McFadden, Guinness — No Mega-Mall

Corporate development of an 800,000 square feet mega-mall in a small northern California community is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Guinness McFadden, a farmer and grape grower, who lives and works near Ukiah, California is a member of SOLE, a local grass-roots organization whose name is an acronym for Save Our Local Economy. In the conversation with Radio Curious host and producer, Barry Vogel, recorded on April 20, 2009, McFadden discusses the efforts and consequences of this mega-mall project, promoted by Developer’s Diversified Realty, the largest shopping mall builder in the nation, whose corporate stock fell from approximately $90.00 per share in 2007 to approximately $2.00 per share in April 2009.

The book Guinness McFadden recommends is the “John Adams,” by David McCullough.

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Asian Art Museum — The Dragon’s Gift – Sacred Arts of Bhutan

In this edition of Radio Curious we would like to take you to Bhutan! East of Mount Everest and bordered by India and Tibet, Bhutan is a mystical kingdom considered by many as The Last Shangri-La. We will be visiting “The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan,” an exhibit which is currently displayed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco until May 10th 2009.

We start in conversation with Therese Bartholomew, the curator of the exhibit who helps us to understand what inspired the exhibit and the trials and tribulations of transporting such valuable religious objects from monasteries at the top of Bhutanese mountains to the city of San Francisco.

Through todays edition we will also visit the exhibit itself and hear some of the ceremonies, meet the monks who have travelled with the exhibit and take a tour with museum docent Henny Tanugjaja.

We spoke with Therese Bartholomew from her home in San Francisco on the March 27, 2009 and began by asking her what makes Bhutan and Bhutanese arts so special?

Therese Bartholomew is the Curator Emeritus of Himalayan Arts at the Asian Art Museum San Francisco the book she recommends is “My Life and Lives, The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation” by Rato Khyongla Nawang Losang

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Allman, Tom — Marijuana and the Mendocino Sheriff

The laws around the control of marijuana and medical marijuana usage are many and complex. How we find our ways through this maze and understand the rules and regulations surrounding the marijuana plant, allegedly 1000′s of years old, used legally and illicitly worldwide and well known in Northern California by many as an economic base and/or a source of pleasure presents many curious questions.
In this edition of Radio Curious we visit again with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman in an attempt to clarify the laws and ordinances currently in effect in Mendocino County, California and how he as county Sheriff enforces them.
Sheriff Allman has been heard to say that he would “like to take marijuana off the front page.” We hear how he views the evolution of marijuana control and whether he can foresee a time when marijuana no longer is on the front page. We spoke with Sheriff Tom Allman in the studios of Radio Curious on April 13, 2009 and began by asking what changes he has witnessed with regard to marijuana beginning when he was a child growing up in Garberville at the southern end of our neighbor, Humboldt County.

The book he recommends is “Vet Tails” by Charlie Freed

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