scientists and social experiments

Monday, Dec. 19 -- set your DVR for Late Night with David Letterman. We Are Scientists are scheduled to perform!

I was wasting time on the Internet today, and I found a new gem. NPR has a new pop culture podcast that's available on iTunes. I love NPR's reporting style. It's intelligent, objective and completely engrossing. Because they're not held captive by advertisers, they can spend 12 minutes talking about the fascinating origins of the King Kong movie ... and I'm not being sarcastic. Every time I tune in to my beloved public radio, I learn something truly interesting. It's the kind of stuff you can use at parties!

The podcast included a story from Jennifer Sharpe about these incredible songs from the early 70s that are performed by children. The story was called Kid Funk. In one of these preludes to hip hop consciousness, 6-year-old Angela Simpson recites Langston Hughes poetry, and it's strangely affective.

"I'm just a litle girl from Harlem. More power to the people," the first grader says.

Another from Nancy Dupree and her Rochester School Children, called "James Brown," is peculiarly addictive. Be sure to listen to the NPR story first, then check out the songs. I immediately had to have more, and I scoured the Internet for a while and found a few mp3s from Angela, but none from Dupree's Ghetto Reality.

If there's someone on your Christmas list who would love something so odd and beautiful, go to WFMU's blog for mp3s of several of Angela's songs.