Opb's State Of Wonder

Live sessions with Sidewalk Chalk and the star-studded Filthy Friends, plus Rene Denfeld on how her work as a private investigator inspired her book, Artist Rep shakes up the theater season and more.

Ready for new fall things? Out with last year's school shoes, in with fun new kicks like Sneaker Week, the Stackstock Music Festival, and more.Sneaker Week Takes Flight - 1:30How has no one thought of this before? Sneaker Week is a brand new celebration of the street style and informed design that put Oregon at the center of the sneaker universe. Elayna Yussen went out to meet the organizers at Portland's kicks-centric coffee show Deadstock and Pensole Shoe Design Academy. Get out in front of this one — it’s going to be a blast.Hip Hop DJ Bobbito Garcia's New Podcast - 5:32We were out of our minds with excitement to hear Bobbito Garcia is coming for Sneaker Week (We hear he’s locked in for Kick Flicks II, on the Tuesday schedule). He is not just the author of a couple of good books on sneaker culture and the star of EPSN’s “It’s the Shoes,” he’s also been blowing our minds all summer co-hosting the new NPR Podcast, “What’s Good with Stretch and Bobbito” Garcia has reunited with DJ Stretch Armstrong for long-l

This week on 'State of Wonder,' we talk Twitter and Copland with George Takei, hear about the must-see shows at the Time-Based Art Festival, celebrate James Baldwin with Stew and the Negro Problem. Also firefighter Sean Davis talks about working the lines in southern Oregon.

Almost time for Rose City Comic Con! We talk with Wonder Woman's Greg Rucka, David F. Walker on Luke Cage, Kurt Busiek and Ben Dewey discuss their fantasy adventure Autumnlands. Plus C. Spike Trotman on making the comics she wanted to read.

It’s that rare bird, a truly super supergroup: alt-country firebrand Neko Case, world-class indie lyricist Laura Veirs and songstress supreme k.d. lang released a lush, soulful record last summer. Their opbmusic concert will rebroadcast on OPB TV as part of “Oregon Lens” Tuesday, Aug. 29.Also we listen back to last fall’s flash fiction contest winners. We teamed up with the Portland imprint Tin House, a publisher of great literature and poetry offerings — as well as a most unusual how-to book. “Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots” Designed as an aid to writers, it’s made up of 1,500 plot prompts in an encyclopedic list, sorted by categories like ‘Themes,’ ‘Master Plots’ and ‘Conflicts.’ We posted a plot prompt a week and gave writers six days to come up with stories inspired by each prompt. Finalists were selected. Then we called them up to record their stories.

This week our show traveled across the solar eclipse path of totality, from Newport to the Ochoco National Forest and many places in between for a once-in-a-lifetime artistic and cosmic journey. This is the documentary we put together of our road trip.

This week, OPB’s State of Wonder will be driving across Oregon ahead of the eclipse, checking out the preparations towns in the path of the totality are making. Today they’re at Suttle Lodge, north of Sisters, where Portland musicians are putting on an eclipse music festival.

This week, OPB’s State of Wonder is driving across Oregon ahead of the eclipse, checking out the preparations towns in the path of the totality are making. Today they’re in the middle of the Ochoco National Forest at the Symbiosis' Oregon Eclipse Festival.

This week, OPB’s State of Wonder will be driving across Oregon ahead of the eclipse, checking out the preparations towns in the path of the totality are making. Today they’re in Madras.

This week, OPB’s State of Wonder is driving across Oregon ahead of the eclipse, checking out the preparations towns in the path of the totality are making. Today they’re in Corvallis checking out an art exhibit focused on totality.

"State of Wonder" is traveling across the solar eclipse's path of totality, from Newport to the Ochoco National Forest and many places in-between.

