him in person because the secret life of planets comes 6 years after their Polaris Prize nominated debut album as you mentioned every opposite and in between that time you lost your dad zany for him who was highly regarded pioneering broadcaster in South Africa Tell me about your dad's influence on you as a musician I think my dad definitely he communicated through music a lot of the time it was never his profession but he the way he met my mom was through being a percussionist in touring schools and Ok I also used to make drums out of drums like Jim day like like talking dirty talking drums Yeah but like he would he would tune it in a certain way and he would make it with leather and like. He customized for a lot of people who. There was. It's one of the earliest memory and I'm not sure because it was over a period of time was. Was of me. Sleeping inside his his barrel drum like he had a drum that he sat on yeah that he made that he sat on and there were there were there were questions in like material inside yeah today every sound yeah yeah and so and so I would sleep in there from up and up until I was maybe like. 8 or something I remember going in there I still remember the smell but it's also that rhythm like certain certain rhythms and certain like the sounds like certain bass tones will put me to sleep. I do get sleepy sometimes from when I think and I might say why does my it's hard like memory that's like a memory of him and and rhythm and he also explained a lot about rhythm and my 1st probably my 1st lesson in music is that is is soon as you start to think yeah you start to count yeah you lose rhythm and you lose the plot Yeah so being too calculated you know it's gone you got to feel it in the space between the sounds is as important Mozart so that you know really my dad is like making it like a no no I'm saying they're probably going to give me a lift from Mozart previously it's the sign of a 5000000000 years ago mine are because it says that Miles Davis used to tell him that that you know the most important thing I can teach you when we come to sit down playing piano is not to play that's the hardest thing I can teach you is when is not to play seems like your dad was was on the right track Yeah the memories are all flooding in now it's very interesting yeah and how how connected this record is to him as well I just kind of like went on autopilot and his writing is actually in the record as well on the song binary Tell me about it for Andrew he wrote for my mom both I like to put that on your record. It was it was a good choice for her for you personally. Probably yes Fisher I was I was definite the. I had some moments in singing that part and then got my friends to come in and sing the choir part for that. More than like for you in that moment to take me to that moment of hearing your father's words come back to you like that I'm not sure how or that the decision to put that on that part but I think I think the music came 1st and it sounded like heaven it sounded like another kind of. That mention and it just fit properly that his song Andrea this is a it's a portion of the song. And then I played it for my mom yeah she lost it yeah. I mean it's not that yeah I don't have a son now yes he just turned 3 just turned 3 Yeah but it doesn't seem like it's 3 but it seems a good just came around to actually are just going to say so we were just talking no when you're setting up about how my son is telling long stories now and so he started telling me stories about like when I was big and you and I was your mom or like when I was your grandpa he said to Allister the other day when I was big and your my child and I was holding you when you were a baby like saying things like that and and it's funny because that's what binary is about and it has him on the song as well but I haven't like it's not I haven't really spoken about this with him but. And then Jamal was like he's an indigo child Well that's been I don't know. Really the kind of thing that something that's something came before him like he's been around he's lived a past life he's been he knows I feel like if we're if we are to go traveling he'll show me where things happened what I feel he's got that in 5 he has that always have to be very he's very sure of himself he's very as a matter of fact so you slept in your dad's drum you know what are you doing with your son what's your what's yours and your son's relationship through music he's been around when I was writing is important now is touring Yeah he because he's I don't want to have lived I don't want him to not know any part of me I feel like. I want him to see how human and how all the different parts so he can just kind of know me I still care quite blown away by his by this past life he seems to believe it's interesting and you know what it's like just little things he since he was he was really really small He'd I had this kind of like joke that he's the Buddha. And I don't know that I don't I don't know that much about like reincarnation or like any anything but he was very attracted to all the different. The little carvings or images of Buddha where there was the chubby bald Buddha or the tire like the with head dress and like that you know and I think it would be like Buddha but like just always attracted to and wanted to pick up and hold and yeah something going on something interesting something interesting going on there you're going to do cut loose for us now Ok What's this about. Clues it is speaking of you're a product of your environment and you're also you know your mind how powerful your mind is. Racing I think way by the way. Your mind can control like what you're what happens like it's like you could either be in a prison or you could be. Star this is him with. The. Ways. It has been and it is. Down only that. They. Should. Be. The same Give me. A. Coach. Who could. She. Might. Have to. Play live. Recorded live in the cue studio about Zack with cut talk about power talk about perspective Wow You will find that song on her latest album is called The Secret Life of planets and it's out now. Sitting in for Tom power. There's been an update on a story we've been following over a 1000 concert goers. By the owner of. A mass shooting. Now the company. Rather for their own protection from. The company. To the security firm. And that's it for q. Today tomorrow. He's going to talk about time and. If you had no idea. In a new book President Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer reflects on his time at the White House and his role in the administration next All Things Considered from n.p.r. News weekdays at 4.3. They think it's Russia I don't see any reason why it would be big news breaking and a key sentence in my remarks I said the word instead of want and keep your radio right here coming up on the program from the speech as are underway across southern California right now. A dangerous operation to rescue their coach has been completed n.p.r. The b.b.c. And 89.3. 89.3. Los Angeles a community service of Pasadena City College. Dude With over 70 certificate programs to choose from Pasadena. From the b.b.c. World Service. Tells its member states to. Look at just means the American president tries to clarify his position on the Russian president we speak to one of his leading supporters who says the president has been totally consistent in his message and it's the media twisting the words. I getting. Even though. There's a lot of. Really. Reports in the British media today that police say they're getting closer to identifying the.