Friday, December 26, 2008

Being the big CBC junkie that I am, Michelle got me Mary Lou Finlay's new book The As It Happens Files- Radio That May Contain Nuts. As It Happens just happens to be celebrating its 40th anniversary. I remember last year listening to it, and they mentioned it was the 30th anniversary of Stephen Biko's murder in a South African jail cell. I listened in fascination as I finally learned the story behind Peter Gabriel's beautiful song Biko (they made a movie too which you should watch- Cry Freedom with Denzel as Biko). Then I was kind of amazed when they dug into their own archives and played an interview that (I believe it was) Barbara Budd did with the apartheidist minister who uttered the famous words, "The death of Stephen Biko leaves me cold." She was scathing. It was awesome. Anyways, go dig around in their archives and read the book- the book is more hilarious than anything, since they don't just interview apartheidists but also have a knack for finding the eccentric element out there in radioland.