Grab your passport and sunglasses because we are going on an intercontinental adventure.
We will journey to the Amazon to discover the secret history of Wonder Woman, hop over to New Orleans to hear the funk-soul of Tank and the Bangas and fly home to Portland to hear about the clown who inspired "The Simpsons" character Krusty the Clown.
A virtual trip to the pyramids? An interactive hologram of the solar system? Virtual reality has the potential to transform the classroom and how we learn everything from history to astronomy to engineering. A unique local partnership between Oregon Story Board, Intel and Clackamas Community College received a prestigious grant from Microsoft to create and test an educational curriculum for the company's mixed reality Hololens, which allows users to see and interact with holograms laid over the real world. They found that the potential to help students understand complex systems like the automatic transmission was stunning.
If you want to learn even more about virtual reality, Oregon Story Board is offering a variety of VR and Mixed Reality design classes starting June 5. And for more on how Oregon's incredible VR ecosystem, check out our story about a VR artists residency and our story about how architects are using VR to dream up new buildings.
Thousands of bands entered NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest this year, but the judges said the answer was clear: The New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas. Filmed in a classroom, the video for their song “Quick” schooled us with infectious joy and introduced viewers all around the world to the band’s funk-soul-spoken-word style and the rapid-fire storytelling of Tarriona “Tank” Ball.
You can hear the full interview and watch the performance here. Also, don’t miss their high-energy live show at Pickathon in August.
This month, a Portland Production of "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by Edward Albee made headlines — without an actor setting foot on-stage. A Portland producer had planned to stage the play this fall, casting an African-American actor, Damien Geter, in one of the four lead roles. However, as Albee was notoriously strict about casting, his estate delivered an ultimatum: cast a white actor in the role or lose the rights to the production.
The producer Michael Streeter cancelled the play.
And now ... a blast from Portland’s past. OPB digital producer John Rosman recently produced a birthday video tribute to an icon: the entertainer who helped to inspire Krusty the Clown from "The Simpsons." Rusty Nails was a much-loved staple in the Portland entertainment community back in his day, and, despite his dangerous name, nothing like the depressed, alcoholic Krusty.
David Stuckey
/Tank and the Bangas perform at OPB 5-10-17
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman
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