Oregon's Most Audacious Eclipse Festival Comes Covered in Glitter - 2:42We visit the Big Summit Prairie in the Ochoco Mountains, where a temporary city is being built to host some 30,000 attendees from around the world. The Oregon Eclipse Festival promises 400 musical acts, lectures and workshops galore, art installations both profound and whimsical, a floating bridge, and enough glitter to make a drag queen blush.Mexico ‘91: Two Oregon Writers Look Back on Another Eclipse - 6:48We checked in with two Oregon writers who witnessed the same solar event 26 years ago: the total eclipse that passed over Mexico. In honor of this year’s eclipse, both writers are working on new stories based on what they saw in 1991. Octaviano Merecias lives and writes in metro Portland, and his story focuses on the unexpected birth that happened on his family’s farm during the eclipse. Meanwhile, the writer, designer, photographer and translator Ivonne Saed watched the '91 event from Mexico City. Tylor & The Train Robbers Headl

The Search Is on for a New Director at Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture CouncilDuring outgoing director Eloise Damrosch’s 30-year tenure, the Regional Arts and Culture Council has grown from a small Multnomah County bureau to a flourishing tri-county arts council. In the first of several stories, we look at the search for her replacement to oversee the $9 million arts office. It could be one of the most important hires for decades to come.Kent Nerburn’s Classic Novel, “Neither Wolf Nor Dog,” Hits the Big Screen and the U.K. - 6:36A notable writer has quietly relocated to Portland from Minnesota. Kent Nerburn has written and edited more than a dozen award-winning books and has been praised as one of the few authors who can respectfully bridge the gap between Native American and non-Native cultures. His 1994 book, “Neither Wolf Nor Dog” — about his travels with a Lakota elder — has become a cult classic, and now it’s been made into a movie that’s currently screening in Corvallis and opening in Portland Aug.

Drive-By Truckers Explore Duality And Dirt - 1:20With their double-barreled live sets and searing lyrical craft, the Drive-By Truckers are an easy add to top-ten list of best American rock bands playing today. Formed in Athens, Georgia circa 1996, the DBTs have had a lot of volatile personnel changes — Grammy-winner Jason Isbell was part of the lineup for a few years —but they’ve settled in nicely with partners in grime, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, at the helm. Their most recent record, “American Band”, continues Hood and Cooley’s exploration of duality in American identity. The band played the entire record through last October for a special NPR First Listen, hosted by opbmusic.Tiny Desk, Big Sound - Tank and the Bangas - 14:17Thousands of acts entered this year’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert, but the winner blew them all away: The New Orleans funk/soul/spoken-word outfit Tank and the Bangas. They visited opbmusic during their nationwide victory lap. Tarriona “Tank” Ball cut her teeth in slam poetry — no surpri

For the Portland band, Portugal. the Man, creating “Woodstock,” the band’s newest album, took a long time. They couldn’t stop writing, and pumped out about 40 songs, collaborating with the likes of producer Mike D from the Beastie Boys at Rick Rubin’s illustrious studio, Shangri-La. But then they decided to throw them all out and start again. The band explains how it all came together after they settled on the album’s name, “Woodstock.”

Portland-based astro-photographer Jake Breed gives us a demonstration of best practices for getting a perfect shot during the two minutes of daytime darkness. Plus, helpful hints from an art educator who’s spending the whole week of the eclipse leading a workshop for amateur photographers, and a quick conversation with one astronomer from NASA about why this eclipse is such a big deal, anyway.

For the Portland band, Portugal. the Man, creating “Woodstock,” the band’s newest album, took a long time. They couldn’t stop writing, and pumped out about 40 songs, collaborating with the likes of producer Mike D from the Beastie Boys at Rick Rubin’s illustrious studio, Shangri-La. But then they decided to throw them all out and start again. The band explains how it all came together after they settled on the album’s name, “Woodstock.”

Our favorite futurist has gone all anachronistic. Daniel Wilson, a New York Times best-selling novelist, robotics engineer, and Cherokee citizen, gave us forward-thinking science fiction page-turners. Wilson’s new novel, “The Clockwork Dynasty”, tears across the centuries, from prehistoric China to Tsarist Russia to Victorian England, chasing after exquisite sentient machines.

Bag&Baggage Productions in Hillsboro is about to premier an adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” that opens new doors on a story that is even older than Shakespeare. A thousand years before Romeo and Juliet, Arab-language poets were telling the story of Layla and Majnun: star-crossed lovers whose spiral of obsession and longing turned fatal.

Baker City writer and illustrator Nancy Coffelt teamed up with publisher Elaine Cuyler to create her new book, “The Big Eclipse,” which uses charming animal characters and goofy jokes to help kids learn about the eclipse. Coffelt and Cuyler blew through all the books in their first printing and are filling orders with a second. We caught up with them on a grant-funded tour of libraries in Eastern Oregon.