06/05/2005       [ Listen to the whole show]

Dearly Departed
Scott Michaels' obsession with death has made him, dare we say it, a celebrity on the death scene. Scott runs Dearly Departed a star tour with a dark twist. Instead of taking tourists by celebrity homes, Scott takes them to the places where the rich and famous died.

Charlie LeDuff at Jocko's
hat happens when a celebrity trial comes to a small town? It gets the locals thinking they want nothing to do with fame but not for the reasons you think, says Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Charlie LeDuff has been hanging out at Jockos, the local steak house and bar, while covering the Michael Jackson trial.

Jockos Steak House
125 N Thompson Ave
Nipomo, CA 93444
805-929-3686
map

Catalpa
When actor Michael Cassidy tells people about the play he's in, they ask, "Are you going to make it into a movie?" Catalpa is a one-man play about a screenwriter who can't get his movie made. Fresh off another rejection, he decides to act out the high-seas epic in his studio apartment. But rather than glorifying movies, Michael says Catalpa actually celebrates the magic of theater.

Theater Pics
Echo's Hammer

James Brown
Novelist James Brown reads from his memoir, The Los Angeles Diaries. In his reading, James recalls how attempts to become a screenwriter were thwarted by his dark storylines, booze and coke.

Song Break: Castles Made of Sand
by from Jimi Hendrix Experience's album Axis: Bold As Love

Taming the Snake
Addictions don't always thwart careers. Despite the fact that "Trish" is a heroin addict, she works a respectable nine-to-five-job, doesn't hang out with junkies and lives a seemingly normal life.

Credit: Taming the Snake was produced by Patricia Murphy and it firs aired on KUOW in Seattle, Wa.

Max Maven
Card tricks, magic and puppetry are arts that have been trivialized as parlor tricks for kids. Mentalist Max Maven has been trying to change that.

Song Break: Loundres
from Brazzaville's album Hastings Street

Roger Guenveur Smith at Watts Tower
Actor and playwright Roger Guenveur Smith shows Queena around Watts Tower and digs into his notebook to read sketches of his new work about the South Central Los Angeles landmark.

Closing and Credits