The Roundtable

"Crazytown" - Aimee Mann

The Wild Duck Chase: Inside the Strange and Wonderful World of the Federal Duck Stamp Contest takes readers into the peculiar world of competitive duck painting as it played out during the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest-the only juried art competition run by the U.S. government.

The national conventions set the stage for what has become a busy campaign season. In today’s Congressional Corner, Union College political science professor Brad Hays tells WAMC’s Alan Chartock that the President’s campaign can’t sustain itself from the convention bump alone.

The 40th annual Adirondack Balloon Festival kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday. At the event’s opening ceremonies at 5 p.m. Thursday in Crandall Park in Glens Falls, the 40th anniversary will be celebrated with the launch of a special shape birthday cake balloon.

There are 104 balloons coming to this year’s festival, including 13 special shape balloons. That’s the largest number of special shape balloons that have ever been involved in the festival.

In The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson, author of her classic memoir, Door Wide Open, about her relationship with Jack Kerouac, peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities.

We speak with Pulitzer Prize winning author, Jeffrey Eugenides about his most recent book, The Marriage Plot: A Novel.

Jewel is an acclaimed American singer, songwriter, actress, poet, painter, and philanthropist. The four-time Grammy nominee, hailed by The New York Times as a “songwriter bursting with talents,” has enjoyed career longevity rare among her generation of artists.

With the release this week of Apple’s iPhone 5, the Pew Research Center reports 45% of American adults own smartphones. They are particularly popular with young adults and those living in relatively higher income households; 66% of those ages 18-29 own smartphones, and 68% of those living in households earning $75,000 also own them. Duh, right?

Our tech guru Jesse Feiler says there is more to the story.

"Chemistry" - The Bandana Splits are performing at MASS MoCA on October 6th.

How does love begin? How can two strangers come to the conclusion that it would not only be pleasant to share their lives, but that they must share them?